Pyramid Review
Vice Squad: Eighties Police Adventure
Published by Politically Incorrect Games
Written by Marc Bruno with Brett M. Bernstein
48-page downloadable PDF; $4.00
It should take little or no difficulty to break down the TV cop genre into their respective decades, and all with a few generalizations. For example, the 1950s TV Cop needs no more than a decent suit, a belief in the law and a desire to get "Just the facts, Ma'am." The 1970s cop should have a sheepskin coat or woolly cardigan, a bull dog of a car, and an attitude to match -- white stripe optional, of course. The 1990s needs grit, strong language and shaky camera angles, while the current crop of cop shows brings the ultrachic high tech science of forensics to the art of criminal detection. In between are the 1980s, when all a cop needed were cool shades, an even cooler foreign car and a light linen ensemble in soft colors.
Barring Task Force Games' Crimefighter RPG, the genre of the TV cop show remains little explored and while we were promised the chance to "Leeef it oowwtt!!!!" for the all 1970s buddy-cop game Git Yer Trousers on, Yer Nicked!, it is doubtful that this New Style game designed by James Wallis will ever get out of the squad room. In the meantime, and while we await the arrival of Crime Scene: Police Investigation, the d20 System game of forensic detection from the new Hogshead Publishing, Politically Incorrect Games lets you wander back to the 1980s with Vice Squad: Eighties Police Adventure. So slip . . .
This article originally appeared in the second volume of Pyramid. See the current Pyramid website for more information.
Article publication date: September 5, 2003
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