Shotgun Cop Man was provided by Devolver Digital for review. Thank you!
I remember back in 2019 when I first played My Friend Pedro. I was blown away by how fun it was to jump around and shoot others in slow motion, while wall jumping and flipping through the air. So, when I heard that the developer of the game, DeadToast Entertainment, was coming out with a new game, I knew I was in for a good time! While I do wish there was a bit more to do, Shotgun Cop Man is a fun time that I can see being a joy to play, once players get their hands on the level editor.
Shotgun Cop Man is a simple game, but the beauty comes from its precise mechanics. You will run through levels to get to the other side, but you will use your guns to propel yourself around. You have your pistol in one hand, which is primarily used for killing enemies and jumping over small obstacles, and a powerful shotgun for thrusting yourself longer distances.
That's essentially the gameplay mechanics. It's easy on the surface, but the joy comes from how you have to use your tools to get to the end. It's simple to control, just use the left stick to move, the right stick to aim, and the triggers to shoot one of your two guns, but it doesn't need more. The entire concept exudes the simple to learn, hard to master mentality, and it never gets old. I had so much fun blasting through levels and flinging myself with shotgun blasts and shooting demons with my pistol. There are also other weapons you can pick up, like SMGs and scatterguns.
The level design and slight quality of life changes help complement the mechanics as well. Each of the campaign's levels feels unique in itself, and I enjoyed the changeup of normal platforming levels to the arena fights, where you have to kill a specific number of enemies, and boss battles. The levels also all have four different achievements to get, encouraging killing all enemies, speedrunning, and not getting hit. It wasn't hard to do, and the slight slowdown when shooting your pistol in the air and slight auto-aim helped a lot with killing demons as I flung myself around, but it was nice to have some reason to go back and try to get all the achievements.
There will also be user-designed levels and a full-fledged level creator in-game. It's easy to understand and fully compatible with a controller, which is great for those playing on a Steam Deck like I did. I definitely don't have the creativity to create my own levels, but I was able to understand without stress and try my best. It was terrible, but I did it myself, and I was proud.
The simplistic visuals and story aren't the main attraction for Shotgun Cop Man, but they do the job. You are a cop who goes to hell to arrest Satan, which sets the scene for the gameplay. There are some funny cutscenes at the start of each world, and the close-up of the faces of Shotgun Cop Man and Satan is hilarious, but it isn't anything deep. The visuals are nice and get the job done. Nothing to write home about, but not bad either. I generally like simple graphics and art for games like this, so I think it was a good choice to make.
When all is said and done, Shotgun Cop Man is a small game that is fun, but has me wanting more. I would have loved more replayability with the main campaign or online leaderboards, but I still really enjoyed it, especially on the Steam Deck.
Shotgun Cop Man is going to be a joy to play on the Steam Deck, but I wasn't satisfied when I first booted the game up. I noticed that at 90 FPS on the Steam Deck OLED, the battery was draining a little bit too much for my liking for this type of game. So, I decided to cap the framerate at 60 FPS, which brought down the battery drain between 9W and 11W on average for around 4.5 - 5 hours of battery life. LCD Steam Decks won't have this problem at all.
Otherwise, it plays pretty well out of the box. It drains a little more than I would like, but it stays stable at 60 FPS. There isn't much we can change for graphical settings, but there's no need in the end. It plays well and feels like a perfect fit for the Deck.
The game does have a specific Accessibility tab, which has options for repeat fire, auto aim lock, a jump guide, auto pickup weapons, and a slider to change the game speed. You can also change sound volume, toggle blood and gore, controller vibrations, screenshake, a timer, and change language.
It does support 16:10 resolutions, controllers, and cloud saves. There are no HDR settings.
Shotgun Cop Man is a short but sweet time. The shooting platforming gameplay is addictive and I feel like an action star while playing. The level design is great, and there are a lot of them throughout the main campaign, but I do wish there was more to do after its beat. Once players start populating the game with their user-created levels, it will be much better. Still, for what it is, it's a fun time, and I had a blast playing through it.
The game runs near flawlessly on the Steam Deck as well. I do wish it didn't drain as much as it does, but it's still okay and over 4.5 hours of battery life. It's a great game on the Deck regardless, and I can happily recommend it.
Our review is based on the PC version of this game.
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Shotgun Cop Man is a short, but sweet time with great gameplay, an easy-to-understand level editor, and solid performance on the Steam Deck.
