A beloved PlayStation favourite of mine from 1998 (I was nine, woooooo) is Future Cop: LAPD. I only recently found out that it was meant to be a part of the Strike series, workingly-titled "Future Strike", featuring a robot named "Warrior". There was a trailer for it at the end of Nuclear Strike.
But, that all went out the window and we have...
Future Cop: LAPD! If you didn't already realise, the game involves policing, in the future. We're in the future, Chaaaaaaaaarlieeeee! It's also set in Los Angeles. Too far? OK.
So yeah. Crime has gotten so out of hand that Los Angeles Police Department officers, such as your character, sit inside of giant mecha law enforcement robots while performing their duties to avoid getting their asses completely and utterly kicked.
Like most players I saw (see) X1-Alpha as sentient and forgot that I was technically playing as the little dude inside, until I got blown up and he came flying out in the explosion.
Much in the way that saying "over and out" is contradictory, this game makes erroneous use of LAPD codes, with Code 7 referring to a meal break, not driving of a hovercar so horrendous that it warrants being shot off the freeway.
The main, story mode of the game is titled as above. You can play by yourself, or co-operatively with a friend, who will be a black Walker.
The first level is a bit of a walk in the park (Griffith Park, to be precise), with the manipulation of lifts being the hardest thing you'll face. You shall soon discover the delight of trampling on people (and realising just how massive X1-Alpha is). I much prefer the English voice acting to the French, but my game save is in French and I can't actually change it, the start-up option has been removed, so I'll be stuck with it pretty much forever unless I delete the file one day.
Game enemies are varied and fairly unique to each other. There aren't plain moulds of tanks in different colours doing the rounds the entire time. The levels progress in difficulty as you go on, some parts I'd forgotten entirely and I spent a while being frustratingly baffled (followed by embarrassed when the puzzle solution turned out to be obvious after all). It's pretty humiliating to be ace at a game when you're nine and then screw it up in your twenties.
You are limited in weapon choice as you first start out, but I actually think your original options are the best. Mortars in the third weapon slot are good for distance-bombing enemies in hard-to-reach places while you duck behind something (but do stand back a fair bit to avoid blowing yourself up, and do NOT use the Special weapons upgrade in an enclosed space!).
You have three weapon slots: Gun, Heavy, Special. I recommend that you kit them with Powered Mini-Gun, Hellfire2000 Missile and Mortar Launcher respectively. I find that mashing the buttons for Gun and Heavy takes targets down pretty quickly, deploy a Mortar if the conflict is sustained, or if you've got a lock-on from a distance, about two of them will crumble the target.
As you progress you can get an electric gun, which is fun occasionally but in my opinion not as effective as the preliminary Mini-Gun. There's also a flame-thrower which clearly has a cool factor, but just doesn't feel useful as you're being bombarded with bullets while slowly heating the opposition.
Crime War is very fun, appropriately challenging and you're rewarded with fairly amusing cutscenes at the end of each level.
My absolute favourite! It was my nostalgia for this that led to me convincing my lovely partner to let me download it onto his PS3 so I could reunite with it!
The gist is fairly gotten from the video. It's basically an elaborate tower defence game (we're totally making these on my degree course right now).
During Precinct Assault, player 1 controls the illustrious Red Walker ♥. Whom you may gather is my favourite.
If single player, you'll fight Sky Captain, who I've always regarded as an utter bastard even though he never actually beat me, so I'm not sure where all that resentment came from. He totally sucks anyway.
In two player mode, your friend (but opponent) is X1-Alpha. From this I gather that the red team are some sort of outlaw rebel group. I LOVE the flag; skull on a red background. Red team all the way. Sky Captain is a douche.
You start off with ten points. If playing Proving Ground, you'll need to hit L1 to go up the lift first. I'm surprised at how many people get stuck with that.
Helicopters and tanks cost one point each. Why the icon for the helicopters is a plane, I don't know. I didn't notice this as a kid, but there are ten tiers of difficulty for Precinct Assault.
Every time you beat Sky Captain, he gets a little tougher
The first time you play, I recommend splitting your ten points between base defence helicopters and hovertanks. There's no way your tanks will pierce the opposing base first time, but they do claim neutral turrets for you and are very handy. You'll notice here that the final base turrets ended up very different to those pictured in the introduction video.
You should then run out to the health area - filled with glorious pickups, the LAPD shield being the health - and claim the turrets there so that you won't get blown up when already on your last legs.
The health areas in Proving Ground and Venice Beach seem the easiest to reach and defend, Urban Jungle's is quite brutal (you must zoom out and claim the four corner turrets on the central structure quickly, then get the others in the outer arena corners before Sky Captain butchers you), whereas the coveted area on Hollywood Keys is plain impossible to find (well, almost).
Once you've tried and maybe failed to make the health area your colour, whiz around to other neutral turrets on the alternative paths and claim any your tanks have missed. Destroy enemy turrets (two Mortars from a distance), or else they'll zap not only you, but also your passing tanks and other weaponry. Other weaponry? What's that you say?
Saving up thirty points allows you to purchase a battlefield Outpost. You're unlikely to need them on your first play, but beyond that SC will start claiming them, and it's a real bitch when he grabs one on red territory.
Collecting fifty points can buy you stuff that's pretty damn awesome. Namely, a Dreadnought, a properly hench tank, or a Flying Fortress, a simply beautiful giant fighting plane.
The Flying Fortress cannot enter the enemy base and beat them, but she is good at picking off enemy turrets, fighting with SC, and generally saving your ass.
In your first play you should only need the Dreadnought to claim victory, but as difficulty progresses you may want a Flying Fortress to weed out guns that may defeat it on the way. My Dreadnought was never, ever defeated when I was a kid, so you can imagine how shocked I was when this happened the other day.
Another winning strategy is to claim the two outposts on your enemy's territory, and send in tanks from there (note that they'll now cost two points each). Putting out your helicopters so close to those of the opposing team really throws a spanner in the works. Save up enough points to get about twenty tanks - the maximum - while making sure that your home base is properly defended with 'copters.
Let a few of the hovercraft go in front of you, then start going along with them, concentrating fire on the base turrets. There's usually an alcove you can seek cover in, or just skip daintily side to side as you shoot. Destroy turrets in succession, allowing your tanks to go in. Simple.
Sky Captain usually returns to defend his base, and while gloriously defeating him earns you ten points, he will of course respawn, in his base, a whole three metres away from you. Eventually, you'll blow up. When there's smoke coming out of your ass, you need to run to the health area, but only if you've maintained the guns!
Precinct Assault gets harder as you go along, but it's worth it, just don't forget to save after each victory by quitting the game and going back to the menu.
Obviously I whooped Will's ass when we played this. But he'd never done it before, so you know :)
If you start off playing Precinct Assault before Crime War, you may be left with the impression that the enemies are all basic models in different colours. As previously mentioned, this isn't the case and the main gameplay enemies are quite interesting.
And here's the answer to what everybody wants to know; how to enter hover mode? Hold down L1 and R1. Yeahhhhh.
You get special groovy tanks in Hollywood Keys. Yeah.
As for general gameplay things, the controls can be a tad tricky. You're left with the feeling of having to push down really hard on the directional pad just to get a Walker to turn around. Will found when playing that his Walker started skipping side-to-side by itself.
I think the soundtrack is awesome, but I consider most game music absolute gold, so that may not mean much to you:
I also enjoy the music for Proving Ground, but cannot find it online.
So overall, this game is awesome and you should get it/ dig it out :D
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