Giant Cop: Justice Above All is a brilliant spin on the traditional sandbox cop simulation only possible through the unique perspective afforded to those with VR gear. How else could you possibly play a Godzilla-size cop trying to maintain law and order in Micro City? Wait…am I a giant or are the people miniature?
Available on Steam for both Vive and Rift, Giant Cop is a virtual toy box of law enforcement activities, along with dozens of collectible badges and random interactive objects scattered about the rooftops. There are hours of core story missions to carry you through the 70’s themed environments with all sorts of fun pop-culture references and family fun humor.
Once you have claimed your official cop shades from the vending machine you are free to dispense giant justice within the city. The mayor is waging war on savage cabbage – an obvious euphemism for weed but in this game it’s actually heads of cabbage and rather than a drug cartel you are going up against organized farmers who work out of the farmers’ market. Charming…right?
Along with your scripted war on drugs there are also plenty of other cop duties to perform as citizens will often call upon you to deal with random crimes like noise complaints or public nudity. As granny says, you can’t enjoy the beach with all those peckers and hoo-hahs on display. Making arrests is as easy as picking up the perp and literally throwing him into the slammer – you actually throw them into the giant screen above police HQ, or if you are in another section of town, into the screen on the mobile police blimp. This alone is a mini-game of its own. If you miss the screen the perp returns and must be caught again.
Another tactic is to shakedown people on the street for information by literally picking them up in your King Kong sized hands and shaking them down until they spill the beans, or in the case of cabbage users, heads of cabbage will literally spill out and roll around. One mission has you looking for a certain food truck, so you have to go all over town shaking all the food trucks until you find the right one. There are some really cool detective elements as well. One mission has you seeking an informer, but he isn’t at the rendezvous, so you must use this spray can to spray the area revealing his footprints and follow the path to his new location.
Moving about the city is done by looking and moving the left stick on the Touch to activate a warp point. Once you are there you are free to move about, as many interactions are out of reach of these warp nodes; especially the collectible badges that will require you to reach high or get down on your knees to shoot with your controller. You also have no turning control and your facing direction at each node is preconfigured, so while the game claims you can play it seated you’ll probably want to stand.
Across Micro City the rooftops are home to all sorts of fun toys like suction cup dart guns, satellite dishes, and even a pair of maracas. Some are useful tools like the aforementioned giant spray can and a giant (Saved By the Bell-style) cell phone while others are purely diversions. When you’re not being distracted you can always check your notebook for your mission log and collectible progress and use your map to travel around to any unlocked sections of the city.
I had so much fun playing Giant Cop: Justice Above All. It’s a great family VR activity that will entertain everyone for hours, since those watching the screen can also contribute to the person wearing the headset. I played on the Vive for about 30 minutes then I switched to the Oculus Rift and Touch, which this game was clearly designed. Picking up objects like the spray can or dart gun using the Vive wands is weird since you have to awkwardly point at the screen horizontally to keep the object vertical. However the Vive did offer me a more reliable room-space experience when moving away from the teleport nodes. But even with the more restricted movement of the Oculus Touch (I only have two sensors – a third would resolve this) I still found the Oculus Rift the preferred format of the two. Visually, there was no difference. The Rift was just more comfortable using the lighter Touch controllers, but the Rift also seemed to randomly crash with a Steam VR overlay error, usually when moving from district to district.
Giant Cop: Justice Above All is only $25 on Steam or the Oculus store (Rift only gamers should get on Oculus store to avoid crashing issues) and should be coming to PSVR soon, although I suspect that version will feel as weird as the Vive since the controllers are nearly the same. If you’re looking for a great activity set loaded with engaging police quest missions and not-so-hidden collectibles, then prepare for giant fun with Giant Cop.
