This Is the Police

подавился кофе пока пытался ебнуть этого сраного перси

Interesting Premise, but falls flat on execution. Why cant i be good? Why must i be evil??

Its a good time sink

"This Is the Police" offers a technically competent simulation of moral decay where the real monster isn't the criminals or corrupt officials, but the system that makes corruption feel like rational self-preservation. The game succeeds precisely where it should disturb—by making you complicit in your character's compromise while feeling you had no choice. Its greatest achievement and failure are identical: turning ethical collapse into entertainment.

So, I'm sharing my impressions after a full playthrough of This Is the Police.

Plot

The characters are well-drawn, the dialogues are lively, and the cutscenes really grab your attention and keep you in constant tension and waiting for the events to unfold. The narrative is in the best tradition of drama and noir. If a film were made on the script of this game, it would be a great cinematic story, worthy of a wide screen. I didn't notice any illogicalities or script holes, although the stretching of the story for 180 game days sometimes led to confusion in the chronology of events, especially when characters remembered some details from the past in passing.

Game Mechanics

The first third of the game, roughly the first 60 game days, are played in one breath: new interesting mechanics like working with the mafia, interaction with different factions, in-depth management of police personnel and detailed analysis of challenges are constantly appearing. During this period, every crime is thoroughly investigated, informed decisions are made, and the whole gameplay is engrossing.

However, by the middle of the game, monotony and monotony sets in, and the game loup turns into a routine. You don't read crime reports so carefully anymore and start thinking only about how to get to the end of the story as soon as possible. Towards the end of the game the developers introduce some dubious complications, for example, the division of police officers by views and characters. Now you have to send not just any available cop on a call, but compatible cops, otherwise the call will inevitably fail. Does this make the game more interesting? Rather annoying, as it becomes just an additional inconvenience.

Besides, closer to the finale there is a feeling that the developers artificially prolonged the passage. There are situations when you get 4 calls at the same time, each of which requires sending at least 4 cops, and you have only 9 people. Cops start to die en masse, but there is no desire to worry about each officer - you just accept it and skip the calls.

Investigations

Similar to the main game mechanics, investigations at the initial stage are perceived as an extremely interesting mystery, where the puzzle of events is gradually formed. However, the closer you get to the end of the game, the less well-designed the crime scenes and clue pictures for investigations become. Due to the specific style of drawing and extremely poor descriptions, sometimes it is impossible to understand which element of the puzzle corresponds to the real events, even if you have a good idea of what exactly happened at the crime scene. For example, the picture with the van does not make it clear - is the van arriving or leaving the crime scene? At the beginning of the game there are no such inconsistencies, it seems that the developers got tired and just stopped carefully refining the later stages of the game.

Final Stage Mechanics

The final stage of the game turned out to be the biggest disappointment for me. The final episode requires you to gather information, analyse it and strategically place people in the right spots. Despite the fact that I had scrutinised all the data and was confident in my character placement logic, attempts to complete the final episode repeatedly failed. After several attempts, I had to turn to the guide - it turned out that the final mechanics were not fully implemented correctly. It is written in the instructions one thing, but in fact it turns out quite differently, which spoils the impression of the climax of the whole story.

All in all, the game leaves mixed emotions. On the one hand, the atmosphere, story and the first hours of gameplay are great. On the other hand - monotony, artificial complications and not fully worked out mechanics significantly spoil the impression from the second half of the passage. The ending looks logical and fair, although I would like more freedom of choice in some key moments.

As a result, we get a game ‘for once’. I believe that if the duration had been shorter - say, about 15 hours instead of 22 - it would have benefited the whole game experience and would have improved the overall impression.

6/10

Usually before I go shaking my tits for the press, I like to see how the professionals do it

А very contradictory game, as if forcing our hero to do something he has never done in his entire life, to dance to someone else's tune, our independent hero before retirement, so to speak, to work on 2 fronts, to cooperate with the mafia and the city hall, this proves that one simply did not exist without the other, that the mafia and the city hall are one structure that does not respect the law, it is very difficult for us the hero to work like this, but there is no choice but to live to the end and retire, the most painful thing for him was the loss of not only his job, but also the club of his whole life, in which he was simply forgotten, thrown out

a card-based game, where completing the task, as well as investigating, breaking up criminal groups, staged murders of his subordinates, at the same time encouraging them in the service, cooperation with various mafia groups, making ambiguous decisions that can greatly affect the development of events.

