Cyber Cop (Commodore Amiga, 1991, Energize)

I wasn't going to review this one, but in the end, I thought, why not, it certainly deserves some "attention".

First off, you'll probably not feel to comfortable if I tell you the best part of the game is the title screen. And then you find out out through some comments it's apparently rip offed from a painting by a certain Boris Vallejo. Not knowing the man nor his work I can't confirm or deny this, but looking around the net hasn't revealed anything too similar to this, so if anyone could shed some light onto the subject, I'd be glad.

Anyway you start off the game in a promising enough environment. You find the word "pods" written on the screen with a number attached, so you decide that these have to be your mandatory collectibles, so you set off finding them. You'll find out the game scrolls back and forth between screens without problems. But by the third screen you will probably run into an enemy positioned smack dab at the edge of the next one. There's nothing much you can do about that, as the enemies, who constantly respawn, follow you into whatever screen you're on. Now this isn't too bad until you collect all the "pods" (which look more like cd's to me, but I digress) , you decide to turn around. And once you fight your way all the way to the other end of the level, you'll have collected maybe a third of the recquired number.

It's then that you may realise that....the pods only appear, at complete random, when you collect one. An arrow will appear, showing you in which direction to go, but the pods can be on the complete opposite side of the level (I once counted 7 screens between two pods). While the constantly respawning enemies relentlessly chase you around.

And once you get to level 2 and beyond, you have to factor in undestroyable level hazards, like lasers, dynamite soaring ontop of you on balloons, spinning maces, drops of deadly water, the ocational landmine, mine carts, huge spikes, plus the projectiles of the enemies chasing you.

And after four mince-meat-making levels, it's just over. You don't even get any kind of fight with a final boss, nor any kind of ending. You just get a gool ol' fashioned game over, can input your highscore for all the various users of your own computer to see, and then replay again from the start.

Aside from the claims of plagiarism associated with this title, there's realy nothing here to enjoy. The game is a senseless trekk through one death filled screen to the next and then back again, there are only about three enemies who all look the same, your ultimate weapon upgrade obtained after the scene clearing laser is a useless grenade launcher that has no range, the levels are stock and uninspired and realy, the game is literaly nothing else then a walking simulator programed by someone who realy hates you.