Let’s get it out of the way right now: C.O.P.: The Recruit will try to remind you of Grand Theft Auto. There’s driving. There’s shooting. They even both have three-letter acronyms in their titles — note the periods so you can’t just say “cop.”

But is C.O.P. as good as GTA? It tries, but unfortunately pales in comparison, lacking in spirit and mired intedious repetition.

Deep down, the foundation of the game is respectable. You’re given a 3D version of New York City and part of New Jersey to play in, split into three sections by bridges and tunnels. Familiar landmarks and locales are scattered about and, while it’s not exactly breathtaking, it looks quite good for its size and what the DS can produce.

Once you jump in it and start taking on missions, however, the appeal of the city starts to flicker. As a former criminal turned newbie cop, you take on a number of tasks that mainly revolve around a single case, traipsing between “doing it by the book” and underground dealings. Unfortunately, it all feels the same. Everything you do will involve either: driving a route within a time limit, chasing another car and bashing into it until it stops, shooting people by yourself, shooting people with a team of AI-controlled teammates or sneaking past guards. Oh, and you’ll put out at least five different large fires with a fire extinguisher, even though fire trucks regularly pass you on the roads. ‘Cause that’s just how elite cops roll.

Never thought I'd be on a boat

There’s a storyline, but it’s not meaty enough to keep all the missions from running together. Your “3C,” an issued PDA-like device that takes up your lower screen, will basically tell you to go somewhere. You will, and then one of the above situations will be set up for you. There’s not a whole lot of variation to this theme, but it does, however, beat the pants off of being told to drive across the map, getting there, and then immediately having to drive somewhere else for no good reason — and that happens. eventually got to the point where I would guess, “Hey, I bet I’ll be bashing into a guy again. Aaaaand… another fire? Seriously?”

Controls are mostly solid, but can become a bit aggravating at times thanks to some clunkiness and poor decisions. Running requires not holding down B, but repeatedly pressing it. The handling of cars can vary from relatively tight to frustratingly poor, and sometimes a simple tap will send you into a mission-blowing spin. Shooting controls are a decent mix of d-pad for movement and touch screen for aiming, but it never feels there is any sense of strategy to it. There’s little in terms of taking advantage of cover and headshots don’t seem to hurt more than footshots.

The sounds of traffic in the city are nice, but you better get used to them since there’s no music unless the game decides to play some during part of a mission. I guess you could consider the sounds of pedestrians part of the music if you wanted, but every woman shouts the same “Hey!” and every man shouts the same “Augh!” If you lined them up correctly you might get some sort of beat going, but you’ll eventually wish you could just kill them to shut them up (you can’t).

Probably driving towards an inevitable fire...

The aspect of C.O.P. I found the most pleasure in was the 3C interface, which includes a “GPS” to get around the city, a great map and fun “flick and pick” access to different waypoints. But since this is not a game about geocaching, I guess finding that your favorite part of the game isn’t a good sign. The 3C does have an evil side, too, in that the game makes you constantly write in keycodes to open doors, “upload evidence,” etc. It slows the flow of the game down even further, the handwriting recognition is poor and — worst of all — it’s completely unnecessary.

Once you finish the missions, the game invites you to explore the city and finish all the optional tasks. But aside from the more-difficult-yet-same-as-the-others missions that spontaneously pop up while you drive, the only other things you can do are collect photos of landmarks and run over green road barriers. That’s it, and I wasn’t going to stick around to do it.

So What I’m Trying to Say Is…
C.O.P.: The Recruit has potential to be a fun and involving game, but whether it’s due to technical constraints or poor development choices, the experience ends up flat and uninspired. There’s just enough there to see if a sequel can improve upon the formula, but this current entry just doesn’t cut it.

C.O.P.: The Recruit is available for the Nintendo DS. It was developed by VD-Dev and published by Ubisoft. Game was rented through GameFly with review based upon completion of main story. MSRP at release is $29.99 USD. Dig this beat: Hey Augh! Hey! Hey! Hey Augh!