At the end of the game, I decided to knock out the current mayor, since he committed far more crimes with his own hands and those of others (especially with the hands of the cops, giving criminal orders) than a young entrepreneur who can do the same, but not kill anyone, will be able to destroy this system that has been passed down from generation to generation. In the end, we were openly kicked out for $ 1 and put in prison someone whom Jack did not hate with all his heart.

That's such a painful price for everything you've done in your life
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Дуже суперечлива гра, ніби змушує нашого героя робити те, чого він ніколи не робив за все життя, танцювати під чужу дудку, нашого незалежного героя перед пенсії, так би мовити, працювати на 2 фронти, співпрацювати з мафією і мерією, це доводить, що одне просто не існувало без іншого, що мафія і мерія це одна структура, яка не поважає закон, нам дуже важко герою так працювати, але немає іншого виходу, як дожити до кінця і піти на пенсію, найболючішим для нього була втрата не тільки роботи, а й клубу всього життя, в якому його просто забули, викинули

карткова гра, де виконуючи завдання, а також розслідуючи, розбиває злочинні угруповання, інсценує вбивства своїх підлеглих, водночас заохочуючи їх до служби, співпрацює з різними мафіозними угрупованнями, приймає неоднозначні рішення, які можуть сильно вплинути на розвиток подій.

Наприкінці гри я вирішив нокаутувати нинішнього мера, оскільки він скоїв набагато більше злочинів своїми та чужими руками (особливо руками ментів, віддаючи злочинні накази), ніж молодий підприємець, який може зробити те саме, але нікого не вбити, зможе зруйнувати цю систему, яка передається з покоління в покоління. У підсумку нас відверто вигнали за 1 долар і посадили того, кого Джек не ненавидів всією душею.

Це така болюча ціна за все, що ти зробив у своєму житті

Really good RPG, city management and choice matter game.
Great voice acting, narrative and everything. Great NOIR game!

📅 Date Completed: November 6th, 2024

🏆C Tier Ranking

TL;DR: This was just okay. Playing as a corrupt police chief, balancing city hall, officers, and public demands has moments of it being fun.. But the story sort of falls flat, especially with a disappointing ending.

🎮 Gameplay & Mechanics

The resource management aspect of assigning officers, handling investigations, and responding to calls is the strongest part of the game. Balancing the demands of city hall, your officers, and the public adds depth to the experience and mirrors that of what I have witnesses of real life police chiefs. However, the sheer number of officer deaths over the playthrough and how easily replacements arrived was highly unrealistic (odd complaint I know).

👮‍♂️ Story & Atmosphere

The story was lackluster. The moral dilemmas and power struggles attempted to keep things interesting, but the ending was underwhelming. Whole thing felt anticlimactic and unfulfilling.

📟 Steam Deck Experience

I played this on my Steam Deck OLED. The game runs perfectly without issue.

🔄 Replayability

Moderate at best. The gameplay loop of resource (officer) management is enjoyable, but any reason for a replay would be to try and challenge yourself and see if you have less officers die on the job.

🏁 Final Verdict

Recommendation: I would most recommend this to police officers. Not sure how much I would recommend to others. Mixed recommendation.
Price Paid: $4.99
Worth It at That Price: Yes.

The game has a quite original concept, very distinct art style, music that you can choose and collect through vinyls that puts you in the mood of a film noir. Too bad the execution behind the idea is not really there.
There are so many cutscenes that at first I thought this was a visual novel. I was surprised when, at some point, it got to a strategy/management game, which was actually the core of the game.

The problem I have, and I see I'm far from being the only one now that I read other reviews, is that the game forces you to be a corrupt cop. It would be interesting if it was making it super hard not to be, but here it just gives you the illusion of choice and there's actually only one way to play: be full-on corrupt.
The problem is that I found that out the hard way by having my character just die on me at the end of the second week. And it came out of nowhere. There was no real warning before. And I could do nothing to prevent it. And my game was over with no way to go back a little bit, just start all over. And it took me 3 hours to go to day 16 or something, and you're supposed to play until day 180! I read another review where he was killed after day 80, and he was not even halfway through the story and it took him 8 hours to get there.

