Latest news with #RoboCop
CNET
a day ago
- Entertainment
- CNET
Grounded 2 and These Other Games Are Coming to Xbox Game Pass Soon
The award-winning, quirky survival game Grounded is like the game version of the classic '80s comedy film, Honey, I Shrunk the Kids. And on July 29, Xbox Game Pass subscribers can get early access to that game's sequel, Grounded 2. Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, a CNET Editors' Choice award pick, offers hundreds of games you can play on your Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, Xbox One and PC or mobile device for $20 a month. A subscription gives you access to a large library of games, with new titles, including Doom: The Dark Ages, added monthly, plus other benefits such as online multiplayer and deals on non-Game Pass titles. Here are the games Microsoft is bringing to Game Pass soon. You can also check out all the games the company added to the service recently, like Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 + 4. RoboCop: Rogue City Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass and Game Pass Standard subscribers can play on July 17. Serve the public, protect the innocent and uphold the law as the cyborg RoboCop. You'll investigate crimes in Old Detroit before using your cyborg strength, cybernetic implants and arsenal of weapons to eradicate gangs from the area. This game is a whole new RoboCop story based on the film series, and Peter Weller, the original RoboCop himself, returns to voice the titular character. My Friendly Neighborhood Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass subscribers can play on July 17. Something's going on with everyone's favorite Saturday morning puppet show, and it's up to you to figure out what in this survival horror game. You'll solve puzzles and use tools and improvised weapons to fend off your multicolored foes. So if you have anything against Barney or Big Bird, you can take out your feelings on them with this game. Back to the Dawn Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass subscribers can play on July 18. This game is like if the series Prison Break took place in the Zootopia universe. You'll play as either a fox named Thomas or a black panther named Bob as they try to navigate the prison system and escape with their lives. With multiple escape routes and over 100 quests you can complete, you can replay this game numerous times and have a different experience each time. Abiotic Factor Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass subscribers can play on July 22. Science meets violence in this 1990s-inspired sci-fi survival game. You and up to five other players can choose your areas of expertise, build your scientist and explore a massive, top-secret underground complex filled with artifacts and supernatural horrors that could tear you limb from limb. And remember, safety, security and secrecy are of the utmost importance… usually. Wheel World Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass subscribers can play on July 23. If you want to take a nice, relaxing bike ride, this game is for you. Previously known as Ghost Bike, this game puts you behind the handlebars of one of the last ghost bikes around. These bikes can traverse between the lands of the living and the dead. You can explore these lands at your leisure while you race other riders and upgrade your ride with treasures you find along the way. Wuchang: Fallen Feathers Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass subscribers can play on July 24. This souls-like RPG is set during the final days of the Ming Dynasty. You play as an amnesiac pirate warrior named Wuchang on a quest to uncover the truth behind a world full of chaos. You'll fight monstrous creatures in forgotten temples and overgrown ruins, unlock new weapons and master devastating techniques in order to bring peace to yourself and others. Grounded 2 (game preview) Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass subscribers can play on July 29. You've been shrunk to the size of an ant -- again -- and you'll have to survive the dangerous, miniature world. You'll fight spiders and wasps, craft weapons and homes and even ride on your own insect friends to get around. You'll unravel new mysteries along the way, but be careful. Something else is out there, and it hasn't forgotten about you. Farming Simulator 25 Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass and Game Pass Standard subscribers can play on Aug. 1. Farming isn't always as simple as games like Stardew Valley might make it out to be, but it can still be very rewarding. If you want a taste of what goes into building and maintaining your own farm, give Farming Simulator 25 a try. You'll grow diverse crops, raise different animals and with the weather-changing, ground-deforming atmosphere, you'll face all kinds of challenges along the way. Games leaving Game Pass on July 31 While Microsoft is adding those games to Game Pass soon, it's also removing three other games on July 31. So you still have some time to finish your campaign or complete any side quests before you have to buy these games separately. Gigantic: Rampage Edition Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess Turnip Boy Robs a Bank For more on Xbox, discover other games available on Game Pass now, read our hands-on review of the gaming service and learn which Game Pass plan is right for you. You can also check out what to know about upcoming Xbox game price hikes.
