Serving the community and ensuring that everyone is secure is no easy task for any individual in an officer uniform. You have to deal with an enormous amount of stress, waking up at random times in the morning for phone calls about random crimes, and having to sift through case documents in order to indict the criminal. Luckily, we’re just playing “good cop, bad cop” in a video game and not in real life, because these tasks require an iron heart and nerves of steel.

This is the Police II is the sequel to a game that came out of left field but managed to blow us away with its tactical gameplay and thought-provoking narrative. A lot has certainly changed in the sequel, most notably visual upgrades for a much-sophisticated look, along with gameplay features that allow for a more robust experience. This is the Police II puts you in that cop uniform and you’ll need to ensure that your team is well versed in solving crimes, while also coming to terms with the fact that you’re wanted on the feds list and need to act fast.

Anyone looking for a cop simulation experience that encourages you to really think outside of the box in terms of strategy, then look no further than This is the Police II.

Anyone who dabbled with the original will know that swift decision making plays a major role in progression, as crimes are constantly being thrown at you and you’ll need to ensure that the team is skilled enough to handle the task. More so, it’s important that you keep your cool under pressure as there are times when cops will call in sick, not show up for their shift or worse, you end up losing them in the line of fire. All of these factors play such an integral role and while there are certainly joyous moments, a lot of your time will be heavily invested in making sure that you’re earning enough income to sustain a long term advantage.

Don’t expect any sort of difficulty settings either as This is the Police II puts you directly into the driver’s seat and gives you the responsibility of running the show. Any mistake that’s made will be used against you at some point, with repercussions ranging from low to very severe. New to This is the Police II are what’s known as tabs, a new feature that allows you to purchase cops and new accessories which all derive from how well you perform on shift. For every criminal you arrest or put down you earn a certain amount of tabs, but letting a criminal escape, allowing a cop to be fatally wounded or failing to respond to a tactical hostage scenario can net you some major losses. So it’s all about picking and choosing your battles but just how much are you willing to sacrifice knowing that there’s so much on the line? We suggest playing to find out!

This is the Police II has seen a substantial visual upgrade from the original, with cutscenes using a lot more animation along with the storyboard design to provide a very comic book type of feel. Everything just looks a lot cleaner and easier to navigate, with the UI maintaining its simple aesthetic to have players focus more on what’s going on, rather than worry about petty things.

Animations overall are a lot smoother and the actual police desk that you play on looks much better, with the buildings and vehicles taking on a more 3D look compared to the original. The use of simple colors like greens and reds, along with a more muted color palette, give the game a more sophisticated look.

This is the Police was known for its incredibly boisterous soundtrack, which ranged from smooth jazz to classical pieces from talented artists. In This is the Police II we see a much more robust selection of music that only add more emotional depth to the game as you play, and truly help to ease the tension during high pressure scenarios. You still have your smooth jazz and classical pieces in place, but with the addition of hip hop here and there to mix things up. This is perhaps the biggest selling point of the entire game outside of the gameplay itself, because the music is what really helps to paint the picture of what’s currently happening around you. The voice acting is stellar as always and provides the game with more emotion, as you really grow a bond with the characters you encounter throughout the story. Nothing feels too overbearing also which is a huge plus and you really get to concentrate without too much happening in the background.

The gameplay of course hasn’t really seen much change from the original, which is a very good thing, with the exception of a few added touches that we mentioned earlier. You now have more crimes to deal with, one in particular being the brand new tactical missions that put you in a XCOM type scenario, where you’ll need to infiltrate criminal warehouses to save hostages or gather critical evidence.

These new missions don’t have a timer like the other typical police missions but they do run out once your day is over, so it’s very important to try and tackle them before they disappear. In fact, we highly encourage you to participate in the tactical squad missions because they actually net you higher tab points if you’re able to successfully eliminate every criminal and save hostages, if there are any.

Missing these types of missions will often result in a huge loss of tabs, something around 25 or so. Most of the regular missions range between 5-10 with some often providing more, depending on the task that needs to be dealt with.

For the most part you’ll need to ensure that you collect these tabs as they’re the main catalyst in your survival as a cop, and to keep your squad intact. This is perhaps where most of the tension comes in because there’s really never a guarantee of whether you’ll obtain the tabs you need, since criminals will not comply with you all the time and will escape if you’re not careful with decisions. The feds are after you as well and so, you’ll need to work alongside corrupt individuals in order to keep your location under the radar by paying them lump sums, or having to take out certain criminals for their pleasure. Even worse is that, if you continue to fail missions and lose more tabs than expected, your partner Lilly will rat you out to the feds.

This immense pressure is on you to ensure that every crime is dealt with in a timely manner, cases are closed, and you have enough income to pay off any debts that are incurred during the game. Another new feature is the perk system where —much like in other tactical simulation titles— you assign certain skills to your officers which allow them to take advantage in certain situations. Each perk provides a unique ability that gives you the upper hand in very crucial circumstances, such as being able to sneak past the enemy without being caught or silently opening a window in order to infiltrate the building.

All of these can be earned while playing and are awarded to officers who successfully solve crimes. You also get to assign weapons and tools to each officer such as batons, tasers, taser cartridges, pepper spray and more. As each officer’s attributes continue to increase their performance improves greatly: for example, delegating points to intelligence will grant that specific cop the ability to better negotiate with criminals or interrogate them, force them to surrender faster and also allow them to solve crimes more efficiently. How you want your squad to behave is entirely up to you and that’s where This is the Police II shines. You’re never forced to play in a certain way, though you’ll need to ensure that your squad is diverse enough to tackle harder missions down the road.

Overall, This is the Police II is a huge step forward for the series with all of its added gameplay improvements and visual upgrades. There are some glaring issues though, such as females in the game being constantly referred to as a male, especially in the text while reading. This stands out even more due to the fact that the game’s campaign deals with sexism in the office, and seeing those typos sort of lends its hand to the problem even more. We assume that these typos were not intentional but it definitely stood out a lot more since much of the story deals with a lot of serious gender related issues.

Other than that, the game is phenomenal from start to finish and we recommend anyone looking for a new strategy game to pick up This is the Police II, because you’ll totally fall in love with it.

This is the Police II is definitely a step up from the original, adding a lot more depth and appeal to the gameplay without leaving players hanging. Anyone who has played the first one will surely enjoy the sequel and those jumping in for the first time, well you’ll be in for a lot of surprises!

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