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Reviewed by Jonathan Dreyer
All images in this review can be enlarged by clicking on them
Future Cop is when of those rare simultaneous releases for both Mac and PC. The reason being that it is a hybrid CD. I for one am very glad that the Mac version of Future Cop found it's way onto the CD. Future Cop is one of the best games I have played in a very long time. You see the scores above, that's not a mistake, Future Cop is the first title I have ever reviewed to score perfect on our ratings system. We'll have to come up with some sort of award for it.
From the Future Cop box: In the 21st Century, gangs have taken over L.A.
Mutant crooks packin' thermo nukes, bio-agents, and other
bad mojo are laying siege to the City of Angels. Hit the
streets in a revolutionary hovercraft, walker, and all
purpose justice dispenser. With ceramite armor, the latest
plasma technology, and an awesome array of high-tech
weapons, it's like playing "good cop/bad cop" only without
the good cop.
Gameplay
Future Cop is your standard above 3rd person perspective
shoot'em up with some interesting twists that make for
exciting gameplay. The coolest part of the gameplay I found
to be the ability to change from a mech-like walker to a
hovercraft and back. There are some situations where you
have no choice but to only use one or the other (such as the
hovercraft over water), but in most cases you can use the
form of vehicle you feel most comfortable with. With either
vehicle you have access to three different weapons out of a
total of 15. One "Gun" weapon (such as a mini-gun or
flamethrower), one "Heavy" weapon (such as missiles), and
one "Special" weapon (such as mortars). Each of these
weapons also has special weapon upgrades that you will find
throughout the game.
Future Cop is really 2 games in one. Crime War and
Precinct Assault. Crime War is really your standard shoot'em
up setting, you go through 8 stages in L.A., each stage with
it's own bosses, sub-bosses, and puzzles to go through. 8
stages may not seem like a lot, but the stages are very long
and no two look the same. In Crime War you can fight alone,
or through split-screen, you and a friend can work
cooperatively. Precinct Assault is a rather unique concept.
Two teams go at it in a battle to invade each other's bases.
During the battle, each side can create automated weaponry
(such as tanks and helicopters) and fight for control of the
limited number of strategically placed turrets. You can play
Precinct Assault with two players, or alone against the "Sky
Captain", an artificial intelligence.
Multiplayer is support in Future Cop as I already stated through split screen play, and also by Appletalk and TCP/IP. While network games are playable over a LAN, TCP/IP games require both players to have high speed Internet connection (sorry modem users).
Graphics and Sound
Future Cop supports 3D
accelerators using 3Dfx or Rage chipsets. Although Future
Cop also supports software rendering, I found the software
mode (although it looks almost as good as 3D accelerated
mode) to be a bit slow and chunky. With my Power3D card the
graphics in Future Cop look marvelous, the enemies, and
especially the smoke effects are very well done. But the
best looking effects were the explosions. Future Cop is one
of the few titles, if not the only title, that supports 800
by 600 resolution with the 4 megabyte Power3D card. Future
Cop should look just as stunning if not more so on an
iMac.
The ambient background music seemed to have struck just the right chord in me. I found the music to have the perfect balance of not leaving an empty void, without becoming totally annoying. On the sound effects side of the coin, I began to grow a little impatient with the sounds of crying civilians, maybe that was EA's idea, make the civilians so annoying you have to kill them?
Interface/Difficulty
Future Cop has a nice mac friendly interface complete with
all the standard dialogue boxes.
There are the three standard difficulty levels in FC, Easy, Medium, and Hard. The differences between the difficulty levels are very hard to notice without really trying to find them. In other words, on first glance all the difficulty levels seemed the same to me.
Bugs
I found Future Cop to be bug free.
Conclusion
In conclusion, Future Cop is one of the best games I've
played in a long time. It's definitely one of the best games
of 98, if not the best! It's low system requirements
(compared to other recent 3D fare) and excellent price
(19.95 at most outlets, I've seem it as low as 14.99 in some
stores) make Future Cop a very attractive title. I strongly
reccomend this game.
More Info
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Minimum System Requirements |
Recommended System |
