Shotgun Cop Man
Review
Freeze Satan, you're under arrest!
by JamesWorcester
reviewed on PC
Shotgun Cop Man is I, Justice or Die
Devolver Digital and DeadToast Entertainment bring you the brightest, tightest precision platformer I've played this side of hell. You are the titular Shotgun Cop Man, half shotgun, half cop, all man! Your mission? Go to hell, arrest Satan! Move with left stick, aim with the right. Shotgun on the left trigger, pistol on the right. Blast yourself through enemies with shotgun and pistol propulsion platforming as you develop a need for speed and bullet dodging bravado. An arsenal of weaponry awaits your journey through the nine circles of hell.
Precision Propulsion Platforming
From your training five years ago in Shotgun Division boot camp, you've honed your ability to propel yourself through the air with each shotgun slug and pistol pop. Shotgun shots act like rocket jumps, while pistol pops add finesse and fidelity. Blast your way up and hover through the air while popping off devil heads and boss bars. Hitting the ground reloads your weapons, meaning in the air you've got limited shots before you need to touch grass again. This also means that whilst grounded you become a non-stop action-hero, blasting away without a care in the world for magazine capacity. Your shotgun has three rounds, your pistol has eight, and your special weapons change the game entirely.
Special Weapon Arsenal
The burst pistol does what it says on the tin. The sniper rifle penetrates multiple enemies. The range shotgun decimates at range. The machine gun adds automatic fire. The exploder explodes. The ricochet rifle shoots around corners. The laser fires a frickin' laser beam. The double shooter doubles your machine gun. The bullet cloud shoots bullet-hell shrapnel. The flamethrower burns even demons. The divider targets multiple attackers. The minigun churns through bullets. The splinter gun splinters on impact. The zigzag zapper electrifies assailants. The triple targeter targets three antagonists. And the trouble seeker seeks adversaries. Each special weapon also uniquely affects the physics of your propulsion platforming.
Nine Circles of Level Design
The tutorial, nine worlds and over 150 levels that follow feature incredibly satisfying layouts, enemies and design sensibilities that push you towards pixel platforming perfection. All the level structures, enemy placements and obstacle designs exist to allow you to achieve such velocity and presence that I found myself in an absolute state of flow, ripping through enemies and levels whilst feeling one with Shotgun Cop Man. The combinations of throwable enemies, spike traps, battle arenas, bullet corridors, mid-air ammo reloads, jumping ricochet pads, shoot-through pipes, bladed keys, exploding crates, reflectors and more create constant novelty and a desire for mastery in the player. With a level editor to boot, there is serious potential for the community to come up with some astoundingly hellish creations. Nine circles of hell also means nine circles of multi-phase boss fights, and they do delight.
Risk, Reward and Challenges
Shotgun Cop Man rewards risk with gratifying gameplay, as getting hit results in you temporarily losing one of your lives but also results in you losing whatever special weapon you had equipped. The more that you can avoid damage, the more fun the combat and the more fun your movement options are, incentivising the player to focus and think on their feet. The checkpoint system is very well tuned and feels very fair, as dying will not set you back the whole level but will set you back an arena or two. Mostly I found that it just set my sense of flow back. Each level has three optional challenges to complete: No Damage, Speedrun and Kill All, and a fourth if you complete all of them. I am strongly considering speedrunning each level because it's just that fun to have a perfect run.
Self-Aware Absurdism
Shotgun Cop Man knows that it's a precision platformer, but that doesn't stop it from having a great sense of self-aware absurdist humour. It's not story rich or dense at all, but it understands perfectly that it doesn't need to be because it knows itself as a game. Your name is Shotgun Cop Man, you are here to arrest Satan, and you are going through the nine circles of hell to do so. You look like an untextured Blender asset, Satan is wearing a fishnet top, you are always dual wielding a shotgun with another weapon, and every time you try to arrest him all he ever says to you is "Fuck you, Shotgun Cop Man". This is tremendously fantastic minimalist worldbuilding that in and of itself is enjoyable because of how it's delivered and because it's just fun tongue-in-cheek escapism.
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10
fun score
Pros
Precision propulsion platforming perfection, Achieving absolute flow, Extremely tight controls and mechanics
Cons
None. You need to play this game
