The isometric viewpoint for a shooter isn't used much anymore. Some PC classics such as Crusader: No Remorse proved that it could be used effectively, but most developers have shied away from it, preferring instead a top-down or side-scrolling viewpoint in which they can view their hail of gunfire. In that respect, L.A. Cops is something of a novelty since it embraces this view and more in what the developers hope is a cohesive package. It's too bad that the game doesn't work as intended.

L.A. Cops is set in the 1970s, and you play as a small assortment of detectives from the LAPD. Instead of an overarching story for the game, you see vignettes of the cops in all types in scenes from cop shows. Two partners talk about another cop's divorce, the revelation of another cop on the take, and the dismissal of a new partner through a reluctant pairing are just some of the things that you'll see. There's no setup that helps the player care about them and no real progression in the characters.

You start by selecting two detectives from the lineup of six. They differ in their initial stats, but finishing missions gives you XP that can be used to beef up their ammo clip size, damage, health and speed. From there, you're dumped into a level where the missions involve taking down all of the crooks and moving on to the next floor. Later missions add other objectives, like destroying the piles of drugs in the stage or something similar. Like Hotline Miami, the game is a twin-stick shooter where you and your enemies can only take a few shots before going down, so gunfights are rather quick. You can choose to arrest your foes if you want to go for an approach with fewer casualties.

The second detective is the main difference, as it is meant to give the game a strategic angle. While you have full control over one officer at any time, you can issue a basic placement command, so you can tell your partner to go to a designated spot and watch for enemies within his vision cone. Unless you're playing with a keyboard and mouse, you can't fine-tune the exact spot you want your partner to be. In those cases, you can take direct control of your partner, effectively leaving your previous officer stationed at your last location.

The intentions may be nice, but in practice, you'll never really use your partner as anything else but a second life before you have to restart a floor due to death. The placement command is the only one you've got, and without anything else as basic as a follow command, the mechanic can hardly be considered strategic. Placement is also problematic since your partner often faces a wall or faces away from a door. His vision cone is so short range that he's often shot first before deciding to react, and his aim is sometimes poor enough that sending him into strategic positions often kills him instead. This behavior happens too often and makes the mechanic rather laughable.

Even if you can live without the strategic element, the rest of L.A. Cops fails to do anything to entice you to stay. As bad as your partner's AI is, the one for the crooks is just as suspect. Half of the time, they remain blissfully unaware of your presence and fail to react until they can actually see you. Shoot a guy in the same room, for example, and the crook will stand still or maintain a patrol around his small perimeter. Let them see you arrest or kill a buddy, and they'll ignore it. Other times, they are too aware of your presence and suddenly turn around from off-screen to tag you before you get a chance to react. Enemies suddenly notice you sneaking up on them and immediately open fire. Laughably, some enemies gain super hearing and hear you shoot a wall next to them from another room and rush toward you — even though the travel path takes them through three different connecting rooms.

Other smaller issues also hinder the title. Though you can change the zoom and rotation of the camera, there's never a good angle where everything is comfortably visible. Lots of furniture is in the way that blocks you from making smooth movements, so the lack of a perfect angle becomes problematic. Aside from crooks, it seems like the doors are also your enemies. Their lack of physics means they swing open and move freely, often causing you to get stuck at the edge of a door as it refuses to budge, causing too many unnecessary deaths. Doors seem to be resilient to lots of gunfire, but get an enemy to walk slowly while touching one, and it'll break for no reason. Then again, your arms can clip through some of those doors and walls, and if you're lucky, you can gain a kill from an enemy doing so. The game also likes populating the screen with something distracting. Both the objectives list and minimap are huge and cover a good deal of the screen, but at least they can be toggled on and off. The same can't be said for the notification that you arrested someone, which is so large that you can miss enemies in close proximity because of it.

Perhaps the biggest sin is how bad the shooting feels. Enemies can always get a good shot on you, even from impossible angles, but you aren't afforded that same courtesy. The squirrely controls using either a gamepad or keyboard and mouse mean that precision shots are next to impossible, so spray-and-pray is your only answer. The camera angles are bad enough that getting a bead on an enemy is tough unless you're using lock-on, and even then, you could be hitting plants and furniture instead of enemies — even though those same obstacles don't affect them. Beyond the pistol, none of the other guns feel right. Shotguns lack power, machine guns almost require you to empty clips to be useful, and the grenade launchers only do direct damage instead of inflicting splash damage. A shooting game where the guns don't feel fun to shoot is an immediate turn-off.

If there's one saving grace, it would be in the amount of content. There are only eight stages for the campaign, but they contain three different difficulty levels, each with its own leaderboards. Those difficulty levels also have randomization when it comes to the enemies' weapons, giving the game a little variance even when the level layout is static. L.A. Cops also sports a number of bonus levels, and those also come with variable difficulty and leaderboards. All of this still amounts to a rather short game, but considering all of the issues, this turns out to be a blessing in disguise.

One thing that stands out positively about the game is the low-fidelity approach to the graphics. Though the color scheme has a little variation, the models are simple with no definition and no major details. It looks fine from an artistic standpoint in cut scenes, but the blurry badges are distracting. The minimalistic look permeates the gameplay, as things like potted plants and chairs adopt singular colors. There's a lack of video options, and while the look doesn't lend itself to controlling bloom or anti-aliasing options, there is persistent screen tearing due to a lack of v-sync. There are also areas where slowdown occurs, though one has to wonder why since there doesn't seem to be anything here that can stress out the engine.

While the '70s theme seems wasted when it comes to the story, it is used effectively in the musical score, which is reminiscent of the action scenes in cop shows of the era. The end credits are also done in a style similar to "Sabotage" by the Beastie Boys, a nice nod to players who might not otherwise be familiar with the '70s cop show style. Sound effects are also pretty crisp, but the voices need work. The ones in the cut scenes feel dull and uninterested, so the delivery is lacking. There's also little variety in the field, so you'll hear your partner and the enemies shout the same things several times in one stage. By the time you finish the second level, you'll tire of hearing crooks tell you that they have your donuts.

L.A. Cops is a sloppy game. The controls lack finesse in almost all areas, and the shooting is randomized enough to feel unsatisfying. The AI is a joke on both sides, so the strategic aspect of the game is a moot point. The theme feels wasted, and the graphical flourishes that were intended to make the game feel lively end up being distracting instead. The sound is the only saving grace, and even then, you may tire of it due to the amount of times you'll need to replay levels — and not by choice. Unless it receives an influx of patches to fix a bevy of issues, there's little reason to check out this title.

Score: 4.0/10