G-Police

Developer - Psygnosis
Publisher - Psygnosis
Players - 1
Extras - Memory card, Analog

The bit on the box

"Take to the skies in your heavily-armed Havoc gunship, fly 35 formidable missions through the corrupt cities of Callisto and earn yourself some serious adulation in this incredible 3D action shooter."

Graphics

Though comparisons have been made between G-Police and Colony Wars, the former is not done in the playstation's hi-resoultion mode, unlike the latter. This is not to say that the graphics are bad, in fact they are rather good. Instead of deep space the action takes place inside a sprawling futuristic city, separated into domes/sectors. This means that you can go flying between and above skyscrapers and various other buildings, which are well drawn, although the polygons do warp if you get too close. Distant polygon clipping is dissolved and the framerate kept up due to a limited horizon, which instead of being blanked by fog is covered by dull blackness. While this can cause enemies to suddenly appear or disappear from view there is a handy radar to keep an eye on their whereabouts. There are also multiple views to use when flying, but I found myself mainly using the cockpit view.

Sounds

The weapons sound effects are a cut above those of other games, with whooshing missiles and rickety chaingun fire sounding like they would on a helicopter gunship (even though this is actually more of a hovership, which is also emulated with the hissing engine noises). A radio controller constantly keeps you updated via digitised speech as to what you are supposed to do and where the action is, with some communication with your wingman, but not much. The engine noises of enemies are also used to good effect as even if you don't have a visual sighting of them sometimes you will hear them coming or firing so you can take evasive action.

Gameplay

At first it is hard to control the Havoc ship as it has an incredibly high rate of turn and it is hard to avoid all the buildings at high speed. Once practiced (there are training missions) this eventually becomes second nature and the action (and fun) can really start. Good use has been made of the playstation controller buttons so it is fairly simple to change weapons when needed, and analog control is supported also which can create more stable piloting. This is all very well too, as this game is extremely difficult. Indirect time limits can make the missions (of which there are plenty, 35 to be exact) very pressure intensive, and frustration can grow if you fail the same mission a few times in a row (also there is no failure progression like in Colony Wars, if you fail, you must do it again until you succeed).

I feel a verdict coming on

Unlike Colony Wars, G-Police has a good storyline to follow along with the action (shown in great cgi FMV sequences). It also has a few twists and turns to make it interesting, and even a feel of a "whodunnit" when there is found to be a possible traitor among the police. Be aware that this may be one of the hardest games you may play on the playstation ever, but this also gives the player a good challenge and many hours of gameplay. You can either save your progress as you go using a memory card or use the handy passwords that are given at the end of a successful mission to keep your progression noted (believe me you don't want to have to do many of these missions more than once when you finally succeed). Overall I enjoyed G-Police more than Colony Wars, but this one gets a slightly lower mark because the latter is the better technically of the two.
 

Review by D.R.T.Barrett