It's not that the game is badly made (although it's a little bit laggy), it's quite pretty to look at and listen to, the menus are good. However, it is badly designed. There's nothing worse in a game than being punished for something you couldn't see coming, and then have to restart the game from the very beginning to have another attempt, when the game is riddled with cutscenes (that can be skipped but still) and a complete grind fest.
Plus, the premise makes no sense to me. You're supposed to be this soon-to-retire veteran cop that is apparently the most liked cop in the history of the city because he has integrity and busted so many criminals. And somehow, the game forces you, 180 days from retirement, to become all of a sudden an oppressive, extremely violent and completely corrupt pig. He even tells it himself: what would people be thinking "you know that cop that we loved so much, it turns out he was in the mafia dog all along" (something along those lines).

So maybe the game gets better when you play exactly how the dev expects you too, but why give us a choice if you don't really have any? And if you're gonna pull that off, then don't make it so hard to try again because it will take you hours to get back to the same day on a new run. I'm sorry but I won't try again if it's to be disappointed and lose everything hours later, and the journey there is really not interesting either.

Good style, disappointing substance.

absolute cinema masquerading as a management sim

Go F**k Yourself, Troy Starr!

This game is boring mid aged man whining about his life, nobody gives a fuck alright?

I spent 23 hours completing this game and the ending fucking suck ass. Fun gameplay and interesting plot but the ending ruined it for me. And I haven't written any reviews on Steam before. You can tell how disappointed I am.

Corrupt cop simulator. No thinking, only be a corrupt officer and occasionally solve crimes. Don't even try to be "good" you get killed regardless on how severely or how little you try to be good.

After 10 hours of marginally interesting story I got a game over screen and I don't know why. Confused. If I invest time in a game I don't want to spend my time confused then have to start over. I spent 10 hours hoping for a payoff only for the rug to be pulled out from under me

Love that the game isn't treating you like a fool and at the same time doesn't try too challenge you in every possible way. Great story and gameplay supports it in every aspect.

A frustrating game if you want to get all the achievements, more fun if you don’t care about them. As entertainment it works quite well: No matter what you do, there will be some asshole trying to take advantage of you and to control the city. Lucky you’re not much better yourself. Management can be tough: Not enough manpower to serve all missions will eventually lead to higherups deciding you’re overstaffed (sic). I think they hit it spot on.

A fun little game. The main character and the storyline are compelling enough to keep me hooked for the entirety of the game. The game mechanics are fundamentally very simple. Initially, I believed there was an underlying complexity to the decisions and the management of the policemen, but this was not the case, or perhaps I missed it somehow. Ultimatelly, this did not detract from my experience, as the story was the primary driving force for me. I just wanted to know how it ends for Jack.
What I didn't like, is that the game was unnecessarily long, and the management aspect didn't feel too challenging. Contrary to some online opinions/reviews that say the game can be really unfair, I myself did not felt that. However, I can understand how certain events might create an impression of unfairness. I was likely just fortunate that these events did not significantly impact my gameplay, leading me to conclude that the game was considerably easier than I expected.
At the end I really enjoyed my time with This is the Police and I would like to see if something changes with different decisions in another playthrough, but I won't. It just drags for too long, which might not be an issue if the much of that time wouldn't be just waiting.
So, my advice is play it, enjoy it, be glad that you did and move on.

did not enjoy

I liked a lot of what This Is The Police does, but it's really hindered by some quite upsetting aspects that end up completely breaking immersion, making it boring and sometimes frustrating.

In short, it's a game where you play the police chief in the fictional city of Freeburg in 1985, and your job his to hire officers and detective, assign them to cases, and try to navigate the politics of being a police chief in a corrupt city. It's a cool idea and it really gripped me in the beginning.

But the first problematic point, for me, was - the game forces you to be corrupt. It's doesn't "make it really hard" to play without going bad, like for example Papers Please does. It literally forces you.
Very early in the game, I got an offer from the Mafia to basically start working for them. I declined. Two days later, I was informed - they didn't accept my negative answer, I'm working for them anyway. Started getting requests from them, and I just ignored those because - again - I didn't wanna be corrupt. A few more days later, the story informed me in a cutscene that I have been assassinated. The end.

