I remember being impressed by the deceptively simple concept behind the game Papers, Please, and being struck by just how complex its mechanics became as you progressed along the story, and just how much the story of your personal life, that happened somewhat behind the scenes, had an effect on the decisions that you made in the game. Seeing how making a simple decision to turn the other cheek to something that could make you a little extra cash and put food on the table for the ones at home, but then how that one simple decision could have a huge impact on the country whose borders you were trying to protect, was really quite impressive.
I bring up Papers, Please and its surprising depth, because when I started playing Beat Cop, I immediately felt the same level of complexity that was lurking beneath the vibrant, retro, humorous, over-the-top narrative of the game. You play as Jack Kelly, former police detective for the New York Police Department, bumped back down to a measly beat officer after a frame-up job puts his reputation on the line. While conducting your daily duties on the street that will be your home for the next 21 days, while the investigation into what happened is conducted, you will also be given the opportunity to dig a little into what happened on your own. The decisions that you make on the street will have a direct impact on what happens to you.
The game will start each day at roll call, where you are given your daily assignments that include everything from writing a certain number of parking tickets to visiting certain of the various establishments that line the streets and so on. As the day goes on, you will receive calls of other crimes in progress that you will have to help investigate, deal with crooks, etc. Everything you do will have an effect on your street reputation, how the local gang will treat you, the cooperation you will get from the businesses in your beat, the Italian Mafia that has a presence in your area, as well as your standing with the Sargent.
Each task you complete and decision you make will have an impact on what happens. The more work you get done for your Sargent, the more of a bonus you might get on your paycheck, which you need to pay alimony to your ex. You can also choose to take bribes and other sources of money off the books, but don’t think that stuff comes without a price. Sometimes, all this going on at once can start to overwhelm you and make you think there’s no way you can keep it all together. Your fellow officers will even tell you during your first day, which acts as a kind of a tutorial, that there will be days that you can’t keep up and get it all done.
It’s this design choice, making you choose what gives when the tasks pile up too high to manage, that really makes games like this shine. It’s not that you fail, it’s that you can’t always be perfect, but you don’t automatically lose, you are forced to make sacrifices. It is these sacrifices, whether they are financial, moral or what have you, that will define your character as you play, much as the choices we make in our real life define us.
It is this magnificent mixture of complexity and simplicity that I appreciated about Beat Cop. The pixel-art graphics, the retro soundtrack, the tropey, archetype characters that fulfil every stereotype, all lend to the oddly immersive world of the game. The fact that your beat is one row of buildings is another thing that lends to the deceptive simplicity of the game. You might think, “that’s it?” when you see just how far your beat goes, but once you start taking calls that force you to run from one end of the row to the other and back again, you will quickly realize that it is plenty big enough.
Also, just like beat cops of the age, you have to really learn where the various businesses are along the beat, because you might receive a call to meet with someone at a particular business and instead of taking the time to look up its address, you can shave valuable time off the trip by having a good mental map of your beat.
In conclusion, for anyone who enjoys games that force you to make tough decisions, anyone who likes retro-inspired cop stories, anyone who likes task-oriented games, will enjoy Beat Cop.
