Trev
New Callsign; Dog Meat!
User is Offline
Joined: 09 Jun 2008
Posts: 197
Karma: 1
applaud / smite
|
| Posted: Mon Jun 16, 2008 10:47 am Post subject: Review - Crime Patrol |
|
|
Love ‘em or hate ‘em, you have to give credit to ALG for throwing a fair amount of support behind the 3DO. The multiplayer received ports of most of their arcade hits, and most of them were the best console versions there were (except for the hideously bad 1st Mad Dog game  ) They also brought us the 3DO exclusive game ‘Mazer’ …. Okay maybe I won’t give them quite as much credit as I first thought 
Anyway, today’s game being looked at is ‘Crime Patrol’. If you have played any ALG shooter you know the drill … shoot the bad guys, avoid the innocents, repeat etc… Crime Patrol sticks with this formula which works in nearly all of ALG’s games, of which I do enjoy. So why am I not much of a fan of this one? 
It isn’t the fundamentals of the game. They are predictable true, but not bad. Control is what you’ve come to expect from ALG. With a gun you’ll be reasonably entertained, less so with a mouse, and with a controller forget it. Really, a gun is the only way to go with any of these ALG shooters, and Crime Patrol is no exception.  This is especially true since this game is quite challenging … I’d go as far to say that it is the most difficult of the ALG shooters I have played. This makes since I guess, being as this was one of ALG’s later releases. Still, it can get frustrating. In any event though, this is not what ultimately turned me off.
The acting in this game won’t bring home any Emmy awards, but at least the full motion video in this game is sharp enough. ALG seemed to get over the hump that they were stuck on with the release of Mad Dog I. Here there is much less grainy footage, and the enemies are usually spotted without much trouble. Also gone are the ridiculous load times between enemies, thankfully! Music is forgettable, but it doesn’t detract from the action. Sound effects are fine, and are essentially unchanged from earlier ALG games.
So what is the problem? It boils down to presentation I think. Crime Patrol (and it’s semi-sequel) ‘Drug Wars’ put the player in gritty modern day environments. The bad guys that you are shooting, could easily be a neighbor down the street, or someone you’d run into at a gas station. The setting takes away from the fantasy element that I now think is key to games like this. Whether it be the cowboy settings of the ‘Mad Dog games (and ‘Last Bounty Hunter’) the future glimpses of’ Space Pirates’ or the roaring 20’s view of ’Johnny Rock’ these games place you in places you could never be in. It creates a since of illusion for what are otherwise violent games (even with the absence of blood). The camp value adds a great deal as well, as it is much easier I think to cap some fool who drops uttering a funny phrase, or who has a goofy expression on his face. Crime Patrol fails in direct comparisons with these aforementioned games.
This is a matter of personal taste obviously , and for many this probably won’t be a factor. Those looking for mindless action will likely be content with Crime Patrol. But with the 3DO playing host to a number of other, and as far as I’m concerned better ALG shooters, Crime Patrol doesn’t hold up well enough for me. Add in other light gun games Like Corpse Killer & Demo Man, and Crime Patrol slips to the bottom of the light gun pool.
Collector’s will have to own this game. But for the less hard core 3DO fan, there are better choices. My suggestion would be to just grab the Gunslinger collection in which this game is included. Sue it will mean owning Mad Dog I  … but you’ll also get mad Dog II. 
-Trev |
|