Well, sh!t, why even pretend to give me a choice in this if it just means I die?

Fine, whatever. I restarted. My playthrough wasn't going that well anyway - I was being too nice and it resulted in officers and civilians being killed. Turns out, the best approach in every case is to be aggressive as hell. Got a hostage situation? Don't negotiate, that'll let him escape and get your officers killed. Just send SWAT in and shoot him in the head. It seems the best approach 100% of the time is to go for the kill, and once I realized that, my 2nd playthrough literally had a success rate of 100%.

Things were going great this time. I accepted that the game wants me to be corrupt, and I just fully embraced it this time. Did everything the mob asked. Perfectly handled every call that wasn't mob related, solved every detective case, the mayor was happy with me and so all my requests for upgrades were accepted. Everything was going great.
I reached day 30 almost bored, because everything was going so smoothly I didn't even need to think anymore. I started watching youtube videos on my 2nd monitor while playing, because the game alone just wasn't interesting enough, but I did want to continue the story.
Then day 31 came, and there's a time jump. Not gonna spoil why, but the story jumps forward a couple of weeks. And when I got back... things were suddenly really bad. All of my officers were exhausted, overworked and unhappy. Some had 0 energy bars left. I had to have SOMEONE in the shift so I ordered some to stay and work, but that wasn't enough to deal with all the crimes that popped up, and suddenly I had to fail handling some calls, civilians die, the mayor was mad, and... worst of all, my best detective died in a car accident, fell asleep at the wheel because he was overworked.
What the f*ck. I get that the game needed to up the difficulty a bit because things were going too smoothly to be interesting, but taking me out only to f*ck up my squad and then bring me back to pick up the pieces? That's such a lousy way to do it. That's like saying "well if you don't make mistakes, we will make mistakes for you". Why do I even bother then?

Whatever. I was upset but the story was interesting enough I kept playing, and soon enough I had things under control again and, and that's when things started getting interesting. I had a serial killer on the loose, which presented new challenges, plus I got a real opportunity to take out the mafia. A way out of corruption, I figured.

So I start working on both of these things, mainly focused on the mafia thing. Working up the ladder, arresting people and turning them against their superior, climbing and climbing on a mountain of evidence to reach the top.
Then, like 30 days later, I finally get the evidence I need to reach to top guy, and... oh, can't arrest him now. We got the final piece of evidence kinda late in the day and the lead detective on the case needs to go home. His shift ended, you see. And you can't make the arrest without him (well, you can, but you risk a significantly lower chance of success).
Again, what kind of bullsh*t is this? This is the biggest bust of his career. This is taking down the mafia. This would make him a city hero, it's an arrest any detective dreams of, and... he's fine with putting it off until the day after tomorrow, because his shift just ended? What??
I was just so confused by this, that I actually forgot I have the option to order him to work tomorrow, meaning I'd only have to wait 1 night and not 2. So I waited another 2 days, and... by the morning of the 2nd - I get informed: I was too late to the arrest, the suspect got away.
Weeks of work, all down the drain because my lead detective couldn't work a bit of overtime to get the biggest bust of his life.

Add to that the annoyance during these couple of weeks where we literally have a serial killer on the loose, I need all hands on deck, and every day I got a few officers coming in saying sh!t like "Hey I was reading a book last night and I really wanna finish it, can I get the day off?" - No, of course you can't, there's a SERIAL KILLER terrorising the city. What is wrong with you?

It was just too much. I get it, the story wants to hammer in the idea that everybody is corrupt in this city, the good guys don't always win, etc etc. Fine. But it feels like it uses dirty tricks to make these points, and with the game being this long (I got to day 80-something in 8 hours, and the game is supposed to be 180 days long, so I assume it would have taken around 18-20 hours to finish), and it's just too much. I can't take 10 more hours of this.
If the entire playthrough was 8 hours long, that would have been fine. It was mostly enjoyable for that long. But realizing I'm not even halfway through and I have to endure so much more of this was... too much. I can't do it.

This is genuinely one of my favourite management games because it requires you to be a bit strategic with your mangement of the officers at your disposal.

