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This Is The Police - corrupt police department simulator

J_C

One Bit Studio
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There is an interesting looking indie game out right now, which is basicly a corrupt police management simulator. It has stuff about corruption, beating down feminists and black people. And Kotaku is of course up in arms and gives the game a bad review. Thankfully most people on steam rate it as Recommended (95%).
And...that’s about the end of where I have nice things to say about This is the Police.
I mean...look at this.

aunyurvfja4qpy3fjowv.JPG

upload_2016-8-5_12-44-53.gif

Um, OK
And this:
e77xmtugmlnjylp9s8ho.JPG

upload_2016-8-5_12-44-53.gif

Big Woman. The conspiracy goes all the way to the top.
And:
dgcazni7ndj6obj0iap5.JPG

upload_2016-8-5_12-44-53.gif

You fail the mission if you select “No”
I brushed these off initially as part of a developing narrative, in which the game was leading me towards a very dark sense of humour.

There isn’t one. This is just...the way this game rolls. There isn’t anything smart being said here, there isn’t a heroic undercurrent to your work, you’re simply given repulsive tasks to do and told to do them, or else.
As I see it, these are pretty funny scenarios.
 

Mozg

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Joined
Oct 20, 2015
Messages
2,033
First screenshot is a chillingly realistic scenario that has often played out in the real world
 

Starwars

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Jan 31, 2007
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Location
Sweden
I've been playing it some. I can't really understand how anyone can take it seriously one way or another. Also, the game can also give you missions to have more female officers on the force or more asians. So it kinda cuts both ways.

But it doesn't really feel like it's trying to push an agenda either way I think.

As far as the gameplay, eh... it's simplistic and kinda addictive I suppose. But very repetitive and quite slow. The writing is shitty, going for a kinda noir-feel but missing the mark. It just ends up feeling unnecessarily wordy, especially since it's all presented via voiceovers (the story I mean, not the events you do deal with in the gameplay).

Not terrible, kinda amusing at times but definitely a missed opportunity since the idea of it is so interesting.
 

Brutan

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I haven't enjoyed a game so much in a while. I got hooked right away. I love how political decisions like mandating to have at least 50% women impacts you heavily and negatively. I had to fire men in order to meet the quota. Also, the fact that you can't play as Santa Claus (aka a police chief that isn't corrupt) is also a plus. We need more games like this.

I don't get why Kotaku is so upset about. I thought they believe that white men oppress women and blacks. If they did, wouldn't they put the police to subdue BLM and feminist protesters?
 

Comrade Goby

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I don't like the case investigations and the game does become very repetitive but I like the mood.

Solid effort m8s
 
Unwanted

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Last edited:

Mark Richard

Arcane
Joined
Mar 14, 2016
Messages
1,192
Really enjoying this so far. Initially I was turned off by a former colleague whose opinion made it sound like Long Live The Queen – static events that demand resources you couldn’t possibly have on hand without hindsight. That’s not entirely untrue. For example I know after the first couple of days the mayor is going to have my ass ask me to fire all black cops, so it could put me in a bad spot if I were to play those days without this knowledge. I can kind of turn a blind eye to the lack of replayability though, because the game is quite long, the police chief character (from the voice actor that brought you Duke Nukem) is hysterical, the music is great, and I just love the presentation of it all.

Speaking of those firings, yes This is the Police brings up issues like racism, sexism, and homophobia, but it doesn’t really examine them much. Whether you find the game offensive probably depends on whether you strongly believe certain controversial subjects should never be portrayed in media unless that media has something meaningful to say on the matter. Personally, I don’t subscribe to that attitude. It’s not like the game is rewarding bigotry. Firing black cops means an avalanche of wrongful termination lawsuits and a loss of vital manpower. This is the Police makes you spin plates, and it’s impossible to keep them all up in the air.
 

Starwars

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Jan 31, 2007
Messages
2,829
Location
Sweden
Couldn't make it past... well, I think it was around day 100 or so.

Great idea ruined by repetitive gameplay and drawn out cutscenes.
 

Gord

Arcane
Joined
Feb 16, 2011
Messages
7,049
Got the game from last Humble Monthly.
One of the games I would have never played otherwise, but since I now own it anyway and it received some praise...

So, played a couple of hours, for the first 2-3 weeks ingame time.
As others have written here, you're a police chief about to be retired. Apparently you are rather well-liked and somewhat successful in your job, but no saint.
You avoided getting your hands really dirty or consorting with the really bad guys (which is about to change), but otherwise sport a somewhat flexible moral codex.