Yahoo
08-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Rubin: A place, a price tag and an owner for RoboCop statue — but when will we see it?
Mike Wiza says he has the perfect location for that long-anticipated statue of RoboCop, which remains carefully wrapped and horizontal in an Eastern Market storeroom. Unfortunately, it's in Stevens Point, Wisconsin. Wiza is the mayor of Stevens Point, which may have a more sensible claim to the character than Detroit does. Detroit's primary role in 1987's "RoboCop" was to be a toxic urban sludge pit, after all, and the movie was filmed in Dallas. His offer is meant more as a helping hand than a hostile takeover, though, and as senior grants manager Ryan Dinkgrave of Eastern Market put it in a chat with the Free Press, "That won't be happening." As for what will be happening, or has happened, we have news. We know where in the market RoboCop will be displayed when he finally clobbers his way out of storage. We know how much the project has cost, and it's a startling number — but fear not, citizen, because unless you personally wrote a check, none of the money was yours. And we know which giant corporation has come to own the 11-foot-tall, 3,500-pound bronze statue, 14 years after the most organic of grassroots campaigns brought the concept to life. What nobody knows for certain is when we'll see RoboCop on display. The latest fond hope is September, coinciding with the 10th anniversary of Murals in the Market, but that's much more a wish than a prediction. Increasingly long experience has taught Dinkgrave that "It's never as simple as getting a statue, digging a hole and standing him up." But another $50,000 might be all it takes to bring out the shovels. The star of "RoboCop" and "RoboCop 2" was Peter Weller, now 77. The start of Peter Weller came in Stevens Point, smack in the middle of Wisconsin, where he grew up on North Preserve Street. Wiza, 58, is a close friend and former high school classmate of a Weller cousin, and he governs in what's probably the only mayoral office anywhere with a signed "RoboCop" movie poster and a RoboCop arcade game. He first offered to adopt the statue in early 2021, when the Michigan Science Center rescinded its offer to berth the cyborg police officer. That was after earlier word had supposedly cemented the statue's future at Wayne State University's Tech Town. Amid pandemic grumpiness, Wiza said, the notion "really rallied our community. It was all anyone was talking about for weeks." Then the RoboGuy landed at Eastern Market, whose good intentions were blunted by annual unforeseen circumstances, the worst of them a bizarrely tragic shooting at a Detroit Lions tailgate last September in which an aggressor and a peacemaker were killed with the same bullet. "That put everything on pause," Dinkgrave said, and noting from afar the continued inaction, Wiza reached out to the Free Press to see whether the hulking artwork was once again in the wind. To the contrary, it now has a destination. Dinkgrave confirmed that RoboCop will alight in the northwest reaches of the 24-acre market, near a former fire station at Russell Street and Erskine, amid a welcoming patch of grass and loveliness. All that's standing between him and, well, standing, is $50,000, a final chunk of construction fundraising that will boost overall donations to $260,000. The grand total includes corporate pledges of six figures last year and $50,000 so recently it hasn't arrived yet, and most of it has been devoted to installation, Dinkgrave said. There have also been costs for engineering, design, permits and legalities; complications ensue, it turns out, with a massive reproduction of a copyrighted character. That all follows a 2011 Kickstarter campaign that followed a simple tweet. Someone in Massachusetts reached out to Dave Bing, Detroit's mayor at the time, to suggest a tribute to RoboCop, on the theory that Philadelphia has a statue of Rocky Balboa and "RoboCop would kick Rocky's butt." Bing dismissed the idea, but experimental filmmaker Brandon Walley and his friends at the arts nonprofit Imagination Station were amused enough to post a pitch online. In short order, they had raised $67,436, which turned out to be slightly less than $60,000 after commissions and unfulfilled pledges. Detroit sculptor Giorgio Gikas of Venus Bronze Works agreed to accept $65,000 to turn movie fans' whims into a monument. More: Rubin: 11-foot-tall Robocop statue is somewhere in Eastern Market awaiting new secret home Within the last few years, Walley said, Imagination Station gave the statue to Eastern Market. The title now rests with MGM Studios, Dinkgrave said, which is part of the licensing agreement. "They have to own it," he explained, "so that if it fell into disrepair, they could reclaim it, not that they have any intention of doing that." After assorted mergers, purchases and corporate devouring, MGM is no longer a stand-alone