There are plenty of games out there that have you in the shoes of police officers. The SWAT and Police Quest franchies come to mind, as well as the likes of Rainbow Six. These games all have common themes, however. Rainbow Six and SWAT are both known to be tactical shooters (unless you want to count SWAT 1 and 2), putting you in dangerous situations that require lots and lots of guns. Moreover, these games always portray said officers of the law as do-gooders who save the day and catch the bad guy (not to say that isn’t a good thing!). This Is The Police, however, is a very different story.
This Is The Police is more of a strange hybrid of strategy, simulation, and storytelling. Instead of playing as a normal police officer, you play as Jack Boyd (voiced by Jon St. John of Duke Nukem fame). Jack is the Chief of Police in a city known as Freeburg, a very corrupt place with plenty of issues. What makes This Is The Police so vastly interesting, though, is the fact that you feel like anything but a hero in your time with the game. Jack is not without his demons, and you’ll find that out quickly.
In This Is The Police, you play each day individually. Every day consists of some plot development and the actual “simulation” aspect. You have a few officers assigned to two shifts, A and B. These officers will be your foot soldiers in the corrupt town of Freeburg. Each officer has a professionalism rating–the higher it is, the better at their job they are. Successfully catching criminals raises their professionalism, and failing decreases it. You’ll find that your starting shifts have an extremely large variety in professionalism ratings, ranging from as high as 250 to as low as 5.
These police officers also have their personality traits and their vices. Unfortunately, they don’t tell you everything. Some of your officers are alcoholic, some are outright lazy, etc. etc.. Your people will often ask for days off for various reasons. Some excuses are viable, and some are just downright laughable. My favorite goes along the lines of, “I was reading this book last night but I couldn’t finish the last chapter before I fell asleep. Can I have the day off to go read it?”
Though you never want officers to be absent each shift, you’ll want to be at least a bit lenient lest they come to resent you. This also comes in to play with their energy levels. Every day an officer’s energy level will decrease, and they will start having trouble on the job if they’re tired.
While staring at the map of Freeburg, you’ll be faced with a plethora of problems to solve. These can range from petty shoplifting incidents to full blown shootouts. It’s your job as the player to assess the situation and send the appropriate number of skilled officers to deal with it. This will affect the outcome of the situation. The best outcome will involve no one being hurt and the criminal being apprehended. The worst case scenario is one of your officers, or even civilians, getting killed.
Sometimes you’ll even have side jobs show up, such as someone asking one of your officers to act as a bouncer for their club, or a request for some of your officers to participate in a shooting competition. Another thing you’ll run into frequently are cases for your detectives to solve. These can range from murder mysteries to high profile thefts. When your detectives are assigned to a case, you must gather information and then use said information to recreate the events leading up to the crime, thus allowing you to catch the perpetrator. Sometimes these criminals will be members of a gang and will offer to help you take the gang down in exchange for immunity.
All of these events can transpire within the span of about 5-10 minutes (which is about how long each day lasts), and it can be very overwhelming and stressful. But I’d be hard pressed to say it’s stressful in a bad way. There’s something strangely addicting about the feeling This Is The Police gives you. Think of it along the same lines as Dark Souls. It punishes you for sure; it stresses you out; it makes you sweat, but you keep coming back because overcoming that stress is extremely satisfying.
This Is The Police is very story driven. The main plot of the game revolves around Jack being suddenly removed from his position as Chief of Police by the corrupt and blatantly evil Mayor of Freeburg. Unfortunately, Jack has absolutely no retirement money to rely on, so your ultimate goal is to make $500,000 by the end of your stint in 180 days.
Over the course of these 180 days, you’ll have to manage your fellow officers (read: keep them alive and keep them from quitting), make important decisions, and constantly second guess said decisions. I don’t think I’ve quite played a game as “gray” as This Is The Police; no choice ever feels inherently right. Every choice I made, I based upon my own personal morals–what I would do were I in the situation. I quickly discovered, however, that doing what’s right often lands you in scalding hot water.
The best example of this (the only one I can explain without spoiling story elements) came along when I was informed that a racist group was threatening to kill all of my black police officers (of which I had about 5) unless I fired them within 2 days. Now, being the upstanding person I’d like to think of myself as, I immediately dismissed this, thinking “I’m not going to let a few thugs intimidate me into firing good men and women. Imagine how bad I’d look for that.” But the more I thought about it, the less I was sure of myself.
Do I fire them, make myself feel awful, but potentially save their lives? Or do I keep them on in an act of defiance, a way of saying, “You don’t scare me!” but risk the reality of my officers getting killed out of the blue? It was at this point I was so overwhelmed by the situations piling up in front of me that I had to take a break from the game for a while. In the end I decided not to fire my black officers. While they didn’t get killed (yet…) and I felt like a decent human being, City Hall became furious that I didn’t listen and told me that, “If you won’t listen to us, we won’t listen to you.” I assume this meant that it’d be harder for me to get approved for pay raises and new openings for officers.
I dare not spoil any plot points of the story because it’s an interesting and engaging one that I’d recommend you experience yourself. I can say that it is grim beyond my wildest expectations. There isn’t even so much as an ounce of happiness or hope in this game. It’s depressing, it’s discouraging, it’s real. You get hit in the face with one thing after the other, and it never lets up.
For this reason I will say that This Is The Police isn’t for everyone. It will stress you out, it will make you think, and it will make you second guess whatever you’re thinking about. It’s not a game that I could handle playing in long sessions because by the end of just one hour, I would be psychologically drained. And I love it. So much opens up for you to do, so many options come into play so quickly. In fact, even as I’m writing this review, there are still probably many scenarios that I have no clue about. This Is The Police manages to be a vast and open game, while still being confined to a few screens. It’s incredible.
What made it better was the soundtrack, which consists of smooth jazz and lounge music. I’m not typically a fan of these genres, but the upbeat feel of the song selection is such a hilariously stark contrast to the moody and depressing atmosphere of the game. It’s a perfect combination.
If I were to complain about anything, it would be that the insane number of issues and problems that hit you in the face can be overwhelming. It’s satisfying to overcome them, but sometimes you’ll only wish you had a moment of silence. On the story side of things, I feel that the cutscenes have a tendency to drag on a bit too long. Maybe I’m just impatient, but I would often feel drained having to sit through the slow dialogue, as good as that dialogue is.
In conclusion, This Is The Police is a stellar game. The simulation aspect is easy to understand thanks to the tutorial, and overcoming the situations and incidents of every new day is challenging and rewarding. The story is engaging, and it certainly feels like something out of a cop drama. However, if you don’t like the prospect of a game that will constantly beat you over the head with the consequences of choices you never thought mattered, I’d pass this one up.