This Is the Police Reviews
The question of morality seems to be at the heart of This Is The Police, but the game doesn’t always seem to understand exactly what it’s trying to say
For the ultimate failure of This Is the Police is that it makes everyone culpable but the police.
When it does manage to deliver a hard-hitting narrative, This Is the Police really delivers. All too frequently, however, it's hard to connect with Jack and the other faceless denizens of Freeburg. While the core gameplay does succeed at conveying the challenge of being a police chief in the midst of a collapsing personal world, it doesn't exactly pull off being fun, especially during the frequent, slower moments.
If you’re a fan of strategy and management games then, at its core, This is the Police delivers an experience that should satisfy you. The story is dark and broody with some nice voice-acting moments in parts and some great beats, even if they are cliché. The way it deals with serious political issues in its late 1980’s fake American setting is often a little too on the nose, but it gives the player the freedom to tackle the issue as they see fit. It has a unique art-style that helps it stand out and, even if you don’t stick around until the very end, there are still hours of entertainment to be had.
I’ve really enjoyed my time with this very unique game. Yes there are pacing issues and it does outlive its welcome once we get about two thirds in, but for the price, there is a lot of game on display here.
A cool story with great writing and voice acting, hampered only by the day-to-day mechanics of running a police station. I could argue the game would have been better if the 18 hours of playtime had been trimmed to 13 or 14, but I still wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it to gamers who love a well told story and don’t need constant action.
So here I am, trying to protect the city by allocating my force to adequately address issues that arise, when a green icon appears on the screen. I click on it, like I would any other case, and it is a night club looking for help in controlling a line outside, due to a missing bouncer. Without giving it much thought, I send a capable officer over to support the community’s need. At the end of his shift, he quits - citing that the club pays more than the police, and the club owner slides me $4700 for the “favor”. Just like that, I’m a corrupt cop with a hole in my roster. Apparently, I need to pay more attention, or I’ll be in the pokey myself.
This Is The Police is undeniably compelling, the player charged with watching over a city that is already spiralling the drain. As with how your police force is broken down, it is best experienced in shifts – otherwise risking the experience descending into monotony, which, we can all admit, is something that we already suffer enough of in our jobs out in the real world.
This Is The Police takes the running of a police force and turns it into a strategic, management game with light RPG elements. You won't see any action here and the unreasonable, random demands made can be frustrating. However, throughout all of this, there is a narrative and a goal that can keep you engaged and entertained for many hours.
This is the Police is a dark gritty cop noire game, with real-world moral choices. By having this game on the Nintendo Switch makes it an ideal game to grab and lose some hours into it away from a TV screen. Highly recommend it!
A beautifully dark tale woven around an adequate management game.
A dangerous topic, handled poorly and resulting in a truly awful game. The gameplay has nothing to do with the story, but worse the gameplay doesn’t care if you play it. Just wait out a timer.
This Is the Police ends up being a pretty fascinating character study of a man with good intentions who’ll need to make a lot of bad decisions. You can try to maintain your integrity but the game seems to be written in the direction of not letting you do so for long, or at least not without paying such a steep price that you see the wisdom in picking and choosing when you’ll need to go dirty with good intentions… or at least you’ll tell yourself that. Games like these ask you to put yourself in a different position and then force you to play out events in a world where the deck is stacked against you and you don’t have the luxury of surviving without doing some unsavory things and pairing with terrible people. While it isn’t a perfect game in execution and it can be frustrating, often on purpose, it does make for a fascinating ride.
For the first title of this young Belarus studio, WeAppy's This is the Police managed a feat by combining narration and sim-management and is a must for fans of both genre.
Form-factor Nintendo Switch, This is the Police revealed the full extent of the operation is optimized for games with joycon and games on the touch screen, a sort of slowness pales against the portability of the device, and tasks that the developers have come up with humor that will make smile even the most repulsed of the melancholic, all of the above says only one thing, control of the police station interesting, and the plot tries to keep you in suspense, the only question remaining is who in the childhood did not dream to become a police officer?
Review in Russian | Read full review
This is the Police is a good idea, but somewhat clumsily executed despite its potential to be much more. Overwhelming pressure forcing the player to play along a certain route and too many virtual days to survive hamper this game from being “FTL with cops”. There will be those players who will love the rigor of its challenge, but for now it might be best to wait for an inevitable balance patch.
I almost feel bad talking about this game. Call it a guilty conscience, but This is the Police drew me in with its narrative speaking throughout the story. I will say that those parts were well written and at least mildly intriguing. But the actual game part failed to keep me engaged.