company. Bottom line, the ultimate populist project is now owned by Amazon — but the original spirit should shine. For Walley, as an artist, RoboCop will spark conversations about topics like class, design and race. Wayne State professor David Goldberg, speaking to the Free Press in July, dismisssed the movie as a cult classic "only for certain groups of people," and not the ones who have to defend Detroit as "actually having human beings in it." To Mayor Wiza, it's both more and less than that — a tribute to his city's most prominent past resident, a reminder of a good and enduring movie, and an 11-foot-tall portrait of joy. "If they still have the molds," he said, "I'd settle for a resin replica," to stand watch in front of city hall or in the roundabout at the north end of town. He'd still love the original for Stevens Point, he said, but he'll be part of the throng of tourists posing in front of it once it's unveiled here, and there's darned sure space for that photo on his wall. Reach Neal Rubin at NARubin@ The Free Press welcomes letters to the editor via February 2011 It started with a tweet from an account named @MT to then-Mayor Dave Bing: 'Philadelphia has a statue of Rocky & RoboCop would kick Rocky's butt. He's a GREAT ambassador for Detroit." Bing was not amused. Fundraising started with a Kickstarter campaign aiming to raise $50,000 to: 'Build a life size-monument of RoboCop in Detroit! Part man, part machine, all crowd funded.' Organizers raised more than $67,000 from 2,718 donors. Peter Weller stars in a "Funny or Die" video rebutting Bing's disinterest in a Robocop statue: "I don't find it silly at all." March 2011: Weller releases another video under the theme "RoboCharity" to raise money for Forgotten Harvest. August 2011: Organizers say they hope to host the statue at TechTown and to reveal it in spring 2012 January 2013: Organizers target spring 2014 to unveil statue. February 2014: Giorgio Gikas, owner of Venus Bronze Works in Detroit, is chosen to lead building of statue. May 2018: Organizers announce that Michigan Science Center will host statue. January 2020: Casting of the statue's parts is complete with the goal of unveiling it in spring or summer of 2020. February 2021: The science center can no longer take the statue amid pandemic-era financial challenges. Organizers look for a new home for the statue. November 2022: A new home for the Robocop statue emerges: Eastern Market. November 2023: Robocop star Peter Weller is indifferent about the statue, telling the Free Press' Julie Hinds that he "cannot endorse or dis-endorse the Robocop statue." July 2024: Robocop sits in an undisclosed location close to Eastern Market as organizers continue to raise money for the statue's public installation. June 2025: Organizers secure a spot in Eastern Market and continue to raise money for it. Compiled by Free Press intern Allana Smith from Free Press archives This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Wisconsin city wants Detroit's Robocop statue and location is set
Yahoo
08-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Rubin: A place, a price tag and an owner for RoboCop statue − but when will we see it?
Mike Wiza says he has the perfect location for that long-anticipated statue of RoboCop, which remains carefully wrapped and horizontal in an Eastern Market storeroom. Unfortunately, it's in Stevens Point, Wisconsin. Wiza is the mayor of Stevens Point, which may have a more sensible claim to the character than Detroit does. Detroit's primary role in 1987's "RoboCop" was to be a toxic urban sludge pit, after all, and the movie was filmed in Dallas. His offer is meant more as a helping hand than a hostile takeover, though, and as senior grants manager Ryan Dinkgrave of Eastern Market put it in a chat with the Free Press, "That won't be happening." As for what will be happening, or has happened, we have news. We know where in the market RoboCop will be displayed when he finally clobbers his way out of storage. We know how much the project has cost, and it's a startling number — but fear not, citizen, because unless you personally wrote a check, none of the money was yours. And we know which giant corporation has come to own the 11-foot-tall, 3,500-pound bronze statue, 14 years after the most organic of grassroots campaigns brought the concept to life. What nobody knows for certain is when we'll see RoboCop on display. The latest fond hope is September, coinciding with the 10th anniversary of Murals in the Market, but that's much more a wish than a prediction. Increasingly long experience has taught Dinkgrave that "It's never as simple as getting a statue, digging a hole and standing him up." But another $50,000 might be all it takes to bring out the shovels. The star of "RoboCop" and "RoboCop 2" was Peter Weller, now 77. The start of Peter Weller came in Stevens Point, smack in the middle of Wisconsin, where he grew up on North Preserve