Anyhow. You are Jack Boyd, Freeburg's police chief and City hall plans to remove you at the end of tenure as the mayor plans to put his son in charge. You have a 100 days to get a retirement fund and bounce. How will you make it happen?

It falls short on a few things such as it being a very very long game that could take up to 20 hours if not more but its filled with many suprising quests and other choices that do matter to the story.


7/10, Would play again if i had so much patience and time.

The graphics and scenes are stunning, creating a visually pleasing experience. The gameplay is smooth and satisfying, especially with the diverse cases that keep you hooked. The variety of cases adds so much depth to the game. And the soundtrack, it's incredible! from jazz to chopin, it truly enhances the overall experience. Good game!

I really wanted to like this game, it has plenty charm. The voice acting is solid and the premise is good.

Sadly, the grind is boring, and by grind i mean the average gameplay. It takes on average, 5 minutes for a day. There are something 180 days in the game. A lot of this time, is spent just waiting.

Very solid game with a nice and unique art. The only problem with the game is that it tends to get a bit boring around middle and that final mission is a bit of dissapointment (at least for me). Issues that I have with the game could be fixed if some mechanics from This is Police 2 were adapted into the game or if modding support was added but that seems unlikely at this point. But still a man can dream...

If you can't beat 'em, join 'em.

I played This Is the Police off an on over the course of a couple years and it has consistently kept me captivated.
This game is a slow burn with a story that takes place in a world that feels real. You never see what the city of Freeburg actually looks like, rather you learn through comic book style illustrations and well written dialogue. Their are no "good guys," nor "bad guys" in This Is the Police, only deeply flawed people attempting to gain power over a city.

An absolute masterpiece. Can’t wait for more!

worth every penny

i am in absolute LOVE with this game, the hbo-like writing, the tactical rts gameplay, the social commentary, the soundtrack filled with a fine selection of jazz tunes, it's like this game was made for me.

Really fun, relaxing, and classic police game.

Дуже крута. З нетерпінням чекаю третю частину

Playing this game consumes way too much time. The city hall is such a nuisance, and they can even end the game early if you missed their conditions. The loading saves system in this game is also really trash, because you can only reload the game if it were forced to end at designated save spots. I would recommend players interested in the "this is the police" series to only play through the second (sequel) game by yourselves and just watch a playthrough or something if you're interested in the first game. The second game is much better than the first game.

good music
good gameplay
can be repetitive but the story is solid so i never got bored
8/10

TLDR: A pure management game where the entirety of its gameplay revolves around reading texts and deciding which and how many of your men to send. It isn't for everyone but if you enjoy trying to fix the unfixable, then it may be your cup of tea.

Story: Meet Jack Boyd, the ever so charismatic Chief of Police who will retire in 180 days and would like to pocket half a million before he does. He's always been keeping his nose clean, but how crooked are you willing to become to achieve your goals? Whose side will you pick? Can you clean up the streets before you leave?

Gameplay: It entirely revolves around clicking around the same map, everyday and... well that's it. Everytime. It would get boring extremely quick in most games, but the devs managed to add just enough different types of calls (you essentially act as the sole dispatch of your manpower to respond to various calls); bomb threaths, domestic abuse, prank calls, rape, informants, etc., so it's never a dull moment.
Each calls have timers so you don't always need to send somebody right away and figuring out which call to ignore and which to prioritise is where the fun (or hell) really is.
There are various upgrades available to you but budget increases, just like cuts, can happen depending on your choices, which themselves are sometimes hard to make as you are constantly stuck between a rock and a hard place.
While there are a couple of mini games, they are out of place and not replayable, so while they caught me off guard, I think they just meant to pass a point across rather than change the pace.
Your men, detectives and cops alike, each have a ranking, though no real stats to speak of. The game tries very hard to hide any kind of tangible information from you, so as to barely inform you of your actual chances and the of the consequences whenever you have to make a decision. This can irritate some, but if you learn to let go early enough, the game has a learning curve that isn't that steep once you get how it works.
After every few days, a checkpoint happens and you can go back to that checkpoint should you get a gameover or realise you dug yourself too deep a grave.

Graphics: I'm pretty sure I could do better with a pen and paper. However, strangely enough, it has a certain charm.

