Perhaps tailing the success of like-minded (in genre) driving/shooting game Red Asphalt, Interplay introduces Crime Killer for the PlayStation. The game puts you behind the wheel of an ammo-decked patrol car, motorcycle, or wing vehicle to fight crime and annihilate anything that gets in your way as you do so.
Crime Killer is one of those unique titles that allows you to feel like a bad guy, who's actually a good guy, doing bad guy stuff masquerading as good guy stuff. As the story goes, or at least as the FMV reveals, once upon a time, your dad was a cop. And you played with his badge. Then one day, your dad grabs his badge from you and heads out the door to serve and protect with the City Police Department. He's called to an armed robbery, the getaway car sideswipes him, and his patrol car blows up in the middle of the street. A young boy (you, perhaps?), is shown standing on the side of the street when it happens, as he picks up the badge and looks thoughtful. In the very next scene you're an adult, and dressed for duty.
Now that you understand your motivation, you play the game. In single-player mode, you begin as a rookie, patrolman number 88, and work your way up. There are more than 15 levels, each posing as an actual day on the job: Accomplish all the missions within that day or level, and the dispatcher says, "Great job. See you tomorrow," or something to that effect.
The missions begin rather simply. You drive around the environment, which may be an urban wasteland, an industrial zone, or one of numerous designs, waiting for a directive from the dispatcher. This comes in the form of a verbal and written cue. Your first assignment may be to chase a speeder. Being a rather hardened society, this future, you may be required to destroy the vehicle. That'll teach 'em, eh? So you follow your radar, which draws a neat little line directly to the perpetrator, and once you see the vehicle in front of you, a target circle of a certain color appears on the moving car. If you've been directed to destroy it, for example, the circle will be red. If you've been directed to detain or pacify the suspect, the circle will be yellow, and so on. Once you spot your guy, the point is to carry out your orders. Once you do, you're given a big blue bureaucratic pat on the back and sent to a new location in the same level or told to patrol until something else comes up.
Your missions range from blowing up illegally parked cars (it's much more effective to destroy them than it is to apply the boot....) to chasing down a squadron of drug and arms dealers plowing through the streets in a caravan of armored vehicles rigged to the hilt with machine guns and automatic weapons. You may even simply place a suspect under surveillance and then be told to abandon that mission and continue patrolling.
So now that you're sucked into the pretty amusing objective, we'll pad the story one step further to say that at 60fps, the game, in single player, is fast and actually quite fun. But that's not to say it's perfect in the least. Crime Killer can move like a panther because your field of vision is incredibly short. If you're driving straight ahead, for example, you can see only the real-life equivalent of about 40 feet. That's pretty lousy visibility if you're chasing down arms dealers in armored vehicles - perhaps you can hope they can only see you as well as you can see them. Also, the graphics are pretty limited. The environments change, but they're basically more of the grainy same.
Just the same, the gameplay is surprisingly enjoyable, if occasionally monotonous, once you learn what to expect from a level. Perhaps it's the random nature of the individual assignments up to that point of predictability that keeps you going.
The levels are sprinkled with life power-ups and ammo, all in relatively predictable, easy-to-get-to places. I found that I made it through the first several levels without dying once. So as long as you manage to recharge after a good, violent chase, you'll soar through the first part of the game in no time. But of course, it does get more difficult later on, so in the words of your dispatcher, "Don't get too cocky, 88."
The controls are quite accessible, with analog or standard, but unfortunately there's no rumble. You control a primary weapon, a special, a pacifier (which allows you to detain suspects), and a pursuit mode or siren. In single-player mode, you have the option of first- or third-person perspective with third person as the default. The camera works with you fairly well, until you get to two-player mode, which is an entirely new ball game altogether.
There are two options in two-player: holotag and weapons tag. In holotag mode, you and your opponent set a tag limit or a number-of-shields-acquired limit and a time limit. You play until one person makes the number limit or until the time runs out, and whoever has the most shields wins. No weapons are employed in this mode (though weapon power-ups are inexplicably present). In weapons tag, two players either shoot to a certain number of kills, or again, until a time limit runs out, and whoever has the most kills wins. These may sound fun enough, but they're actually a real drag. Why? Largely because you're limited to first-person perspective, and the split screen's tiny. Also, when using the analog, the camera reverses on you if you try to lean back, and you'll find yourself dizzy and discombobulated - which isn't much fun at 30fps, let alone 60.
Also, the multiplayer mode is just dull. The holotag challenge is pretty boring, no matter how competitive you are. If you want some diversity in these levels, you can try them as the patrol car, wing vehicle, or bike, but in the end, they're still quite a snore, and a frustratingly loud and consistent one at that.
So on the positive side, besides some collision detection and the tricky cameras in analog mode, the handling is pretty solid, and the speed is certainly cool. The weapons are fun, and the missions are unpredictable and challenging enough to keep you around for a while. But the environments eventually become dull, and at some point, which probably varies among attention spans, you'll grow bored and no longer look forward to your next assignment, but rather find yourself hoping to hell the dispatcher gives it a rest so you can sit at the donut shop like a jaded cop until your shift is over.