Street. Wiza, 58, is a close friend and former high school classmate of a Weller cousin, and he governs in what's probably the only mayoral office anywhere with a signed "RoboCop" movie poster and a RoboCop arcade game. He first offered to adopt the statue in early 2021, when the Michigan Science Center rescinded its offer to berth the cyborg police officer. That was after earlier word had supposedly cemented the statue's future at Wayne State University's Tech Town. Amid pandemic grumpiness, Wiza said, the notion "really rallied our community. It was all anyone was talking about for weeks." Then the RoboGuy landed at Eastern Market, whose good intentions were blunted by annual unforeseen circumstances, the worst of them a bizarrely tragic shooting at a Detroit Lions tailgate last September in which an aggressor and a peacemaker were killed with the same bullet. "That put everything on pause," Dinkgrave said, and noting from afar the continued inaction, Wiza reached out to the Free Press to see whether the hulking artwork was once again in the wind. To the contrary, it now has a destination. Dinkgrave confirmed that RoboCop will alight in the northwest reaches of the 24-acre market, near a former fire station at Russell Street and Erskine, amid a welcoming patch of grass and loveliness. All that's standing between him and, well, standing, is $50,000, a final chunk of construction fundraising that will boost overall donations to $260,000. The grand total includes corporate pledges of six figures last year and $50,000 so recently it hasn't arrived yet, and most of it has been devoted to installation, Dinkgrave said. There have also been costs for engineering, design, permits and legalities; complications ensue, it turns out, with a massive reproduction of a copyrighted character. That all follows a 2011 Kickstarter campaign that followed a simple tweet. Someone in Massachusetts reached out to Dave Bing, Detroit's mayor at the time, to suggest a tribute to RoboCop, on the theory that Philadelphia has a statue of Rocky Balboa and "RoboCop would kick Rocky's butt." Bing dismissed the idea, but experimental filmmaker Brandon Walley and his friends at the arts nonprofit Imagination Station were amused enough to post a pitch online. In short order, they had raised $67,436, which turned out to be slightly less than $60,000 after commissions and unfulfilled pledges. Detroit sculptor Giorgio Gikas of Venus Bronze Works agreed to accept $65,000 to turn movie fans' whims into a monument. More: Rubin: 11-foot-tall Robocop statue is somewhere in Eastern Market awaiting new secret home Within the last few years, Walley said, Imagination Station gave the statue to Eastern Market. The title now rests with MGM Studios, Dinkgrave said, which is part of the licensing agreement. "They have to own it," he explained, "so that if it fell into disrepair, they could reclaim it, not that they have any intention of doing that." After assorted mergers, purchases and corporate devouring, MGM is no longer a stand-alone company. Bottom line, the ultimate populist project is now owned by Amazon — but the original spirit should shine. For Walley, as an artist, RoboCop will spark conversations about topics like class, design and race. Wayne State professor David Goldberg, speaking to the Free Press in July, dismisssed the movie as a cult classic "only for certain groups of people," and not the ones who have to defend Detroit as "actually having human beings in it." To Mayor Wiza, it's both more and less than that — a tribute to his city's most prominent past resident, a reminder of a good and enduring movie, and an 11-foot-tall portrait of joy. "If they still have the molds," he said, "I'd settle for a resin replica," to stand watch in front of city hall or in the roundabout at the north end of town. He'd still love the original for Stevens Point, he said, but he'll be part of the throng of tourists posing in front of it once it's unveiled here, and there's darned sure space for that photo on his wall. Reach Neal Rubin at NARubin@ The Free Press welcomes letters to the editor via February 2011 It started with a tweet from an account named @MT to then-Mayor Dave Bing: 'Philadelphia has a statue of Rocky & RoboCop would kick Rocky's butt. He's a GREAT ambassador for Detroit." Bing was not amused. Fundraising started with a Kickstarter campaign aiming to raise $50,000 to: 'Build a life size-monument of RoboCop in Detroit! Part man, part machine, all crowd funded.' Organizers raised more than $67,000 from 2,718 donors. Peter Weller stars in a "Funny or Die" video rebutting Bing's disinterest in a Robocop statue: "I don't find it silly at all." March 2011: Weller releases another video under the theme "RoboCharity" to raise money for Forgotten Harvest. August 2011: Organizers say they hope to host the statue at TechTown and to reveal it in spring 2012 January 2013: Organizers target spring 2014 to unveil