Gameplay-wise it's a mixture of strategy game with visual novel.
The strategy part is to a large extend about manging your resources and relations to the big players in the city (mayor, mafia).
The overall storyline has a few decisions to make, but from what I found on the net, you are largely going down a set path with minor variations:
E.g. very early on, your corrupt deputy tells you that he's about to flee the city and his mafia friends ask for a new contact in the department, otherwise they'll kill him and his family. You can help him and will become the new bitch of the mafia, or refuse him so he get's killed and you still become the new bitch of the mafia.

The game's goal has you gather money for your (illegal) retirement fund while trying not to piss of the mayor and the mafia too much (might be that down the line you can actually fight back, we'll see). Piss them off too often and you'll find yourself without men and money to run the department (mayor) or simply dead (mafia).
The mayor has a tendency to ask you to act like a fascist (e.g. beat down peaceful protests) or racist (fire black employees) - so it's clear that many codexers shouldn't see any problem there.
The mafia may ask you to turn a blind eye on their crimes (range from thefts to homicide) or just to send over some cops to teach them driving and stuff (kid you not).
A typical day has you watching the city and dispatch your police force whenever an incident pops up - how many men you need depends on their abilities and the severity of the incident. If there are several things happening at once and you are anyway short on men because you did stand up to the mayor too often, you are forced to ignore some incidents.
From time to time you get asked by your men how to proceed with a situation. If you choose wrongly the suspect escapes and you can get your men and/or civilians killed.
There are also investigations, which require detectives instead of normal cops and consist of two (?) phases - investigation and arrest if you manage to get the investigation right.

My (so far) biggest issue with the game is that the time flows rather slowly while on the strategic map - it would be nice to speed up the time flow when nothing is happening or all your men are on the streets going places - you can do nothing but watch and wait in such cases.

So far it's fun, but there's a definite possibility that it will get repetitive eventually.
 

Sturmgewehr44

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From that description the game sounds exciting and while I am not sure if I would purchase, there needs to be more games like this that present the player with such realistic and brutal scenarios in the strategy genre.
 

Zombra

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Yeah, this is a good game despite one or two flaws. My playthrough stalled due to some annoying mechanics surrounding the serial killer case. I should get back and replay it to the finish.

Kotaku of course missed the point. Yes, you can get in trouble with the NPC mayor if you don't obey his racist edicts. Yes, you can fail missions given to you by criminals if you refuse to commit crimes. No, moral choices don't always get you a cookie. (Sometimes they do.) Sometimes arbitrary shit happens despite your best (or worst) intentions, and you do have to do some distasteful things in order to survive. This is what "corruption" is. This is why we have a word for it. And this is what makes the decision-making in this game so interesting.
 

Gord

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Joined
Feb 16, 2011
Messages
7,049
What I found ironic is that when e.g. you oppose the mayor and do not bust the peaceful pro-equality protests, you are suddenly required by the mayor(!) to have 50% of your police force made up by women. :lol:

Choice and consequences, bitches...
 
Self-Ejected

unfairlight

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Aug 20, 2017
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4,092
I liked the 2 hours I played of it. I got killed by the mafia but then I quit because the gameplay gets pretty repetitive at that point.
 

Mark Richard

Arcane
Joined
Mar 14, 2016
Messages
1,192
Yeah, this is a good game despite one or two flaws. My playthrough stalled due to some annoying mechanics surrounding the serial killer case. I should get back and replay it to the finish.

Kotaku of course missed the point. Yes, you can get in trouble with the NPC mayor if you don't obey his racist edicts. Yes, you can fail missions given to you by criminals if you refuse to commit crimes. No, moral choices don't always get you a cookie. (Sometimes they do.) Sometimes arbitrary shit happens despite your best (or worst) intentions, and you do have to do some distasteful things in order to survive. This is what "corruption" is. This is why we have a word for it. And this is what makes the decision-making in this game so interesting.
Current politicised issues can't really be used as a backdrop for a game without the games media insisting it should be the focus. Kotaku judges This is the Police based on what they want it to be rather than what it is. And what is, is noir. You're not judged for the choices you make. You're not presented with a righteous option and an evil joke option. Noir is by definition a genre of cynicism and moral ambiguity.
 

Shackleton

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Yeah, just been playing this myself as I got it ages ago in a Humble. I was sort of enjoying it, but after day 20 or so I was thinking 'is this it?' for gameplay and when I saw in some screen '145 days to go' I just thought, ugh.

