Robocop Rogue City Unfinished Business is a leaner, meaner sequel to an FPS gem

Robocop: Rogue City knew exactly what it was. Teyon's Robocop game perfectly transplanted the '80s action star into the virtual mean streets of Detroit. He was slow, strong, and willing to turn anyone breaking the law into red mist on the wind. After heading to Paris and spending some time with its sequel, Robocop: Rogue City – Unfinished Business, I'm happy to report that it's a leaner and more mechanically diverse experience.

Robocop: Rogue City – Unfinished Business isn't a DLC. Instead, it's a standalone follow-up that'll take you between eight and ten hours to beat. It's a halfway house between a full-blown sequel and an expansion, but this immediately works to the FPS game's benefit. Robocop is climbing the OmniTower – a residential block similar in scope to the setting of Karl Urban's Dredd or 2011's The Raid – in an effort to free it from a gang of mercenaries. There are housing zones, trash compactors, and even a museum, giving the building enough life to make me feel right at home. This smaller scope is a welcome change of pace, and one that Teyon is using to its advantage.

My time with Unfinished Business felt compact, and I mean that in the best way possible. Shootouts and investigations blend well together, and the OmniTower's vertical nature consistently presents a clear goal: get to the top. Unfinished Business is still pure Robocop, too, as you talk to civilians, collect evidence, and gun down anyone foolish enough to raise a weapon at you.

But how does Unfinished Business play? Well, if you loved Rogue City's slower and more powerful take on the shooter genre, you'll be right at home here. Robocop's steps are heavy, his movements deliberate, and his weapons pack a punch, proving once again that Teyon has nailed its depiction of a cyborg one-man army.

Robocop is always the strongest person in the room, and this makes wading through waves of mercenaries feel like the power trip it should. Bullets explode heads and fists punch enemies over railings, just as they did in Rogue City. The first game's penchant for being a pure double-A throwback is alive and well, and I started off with a generous selection of abilities to experiment with, including the dash, slow motion, and shield from the original game.

At its core, then, Unfinished Business is similar to Teyon's first crack at Robocop, but that's a good thing. While Robocop's tools and abilities don't stray too far from what worked, Teyon deploys a host of new enemies and weapons to add fresh layers to combat. Some spec-ops soldiers now have shields, meaning they need to be shot in the legs or flanked. Flying and explosive drones need to be dealt with fast. And jet pack mercs require an especially itchy trigger finger. If you were hoping for a Rogue City sequel to up the variety during shootouts, Unfinished Business delivers.

After stepping into the chrome boots of Alex Murphy for around an hour and a half, I didn't come away from Unfinished Business thinking it was a reinvention of Rogue City, and that's because it feels like Teyon doesn't want it to be. Instead, the team pours a handful of new ideas into the first game's enjoyable mold and uses them to enhance the experience as a whole.

My time with Unfinished Business wasn't entirely spent as Robocop, however. At launch, there'll be both pre-cyborg Alex Murphy segments and playable ED-209 levels, providing a greater variety to its pacing. I didn't get a chance to play as regular old human Murphy during my preview, but I did take control of my very own ED-209 unit.

If you've seen any of the Robocop movies, you know exactly how this went. I spent 15 minutes indiscriminately gunning down mercs and spec-ops soldiers, firing missiles at their feet, and stomping on anyone unfortunate enough to get too close. I even came face-to-face with other ED-209s, which was chaotic wish fulfillment, but it also showed Teyon is conscious that it needs to break up Robocop's combat.

Robocop: Rogue City – Unfinished Business is a slimmer, tighter version of Teyon's first foray into the grim '80s future of Detroit, and that's why it works. While plenty of sequels often mistake bigger for better, Teyon is instead iterating on what worked with Rogue City and expanding it in ways that matter. You'll likely spend less time in the OmniTower than you did on the streets of Detroit, but with new enemies and ways to play, I think that's for the best. Unfinished Business is positioning itself as a lean follow-up, but there's still going to be plenty of meat on the bone.

Teyon and Nacon will release Robocop: Rogue City – Unfinished Business on Steam on Thursday July 17.