statue. February 2014: Giorgio Gikas, owner of Venus Bronze Works in Detroit, is chosen to lead building of statue. May 2018: Organizers announce that Michigan Science Center will host statue. January 2020: Casting of the statue's parts is complete with the goal of unveiling it in spring or summer of 2020. February 2021: The science center can no longer take the statue amid pandemic-era financial challenges. Organizers look for a new home for the statue. November 2022: A new home for the Robocop statue emerges: Eastern Market. November 2023: Robocop star Peter Weller is indifferent about the statue, telling the Free Press' Julie Hinds that he "cannot endorse or dis-endorse the Robocop statue." July 2024: Robocop sits in an undisclosed location close to Eastern Market as organizers continue to raise money for the statue's public installation. June 2025: Organizers secure a spot in Eastern Market and continue to raise money for it. Compiled by Free Press intern Allana Smith from Free Press archives This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Wisconsin city wants Detroit's Robocop statue and location is set
Metro
03-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Metro
RoboCop Unfinished Business preview: ‘We created something bigger than expected'
GameCentral goes hands-on with the standalone expansion of RoboCop: Rogue City, which dials up the action and gory splatter of 2023's surprise hit. For a franchise that has arguably done nothing of worth since the early 90s, the future of RoboCop is looking surprisingly bright. Following Amazon's acquisition of MGM, a new TV show is currently in the works, with rumbles of a new film as well. Whether this leads to a major rejuvenation for everyone's favourite cyborg law enforcer remains to be seen, but the original source of any RoboCop redemption arc has to start with 2023's RoboCop: Rogue City. Developed by Polish studio Teyon, RoboCop: Rogue City was the kind of unexpected surprise you rarely get from licensed games. It recaptured the original's wit and 80s aesthetic, but also found a way to deliver the fantasy of playing as the half-human cyborg without streamlining any of the character's personality. The bloody action was built around his hulking, slow movement, dry one-liners were in abundance, and missions weren't always reduced to mowing down thugs in corridors – you also handed people parking tickets, settled trivial civilian disputes, and, in one wonderfully mundane side mission, did the rounds in the office for a get well card. The game became publisher Nacon's 'best ever launch' with 435,000 players within two weeks. Now, a year and a half later, developer Teyon is back with a standalone expansion. Marketing around Unfinished Business has purposefully dodged the term *DLC*, but as explained by the studio's communications manager, Dawid Biegun, it started out as exactly that. 'When we released RoboCop: Rogue City, we were thinking about, this story has many things [we can] do in the future,' says Biegun. 'We had many paths we could choose. So we basically started slowly developing some new storyline. The game was planned to be DLC but it grew out of control. It was a really rare situation where we created something bigger than we expected, so it became a standalone expansion from then.' Unlike Rogue City, this expansion, which we're told spans around eight hours on average, is centred around one location in the OmniTower. Like most things in the RoboCop realm created by OCP, this promised idyllic housing complex quickly goes south when a band of mercenaries assume control. To restore order, and after a creepy opening where an attack on the Detroit police station leaves several officers frozen solid, RoboCop is assigned to the case. Unfinished Business wastes little time in throwing you into the action, and quickly amps up the chaos. For anyone who has played Rogue City, all the original tenets of the combat are here, albeit with a slight increase in difficulty. You'll be looking for explosive cans to blast, illuminated panels to ricochet bullets off walls, and all the while trying not to expose yourself to too much gunfire. The combat purposefully doesn't have the slick speed of Call Of Duty, but it is still aggressively punchy, with headshots resulting in satisfyingly bloody splatters and RoboCop's famed Auto-9 machine pistol still having the kickback of a pocket pneumatic drill. From the get-go, Unfinished Business pushes back in a way Rogue City never did. New enemies equipped with riot shields are a real nuisance if you don't utilise the ricochet panels, while the ability to slow down time is a much bigger crutch to chip down the enemy numbers from a distance. Health pick-ups felt in shorter supply too, even on the normal difficulty, to the point where we barely scraped through several encounters. While it's unclear if this applies to the whole game, Unfinished Business feels like a gnarlier