E3 2009: Cop: The Recruit by Ubisoft

by: John - posted: 6/3/2009 12:00:00 AM

One of the more intriguing games I saw at the Nintendo press conference was Cop: The Recruit. This title for the DS looks to bring a sandbox 3D action game to the portable console. Speaking with producer Nouredine Abboud, I got a little more in depth on what Cop was all about.

Seeing and playing the game, it did evoke feelings of Grand Theft Auto 3 with the main action happening in the top screen and things like a map or item switching in the bottom screen. The action takes place in a full 3D environment with the game using the full complement of DS features in the touch screen, microphone, and dual screen.

You play a cop who used to be an underground street racer. Vin Diesel sounds like he’d be perfect for this role if they ever made this into a movie. It’s the first day and you’re thrown into the fire. While you are a cop, you don’t have to follow the rules as you are allowed to take any vehicle and drive like a maniac to get to your destination. With the rating of the game, you won’t be able to run over any pedestrians. You can do many things to bend the rules that can afford you to do your job though as a cop.

You’ll only be able to drive four wheel vehicles such as cars, fire trucks and buses. There’s also a boat as well. Those wanting motorcycles will be disappointed as they are not in the game. So getting around town, you’ll be able to commandeer vehicles just like how you would car jack a vehicle in Grand Theft Auto.

The game has you go through a story that consists of about 20 hours of gameplay. There are some side missions that are optional as well adding some more hours on top of the 20.

As I touched on earlier you can use the mic in some situations in the game. When coordinating SWAT team attacks, you can yell go into the mic to send them in when you are ready. You can also use the mic to try and distract your enemies, similar to how Solid Snake taps on walls to grab the attention of enemies. You really don’t have to be accurate to get the actions to commence when using the mic. Ubisoft didn’t want it to be frustrating like in Brain Age where saying Blue could have random results. Instead, they opted for an easier method of having any sound activate the action. This should alleviate any frustration in using the mic for Cop: The Recruit.

To see a full 3D world being rendered in third person on a DS is quite impressive. There’s no load time as everything is streamed as you go along. There are six square miles for you to play through and the game does some pretty impressive things such as simulated physics besides being in 3D. With all this, the game runs at a blistering 60 frames per second. The game sure has the sounds of pushing the DS to the limits with all the technological achievements done for the game.

Cop: The Recruit has some great things going for it. It does face a little uphill battle being a more older teen oriented game and we saw how well Chinatown Wars sold on the platform. The teen focus, storyline, and 3D capabilities are three things that Ubisoft is hoping that will drive the game and make it a good seller on the system. Only time will tell but I had fun with my quick look at Cop: The Recruit.