Beat Cop

Beat Cop is a interesting game. I like the graphical style. But it has some flaws. The story and the writing are not great. The opening cut-scene is awesome, and really gets you excited for some plot, but unravelling the story is just a matter of 'go to this spot when told, then wait, then later go to another spot when told'. There are some parts where you're given the illusion of choice, but most of these junctures are actually impossible to fail. Late in the game, after you become used to just coasting through all the dialogue, there is actually a spot where you CAN fail a plot related moment, and the game lets you continue playing even after failing. I had to go back and play several hours over from this point to achieve one of the endings, and was disappointed to see that there was no special cut-scene for the proper ending, just another brief epilogue blurb. The gameplay is extremely repetitive. You just run back and forth writing tickets. I usually didn't have any trouble doubling or on occasion tripling the ticket quota, so it wasn't very challenging. Sometimes you run back and forth to cuff perps, and I think there are just TWO occasions in the whole game where you can get into a shoot-out, and I missed the first time cause I didn't expect it. Making money on the side was trivial, and managing the relations with factions also didn't require any thought. In fact, I'm pretty sure you can completely ignore the other factions and still finish the game.

So, the GOG version is 1.1.744 and the Steam version is.. 1.2.749 ! Shame..

I tried out a demo of this game last year at Gamescom and noticed it had a lot of promise. After playing through all 21 days to be given a bad eneding because I misssed an even at day 6 was on the frustrating side. So I played through it again following the story but it STILL wouldn't let me advance! This game needs a bit more bug catching with some graphical bugs including the trenchcoat guy walking around in a black rectangle. In addition sometimes when checking tyres or you will look the other way of the tyres and cars can drive right through you. The last straw was having a few missions instantly failed because cars stop parking and I need to find certain cars. I want to play and enjoy this game throuugh but some of these bugs are really maddening. I realise a lot of work went into this there is some really creative narrative and writing and the music is catchy but I'm not going on playthough when it's unwinnable.

While it's clearly inspired by papers please, it goes its own way quite a bit. When the game is over you finally get to see how limited your choices actually are.I came in and expected to rule the streets my way, but unlike papers please, you're mostly forced in the important quests and have little to say about them or how they turn out. If you fail, it's over and you lost. Another issue is that, unlike papers please, there is almost no payoff and reward for the things that are set up. Here's a few observations in no particular order - The last few days are stretched out and boring (aside from the last day) - When everything is over, you see that there is absolutely no consequence for your actions. Maybe it's because the game never tells you if what you did had an impact. - No panic or hard choices moment. - No stats about how well I did (Could be also compared to the other players) - I really liked the sense of humour of this game - It touches a few hot topics gracefully, kudoos for that - Unlike most people, I never ran out of time for the things I had to do, it was pretty well balanced