experience, when compared to the original. RoboCop has some new context sensitive finishing moves, like throwing enemy heads into concrete walls or vending machines, which is a satisfying addition to the melee arsenal. There's greater enemy variety too, between fierce minigun heavyweights and flying drones, along with some neat action set pieces. In one standout, we had to operate a walkway bridge to deactivate a giant turret at the end of a room, dashing between cover as it rains down bullets and destroys the surrounding environment. Anyone who has played action games before will recognise all the mechanics at play in this scenario, but it was still well executed and effective. Another had a whiff of Star Wars, as you rush around shooting electrical panels to stop a trash compactor from crushing you via the descending ceiling. The action shift in Unfinished Business is best defined by a later sequence we got to play, where you take control of the franchise's signature mech, ED-209. If the power fantasy of playing as RoboCop is tested in this expansion, ED-209's section was pure mental catharsis, where you blast away enemy hordes with miniguns and rockets, and clean up any stragglers with a rigid, robotic stomp. The rush of piloting ED-209, with its cacophony of explosions and bullets, felt like a throwback to vehicle sections in a long lost Xbox 360 game – but in a good way. While there's a definite lean towards combat, rather than gift card signing, when compared to Rogue City, it hasn't entirely abandoned the detective side. According to the developers, if Rogue City had a 60/40 percent split between guns and detective work, Unfinished Business 'would be like 70/30, or 80/20' in comparison. More Trending We saw some of this , with one memorable encounter seeing you quizzed by a RoboCop superfan who is unconvinced you're the actual RoboCop, leading to a series of questions based on the history of the franchise. There is optional side missions too, although the time we had with our preview limited our chance to fully delve into them. The sales and positive reviews for RoboCop: Rogue City emboldened Teyon's vision and scope for Unfinished Business – and that confidence shines through in what we played. Some might be disappointed by the steer towards action, and we were heading into this preview, but by the end, this felt like a welcome extension with its own unique flavour. This is RoboCop: Rogue City with its pedal to the floor, confined and concentrated into a lean, tightly focused machine. As for the studio's next steps, the success of RoboCop has only reaffirmed Teyon's strengths and identity as a team. Between its three studios across Poland and Japan, with over 140 employees in total, Teyon wants to maintain its grip within the AA space. 'We feel strong here in such games,' Biegun said. 'We wouldn't want to grow like 200, 300, 400 people, because we're going to lose our soul this way. We want to stay as we are right now.' Email gamecentral@ leave a comment below, follow us on Twitter, and sign-up to our newsletter. To submit Inbox letters and Reader's Features more easily, without the need to send an email, just use our Submit Stuff page here. For more stories like this, check our Gaming page. MORE: Games Inbox: How much are you spending on the Nintendo Switch 2 launch? MORE: How to get a Nintendo Switch 2 this week in the UK MORE: James Bond video game from makers of Hitman will be unveiled this week
Daily Mirror
03-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mirror
RoboCop: Rogue City – Unfinished Business is familiar gory fun as a standalone
If you're seeking a bite-sized shot of punchy 80s action distilled into a standalone first-person shooter, RoboCop: Rogue City – Unfinished Business appears set to go down a treat. RoboCop: Rogue City – Unfinished Business marches to a familiar beat that the base game did, but shakes things up a little with a larger emphasis on shooting and even more enemy types to take down. No modern video game translation of a cult 1987 movie had any right to be as good as the original RoboCop: Rogue City. More than a budget FPS that just slapped the 'RoboCop' name on the box, it genuinely understood the 'part man, part machine, all cop' in a way few video games (and even some movies) before it had, setting players off on a different type of shooter that did excellent justice to the character's heavier, more assertive cadence and movement style. Hence why it wasn't too surprising to see developer Teyon return to this world so soon, not via DLC or a full sequel, but rather a standalone expansion that aims to lock everything the first game did so well to a single tower block. The result won't blow anyone's minds, but it's hard to complain when you're gunning down thugs 80s style while Basil Poledouris' iconic score blasts in the background. Heading into my hour-long demo of RoboCop: Rogue City – Unfinished Business I was