Handheld
C.O.P.: The Recruit
By George Damidas
Nov 27, 2009, 7 :05 am

C.O.P.: The Recruit, believed to have originally been Driver: The Recruit, is the story of one Dan Miles, bad boy turned lawman. After being apprehended by Detective Brad Winter for driving like a maniac and pulling a gun on someone in downtown Manhattan, Dan is… offered a job in the City Control Division. As part of the Criminal Overture Program (COP), Brad offers Dan a chance to turn his life around and serve the public instead of nearly killing them. A little unorthodox, yes, and some might even say a little too ridiculous, but that’s just how Brad rolls: “Get out of the car and leave your heat on the seat, boss.”

It’s best to think of The Recruit as the game equivalent of television’s 21 Jump Street: a cop drama with a highly questionable plot and a lot of action. Brad is the loose cannon that doesn’t take orders from anyone, doing whatever he wants, when he wants. That’s not a big surprise to anyone, considering that his mentor Brad is imprisoned for unlawful conduct shortly after taking him under his wing. Try as he might, and despite standing when told to sit, Dan never comes across as the bad hombre with a badge that he imagines himself to be. Instead, he often comes off as someone who is in an ESL course and tacking self-defenses courses at the local “Y”. And yet, he persists in acting tough.

Then again, The Recruit does nothing if not try hard. Ambitious as an action game can be, the game features a multitude of useable firearms and vehicles, as well as an in-game engine cranks out a scaled New York with some fairly impressive results. Its lofty aims are admirable, even if the game itself might not be. As much as one may be able to see its promise over its faults, there is one aspect that can’t be overlooked: the dialogue. Sometimes unintentionally funny and other times downright bizarre, the dialogue rarely does the game any favors. To give you an idea of how surreal things can get, here are some of my favorite lines:  “Bingo, as they say,” “I guess the tourists are disturbed by this unfitting decoration,” and “This is essentially not cool.”

Chitchat aside, I was actually struck at how natural a fit the DS is for a game about law enforcement. I haven’t seen a title try to tackle the subject since Sierra’s Police Quest, and while this is more arcade-oriented, it does demonstrate just how uniquely qualified the system is for such titles. The touch screen allows for a little more interactivity as you wade through the layers of menus to scroll through maps, call for assistance, set waypoints, record conversations, and set insertion team counts. The 3C, a CCD-issued handheld, allows Dan to view a wiki on characters and weapons, take pictures, and utilize a keypad in order to do anything from open locks to phone for assistance. The mic is also used to scream at perps and make noises to distract patrolling thugs. There is definitely a lot of potential here.

Unfortunately, a lot of the potential isn’t realized because, much like the text, the execution can be pretty clunky. The game is certainly unique for a handheld title in how much of a sandbox experience it delivers, but a significant amount of polish is needed before it can be the portable 3D successor to Grand Theft Auto. While GTA is often mentioned alongside The Recruit, I have found their similarities to be largely superficial. Beyond the simple actions of commandeering cars, going wherever you choose, and getting into some wild firefights, there is little else, no depth of repercussion. Save for a “You’re not the one who will save the city” fail screen, nothing you do really matters: run over 50 pedestrians, slam into a patrol car, drive through a park, or even make ten arrests, nothing. Aside from the implication that the law can simply do these things, and the brain-dead AI, the segmented design focusing on ripping and running results in too many moments in isolation which lack the vitality that really brings sandbox titles to life.

Aside from Brad’s more underhanded dealings - involving his past life and the Bomb Zombies case file – most of your assignments involve surveillance, shooting it out with punks, and chasing down runners. You can also expect little to no help. Backup can only be called in at specific moments, which is after you’ve done all the work. This results in some strange situations, like when I had a limited amount of time to put out multiple fires with a single extinguisher while everyone stood around and watched.  The only time you get assistance is when you neglect to take part in a local call, either to stop a speeder or a robbery, which will be subsequently answered by the local police department; and there is no incentive to help, because there are no rewards for a successful collar. Although I guess nothing should surprise me from a world where a criminal can get a badge after a lecture and rudimentary training in an obstacle course.

Five seasons of Miami Vice have taught me that some people simply don’t care about solid dialogue, continuity, or immersion. For those people, they only want two things: shootouts and getaways. By those criteria, The Recruit is decent.  The same clunkyness applies to the action-oriented mechanics as well, but to a much lesser degree. Combat revolves around firearms that are gradually unlocked, inlcuding magnums, shotguns, and sub machineguns. Armories are set up around the city for quick ammo refills, and additional weapons and rounds can be picked up from defeated enemies. Speaking of which, the enemies aren’t terribly bright: they mostly run around aimlessly and fire wildly whenever they spot you. The challenge comes from having to survive hordes of them, as they tend to travel in packs and get the drop on you with their erratic behavior. Unlike you, however, the enemies do not have a regenerating life bar – suckers.

Gunplay takes a backseat to driving, though, which is prominent in nearly every mission. Driving is so ingrained that there are times when you must drive towards a building’s entrance head-on to engage a waypoint because you will be unable to exit the vehicle. The prominence does come with a positive, and that would be surprising amount of differentiation between the vehicles. The driving engine won’t put a racer to shame, but it’s solid and handling varied enough to where you’ll have a preferred vehicle type. The engine struggles to keep up at times with some pop-up and draw-in, which can cause some anomalies like buses appearing as hovering rectangles until the details appear. Some objects can also be difficult to spot, namely the highly damaging explosive barrels hidden throughout the city by a gang of mythology-obsessed street racers, so it’s a must that you keep the exaggerated handling in check. The excessive sliding does come in handy when you’re given a little bit of freedom and room to maneuver – think the Beastie Boys’ “Sabotage” video - but the dimwitted drivers and mission constraints will be cause for some frustration.

As much as you might want to rip around corners, there are many times when that isn’t possible. It’s difficult to really open a car up when the other vehicles have absolutely no reaction to your driving, no matter how crazy it is. Neither honks nor sirens garner even the slightest response, which creates a lot of problems (re: collisions) for you. And while you can destroy small objects, such as lampposts and benches, many other objects - bus stops, railings, and dumpsters - will make you come to a complete stop. Even when you’re not tailing someone or rear-ending a speeder, you will still find your patience tested by the other drivers as you are constantly sent across the city, sometimes multiple times for the same mission. As frustrating as the Sunday drivers are, a solid chase or run can still be quite thrilling. You will definitely notice a Driver influence.

Overall: 6.5/10

C.O.P.: The Recruit is crammed with varyingly successful experiments with none outright succeeding. Much of the game’s mechanics instead serve better at providing a glimpse of what could have been and might be in a sequel. The engine struggles at times, compensating for the random desolate blocks and drone-like denizens with a scope I have yet to see in a DS title. It’s a unique experience on a handheld and will definitely be a hit with some, providing a lot of crazy driving and haphazard shootouts, but many will find it just too clunky. Fans of sandbox games and cheesy cop dramas will want to check it out.

(This review is based on a retail copy provided by the publisher.)