The Daily Click

::. ::.

Review: Law Enforcement 2020

Author:	Muz
Added:	14/05/2003
Overall:
Average:	9/10

Law Enforcement 2020 is a 2-player platform deathmatch game between some… law enforcers and terrorists. It’s not the average 2-player platform deathmatch game, though. In my humble opinion, this game is certainly one of the best of its kind.

As soon as you even start the game, you’re given a professionally done intro and a well-done title screen. The game’s help files and background music are great. The game has several styles of play, ranging from a simple assault to all-out war. You get to choose between 7 different weapons, 2 of which are throwable (ie. secondary weapons).

What this game has that seperates it from most other two-player deathmatch games is the fact that you can build buildings. Although this feature is quite buggy in the game and leaves quite a bit to be desired, it has certainly had its effect in some of my games. You get to build many different types of ‘non-automated turrets’ that you can use to assist you in killing your enemy before they kill you. You can also build ladders, bridges, oil drills, towers, tunnels, and lots of other stuff.

The ability to make uildings isn’t the only special thing about this game. You can also build vehicles, drive/fly them around and release havoc onto your enemies. You also have several little features such as solid snow falling from the skies, air strikes, floods (similar to the flood in the sudden death in Worms™), and the choice whether to use scuba gear to survive these floods. You also have an army of idiots who follow your every command, if you so wish. Just build a headquarters or summon them from the sky. They’ll follow your every order, just like those green-haired Lemmings™. You can also destroy almost everything in the game, from simple machine guns and tanks to the very ground below you, with the right weapons.

Now that brings us to the weakness of this game. The game is riddled with bugs, most of them resulting from over-reliance on Multimedia Fusion™’s capabilities. In other words, you can get stuck to walls, thanks to Multimedia Fusion™’s platform engine. The little ‘paste to background’ feature can also get real ugly if you go all crazy when building and bombing. You’ll have ugly tunnels around everywhere, get stuck in nasty holes left by grenades, have ladders overlapping dirt or metal, have bridges and floors overlapping some other piece of ground, or some other ugly scene. Personally, I think it would be a lot prettier if the tunneling were done the good old Worms™ way -- with a blowtorch. It would also be a bit better if explosions were as clean as the ones in Liero™.

The game can also be extremely unbalanced, say, in the case when one player grabs a tank, kills her enemy before he could harm him, then parks at her enemy’s respawning place, running over her enemy whenever he respawns. Make sure the person you’re playing with has some mercy in him/her. If not, well, expect to have quite a bit of unfair deaths. I’d say that it’s only balanced if you play the Capture The Flag mode. Oh well, all’s fair in love and war.

Overall, even with all its cons, I’d have to say that this is truly an excellent game, capable of becoming a klik masterpiece in itself. It’ll probably have several fans and several clones should this game ever get the attention it deserves. The game has much more flexibility than most other games of its genre. You can have a simple ‘kill the other player’ game or you can have an all-out war with dozens of units shooting and slicing each other apart on the battlefield. You can ever have other little things like rescuing hostages or sieges, although those modes seemed a little unpractical to me. If you’re like me, you might want to modify the settings a little, give yourself tons of building time and money, then go for massive fortress wars…

Gameplay
Absolutely superb: 10 points
Riddled with bugs -3 points
Extremely flexible +1 point
Original for its genre +1 point

Could certainly be a hit in the community, if it wasn’t for the bugs.
9 points total

Presentation
Excellent, very professionally made title screen and menus: 10 points for intro presentation
Doesn’t have any cutscenes -1 point for intro presentation
Somewhat messy interface and buttons, or just a bad font -1 point for intro presentation
Very nice in-game presentation, professionally done: 8 points for game presentation
Players can get stuck to walls or get stuck hovering slightly -2 point
Explosion stains and structures can get really ugly after a while -2 points

Presentation could have been brilliant, if it were not for the poor font and bugs. Extra point added coz it’s mostly MMF’s fault.
7 points total

Graphics
Superb intro graphics: 10 points for intro graphics
Very good in-game graphics: 8 points for game graphics
Ugly explosion stains and structures -2 points

Again, could’ve been much better.
8 points total

Sound and music
Decent sound, fits in nicely without anything annoying: 8 points for sound
Nice music overall, didn’t bring much of a distraction: 7 points for music
Poor/lack of music on 2nd level -1 points

Very nicely done
7 points total

Lastability
Personally, lasted the whole afternoon: 7 points for lastability
Several different modes +0.5 points
Many different levels +0.5 points

Lasts for quite a while
8 points total

Overall
A truly excellent game, brought down only by the bugs. If the creator of this game had been a bit more experienced and picky, this would truly be a masterpiece.
8 points total