This Is The Police - corrupt police department simulator

[toro]

Well, fuck this game.

I've reached day 170 (basically I only have 10 more days to go) but I'm giving up on it because the entire end game (for me) was ruined by one single decision.

Spoiler

the fuel swap decision

I understand that it was a bad decision but seriously, I lost almost all my best cops because of that and I cannot do shit about correcting it. Shitty way of taking agency from the player.

Also the final assault mini-game is stupid as fuck (probably the most retarded thing I've encountered in long time). It's awful.


I'm too nervous to be subjective about this ... but I've played like 15 hours in total and I already made my mind after like 5 hours that's why I will say what I have to say.

There is only one reason to play this game: for the story. Everything else is simply mediocre and can be described with plenty of negative expletives and pejoratives.

The main issue is that the game's narrative is also a letdown: while some characters (like Jack Boys, Lana) are exceptionally well written, the overall story doesn't know what to do with them. The Mayor, Troy and Chaffee interactions make no sense whatsoever.

Spoiler

I almost popped out a vein when I heard the ruse explanation for the Dentist

So, basically you get a game which has good writing, music and atmosphere ... it manages to be very immersive and to make you care about the protagonist and then it shits all over the place just because ... who knows.


Normally I should recommend it but to be honest it is a bad game because the narrative is like 20% of the experience while 80% of the gameplay is simply bland and boring. The entire police station management part is a fucking drag after the first days.

Realistically speaking most players will be burned out by day 30. Most of them will not reach day 60 and only masochists like me will reach day 100. Only a good narrative payoff could justify such an effort but there is None.
No, I don't need to play 10 more days because I know the ending is retarded. I can smell it.

In such conditions, I recommend to wait for a sale or even avoid it.

 

[nobre]

This game is the good shit. Had my 500k, around the 160 day mark, was solving severe problems left and right when suddenly FBI came to my door to arrest me, resulting in a game-over screen.
Decided to not reload but start completely over. This time I'm aiming for 1 mil and anyone trying to speak up will end up getting themselves killed. No mercy!

 

[toro]

The games are currently discounted (*free) on Steam. Both of them.

Edit: Link for mentally deficient people: https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/7937/This_Is_the_Police_Bundle/

 

[Ismaul]

It's on sale right now at GOG. Today only.

Might try it out after I finish ATOM.

Btw has anyone played the sequel?

 

[Mark Richard]

Btw has anyone played the sequel?

It's a big improvement in most respects. The thread's in the Tactical Gaming forum because the sequel added tactical combat missions:

https://rpgcodex.net/forums/index.p...-police-2-now-with-turn-based-tactics.120401/

 

[Ismaul]

The thread's in the Tactical Gaming forum because the sequel added tactical combat missions

hnnnnng

games in a series go together VS defined categories by features

 

[agentorange]

Just finished this. I really liked the game for about...the first 5 hours or so, but had to suffer through 17 more hours which plays out at a snail's pace. I agree with most of what toro said, but some additional complaints:

The game is incredibly unclear about your objectives and which choices do or do not have a significant impact on the outcome of the story. I couldn't tell if anything I did was changing the story, or if it was mostly linear (it turns out it is mostly linear).

I didn't know that gathering $500,000 was an objective until about half-way through the game, and then it turns it is not actually an objective (has no effect on the ending, or anything for that matter).

The game is basically a false-front. All the management is superficial, as is evidenced by the fact that near the end of the game, for the last 30 day or more, I entirely ignored every 911 call but ended up being able to finish the game just fine, and your performance has no effect on the endings (so toro could have finished the game despite the fuel choice). City Hall kept cutting my budget and reducing the size of my staff but it didn't matter because I wasn't sending anyone out anyways. I ended up getting $500,000 through the poker mini-game and taking a few of the corruption calls from Atticus etc. (but of course it turns out that even gathering that 500k was pointless as stated above).

I assume the intent was to be "artistic" with some message about how trying to pursue a singular objective obsessively causes us to lose sight of everything else (although Jack actually isn't doing this, but that's a whole other issue with character's motivations being all over the place) and blahblah everything turns out shit (complete with achievements that reference moby dick, woah) but it's just fucking retarded in a game that puts on a show of being a complex management sim filled with choices.

It's an 18 hour CYOA where none of your choices matter and you can't even make it play out faster by reading more quickly.