Couldn't stick another 140 days of it. It was only barely more interactive than a VN and I guess they were hoping the 'develop your cops' bit would grab people, but they've got almost zero personality.

It was one of those games where I really got the feeling I was just wasting time playing it. Wasn't challenging, wasn't very interesting mechanically, didn't really grab me with the story. Strange a game about a corrupt cop running a city during a mafia war could be so... bland.
 

Zombra

An iron rock in the river of blood and evil
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I did restart the game and man is this good. I'm finding that LARPing helps maintain interest in my officers' careers: this is the guy I like to send for dangerous assignments, these idiots do dirty work for the mafia, I have a crush on her so I don't send her into violent situations, I don't like that guy's face so I'll make him my informant and hope he eventually gets discovered and killed by his coworkers. Also it's fun paying attention to their hidden stats over time. I notice that guy gets tired easily, that gal makes excuses to stay home every damn day, that guy really is a problem drinker. It's fun to decide who's a big enough liability to try to get them off my payroll - one way or another.

The halfway point does slow down for sure, not because the gameplay is bad but because there are no major crimes happening. Once I close the serial killer case and dismantle the mafia pyramid from bottom to top, what's my goal? I have $450,000 of my $500,000 goal already and it's only day 80 of 180. There's still independent drug smuggling and riots to quell but it's just day-to-day at this point.

BUT the day-to-day is still fun and I think I'll complete the game this time. I'm also expecting a few curves, maybe my offshore account will disappear, maybe the mafia isn't really dead, maybe a case will start where I can catch the real serial killer. Also want to see how Jack Boyd's story ends up. The cutscenes do slow things down sometimes but I enjoy the writing and characterizations, and they're nice for breaking up the somewhat grindy gameplay.

In other news, for anyone who didn't hear, a sequel is in development with much deeper day-to-day mechanics including RPG stats and development and XCOM-style tactical arrests. Go post in that thread and check out the trailers, it looks great.
 
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Zombra

An iron rock in the river of blood and evil
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By the way, I did end up finishing. Postgame thoughts and tips:
  • Overall the game is very good and absolutely worth playing. Worth full price $15 in fact (I'm sure you can get it cheaper).
  • Make sure you know what noir is. A lot of idiots out there (cough steam forums cough) expect to be a dragon slaying hero, level up, get the girl and live happily ever after. Don't be an idiot.
  • Total game time is - wow! - over 30 hours! Didn't seem that long.
  • If you have a bad start and your department starts shrinking, start over. There is no way out of a "failure spiral".
  • Eventually your department will get huge - instead of 3 cops per shift you'll have 12+. This doesn't make it especially easy as there are a lot more events to cover in the late game.
  • Sadly detective investigations don't get more numerous, but that department also gets huge. You'll be assigning 8 detectives to every case and finishing them all in no time.
  • Speaking of investigations, the Consulting Detective upgrade makes them much easier (but still challenging). I recommend it.
  • The story takes place over the course of 6 months, but you don't have to play out the daily strategic game 180 times. Certain events skip the clock forward.
  • There is usually at least one cutscene a week. If you care about the story at all, this adds good texture and pacing, and stops the strategic game from becoming too "grindy".
  • If you don't care about the story at all, don't bother playing.
  • The solution to the serial killer case is unfair - expect to fuck it up and have to replay the week - and/or read this spoiler.
    Plastic gloves =/= leather gloves.
  • If you choose to hide the serial killer evidence from the FBI, pay very close attention to your department that week. An important event is easy to miss.
  • There is a tactical positioning minigame (the "assault") at the very end. It's very badly done in that you have to learn a new minigame with completely new rules, and if you make one mistake choosing positions for all 12 of your guys, it's game over. This is awful "final boss" design. Unless you are very confident, it's OK to just look up the solution.
  • If you don't like noir, don't be an idiot. This isn't for you.
 
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Mark Richard

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Glad you enjoyed it, bullshit ending minigame aside. I might give the game a replay considering the free content updates since the initial release.

No idea how much success This is the Police had, but the game racked up an impressive Steam user score and later appeared on every platform, so evidently it's been enough to produce a sequel without the need to dip back into crowdfunding. Definitely on my must buy list for this year.
 

Raghar

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Fucking major embezzled 3/5 of money obtained by police department from corrupted bussinesmen. He needs to go down.
 

toro

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This is good :)

02D71FDD95C7BB47794A847A747B448178A793BC
 

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