Artificial Intelligence Police Department, or AIPD for short, is a twinstick shooter, not unlike Smash TV, by German developer Blazing Badger Games. The team’s debut project, it was released to the world in early 2016 for PC, PS4, and Xbox One. Having already taken a look at the PC version, Cubed3 now offers another view for Microsoft’s current console.
In AIPD, the player controls an anonymous member of the Artificial Intelligence Police Department, part of a group tasked with purging viruses and other dangerous programs from the Net. Your ship can be outfitted with a variety of weapons (which you unlock over time), from gatling guns, to shotguns, to auto-aiming phaser cannons. You will also unlock new and differing defensive measures for your ship as you play and accumulate points, which affect aspects of your ship such as weapon cooldown rate and emergency shield duration.
As players progress through waves, they will have opportunities to choose between special mutators to further increase the challenge of the current game. One mutator increases the speed of attack drones, another increases the fire rate and shot count of battleships, and yet another makes carriers melt down with a damaging area of effect; some mutators are more difficult but offer bigger score bonuses, so players are encouraged to make their game harder if they want to beat their high score.
Members of the AIPD have access to more than just their primary weapon to combat the endless waves of viruses and worms. Enemies have a chance of dropping secondary weapons that are powerful in their own right; from swarms of smart missiles, to freeze bombs, to a wide-spread shock gun. Ships can also pick up useful defensive capabilities, including a device that slows time that’s perfect for navigating through tight situations or dispatching a large number of baddies in a short time, or an emergency shield that repels even the most powerful attack.
