LA Cops feels like the result of a group of designers sitting around and figuring out how to capitalise on the popularity of Hotline Miami. It also feels like they wanted to do it without being labelled an out and out rip-off. LA Cops is successful in not appearing to be a total knock-off, but only in that it’s a much lesser game than that which it aspires to.
Like Hotline Miami, LA Cops presents a top-down view of enemy-filled rooms that need to be cleared to move on. LA Cops is rendered in 3D rather than 2D and also allows the player to rotate the camera and zoom out to get a better view of the action. Instead of playing as a criminal, in LA Cops, players control two police detectives. That’s where the differences between Hotline Miami and LA Cops end. Oh, and that Hotline Miami is way, way better.
The stereotypical, 70’s cop movie aesthetic is silly and adds a more light-hearted tone to proceedings as opposed to Hotline Miami’s crushing bleakness, but the wholesale slaughter of goon upon goon followed by cheesy, played for laughs, cut scenes doesn’t gel. It doesn’t help that the writing and voice acting is atrociously abysmal. LA Cops would be a better game if each and every cut scene had been left on the cutting room floor, then trampled on before finally being set on fire. I can’t stress enough just how much I hated the cut scenes. Moving on.
It isn’t just in cutscenes that LA Cops struggles either. Gameplay is sluggish and oddly floaty when compared to Hotline Miami’s fast-paced, pixel perfect accuracy. Characters are slow and even more so when strafing or moving backwards. The weapons on offer include pistols, shotguns, machine guns and a rocket launcher. While there is enough of a difference to make unlocking them worthwhile, once you have the assault rifle there’s never a need to go back.
Characters also have four upgradeable skills. Even on the most easy difficulty setting the game is brutally hard once you reach the second stage. I felt like I was missing something, but I wasn’t and so I repeated the first level over and over until I had racked up enough XP to level up the first two cops to maximum. This made the next 4 or 5 levels embarrassingly easy and then the final levels were once again insanely difficult. This unevenness can be found throughout the entire game. Story, gameplay, difficulty, enemies, weapons. The sums of LA Cops’ parts don’t work to make a whole.
One unique and promising aspect is that players control two characters rather than just one. However, it’s totally wasted and never, ever works as intended. The loading screen constantly told me to position my partner somewhere so we could cover each other. I would position the second character behind a door, bust in and signal for him at the same time and either he would die, I would die or we’d both die. Strategy never works in LA Cops, instead the best thing to do is use the second detective is as a back-up in case your first character dies. It’s a lot more fun to blast through the levels quickly and brutally than meticulously plan a slow, stealthy approach that fails 9 times out of 10.
Perhaps LA Cops biggest flaw is that it never sunk its claws in me. I was never addicted to trying again like I was with Hotline Miami. Sure, there are three difficulty settings, a points system, more cops to level up and bonus levels to unlock and complete, but I have no desire to do any of those things. In Hotline Miami, the gameplay is so good that it forces you to keep trying. In LA Cops, once I was done, I was done. It was only ok the first time around. A second playthrough isn’t going to fare any better.
If you’re after a short, Hotline Miami type experience that’s more carefree, sillier and tries (but not well) to change up the formula then maybe try LA Cops. Actually, don’t; just replay Hotline Miami or pick up Hotline Miami 2 — both games are bound to provide a much more satisfying and entertaining experience.
LA Cops was reviewed using a promotional code on Xbox One, as provided by the publisher.
