Being a police officer in this day and age is quite the challenge, especially with so much happening all around us and all the chaos ensuing. The choices you make can either make you a hero or completely destroy your career, so every circumstance you encounter requires some sharp decision making. This is the Police is a game where decisions play a major role in how things unfold, and the strategy you run with can really determine the outcome of how investigations progress. It’s an adventure and strategy game where you play the role of an old policeman, known for playing a major role in keeping the city safe. There’s a lot of controversial issues that take place within the game such as racism, rape, sexism and the works, but that’s what makes this game so alluring to play because it doesn’t shy away from the real matters that affect us daily. It also gives you a real perspective into the life of policing and how difficult it can be at times to make the right decisions under pressure.

This is the Police puts you in the shoes of that police officer and so your role is to ensure that your team of officers and detectives can get the job done, without leaving too many casualties behind. There’s a strong narrative behind it all and so keeping a keen eye on the details can make the game very interesting, since as we said earlier your decisions reflect your credibility and whether or not City Hall will support you. There’s not much going on in terms of visuals since much of the game is about reading between the lines, picking up on cues that people give to you, while making sure to keep your squad strong for the long run. You’ll run into a lot of corrupt individuals that will try to undermine you or at times even have you join their side, but it’s up to you whether to be play the good cop or the bad cop. We’ll dive more into the gameplay very soon but for now, we’ll say that if you really enjoy digging through clues and taking out the criminals that litter the town of Freeburg, This is the Police is a very fun experience.

Much of the gameplay focuses on the main protagonist Jack Boyd, an old yet experienced police chief who’s set to retire in 180 days. Your final task given by the City Hall is to accumulate $500,000 and you can do so in whatever way you desire, so long as the needs are met. Every crime you come across is always changing whether it be a simple domestic dispute, or something huge like a bloody homicide that you’ll need to squad up for. There will be times when the Mafia will lend their hand to you and for your services, will supply a great deal of financial power to your force. The Mafia will also put your career at risk by asking you to perform deeds that require you to kill off one of your own officers, but again all of that is up to you to decide as you play through. You start off with a small squad of officers but as you continue to play and perform deeds for the City Hall, they’ll grant you job openings among other things such as providing psychiatric services for your officers.

Depending on the calls that come in, you’ll need to always be prioritizing since as we said before, some calls may be in the form of petty thugs just stealing from the convenience store or the more ruthless like an armed robbery. Each call will require a different kind of attention such as smaller calls requiring only 2 officers while the more life threatening require 10 officers and sometimes even the SWAT. If you successfully stop crimes then the City Hall will reimburse you and will give your officers bonus points (about 10 each time) and a pay raise. Constantly fail however, and the City Hall will reduce your pay and the amount of job openings you’ll have will continue to lessen resulting in lesser officers on the field. It’s really a game of paying very close attention to details and knowing when to respond at the appropriate time. Oftentimes you’ll encounter events that you’ll need to choose what the best path of action is, for example helping out a close friend or ditching him and leaving him to fry.

These moments in This is the Police is what really make the game truly fun to play because nothing ever feels redundant, and every crime you encounter requires a specific approach in order to succeed. For example, detective crimes require that you pay very close attention to the clues witnesses provide as well as photos that you’ll need to put in order to make the right arrest. The further you go into the game the harder those closes become, especially when dealing with gangs and figuring out just how to get to the main leader. Later on in the game, things become even more interesting when your officers start to take political sides, and information about each officer is unknown to you. The only way to get some officers to work alongside you towards the late gate is to make them a rat to gather information, but because of this it creates tension within your unit and sometimes results in the death of some officers. It’s all about making reads on each of your officers and the best way to do that is to pay attention to the excuses officers make if they start to feel fatigued.

Some will make some really farfetched excuses while others do make some legitimate statements, but it all boils down to you to make the right judgement going forward. Having this tactical awareness every time will increase your chances of losing less casualties and allow you to provide stripes to officers who show loyalty and good service to the unit.

In the end, This is the Police offers up some very fun gameplay and if you use sound judgement along the way the rewards feel great. That doesn’t always mean things will go your way however and that’s what creates the value in the game, because each call will be different and the end result could go either way. Working with the Mafia could benefit you immensely but then if you screw up with them then be sure to feel their wrath, along with City Hall. One thing we really loved was the awesome choice of music that you can purchase in game, and it really makes playing This is the Police more fun.

If you’re ever feeling tense just throw on some Chopin and everything feels normal again, but even the music can’t change the outcome of your decisions so be sure to stay focused. We also loved the comic book style when it came to explaining Jack Boyd’s narrative and the voice acting was really spot on. We only wish that there was more to do instead of sitting in isometric view the entire time, perhaps allowing us to go to the actual scene and maybe see how things pan out with our officers. Without spoiling the endgame there’s definitely something to look forward to but we only wish there was more.

We hope you enjoyed this review of This is the Police and find the game to be interesting. While the strategic outline may not serve everyone’s tastes it really does help to encourage players to think outside of the box, which is where this game shines. It’s not about rushing in this game but thinking very carefully about just who to hire, who to fire, and who to side with. In the end you truly do feel like a chief officer and so carefully picking out the bad apples in your units is where the fun starts, while solving serious crimes is the ultimate reward (hopefully not a lot of your officers die in the process). Be sure to follow us on Twitter and Twitch to know just when we go live with game content and who knows, you just might run into us playing some This is the Police on stream for you.

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