Future Cop: LAPD

Future Cop: LAPD is a third-person shooter published and developed by Electronic Arts and released first for the PlayStation, then Mac OS and Windows. It was originally supposed to be a sequel to the popular Strike series of games. The final cut-scene of Nuclear Strike includes a trailer for the next game in the series, Future Strike, including shots of a mech robot called 'Warrior'. Future Strike was never released, but that development of the game evolved into Future Cop: L.A.P.D., which features gameplay similar to the previous Strike games and a mech robot like the one seen in the Future Strike trailer.

In the game, players assume the role of a pilot for the X1-Alpha, a robot designed to fight in the "Crime War" in Los Angeles in the year 2098. The X1-Alpha is a police vehicle that can transform between a fast, hovering pursuit vehicle, and a slower, fully-fledged combat mecha.

Modes
There are two modes of play in the game, Crime War and Precinct Assault (both modes can be played either as single player or two player).

Story mode
Crime War is a story mode, following a day in the life of an LAPD X1-Alpha pilot. The story events range from rogue lunatics arming observatories with weapons, to a malfunctioning supercomputer. Players begin in a futuristic Griffith Park, but as they advance through the game they may unlock areas such as Venice Beach, LAX and Long Beach. Crime War also supports a second player in cooperative play. Cooperative play features the unique feature that the life bars of the two players are intertwined; if either player is destroyed, it counts as a failure for both players.

Free-combat mode
Precinct Assault is a free-combat mode in which each player starts with a single base and can capture automated Turrets or Outposts across the level. The objective is to defeat opponents by purchasing and deploying Hovertanks to invade their bases. The game ends when one player's base is breached by either a standard or super-sized "Dreadnought" Hovertank. Players may also deploy defensive Helicopters or the "Flying Fortress" Superplane to assist in securing their perimeter, shooting down enemy tanks that enter the base. Single-player mode consists of fighting a computer opponent named "Sky Captain", whose in-game avatar is a Superplane, more powerful and advanced than the X1-Alpha. Two player mode is a competitive battle between two X1-Alpha robots. There are five different precinct assault areas with 10 difficulty settings (for single player). There is also a bonus area, known as 'Bug Hunt', which is the same as the 'Proving Ground' level, except all objects have been made into insects like caterpillars and butterflies, instead of Hovertanks and Helicopters. The Flying Fortress is now a bat, and the Dreadnought is a large, ugly worm. The level features an up-beat music track in comparison to the game's normal dark military music.

The game failed to sell as expected. The members of the production team have since split up and moved

Recently, the game has been made available on PlayStation Store, for a small fee on both PS3 and PSP.

Precinct Assault is a stategic gameplay mode similar to Herzog Zwei (1989), and is the mode that inspired the StarCraft mod Aeon of Strife, which in turn inspired the MOBA genre.

Weapons
Future Cop boasts a wide arsenal of unlockable weapons; from the Gattling Laser to the Plasma Flare and everything in between. Each weapon having its own pros and cons.