genuinely curious just how well this standalone story would work. The original game's narrative turned out to be one of the most surprising things about it, sitting neatly between the events of the second and third movies while offering deeper insight into RoboCop's present and past as he faces a new enemy. Well, for better and worse, very few of these events bleed there way into Unfinished Business it seems. Instead, it elects to focus on an all-new threat that tasks RoboCop with working his way up a single tower block in the manner of Dredd 3D or The Raid to put an end to a hostile takeover. The opening mission actually takes place outside of this OmniTower housing complex, seeing RoboCop explore a recently invaded police precinct that sees all its officers butchered. It serves as a good enough way to reintroduce the base game's unique mechanics (such as scanning and investigating) at a far slower pace than if players were immediately thrown into the action right from the off. It also does well to appropriately establish the stakes. This prologue eventually leads to OCP's discovery of the Omnitower which has been taken over by some of Detroit's worst gangs. You as RoboCop are the only solution, and It isn't too long after that the slaughtering begins. Much like before, the standard Auto-9 pistol is a great way to turn enemy heads into a blood splatter. Only being able to move with a heavy step and therefore a much slower pace than other FPS titles, it pays dividends to take down human enemies as quickly and efficiently as possible. RoboCop's armour means you can take much more of a beating, of course, yet with Unfinished Business I instantly noticed its nature to see your health deplete much faster – likely due to each floor of the OmniTower being so crowded with gangsters able to attack you from all sides. Your move, creep In these instances, as unnatural as it still seems, picking up a sniper, SMG, or even a Rocket Launcher and firing it at enemies is a must. Otherwise, you'll spend more time searching around stages looking for health packs as opposed to dealing out justice in RoboCop's uniquely brutal way. Speaking of which, I was pleased to see that Unfinished Business does much to retain its 18+ rating, with blood splatters and gory deaths only ever just a few trigger pulls away. In fact, this is an expansion that doubles down on the character's immense power, thanks to all-new context sensitive finishing moves that sees the camera temporarily pull out to a third-person view. It's a small touch, but one I came to quickly appreciate. Also new this time around are the new flying type drone enemies, which do much to take your gaze away from merely the ground or the odd balcony when continuously gunning down cretins. When these blighters arrive it was easy to find myself having to step up my reaction times quite significantly – something that's not always easy to do given how slowly RoboCop moves by nature. Other than these, however, much of what I was actually doing in Unfinished Business didn't vary too much from RoboCop: Rogue City. In fact, if anything, action is emphasised a lot more now, since the semi open-world sections that allowed for some semblance of investigation before were nowhere to be seen in the four chapters I played. In the lead up to launch Teyon has teased flashback missions where players will play as Alex Murphy prior to his cybernetic transformation. And although I wasn't able to play any of these myself, I'm genuinely curious to see how this changes the rhythm of gameplay. For now, however, my demo capped off with a sequence where RoboCop himself was bound and restricted in the tower, causing a mysterious new ally to make an ED-209 unit accessible. Facing off against this giant, hulking bot in the base game was a true challenge. That's why actually playing as it in Unfinished Business feels immensely cathartic. Both because it wasn't possible before, yet also as stomping on thugs and blasting entire rows of floors away using rockets and turrets proves wildly destructive. RoboCop: Rogue City – Unfinished Business is the sort of standalone expansion that does exactly what it says on the tin. Though most of its mechanics and presentation style is lifted directly from the base game that came immediately before it, the addition of new weapons, contextual finishing moves, as well as missions that change up your perspective is just about doing enough differently to help give it a unique identity. Better yet, it's shorter runtime will directly correlate with a much cheaper price point compared to a full game, and so far it's narratively riding the line perfectly between those who have played RoboCop: Rogue City and those who have not. There's still a lot to learn about how the story will land and how the Alex Murphy missions will play out. For now, however, it's still hard to imagine any video game nailing the act of being RoboCop as well as this.
