Published by Ubisoft, C.O.P.: The Recruit is the latest in a long line of crime-themed, open-world, third-person titles with an emphasis on car chases and gunplay. But with a great open-world title like Chinatown Wars already on the DS, can C.O.P. really cut the mustard?
C.O.P. tells the story of Dan Miles. Dan is an illegal street-racer who finds himself indoctrinated into the New York City police department, known for some reason as the ‘CCD’, instead of serious jail time. So real it hurts, right? Dan’s tale involves taking down criminals and saving the entire city from a sinister plot. This cheesy plot could have been saved by some nicer presentation or sharp writing, but C.O.P. fails to deliver in either of these regards.
The story is presented in ridiculous cut scenes comprised of comic book stills and pop-up text blocks that rarely provide enough information to be of any use. The dialogue is plain bad, delivering a barrage of bad wannabe tough street lingo and lame one-liners. If C.O.P. intended to be funny, it could be forgiven, but it was trying to be tough. Making things worse, the game does not even work on the level of a guilty pleasure GTA does. If it’s supposed to be so tough, why isn’t there a single drop of blood anywhere? Watching C.O.P. try to tell its tale is like listening to a rap song by Betty White.
Unfortunately, C.O.P. also struggles to impress with its gameplay. Being a sandbox title with a mission-based structure, the majority of the player’s time is spent driving to and from missions, which might involve stealth segments, shootouts, or races, with these missions being fairly boring. The trouble is that the driving model can be irritating, with cars feeling clunky or completely lacking in any sort of traction, and the third-person shooting segments can be cumbersome due to an awful control layout which requires digit-twisting of the worst kind (using the stylus, shoulder buttons and face buttons simultaneously is confounding). With neither of the its core components being very enjoyable, C.O.P. is largely a chore to play, which is unfortunate given that games of its scope and ambition are rare on the Nintendo DS.
As you can guess (and see by the screenshots), the visuals aren’t anything to write home about either. But at least C.O.P. made sure to match bad graphics and a laughable excuse for audio with this bad game. If you ever have a friend who owns this game, listen to some of the music in it and you’ll know what I mean. Then immediately stop being friends with that person as they are weird.
Overall C.O.P. is best described as a sloppy game which fails to exploit its impressive technological base. The clunky controls, laughable presentation and uninspired design combine to create a game which misses the mark by such an amazing margin and fails in every way that Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars succeeds. C.O.P. is a forgettable copycat title on a system spoiled with superior choices. Again, if you need to play this, find a friend who owns it, play it, and then disown that friend for owning this game.
Graphics | Audio | Gameplay | Replay | Genre | Final |