Audio: I found the few sound effects and general ambience of the game spot on. Especially late game when the sh!t was hitting the fan (the tracks selection changes at every major turn in the game).

While this is really not a title for everyone and does require a bit more brain power than most games out there... I found it original and its originality solely justified its price. Also, I hate to admit it, but yes, ''save scumming'' works. Stupid unreliable, alcoholic, absentee detective!!!

Good

Very slow-paced. Some might like it, which is ok, but I was bored out of my mind from the endless blabbering and watching the same video of him starting his car.

Here after Dispatch announcement. Got a flashback to This is the Police immediately.

I honestly don't know why this game doesn't have the same cult following as Darkest Dungeon or Papers Please. Might have something to do with the routine of act 2. A moderately smart player just doesn't have much to do in midgame.

Real cops don't pause when they go AFK. It's unfortunate you can't alt-tab without pausing, really.

The game is both damn good and damn bad at the same time, the story is way too long-winded, the other thing is that the story is just about opening up and fucking up all that stuff with the serial killer playing with him. It's complete crap. not about the police making gamepads if you just modify it a little bit make a little more content and focus more on the gamepad and more on you having to solve regular cases and then being corrupt with Sanders or something like that. there are some things and you have those options and then there are more maps later, a lot fewer, then I can force you to tinker and then you get a game that's even more over the top, that gets all the way to the top if you do that. listen to me, and I still have 20 years of experience with games, I know what I'm talking about and then there's that thing with him with the billionaire so you help out sometimes like you help out sometimes and it's fucking well thought out But all that with that Church It's just to open up and f*** and shit there needs to be more focus on the police and on managing a police force

Cool aesthetic and the management aspects throw up some interesting challenges. I also loved the very film noir type story that was laid out about an old school detective.

Even though i played it some years ago, whenever i see it on sale it brings up memories of a fun management game with an excellent story.

there are far too few games of this genre in the police management section and even if there were more this would still probably be one of the best. certainly worth a buy.

The storytelling is pretty good but This is the Police has some issues where more gameplay does not equal more fun.

PROS
>Time management with limited resources is very reminiscent of Papers Please
>You become attached to your officers, awarding them stripes, or even throwing a party for them
>Access to Mafia, Atticus Corp, Labor Union, and Church opens up more opportunities and resources which is always awesome.

CONS
>The unstoppable scenes of Boyd starting the car... we can fast forward cut-scenes so why can't we skip that?
>The game's rng becomes brutal down the line. I think it was the accumulation of bad choices and poor decisions but some unavoidable stuff makes me think that our choices didn't matter anyway.
>If my detectives can't find new frames after several days... why doesn't the investigation auto close? I put 5+ 800 Professional Leveled Detectives in a certain Pagan Cult Case and the game just killed them off one by one each day they couldn't find any new information?
>Boyd is MIA twice in this game so both times you come back, your units are all messed up
>Replay Value feels very low. It take so, so long to get to the end of a playthrough that I, after being beaten down and losing my best officers to RNG --I really don't want to touch this game again - at least not without a long break.
>Ending was very disappointing imho. I get it's supposed to align with the narrative of a corrupted city and the reality of endings but it didn't feel like the choices I made mattered at all.

Strong start, then got really repetitive and RNG. Pretty much forces you to become a dirty cop, and then two kids on skateboards can beat a SWAT team.

jack boyd 4 prez

nice game about strategy and narative police storyline loved

game is definitely good, but to help Vicus Varga you have to AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

One of those games you turn over in your head for years afterwards. I first played it years ago, when I was too young to understand the story, but even then the game stuck with me. Today I finally completed it... goddamn.
This is not a rapid game. It is slow, it is gruelling, it is tedious—and that is the entire point. Even then, it is not boring. Every drop of story leaves you wanting more. You keep wanting to see how Freeburg is rotten from the inside out.

Maybe it's beyond redemption, maybe it's still salvageable. Maybe.

Gameplay gets repetitive quick. And it feels like a grind just to continue the story. The internal logic of the game can be inconsistent. The story is a force that overrides a lot of choices. Some mechanisms feel gamey. Would only recommend if on sale

not bad novel but a really S U C K GAME, tough and boring gameplay

You play as a copcake