LA Cops Fuses Hotline Miami, Syndicate, Beastie Boys
Some good brew
Oh my god, it's a mirage, I'm telling you all it's sabotage. Beastie Boys' "Sabotage" is apparently a big inspiration for LA Cops' overall attitude/look, but I'm even more pleased that it describes the top-down shooter strategy's moment-to-moment gameplay. Inspired by Hotline Miami's gore-spattered thrills and (classic) Syndicate's cold strategizing, this one puts you in control of two hard-boiled eggs law enforcement professionals at any given moment. Positioning is key, but so are split-second smarts and reflexes. So you might, for instance, use one cop as bait and then run them right into a bullet firehose - aka, your partner. SABOTAGE. This looks like one to watch, and watch it you shall in a pair of videos below.
AND THERE IS ROCK 'N' ROLL MUSIC AND DOOR-KICKING WITH INTENT TO KILL. YESSSS.
LA Cops heralds from Modern Dream, the studio that produced the hyper abstract The Cat That Got The Milk and the much more well-known The Typing of the Dead: Overkill. This, however, is quite far outside either of those already rather disparate wheelhouses.
"LA Cops is a game inspired by the EA Bullfrog classic Syndicate and modern top down shooters. It builds on the Art style of Modern Dream's previously released, The Button Affair, combines it with a 70's Cops theme whilst taking influences from David Hockney's 'A Bigger Splash' and Edward Ruscha's 'Standard' Painting. Not to mention attitude from The Beastie Boys Sabotage!"
"The gameplay style is that of a top-down shooter set in a full 3D world. You're in control of two characters at any given time. You can do cool things like set one to cover you while you kick a door open, or set them in a position, ready to fire, and loop around and lure enemies toward their position. You can even set them up to mirror your movements and move in unison with you, an idea the developer said was borrowed from Syndicate."
It's not Syndicate's four-character dance of contemplation, but the possibilities are still quite intriguing, and the faster pace will likely lead to some pretty wild improvised strategies. Meanwhile, you'll have a whole host of various characters (each with their own attributes) and weapons/items to choose from. Oh, and the whole world is destructible. Yes, even walls. And in the game.
The art's still a little simple, but with some polish it could evolve into something with serious style. My biggest concern, actually, is that it's headed to iOS/Android in addition to Steam. The concept sounds like it'll allow for a fair amount of depth, but mobile concessions could hamstring that. I mean, the interface poses big problems where rapid multi-tasking is concerned while PC can handle it like a squid with smaller, more dexterous squids for arms.
Fingers (or squids) crossed that LA Cops can live up to its potential, but for now I'm a little worried. We'll see. It's coming "soon," apparently, but there's no word on a concrete release date.