Technocop
a game by | Razorsoft |
Genres: | Action, Racing, Platformer |
Platform: | Genesis |
Editor Rating: | 5/10, based on 3 reviews |
User Rating: | 6.0/10 - 2 votes |
Rate this game: | |
See also: | High Score Games, Shoot 'Em Up Games |
Law enforcement is now easy job in the future. It takes shooting skills, driving prowess and just a touch of luck. Especially in this future where gangs of radical punks and thugs known only as the DOA roam freely to terrorize the world. As a member of the most elite crime-fighting force on the planet, you must fulfill your mission as a Technocop and bring the bad guys down!
You're not going into battle lightly either. Armed with an awesome array of firepower, you sport a top-of-the-line .88 magnum pistol that not only stops what you hit, but leaves them in no condition to return to the fight. Combined with a specially devel-oped snare gun that lets you bring the Boss in alive, you're a one-man police force on the side of law and order.
Just when you think the battle is won, a new assignment comes in. Don't expect any free rides here, you've got to earn your way to the next crime scene! Hop into your super high-speed patrol vehicle, the VMAX Twin Turbo Interceptor and take to the road. Watch out for the DOA agents out to stop on the road, and don't hesitate to surprise the bad guys with your side-mounted cannons if they should come looking for a fight.
Technocop brings a new action games to a new level by combining hunt-and-search routines inside every DOA hangout and boosting the game play even further by introducing a road warrior race game as well! This is definitely no side-scrolling ho-hum not-much-to-do-here type of adventure.
What Technocop does deliver is lots to do, a unique idea of bagging the Boss rather than blowing his brains out, and an ultra-realistic gunshot effect that makes your .88 magnum look more like a can-non than a pistol!
In addition to your normal assortment of underworld types, Techno must also contend with rabid rats, bombs and other unex-pected surprises. You'll soon dis-cover that in the bleak but future world of Technocop, there's more to being a cop than upholding truth and justice...it's kill or be killed!
Download Technocop
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
- Manufacturer: U.S. Gold
- Versions: Amiga, Apple II, Atari ST, Commodore, IBM PC
Technocop, a hybrid driving/action-adventure game from Epyx/U.S. Gold, is a perfect example of a software project that f is all idea and no execution. Conceptually similar to Gray Matter's successful Road Raider (Mindscape), Technocop also offers a two-in-one game package in which a driving program is used to shuttle the player from location to location, where the player-character leaves his vehicle and heads, on foot, into an arcade-style adventure scenario. Sadly, all comparisons end here.
It's interesting that many of the same people worked on both Technocop and Road Raider, including co-creators (with Imagexcel) Gray Matter. It's amazing how the same basic idea, being handled by many of the same creative people, could go in such diverse directions.
Technocop's driving scenario is basically Crazy Cars with weapons. The player-character's vehicle, the VMAX, comes with what is described as a "side-mounted machine gun", though it does not rapid-fire. Employing Pole Position-like perspective, with the VMAX always seen in the foreground, the player uses rudimentary joystick commands (fast, slow, left, right and fire) to get the car from one crime scene to the next in search of a gang of thugs dubbed "DOA". Although the VMAX boasts five gears, they shift automatically. Even such gizmos as a Turbo Charger (for sudden bursts of speed), hydraulic wheel rams and nuclear bombs (no kidding!) can't accelerate the driving phase of the game out of first gear.
Supplemental weapons are automatically fitted onto the VMAX, one at a time, as a reward for arriving at crime scenes in the allotted time. Extra points are earned by either blowing up or driving DOA vehicles off the road.
Once the VMAX reaches a crime scene, the game shifts into a horizontally-scrolling, slightly angled side-perspective action game. Underneath the visual display is a blow-up of a techno-flatfoot's Wrist Command Console, containing a Crime Computer, weapon-select toggle, radar, clock, lives remaining, health, strength and score readouts. The Crime Computer communicates current orders, specifically whether the suspect must be taken alive or if they only need the pieces. To this end, the weapon select permits the player to switch between a gun (the "88 Magnum", an excellent choice when hunting dinosaurs with a handgun, but disgustingly excessive as an anti-personnel weapon) and a net, which neatly wraps up villains. The downside of the net is that it takes longer to fire and, for some inscrutable reason, cannot be launched from a kneeling position. Radar is necessary because by the time a DOA member actually appears on the play-screen, it is too late for the policeman to react to him.
The driving game has several problems, many the result of sloppy programming. For example, cars have a disturbing tendency to drive through other cars, without invoking any sort of collision effect. Perhaps the worst element of the game, though, is its unfathomable concept: it seems like everyone on the road, outside of the title character, is a bad guy. If a gang like DOA controlled the highways to this extent, they'd be sending the army out after them, not a lone copper with a net gun.
Far worse, however, is the sickening animation which is used to visually describe the result of a gunshot from the trusty "38 Magnum". Victims literally explode, and it's not a pretty sight.
Despite its slick graphics and gory violence, Technocop's major failing is that it lacks creative input. It's a simple fusion of two game genres with the seams still visible.
RazorSoft has converted the computer version of this game over to the Genesis. In it you are a law enforcement officer of the 21st century called Technocop. Your job is to singlehandedly eliminate a group of terrorists called D.O.A. You quest consists of two parts. The first puts you behind the wheel of a VMAX Twin Turbo and you blow away the scum you pass on the road. Your crime computer leads you to the second part - tenement buildings infested with killer rats and terrorists. There you must patrol the halls and blow away (literally) the punks after you. Get by them and go after the D.O.A. gladiator. Do this and you're back in your car to race to the next emergency in search of the D.O.A. Kingpin!