There are people who thought RoboCop: Rogue City was a really good RoboCop game, and there are people who are wrong. Sure, RoboCop is a ponderous, stompy, overpowering tank of a police officer, and that plodding nature could be seen as a bit boring, but for many – myself included – that’s just the perfect representation of the character. In the films bullets barely bother Robo, so why should they in a game?
A lot of people agreed with me, Rogue City was a big hit for Nacon and less than two years later we have Unfinished Business, a new standalone game that continues the story. By continuing the story, I mean “borrowing very heavily from that really good Judge Dredd film with Karl Urban.” This time Robo is heading into a massive tower block, the OmniTower, a new housing development which is home to the many evicted residents of Detroit, who have been relocated to make way for the new super shiny Delta City.
The tower is controlled by a vicious gang that’s actually led by a former colleague of Murphy’s, and has has lots of tech installed that could give the bad guys control of everything OCP has ever created, which even includes RoboCop. It’s probably best not to think too hard about why such powerful tech would be in a civilian tower block, but maybe they have really fancy automated elevators, imported Japanese toilets and super snazzy power showers? With OCP in jeopardy, RoboCop must fight his way to the top, aided on the way by Miranda Hale, a former OCP scientist.
I think it’s fair to say that Unfinished Business is not reinventing the wheel when it comes to gameplay. RoboCop is still as stompy as ever and has many of the same power-ups found in the original game, including a dash and a shield. There are swarms of goons to take out with the iconic RoboCop pistol and it is as deliciously gory as ever, with heads exploding like watermelons. There are now location based finishers, so if an enemy is near a waste chute you can give them and slap and pop them down hole. There are also some new enemy types, most notably drones which spiral around in the air and can be a right pain if not dealt with quickly.
To mix things up you won’t be playing as Robo all the time, with flashback sequences letting you play as Alex Murphy before he had the ‘accident’ that resulted in him being given a robotic body. Sadly I did not get to play any of those sequence but I did get to play as one other character and it’s something you’ve never been able to do in any other Robocop game. – you get to control ED 209!
If you enjoyed the fact that RoboCop was an unstoppable tank then you might feel a tingle in your nethers when playing as ED, as his two massive guns mow down enemies, cutting through them like a knife through butter. If machine guns are too plain for you, he also has missile launchers which can take out huge groups of bad guys in one go, their bodies rag-dolling down hallways as explosion after explosion rains down upon them. It is ridiculous and completely over the top and I loved it.
You will also get to play as Miranda which could bring yet another angle to the game, though no details have been released on this just yet. If I had to guess, I’d figure she’s not great with guns and may have some other tasks to perform.
It’s a shame I didn’t get to try of the human characters as they should change how the game plays quite considerably. What I did play was more of the same, and that’s no bad thing in my book.
