This Is the Police Reviews
Accessible and routine, This Is The Police is simultaneously a rich video game and a poor depiction of its subject matter. Whether the game's creators welcome it or not, at times like these, when police officers in the US are under intense scrutiny, This Is the Police's representation of their work bears similarly close examination. By that measure it falls short of relevance and borders on removed.
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.
An intriguing concept hindered by too much going on. There are plenty of details throughout, but few received the attention they deserved.
This is the Police presents situations that aren’t deep enough to invoke social commentary, yet it still takes the opportunity to arbitrarily throw them out in the open. It’s missing key storytelling elements that allow for that kind of messaging, and in the mundane yet slur-sprinkled missions those ideas fall apart. However with its interesting gameplay mechanics, pretty packaging, and plans for a sandbox mode it has a lot of future promise which I hope they deliver on.
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.
This Is The Police is a challenging portrayal of law enforcement that falters when it comes to meaningful commentary. While it constructs a good form and addresses topical concerns, it fails to say anything definitive. Starting a conversation is worthwhile, but that only carries the game so far before its menial nature drags it down.
This Is the Police is mechanically sound on the surface, but digging deeper leads to disappointment in the randomized events and a lack of meaningful decisions to make.
This Is The Police leans on cliched scenarios and characters, but it represents some of the real struggles a police force has to deal with, like budgets being cut and a city with a lot of social problems. While Weappy states that the events of the game aren’t inspired by recent events, some of things that happen are rather poignant when viewed in that light. At the same time, This Is The Police is a tough game to get to grips with and there are certain annoying limitations. like not being able to reroute police to another call feel like annoying limitations rather than part of the challenge. A sandbox mode will help to keep things fresh when it is released, but even now This Is The Police is a decent simulation title.
This is the Police is far too long for the amount of content it provides. Only true believers will make it within shouting distance of the ending
This Is the Police is an enjoyable but flawed management sim that gives you a taste of what it's like to be the chief of police.
All things being equal, I’m hard-pressed to think of a game that more exceeded my expectations than This is the Police. A fully-formed, engaging story that’s tied together underneath a solid and demanding simulator game is certainly something I’ve never seen before, and it’s all handled excellently.
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.
A beautifully dark tale woven around an adequate management game.
This Is The Police looks and sounds gorgeous, but becomes dull and repetitive after the first couple of hours.
A promising premise but falls short of its full potential by overreaching itself.
It’s a bit of a mixed bag. If you’re happy to sit idly waiting for balloons of jobs to pop up, and take each day as slowly as it comes, then you’ll probably get a lot more out of this tale of corruption and downfalls than I did. But if you’re interested in deeper systems and micromanaging your officers, forget it, it’s Chinatown.
This game reached its peak (for me) about half way through when it started to become a little too repetitive and tedious. The decisions you make do shape the story (initially) but only to an extent as you are basically forced into becoming a corrupted cop anyway. Instead of it being ‘choice driven’, I found this game to be more about skills management and balancing resources (no matter how corrupted you are) to make sure all parties you interact with are happy. The controversial content (racism, sexism etc.) may be a bit hard to swallow but it certainly adds to the story of police corruption and gives the game a different edge. I would say it is good value for money for the crime buffs among us, but not a must play title.