Cyber-Cop

Cyber-Cop
a game by Core, and Sega
Genre: Shooting Games
Platforms: Amiga (1989), Sega GenesisGenesis
Editor Rating: 5/10, based on 4 reviews, 5 reviews are shown
User Rating: 5.0/10 - 2 votes
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See also: Cyber Games
Cyber-Cop
Cyber-Cop
Cyber-Cop
Cyber-Cop

Attention hackers and techno-punks! Looking to get your degree in demolition? Bachelors in bombs? Masters in mercenary antics? Be all you can be. Infiltrate the U.C.C (Universal Cybernetics Corporation). Robo-wimps need not apply. B.Y.O.B. -- bring your own body bag.

Spies Like Us

Sound like an ad from the latest "Soldier of Industrial Misfortune" magazine? It's just a metallic taste of what's in store for the soon to be Cyber Cop player. This spy simulator by Virgin Games offers great first-person, 3-D perspective play and fast action -- an element that's often lost in simulator-type games.

You're a lone Zodiac agent deep inside the U.C.C. building. Your mission is to locate and retrieve an experimental embryo that's the key to all of the U.C.C.'s questionable and possibly illegal experiments.

ProTip: Use the computer to make maps of different floors. You'll need to travel between levels at various times.

To nab the egg, you've got to locate the computer that's going to upgrade your security access and then head for the elevator to reach the next floor of the building. In the eerie muted light of the halls, you blast robots, giant green monsters, spiders, or other beastly bad guys. You also shoot security cameras, hop over pressure sensitive floor panels, and search 15 floors for the test tube tyrant.

To live long and prosper, practice jumping over security squares and around corners.

Hide and Go Sneak

You have the choice of beginning the game blind or selecting one of six characters. If you select a character, you can check out one of the hippest Option Select screens to date and even customize your spy-guy. Choose between five different guns and stock up on electronic gadgets (Lock Picks, Brain Implants, Chemicals, and Power Packs). Don't sweat it if you can't afford an overpriced arsenal, you can find items stashed in the U.C.C. building.

  • If you're short on supplies, enter the elevator and return to the lower floors. Many special items, such as Drink Refills, Electronics, or Medikits, reappear where you grabbed them before.
  • Always purchase a Bomb. If you have one when you run out of energy, you'll be taken prisoner by the U.C.C., but you won't die. You can use your Bomb to escape.
  • Write down complicated passwords frequently and carefully. Here's a Level Two code: HKAOCOANELFKDS- GMKOEKISDM.

Police Brutality

Cyber Cop's controls might make you call for the cops. You interface with the game through a point-click-and-shoot system. The semi-sluggish controls require a breaking-in period to learn, but you learn to make them work eventually.

The graphics cook, but the sounds simmer. You run around big polygon-based mazes like a James Bond rat looking for some cheese. The backgrounds are typical of today's large office buildings, with their passive-colored carpets, various plants and chairs, and, oh yeah, seven-foot-tall slobbering mutants. Cyber Cop's music is repetitive and doesn't stand out, but listen for audible sounds of danger.

Corporate Raiding

Cyber Cop takes time, but it's worth a play. You must plan your moves, manage your equipment, and keep an eye out for "Freddy", the artificial life form in question.

Check out Cyber Cop if you want to jump into the shoes of a futuristic super spy, blow stuff up, and, perhaps, save the world from another hostile corporate takeover.

Download Cyber-Cop

Amiga

System requirements:

  • PC compatible
  • Operating systems: Windows 10/Windows 8/Windows 7/2000/Vista/WinXP
Genesis

System requirements:

  • PC compatible
  • Operating systems: Windows 10/Windows 8/Windows 7/2000/Vista/WinXP
  • Game modes: Single game mode

Player controls:

  • Up, Down, Left, Right - Arrow keys
  • Start - Enter (Pause, Menu select, Skip intro, Inventory)
  • "A" Gamepad button - Ctrl (usually Jump or Change weapon)
  • "B" button - Space (Jump, Fire, Menu select)
  • "C" button - Left Shift (Item select)

Use the F12 key to toggle mouse capture / release when using the mouse as a controller.

Game Reviews

Cyber Cop is a Transformer-type agent of law and order on a surreal search-and-destroy mission through several game realms. He's after the villians responsible for the Rebellion of Hollerith--and, needless to say, Hollerith has never been the same.

