COP: The Recruit Review
Freeze, Criminal Overturn Program agent! Wait, a what?
By Ben Salter
Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars is one of the best games on the Nintendo DS. When its top down, cel-shaded, view was first announced most of us were sceptical and thought it would be utter rubbish. Fortunately, Rockstar knew what they were doing and crafted a masterpiece that put us, rightfully so, in our place. Then, at E3 last year, Ubisoft announced
C.O.P. The Recruit. It looked like yet another GTA clone, of which there are many, but it presented a full 3D open world to explore; something DS owners had been dying to see. The question is: have they actually made a good game out of it?
You play as Dan Miles, an ex-street racing bad boy turned COP (Criminal Overturn Program) after some jail time. Dan’s job is to roam the streets taking down crims and generally being the one man to save the city. Along the way he has to recruit other ex-crims to help clean up the city. Seems like a flawed system. To sum up then, the plot is terrible. It’s cheesy, doesn’t make sense most of the time and the presentation is horrendous. The cut-scenes are displayed by blocky animated figures, as we so often see on the DS, but it’s almost unwatchable (or unreadable). The dialogue is cringe worthy, and most of the time there’re some grammatical faults. It’s a big call, but I’d much rather watch Whoopi Goldberg complain about Justin Timberlake’s facial hair in a “you go girlfriend” tone on The View all day than force myself to try and comprehend COP’s story.
The game itself is a lot more like Driver than GTA. You either have to drive around to activate missions or accept calls that come through on the radio asking you to stop a robbery or ram a speeding car off the road. Once you’ve caught the perp you have to call up the local precinct and get someone to pick them up. That in itself describes COP. It’s a pointless extension to an otherwise repetitive and boring mission. There’s also a little bit of stealth and some racing missions, but they are all too bland and after awhile all start feeling the same. Some of the side quests offer a little extra fun, but forcing your way through a game to get to them is hardly entertainment.
The touch screen controls are actually painful to use, and you’d sooner amputate your right arm than carry on trying to shoot people with the chunky third person controls. I’m not sure whose bright idea it was to use the shoulder buttons, face buttons and touch screen all at once, but with just two hands it doesn’t work. The controls for driving are a little better, at least useable, but still not fantastic. If you fail a task, you’ll have to reload your save and find your way there again. It works on consoles, but on a handheld you really need a retry option.
On the whole COP is just way too hard to play. Every minor task, such as checking your map, requires a magnitude of button combos. I don’t want to have to press more buttons than my bank account number to shoot somebody. The missions don’t help the situation, as they’re far too hard in areas, which is exacerbated by the fact that it’s easier to lick your own elbow than control Dan at times.
At first COP looks awesome. Kudos has to be given to Velez & Dubail Dev Team for what they’ve managed to get out of the DS. In 5 years there have only been a handful of true 3D titles, that actually worked, on the console, and technically speaking this is another one. There’s a whole open-world to explore, using a range of vehicles, all presented in 3D. The graphics are still fairly basic, and blocky as they were back in the PS1, but COP really pushes the DS to its limits. The frame rate is great, there’s no lag and minimal loading times. COP is like the world’s fastest car, with no steering. The technology is amazing, but you have no control, making it rather pointless. On a better game, this engine would be fantastic. We only hope it can be put to better use in the future.
The 3D graphics are technically sound, but the city of New York is too bland for that to keep you entertained for more than 5 minutes. Obviously it’s not the whole city, and the little that is here all looks exactly the same. GTA: Chinatown Wars was full of different districts. It was the complete Liberty City (basically) and showed what the DS was capable of, even if it was presented in a top down view. COP just isn’t fun to explore after you’ve gotten over the fact that it’s a 3D sandbox DS game.
Unfortunately the audio has sided with the gameplay. There’s no voice acting (probably a good thing considering the terrible dialogue), the music is terrible, and at times just stops for no reason, and I have a sneaking suspicion that the sound effects were made by toddler whacking things with a spoon. They sound nothing like their real life counterpart.
The Final Verdict
COP: The Recruit is full of great ideas. The 3D sandbox world of New York on the DS is a technical achievement, and yet still over shadowed by the genius that was the cel-shaded Liberty City. The controls are too complicated, the missions are too hard and the story doesn’t make sense. We really wanted to like COP, but it feels rushed and ultimately falls down in nearly every category.
Gameplay
4.5/10
Exploring the city is about the only fun you’ll have after the first few missions, and even then GTA is better. The controls don’t work and after an hour or so the missions are tedious to play.
Graphics
8.5/10
Technically speaking, COP: The Recruit is quite good. It’s a great engine for the DS that desperately seeks a better game.
Sounds
2.5/10
Terrible. Mute.
Value
8.5.10
There’re heaps of missions, and side quests, which are a little more fun. Collectables to find on your expeditions of the city make it a little more interesting.
Overall
5.0/10
Submitted by ICC_06
25/01/2010
17
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