La Cops, through its vibrancy, ambience, and characters, looks like it’s part of the stereotypical 1970 era. It doesn’t fail to please the eyes, and it's charm makes you feel like you are part of a cop drama like ‘Starsky & Hutch’.
Expanding on how it engulfs the player into its world, the controls are simplified and easy to understand. This allows for the gameplay to be simple and easy to understand, which is demonstrated with help from the first level tutorial; making it easier for the story to shine through. Furthermore this allows the player to emphasize with the character they are playing, while the main character is holding a gun in one hand and a donut in another.
There are things that makes this game feel like it would be better off as either a table top game or a mobile game. The 2.5D view of the map does make thing a little cumbersome for pc gamers that have to use the mouse and arrow keys. Another thing that needs to be addressed is the fact that one can arrest someone by clicking the right mouse button, you might not have intended for this to happen at all whilst scrolling around. Also objectives are somewhat not clearly laid out for every mission.
Also there is no real reward system for taking risk or completing objectives like new guns, or some kind of cosmetic change to give it more replay value. This would really drive you forward to want to be a completionist if it were in place. As well as this, the ranking system is on a sliding scale which determines your overall score. I also feel that they should have an online co-op feature so the game would have more personality and give it more of that '70s “buddy cop” feel. Also this would get rid of the problem of leaving your partner in danger while you go and do all the work for the level. This does get a little frustrating and annoying after a while.
The enemy's movement, while good and constant, makes it difficult for the player. A route plotter would have made things a little less tedious and easier on the player. The player could plan the route or attack of their partner without having to constantly look back at their partner to see if they were okay. I also felt frustrated at the fact that if they die you lose a life, and if you die after it's game over and you have to retry. It felt a lot like Hotline Miami but without the flow and good music. As this still in development, I am sure that these things will be looked into, and thanks to the Greenlight system on Steam, it is getting some good exposure and being seen. While the game has these minor problems, it shows good promise and game play. It is currently on sale for £7.99 on Steam, not bad for a game that is still in development.
This title is currently available via Early Access on Steam.