Review of Good Cop Bad Cop

Playing Time: 10-20 minutes
Players: 4-8

Summary of the Components

Good Cop Bad Cop comes packaged as a single deck of cards.

Quality: The cards are glossy and sturdy. 4 out of 5.

Beauty: The equipment cards are only duotone (brown and black), but the other cards are full color. They all feature fair cartoon artwork. 3 out of 5.

Usability: The equipment cards are all easy to understand, while the wounded cards handily remind you of what happens when someone is wounded. 3+ out of 5.

Theming: The equipment cards are quite evocative, while the idea of players pointing guns at each other gives a great, visceral feel of dissent in the police force. 5 out of 5.

With good quality cards and great theming, Good Cop Bad Cop earns a "4" out of "5" for Style.

Summary of the Gameplay

The object of Good Cop Bad Cop is to take out the leader of the opposite team: good cops are trying to kill the kingpin, while bad cops are trying to kill the agent.

Setup: Each player is given three integrity cards which together define what team he's on. If a player has the kingpin card, he's a bad cop, and if he has the agent card, he's a good cop; otherwise, he sees if he has more "honest" or "crooked" cards, and that defines which team he's on.

Each player also gets an equipment card to start.

Taking a Turn: On his turn, a player can take one of four simple actions:

Investigate. He looks at one integrity card from another player.

Equip. He takes one equipment card, but must reveal an integrity card.

Arm. He takes one of the very limited gun cards, but must reveal an integrity card. He then decides who he aims at, though he can change this at the end of future rounds where he didn't shoot.

Shoot. He shoots the person he was aiming at (and drops his gun).

Taking a Wound: A regular cop, good or bad, is killed when shot. A kingpin or agent takes a wound and gets a free equipment card; a second wound is required to kill him.

Ending the Game: The game ends with either the kingpin or agent dead and the opposite team winning.

Relationships to Other Games

Good Cop Bad Cop is a hidden teams game that's most similar to Bang! (2003), Castle of the Devil (2010), and the classic Werewolf. Like all of them you have to figure out who's on your team, and like Werewolf and Bang! you have to then kill your opposite numbers.

The Game Design

The most innovative element of Good Cop Bad Cop is its use of multiple cards to define who is on which team. This allows for real integration of the role cards into the gameplay: you can investigate another player and find a little bit of information but you don't know everything until you've seen all three cards. The result is interesting and thoughtful.

Beyond that, Good Cop Bad Cop plays lightning quick and is simple, which will probably make it appealing even to people who don't usually play games. Its biggest deficit is that same simplicity: it's a fairly shallow game, though the equipment cards can introduce just enough chaos to keep players on their toes.

Overall, Good Cop Bad Cop is a fun, simple game for casual play. It earns a "4" out of "5" for Substance.

Conclusion

Want to point guns at your friends and accuse them of being on the wrong side of the law? Good Cop Bad Cop is a fun game of hidden teams for casual, family, and filler play. It introduces some interesting variations to the genre and is quick to play.