Crime Killer (PlayStation)

GameSpot editors' review

• CNET editors' rating: 3.0 stars Good
  Detailed editors' rating
  Overall score: 6.8 (3.0 stars)

• Reviewed by:
  Lauren Fielder
• Reviewed on: 08/14/1998
• Updated on: 04/28/2000
• Released on: 06/30/1998
• Originally published on GameSpot: Crime Killer (PlayStation) Review

Perhaps tailing the success of like-minded (in genre) driving/shooting game Red Asphalt, Interplay introduces Crime Killer for the PlayStation. The game puts you behind the wheel of an ammo-decked patrol car, motorcycle, or wing vehicle to fight crime and annihilate anything that gets in your way as you do so.

Crime Killer is one of those unique titles that allows you to feel like a bad guy, who's actually a good guy, doing bad guy stuff masquerading as good guy stuff. As the story goes, or at least as the FMV reveals, once upon a time, your dad was a cop. And you played with his badge. Then one day, your dad grabs his badge from you and heads out the door to serve and protect with the City Police Department. He's called to an armed robbery, the getaway car sideswipes him, and his patrol car blows up in the middle of the street. A young boy (you, perhaps?), is shown standing on the side of the street when it happens, as he picks up the badge and looks thoughtful. In the very next scene you're an adult, and dressed for duty.

Now that you understand your motivation, you play the game. In single-player mode, you begin as a rookie, patrolman number 88, and work your way up. There are more than 15 levels, each posing as an actual day on the job: Accomplish all the missions within that day or level, and the dispatcher says, "Great job. See you tomorrow," or something to that effect.

The missions begin rather simply. You drive around the environment, which may be an urban wasteland, an industrial zone, or one of numerous designs, waiting for a directive from the dispatcher. This comes in the form of a verbal and written cue. Your first assignment may be to chase a speeder. Being a rather hardened society, this future, you may be required to destroy the vehicle. That'll teach 'em, eh? So you follow your radar, which draws a neat little line directly to the perpetrator, and once you see the vehicle in front of you, a target circle of a certain color appears on the moving car. If you've been directed to destroy it, for example, the circle will be red. If you've been directed to detain or pacify the suspect, the circle will be yellow, and so on. Once you spot your guy, the point is to carry out your orders. Once you do, you're given a big blue bureaucratic pat on the back and sent to a new location in the same level or told to patrol until something else comes up.

Your missions range from blowing up illegally parked cars (it's much more effective to destroy them than it is to apply the boot....) to chasing down a squadron of drug and arms dealers plowing through the streets in a caravan of armored vehicles rigged to the hilt with machine guns and automatic weapons. You may even simply place a suspect under surveillance and then be told to abandon that mission and continue patrolling.

So now that you're sucked into the pretty amusing objective, we'll pad the story one step further to say that at 60fps, the game, in single player, is fast and actually quite fun. But that's not to say it's perfect in the least. Crime Killer can move like a panther because your field of vision is incredibly short. If you're driving straight ahead, for example, you can see only the real-life equivalent of about 40 feet. That's pretty lousy visibility if you're chasing down arms dealers in armored vehicles - perhaps you can hope they can only see you as well as you can see them. Also, the graphics are pretty limited. The environments change, but they're basically more of the grainy same.

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