After a long night of tossing and turning with bad dreams, you wake up alone, still waiting to hear the whereabouts of your wife who ran off with a younger man.
You drag yourself out of bed and head down to the police station where the city’s most prolific crime boss has left you a threatening note, the corrupt mayor is on your tail, and, already short-staffed, you have to send your best cops to fulfill mafia promises, or your life may be the price to pay.
This is everyday life for our main character Police Chief Jack Boyd in the real-time management game “This Is the Police.”
We are dropped into the story as Boyd gives a press conference about his upcoming forced resignation. Due to corruption and political games, the beloved police chief is now forced to take an early retirement.
While Boyd is mostly a straight-shooter determined to keep the streets clean, he now has only six months to accumulate his $500,000 retirement fund, which means he may have to dip his toes into the corruption surrounding him.
As police chief, you run the day-to-day operations of the city’s police force. This includes the hiring and firing of cops and investigators, scheduling shifts and deciding who should respond to each 911 call as they come in.
Each call presents you with a scenario described through text and a suggested number of cops to send. You have to decide how many cops should respond to the crime to ensure peace is kept. Misjudge, and failure can mean the offender escapes, or even worse, the death of cops and civilians.
However, not every cop is created equal. Each has a level of professionalism, and energy levels also play an important role.
Managing your police force becomes more complicated as the narrative continues. The goal of the game is to acquire $500,000 while keeping crime to a minimum.
Money can be earned by taking down gangs through investigations and earning bonuses, though I don’t think it’s possible to win the game purely on the straight and narrow, which is where the mafia comes in.
Making the morally gray choice of looking the other way on crimes or sending cops to provide protection for mafia members will earn you big payouts from the local crime boss. You may find yourself in so deep, that it will cost you your life.
To make matters worse, you must play the game with corrupt politics going on at city hall.
Every day, you must find a way to balance keeping the streets and your employees safe, managing political corruption, mafioso demands and the public’s perception of you. All of this makes for a fun standard management video game with several layers that you must maintain simultaneously.
My biggest complaint is the investigation system. It took too long on each crime and was more trouble than it’s worth. You will also quickly realize failure is almost the standard for this game.
Your cops will not catch every perpetrator. Once you realize the objective is to keep tragic failures at a minimum, the game will become less frustrating.
Repetition becomes a problem in the late stage of the game, even though it feels like the game never stops throwing different mechanics at you.
The game’s strength is its narrative. Told in a comic book style paneling of images narrated by our anti hero police chief, the minimal and polygonal art style shines in a noir thriller setting.
Jon St. John, known as the voice of Duke Nukem, gives a terrific performance as our main character. His gruff, gravelly voice is the perfect sound for a 60-year-old police chief who is tired of having worked there for the past 40 years. “This is the Police” is a testament to how great voice acting can elevate your game.
Releasing a game revolving around police and corruption has the potential to tell realistic, impactful stories about our nation’s climate. However, gameplay decisions like the firing of all black cops, along with including a decision to suppress a feminist protest by force, come off as clumsy.
Though I think this can mostly be explained by the fact that developers Weappy Studio are based in Belarus, creating a disconnect with American audiences, which is a shame. This platform had a great opportunity to be an intriguing social deconstruction.
For a first time production by an indie studio, “This Is the Police” did a great job. Now that it’s been released across all platforms, it’s worth the $20 price tag.