L.A. Cops – PAX East 2015 Hands On

<p>Produced by Team17 Digital &lpar;of <em>Worms<&sol;em> fame&rpar; and developed by Modern Dream &lpar;<em>Typing of the Dead<&sol;em>&rpar;&comma; <em>L&period;A&period; Cops<&sol;em> is a far from serious look at the dangerous lives of some&comma; badass&comma; no-nonsense&comma; 1970s Los Angeles police officers&period; What’s most striking about <em>L&period;A&period; Cops<&sol;em> is it’s minimalist&comma; cartoon art style&comma; expressing it’s characters through colored silhouettes wearing sunglasses and donning some pretty swank&comma; Fu Manchu mustaches&period; With a soundtrack straight out of Boogey Nights and a characters with names like Murphy and Kowalsky&comma; <em>L&period;A&period; Cops<&sol;em> is a charming homage to the 70s cop drama&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>While sporting an isometric view&comma; rather than top down&comma; <em>L&period;A&period; Cops<&sol;em> is very reminiscent of <em>Hotline Miami<&sol;em>&comma; tasking you with taking down enemies quickly&comma; while moving from room to room and avoiding being mowed down in only one or two shots&period; However&comma; unlike <em>Hotline Miami<&sol;em>&comma; <em>L&period;A&period; Cops<&sol;em> not only allows you to arrest people &lpar;a quick tap of the melee button&rpar; for more points&comma; but you also control two protagonists&excl; With a simple button press&comma; you can switch from one partner to the other&comma; leaving the unplayed character on &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;overwatch”&comma; ready to blow away anything that comes within their view radius&period; You’re also able to order your teammate from place to place simply by aiming in a particular direction and pressing a button&period; This two-person control scheme brings a level of strategy not found in <em>Hotline Miami<&sol;em>&period; When facing particularly deadly enemies&comma; I found it advantageous to position one partner around a corner and then bait my enemies to come chase me&comma; then filling their faces full of lead as soon as I lured them into the trap&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;03&sol;05022158&sol;6V9hZ1C7K-x5&period;878x0&period;Z-Z96KYq&period;jpg"><img class&equals;"aligncenter size-full wp-image-78877" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;03&sol;05022158&sol;6V9hZ1C7K-x5&period;878x0&period;Z-Z96KYq&period;jpg" alt&equals;"6V9hZ1C7K-x5&period;878x0&period;Z-Z96KYq" width&equals;"610" height&equals;"347" &sol;><&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>As you progress through the game’s campaign&comma; you’re able to choose your duo out of 8 available cops&comma; each of which have different attributes such as faster movement&comma; increased health&comma; etc&period; After each mission&comma; based on your performance&comma; you can level up your characters’ attributes&period; The missions themselves are comprised of multiple objectives&comma; such as find the drug money&comma; rescuing a hostage&comma; or just eliminating &lpar;or arresting&rpar; the enemies&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>At first glance&comma;<em> L&period;A&period; Cops<&sol;em> looks like a basic isometric shooter&comma; but if you tried to play it run-and-gun style&comma; you won’t go very far&period; Without careful planning before entering a room&comma; things can go south in the blink of an eye&period; Like your enemies&comma; you can only take a couple shots before biting the big one&comma; so going from an A-OK situation to both protagonist lying in a pile of bloody mustaches can happen in a single shotgun blast&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;03&sol;05022148&sol;2014-09-20&lowbar;00004&period;jpg"><img class&equals;"aligncenter size-full wp-image-78878" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;03&sol;05022148&sol;2014-09-20&lowbar;00004&period;jpg" alt&equals;"2014-09-20&lowbar;00004" width&equals;"1920" height&equals;"1080" &sol;><&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>If you’re a fan of the difficulty found in titles like <em>Hotline Miami<&sol;em>&comma; or just really love the Beastie Boys’ <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;youtube&period;com&sol;watch&quest;v&equals;z5rRZdiu1UE">Sabotage<&sol;a> video&comma; you won’t be disappointed with <em>L&period;A&period; Cops<&sol;em>&period; Available now in Early Access&comma; <em>L&period;A&period; Cops<&sol;em> is launching on Steam and Xbox One on March 13&period; While the game is single-player only at the moment&comma; a multiplayer mode may be introduced after launch&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>For more live coverage of Pax east 2015&comma; check out the Bagogames <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;instagram&period;com&sol;bagogames&sol;">Instagram<&sol;a> feed&excl;<&sol;p>&NewLine;