Review by: Brandon "Headgold" Cackowski-Schnell

The sandbox genre is well known for letting gamers act on a myriad of criminal intentions but has never shown what it's like to patrol the urban jungle on the right side of the law. Enter C.O.P.: The Recruit and it's titular character Dan Miles, ex-street racer, newly minted police officer and denim jacket aficionado. Dan is on a mission to take down the elusive Bomb Zombies, clear his mentor's besmirched name and bring jean jackets back into style all while maintaining law and order in a faithfully reproduced version of New York City.

For all of the criticisms levied against sandbox games for their ability to let gamers go hog wild with violence and criminal mischief, these games are all anchored with a set of consequences that causes the player to weigh whether or not it's worth shooting up the street just for the fun of it. No such consequences exist for Officer Miles. He's a cop so he can commandeer any vehicle he wants simply by standing in front of it, getting it to stop and hitting the X button. While driving he can try and mow people down on the sidewalk and while he's never successful due to pedestrians automatically jumping out his way, he can hit cars on the roads enough times to cause them to explode dooming their inhabitants to die in a gout of flame. While running around, Dan can pull out any weapon he has and start shooting up the place. Again, the pedestrians will all run in fear, meaning Dan never actually kills anyone but still, a lack of casualties shouldn't change the fact that you just shot up a city street. Oddly enough, by making Dan a cop, the game removed any and all consequences for criminal activity making it easier for you to be as amoral as you wish.

If you want to limit your violence to the criminal elements of New York there are plenty of missions for Dan to undertake as he heads back into the seedy underbelly of the city. There's a good bit of variety to the missions which will have you taking out speeding cars, gunning down gang members or racing through New Jersey's parks and back alleys while avoiding explosive barrels. Unfortunately, all of these missions are bogged down with some serious problems which make them more of a chore than they ought to be.

For one the hit detection in the shooting sections leaves much to be desired. Every gang member you come up against is either high on PCP allowing them to shake off bullets or they're clad in head to toe body armor. During the beginning missions you'll empty shot after shot into your target with no indication whatsoever that you're hitting your target other than a red cursor. Unfortunately Dan isn't as impervious and while he does regenerate health, taking on a room full of gang members becomes a massive undertaking due to their teflon construction. Better guns are available as you progress through the game but the damage they do pales in comparison to what your enemies dish out.

The biggest problem with the missions is that they bog you down with needless activities and extra work. In one mission you take down some speeders by ramming them with your car. You then have to call the cops from the nearest precinct to come take the thugs away. To do this you tap your PDA to open it then tap a button to open the map. Then you have to see where you are, find the nearest police department and double tap it. This brings you to a directory where you can see the three digit code for the police precinct. You then tap another button which brings you to another screen where you can write the three digit code. It's not difficult, but it's overly complicated and clunky and seems to be there for no other reason than to justify the game being on the DS. The same is true for the various puzzles that have you picking out a person using security cameras where you use the stylus to move a camera's view around until you find the target. There's no thinking involved, just moving the camera until the viewfinder turns red. Plus, you have all the time in the world taking any incentive for quick success completely out of the question.

While in a mission, screwing up will result in a failure screen and either dump you to Times Square where you have to use your PDA to pick the mission, place a waypoint and then exit out so that you can steal, er, commandeer a car and sometimes you'll be brought back to a save point. This also happens for the optional missions you'll come across as you're driving about. If failing an optional mission results in your death, I can understand you being placed back in the game world at the hospital, however if I'm in my car and all I did was fail to catch a speeder, why am I kicked out of my car and placed in Times Square when the failure screen goes away? On a similar note, if I drive some place to talk to someone to kick off a mission, why is my car gone when the conversation ends, requiring me to commandeer another car? It's elements like this that keep you from simply having a good time and more fighting with the game's design.

With no obvious benefits to doing the optional missions, no weapons or cash or increase of skills and only irritation if you fail, there's zero incentive to doing anything other than story missions. These missions are filled with plenty of dialog, cheesy animated cut scenes and 70's cop show tropes making them a chore to get through as well. While in any mission, finishing it quickly will grant you an award, however, with no way of replaying missions, your only recourse to get the award should you fail to complete the mission quickly is to fail the mission or quit the game and try all over again.