What is Future Cop: LAPD?

You are the X1-Alpha, a robot designed to fight a crime war in Los Angeles in a near future. Third-person shooter. Includes capture-the-flag challenges.

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Electronic Arts, one of the top console and PC game publishers, surprised Mac gamers with the hybrid release of Future Cop: LAPD. We’d heard rumors about a Mac version, but because the company hadn’t been a Mac publisher of late, we took that hearsay with a grain of salt. Electronic Arts is known for great games, and Future Cop: LAPD is no exception.

The goal of single-player Future Cop is quite simple: In the X-1 Alpha vehicle, you have to bust some crime-lord butt in a future Los Angeles. (Think Robocop set in the urban jungle.) You start in Griffith Park, move to Zuma Beach and the La Brea Tar Pits, then fight crime at the LAX Spaceport and in Long Beach. In Crime War, your only opponent is the artificial intelligence, and depending on the difficulty level you select — easy, normal, or hard — you combat a series of enemy ships and bots, then take on the crime boss, who has immense firepower.

We tried playing Future Cop at each difficulty setting. While easy and normal modes are totally manageable, the hard setting is definitely challenging and offers the most adrenaline-pumping action for hard-core gamers. Thank goodness you have police-sanctioned firepower at your disposal. The X-1 Alpha comes loaded with three basic weapons — the Mini Gun, Hellfire 2000, and Mortar — and you find additional ammo at reload stations on each level. Other cool weapons include the Flamethrower (these are almost always cool). Fusion Torpedo, Shockwave, and Plasma Fire. Your interface with the X-1 Alpha, the simple heads-up display, is effective because it doesn’t distract you with a ton of details during gameplay Speaking of gameplay, it’s lock and load, and the reliable autotargeting feature makes negotiating multiple targets a no-brainer.

Multiplayer Future Cop is also a blast to play. For example, you can cooperate with a friend on the same keyboard, in which case you see the level in split-screen format. This can be totally cool during flanking maneuvers with your partner. You can also play against a friend or against the AI Sky Captain in Precinct Assault, which takes place in one of four city districts. Your goal: Invade and secure the opponent’s territory. Multiplayer Precinct Assault poses a much tougher challenge than Crime War, but it’s the best way to improve your tactical skills.

We found only two drawbacks in Future Cop: LAPD: It lacks modem-to-modem play (but who plays pickup modem games anyway?), and it doesn’t have an in-game save option. Electronic Arts did a great job with the in-game 3D graphics, funny cut scenes, and sounds. Sometimes the music is repetitive, but your dispatcher’s calm voice is the important thing to listen to here. Not only does Future Cop run well on a variety of lower- to midrange Macs, it really rocks with 3D acceleration. Plus, the stunningly low price is less than half what you’d usually pay for such a ftm, fast, and furious 3D game. If you liked MechWarrior 2 and Robocop, you’ll love Future Cop.

Ho, Jennifer. (March 1999). Future Cop: LAPD. MacAddict. (pg. 42).

Download Future Cop: LAPD for Mac

Architecture

IBM PowerPC

System Requirements

From Mac OS 7.5 up to Mac OS 9.2

Compatibility notes

Architecture: PPC (603e, 180 MHz)

At least 12MB of RAM

Mac OS 7.5 - Mac OS 9.2.2

26.6MB disk space

Supported graphics mode: Software-rendered (no 3D accelerator), Rave (QD3D), and 3Dfx.

 

Emulating this? It could probably run under: SheepShaver