The game starts when Cyber Cop is deposited from a starship onto the Air World, where clouds provide the only landing space. Cyber Cop can transform from his default robot shape into Cyber Copter for movement from cloud to cloud. Simply stepping off one of the clouds in robot form causes the player-character to plunge into the First Transition Region, from which it can either return to the Air World or enter the Geosphere, an enormous cavern with a striplike walkway running through the center. In its robotic form, Cyber Cop can not leave the walkway; to do that, he must transform into Cyber Tank.

After exiting the Geosphere, Cyber Cop passes through the Second Transition Region into the Aquatic Realm, similar to the Geosphere in that the robot form is limited to a long, tubelike walkway. Cyber Cop must then metamorphosize into Cyber Sub in order to leave the walkway through one of the portals.

Cyber Cop uses a pseudo-3D perspective similar to that seen in The Last Ninja (Activision). While this angled, two-thirds viewpoint is very successful at communicating depth, it has drawbacks as well. It's often difficult to discern the relative positions of Cyber Cop and his various antagonists. In some cases, just walking is a hassle. The odd thing is that the angle actually changes from realm to realm. Whereas both the Air World clouds and Geosphere walkway use a downward slanting, left-to-right perspective, the walkway in the Aquatic Realm, while tilted slightly toward the player, runs straight across the screen. This is fairly disorienting, especially since the underwater action returns to the same perspective as non-cloud and non-walkway play in the earlier mini-games.

Designer/publisher Roger Pedersen never completely comes to grips with all the implications of his own design, but Cyber Cop is a solid, if unspectacular, effort. The graphics are quite impressive by CGA standards (though PC owners with superior graphics boards may be disappointed), and it's good to see a game with a transformable player-character whose various transitions are meaningful in terms of strategy and tactics.

Not all versions of the game are available at this writing, but they're promised for late-summer delivery.

Special credit also goes to the attractive and thorough documentation: a 14-page, full-color booklet with numerous screen shots and easy-to-read charts.

  • Manufacturer: Virgin
  • Machine: Genesis
  • Theme: Action
  • Available: 1992
  • No. of Levels: 16

You are a special agent for the 'Zodiac' team sent to investigate the U.C.C.'s inner workings. Rumor has it they are working on a new type of artificial life-form under the codename of Freddy. Your mission is to locate the embryo for the project, retrieve it, and leave the building before it is too late! Up to six different characters can be chosen: 2 males, 2 females, and 2 droids. Are you tough enough?

People say:

4

Another game that tries too hard to be something that the machine can't slow. This game has some fun features, but for the most part they are overshadowed by poor graphic presentation and a very repetitive nature that, combined with the visual problems, gets to be frustrating quite quickly.

6

First person perspective games can be a lot of fun. This takes that concept and adds body power-ups and tons of enemies. It's not an easy game, but on the other hand it isn't a game that it so hard that it is frustrating. While not for the casual player, Cyber Cop will please those who like to use their minds.

4

I like the idea behind this cart but the Genesis cannot handle polygon graphics very well. If the graphics were smoother and the game play had more response (it's just too jerky to really enjoy) than this cart would be much more interesting. To me it is frustrating but if you're into this maze games you'll like it.

5

The graphics are not tweaked enough to really show the vector graphics as they should be. The idea is wonderful, but the execution is what really matters and while good, it is not perfect. This makes the game somewhat frustrating and difficult. There is an audience for these types of maze games and they will like it.

  • Manufacturer: Virgin
  • Machine: Genesis
  • Difficulty: Hard
  • Available: June 1992
  • No. of Levels: 16
  • Theme: Action

Can You Take on the Corporation?

A silence has been inflated after a series of unexplained murders outside the London facility of the U.C.C. (The Universal Cybernetic Corporation). Now it is time for you to investigate the reasons for these atrocities. You are a special agent for the "Zodiac" enlisted to penetrate the U.C.C.'s heavily guarded factory. This establishment is protected by an array of human and cybernetic guards, and the supposed artificial lifeform called, "Freddy". The mission is simple, penetrate the building and find and retrieve an embryo from the genetic laboratory and then, escape from the establishment. The building is heavily guarded so be wise. Are you man enough to defeat the corporation?!?!

Cyber-Cop is a first person shooter that requires you to think things through rather than just attack anything that moves.

Cyber-Cop is preceded Wolfenstein 3D by a number of years, and while the walls were not ray cast, but solid fill polygons, it was still one of the earliest simulations to tackle a human viewpoint with complete, 360 degree freedom of movement.

Snapshots and Media

Amiga Screenshots

Sega Genesis/Mega Drive Screenshots

See Also

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