At first glance Beat Cop appears to be a pixelated policeman-sim, and premise alone actually sounds like a lot of fun. But Beat Cop isn’t that at all; it is an 80’s cop movie simulator. So along with the day-to-day life of a street cop on the beat, expect to find plenty of swear-heavy banter, donut references a plenty, and an overall experience that is absolutely dripping with cynicism, and definitely worthy of your attention.
As a mobile title, Beat Cop’s gameplay is a point-and-click affair. Daily missions are dolled out over each in-game day such as hitting your parking ticket quota (I always wanted to be a meter maid). These missions serve as the backdrop to Beat Cop’s narrative. Aside from your budding yet workaday career, you also have to manage your relationships between three distinct factions: your fellow cops, the white, power-hungry mobsters, and the black, gun-toting gang members. Yes, race does play a heavy role in the writing. Despite the intro’s fun tribute to 80’s cop films, Beat Cops frequently dips into the the deep waters of cultural and political commentary…which is very fitting as this is exactly what the very films Beat Cop emulates did at the time. In addition to keeping track of these three groups, you also have the public’s perception of you to be wary of. All of this plays into just how moral of a cop you want to be.
You can certainly scrape on by being an on-the-level cop. But being a great meter maid means that you’ll be barely paying your bills and keeping the lights on. It’s way profitable (and more importantly, FUN), to be just a little bit corrupt. I played Beat Cop as an up-and-up, lawful good cop for a while and it most definitely feels like the wrong way to play. Playing it nice is nothing more than a hamster wheel of an experience: you’ll ticket cars, reject plenty of bribes, chase away drug dealers and prostitutes with little real reward or even satisfaction. It’s way more fun to agree to do a few favors for the local gangs. What’s even better is that you can see these favors through for a big payout, or look for an opportunity to betray them for even greater personal advantage.
Whichever path you choose to pursue, you must always be efficient with your time. Beat Cop takes place on one side of a single city block, and it takes time to get from one end to the other. As such, you’ll often find yourself ditching prior obligations- and even your principles – to get things done. The game seems to want to make you a street-smart officer who plays fast and loose with the rules at best…or a well-connected dirty cop at worst.
Visually, Beat Cop is very appealing. Its pixel art, retro aesthetic in combination with its use of contrasting colors really make the sprites pop off the screen. That being said, there are a few design gripes that I should point out. The in-game text is a touch on the tiny side; you can always tell when a mobile game has been ported from the PC or console when the text may cause your eyes to strain as you are trying to read. Tapping cars is easy enough, but tapping on relatively smaller objects like doors or people of interest can be a chore. The UI definitely needs a little work before it feels at home on a smartphone. And while a mis-tap here or there won’t necessarily spell disaster, it is a bit annoying.
At $4.99, Beat Cop is definitely worth every cent. As a compact slice of police life, it will have you questioning your morals at ever turn – and the 80’s backdrop makes the entire affair even better. The game lets you dip into a hard-boiled, cynical world where you can easily explore your more corrupt side with the single tap of a finger. So I say go for it; test your curiosity, put your morals on the line…and let the corruption flow through you. You’ll be glad that you did.
A review key was provided by Evolve PR for Android/iOS.
