Shotgun Cop Man Review - This Cop is a Real D!CK

Shotgun Cop Man is pissed.  In fairness, I would be too if I looked like the offspring of a dildo and a piece of chalk, but the more pressing target of his anger is the urgent need to arrest Satan.  And color me shocked, but Satan refuses to come quietly, rudely flipping off Shotgun Cop Man at every conceivable opportunity.  Who knew the prince of darkness could be so disrespectful?

You may, understandably, have some questions.  Who is Shotgun Cop Man?  Why is he hunting Satan down?  Why is Satan wearing a kinky fishnet top while two fairy-winged demons carry him around on strings?  Shotgun Cop Man isn’t interested in answering your petty questions.  Shotgun Cop Man is here for justice, or something.  And an outpouring of justice he shall dish.

To the surprise of absolutely nobody, the publisher behind this dumbass concept for a game is Devolver Digital, a company I owe immense gratitude for continuing to take chances on games that lean into their own stupidity with a wink and a nod.  Shotgun Cop Man is a stupid game.  Shotgun Cop Man knows it’s a stupid game.  But I really enjoy saying Shotgun Cop Man, and I really enjoyed playing Shotgun Cop Man, so while its intentionally minimalist design philosophy might not quite tickle everyone’s acorns, meeting Shotgun Cop Man where it lives will very nearly guarantee a fantastic time.

Shotgun Cop Man comes to us from DeadToast Entertainment, who might sound familiar to fans of the game My Friend Pedro, an absurd ballet of bullet-time violence that was certainly unique, but rough enough around the edges that I struggled to maintain my interest for too long.

But where My Friend Pedro felt to me like a case of bombastic style over interesting substance, Shotgun Cop Man confidently flips that script, presenting a story and style so devoid of presentational extravagance that you’d think the games were released in reverse order.  At least, until you actually play the thing.

In Shotgun Cop Man, you’ll move through over 150 levels, most taking a minute or less to complete, with the finest combination of precision platforming and twin-stick shooting that I’ve seen in ages.  There’s no jump button here.  Rather, the left trigger will fire your shotgun, whose recoil launches you violently in the opposite direction while blowing up any demons unlucky enough to be in the way.  Meanwhile, the right trigger uses your pistol for smaller, uhh… still pretty violent but less intense shots that can clear small obstacles or let you hover in the air as you shoot demons like some bloodthirsty wizard of savagery.  While each weapon has limited ammunition, like the shotgun allowing only three shots before running out of bullets, all you must do to reload is briefly touch the ground.  You also have the ability to use the right bumper to pick up demons and throw them at one another, but given the risk of getting too close to Lucifer’s minions lest they suddenly fire a bullet into your face, it’s not an ability I used often.

There are many additional weapons to find and use in place of the pistol, and many of these are hugely fun to use, like a flamethrower or rifle that can take out multiple enemies lined up in one shot.  In terms of your core move set though, everything Shotgun Cop Man has to offer is done so upfront.  There are no additional moves to unlock, no special abilities to equip, and nothing whatsoever in the way of cosmetics, collectibles, or secrets.  And yet, the game’s level design is so unabashedly excellent that it’s hard not to be impressed with the sheer volume of ideas borne out of what little complexity it appears to have on the surface.  You’ll traverse platforms that transform into spiky deathtraps every time you shoot them.  You’ll fire at grapple points to quickly zip between obstacles.  You’ll solve puzzles that require ricocheting bullets off walls or through pipes to hit switches that allow you to proceed.  And you’ll do it all with controls that feel silkier than an overpriced scarf, making every untimely death feel like the result of little more than your own dreadful incompetence.  This is just a small sampling of the enormous number of ways Shotgun Cop Man mixes up its level design throughout the 3-4 hours it takes to complete its campaign.  And while that length might sound disappointing to some, the user-generated levels and several additional hours necessary to complete each level in full are bound to add plenty of value to those seeking it.

Here's the thing though – Shotgun Cop Man, at least in terms of what the game requires to get through each level and see the credits roll, isn’t especially difficult.  You’ll get hurt and die plenty of times on your way to arrest Satan, but the game makes a point of getting you back into the fray with minimal frustration.  Being hit once will remove your heart from your body and require you to retrieve it wherever you got shot, lest one additional hit make Shotgun Cop Man exit this world with the brief final words, “I… die…”.  But even when that happens, the game will often spawn you at a mid-level checkpoint, something I’m surprised even exists when most levels don’t even take a minute to complete.  The goal is clearly to keep you moving with the intention of making fun the first priority, and mastery of its mechanics a relatively optional secondary one.  The boss fights you encounter at the end of each world are also very fun, but brief and relatively safe for the very last one.

Each level of Shotgun Cop Man has four goals in addition to reaching the exit – kill all enemies, complete the level in a specified time, don’t get hit, and do all three of those things in a single run-through.  Completing these optional objectives will require absolute mastery of all of Shotgun Cop Man’s skills, and speedrunners especially are going to have a hell of a time bashing their heads against the wall of difficulty this presents.  For me, on the other hand, I couldn’t help but wish there was a bit more motivation to do these tasks beyond collecting the few achievements that their compulsive completion unlocks. 

Attempting to perfect each level starts to unearth some unsightly warts in Shotgun Cop Man’s design – mainly that some of the times to completion simply don’t feel right to me.  I could utterly perfect a late-game level with relative ease, but take dozens of tries to perfect one of the very first levels and still miss the speedrun target by several seconds.  These extra challenges feel like they could use not only another pass at difficulty calibration, but more motivation to keep going when that going gets nut-crushingly tough.  It feels like Shotgun Cop Man’s concept is ripe as hell for some silly cosmetics or the like that could theoretically be the result of meeting these completion targets, but as of now, no such motivation exists, and my brief attempt at completionism ended in demotivating frustration very early.

Much like its overall design, Shotgun Cop Man embraces a practical minimalism that completely works, but may not be everyone’s cup of tea.  A limited color palette, chunky character models, and environments meant to fill space rather than draw eyes to it make for a distinctive look, but one that rarely changes throughout the course of the game.  I was too busy making demons eat lead to give much care to the choices of Hell’s interior designer, but just know what you see here is more or less all you get.  Similarly, while the thumping soundtrack provides a great vibe for the pointlessly stupid violence to come, its thumping feels more or less uniform, never jumping out with any distinctive tunes worth looking up on Spotify later.  As you might expect from a game that looks like it does, Shotgun Cop Man also runs flawlessly on Steam Deck, making it my personal platform of choice for much of my review time.  Its short, bite-sized levels make it perfect for a handheld too, so Steam Deck fans should feel well catered to with this one.

Overall, Shotgun Cop Man may be a minimalist experience with little in the way of extras or frills, but its core movement and level design feel sublime in execution.  The most important aspect of any precision platformer is feeling good to play, and there’s no doubt in my mind that DeadToast Entertainment got their priorities right with this one.  It’s short, it’s simple, and it is incredibly sweet.  Chances are that if you like what you see here, you’ll very much like what you play too.

GREAT