LA Cops

LA Cops is a gorgeous piece of art design which, by all rights, should have served as the foundation for a classic indie shooter. The utter failure of its gameplay to deliver on that potential frustrates to no end. This is clearly a game with a lot of talent behind it, but I have no idea how they botched things so badly.

L.A. Cops is a sloppy game. The controls lack finesse in almost all areas, and the shooting is randomized enough to feel unsatisfying.

LA Cops is built on an amazing concept, but ends up being nothing more than mediocre due to repetitive levels, design misses and bugs.

Just like Hotline Miami, LA Cops also requires planning, excellent reflexes and never forgives a mistake. But here, you also have to babysit a stupid AI partner, wage war against an unwieldy camera, trying to rotate it to see an enemy in time, and deal with hordes of dumb, but sturdy, speedy criminals. Scary, right?

Controls feel a little unwieldy. [Issue#160, p.105]

The most interesting premise of LA Cops – the fact that you control two policemen – is squandered by your buddy’s poor AI and the lack of co-op mode. Said AI is unpredictable in a bad way, so tactical planning is basically out of the picture unless you call hiding behind a corner with a shotgun and sending your partner as a bait a tactic. [05/2015, p.67]

With an unreliable partner, inconsistent enemy artificial intelligence and poor game mechanics, missions are a chore more than a pleasure. The concept is solid but it rarely hits the mark.

All the levels have the same basic objectives; kill all the goons, destroy all the drugs, and repeat. In later levels the game will add hostages who will get in your way. Killing hostages will understandably lower your score, but have very little value to add to the experience beyond that.

LA Cops takes its inspiration from Hotline Miami and as such it could be described as a light version of that indie gem. Unfortunately this description corresponds to every component of the game, because LA Cops is light on violence, story, gameplay, graphics and replayability.

Definitely more bad cop than good cop, but LA Cops could at least be a fair cop, guv, if given a bit of post-release polish.

While there was clear opportunity in the buddy cop formula LA Cops attempted to create, the end result is a mess. Totally undermined by poor teammate AI, the central strategic hook is lost, resulting in a bland game confused about what it wants the player to do.

Somewhat similar to Hotline Miami, L.A. Cops is still fun and takes advantage of its cooperative mechanics and its great settings.

As it stands, it’s hard to recommend LA Cops when you can pick up the next slice of Hotline Miami’s gory abstraction at a similar price point.

LA Cops is a heap of fun. And although the missions are all somewhat similar, they are a joy to complete.

From the vibrant visuals and the pitch perfect 70s cop theme to the fast and snappy buddy cop action, LA Cops has a lot of great ideas, but hasn’t really done enough with them.