Police Stories

The difficulty really makes no sense.
The ridiculous AI. Between the civilians who charge at you or run to the other end of the building to surrender in the bathroom. The number of bullets enemies take even though they're shirtless, while we die in 1-2 bullets despite wearing bulletproof vests. The completely broken accuracy of our weapons, which fire everywhere except at the cursor...
A real balancing problem in this game despite its simple gameplay.

good

Top-down strategic shooter with an arcade feel

Police Stories isn't a long game and has very little to grasp onto. There is no world or characters really when comparing to some more elaborate games. The game isn't trying too hard to achieve a more grand meaning or experience. There is a mediocre story with a twist in the end. And to be honest I wasn't interested in it after the third mission. Just skipped every story related cutscene, and enjoyed the gameplay. And here is my point for this games arcade feeling. Not every game needs a thorough storyline and a world full of great characters. Some games can be only games. Like back in the day, where you had no idea why everything is happening, you just enjoyed the entertaining aspects of playing a videogame. Not everything must be made into a grandiose spectacle of art and entertainment. In Police Stories' case less is more.

[hr][/hr]

Now that that's over with I can talk about the game itself. The gameplay is quite hard first and ramps up in difficulty towards the end. I like the difficulty level rising by itself. As in many games before, you didn't have the option to select difficulty. It got harder the longer you progressed and if you got stuck, too bad, get better at it. You unlock new equipment as you go and different new strategies open for you. However, what makes the game really interesting, is that you are not allowed to shoot a suspected enemy without them raising their gun towards you. Some will be quick and shoot in your direction as soon as you get into the room, and others won't do anything despite you breathing into their faces. Few might start running and get you into a bad situation if you run after. Also, you have to take into account civilians, out of whom some might be enemies in disguise. Sounds great right?

Well, there are a few setbacks. You have a partner who joins you in every mission. Sometimes he's great support, but most of the time makes the operation fuck up big time, by walking between you and an enemy while you are shooting. You wont even notice, cause you are too concentrated. You hear the awful sound of him dying and realize you have shot the only partner you ever had. Restart the mission and order him to stay in the spawnpoint (which by the way is a great thing to be able to do. In addition to this you can order him in many different ways). When not ruining a mission, he might also just be annoying as fuck in many different ways, see for your self if you're interested. Don't let him be near a door. This all is avoided if you have friends. Play co-op. Works well and hopefully you'll have a better partner.

Other shortcomings are:
- voice acting is not great by any metric
- the story is boring and in my opinion the whole game would be better of without it
- sometimes enemies are inhumanely accurate and fast, making the game sometimes feel a bit rng

If you can look past these, I think the game is fine. Maybe even great with a friend. And at the end of the day despite all criticism I've given, I mostly enjoyed the game. By no means would I pay 20 euros for it tho. Pick it up in a sale. For 20 you should get something a bit more refined.

Thanks for taking the time <3

Hotline Miami from aliexpress. Gameplay mechanics are similar to Ready or not and Doorkickers. Shooting impact feels good. Somewhat many equipment, but you don't need any other than taser and c4 to complete the game. Campaign is too short.

An incredibly fun game that I have spent many hours in with a friend.
Very good and engaging mechanics, probably one of the best police games out there.
Insanely easy game to recommend, especially if you have a mate to play with.

Game is unstable and crashes multiple times during cutscenes and gameplay.

Игра сложная но интересная

I with my partner have driven to the mission.
I threw flashbang before entering the building.
We shouted for everyone to put hands in the air.
We arrested all suspects.
Then one civillian pulled the gun and shot my partner.
I avenged him.
Cleared the buidling, completed the mission.
Returned to home.
Then, I played Police Stories with my friend.

Worked great before, tried replaying it and it seems to install fine. However upon launching using MacOS it instantly crashes.

Mega sigma gra do pobrania solo i z kolegami

good tactical game

This is a rocking game. The dynamic is great when taking time to navigate the AI partner and aspect.

Actually I would not recommend it. It looks like an arcade game
but it should be treated as "Ready or not" because you really
need Voice com to be able to play it because of the insanity
of the one bullet and you are dead.

Me and my friend who love pixel graphics went it
with getting a good arcade co-op gameplay and have
been massacred so easily. Its the same on "easy".
+ Fantasticly cozy graphics
+ Nice story
-No arcade feel and instead extreme hardcore
1 bullet youre dead.

I don´t say its a bad game. Its just not really
something that interests me to restart restart
and restar util you manage to perfect it.
I spent 3 hours on it with my friend and we
are quite good gamers in the arcade section
and I really love SWAT3 but it just feelt
exhausting and to little enjoyment to play.

I personally prefer "The Ascent " instead of this
or "Synthetik" for coop shooter.

The game is nice i like the story but the AI needs improvement they react way to fast and they see you before you are able to see you also when you pick corners it won't load them even though they are in range of view and die before you can even react also the AI that you have with you even himself doesn't know what to do i put him aggressive mode he does what he is meant to do what he show in tutorial but he goes to enemy tries to make them surrender and then he dies MANY times also when i pick corners once i see enemies he runs towards them NO MATTER IF I SHOOT then he dies with me because he can't see the enemy even thought they are in sight of view or sometimes he dies from because he run in front of me when i was shooting nice game also he does nothing in passive mode not even shooting, don't play solo is better you play co-op with someone or if you don't care solo it

Good Game.
Make´s more fun with friends

Too hard to play. I just want to play a game not to be cancer.

fucking awesome game

TEAMBUILDING

At first glance, the game is great, graphics, soundtrack, visuals - everything is at the highest level, but unfortunately for me, the game is in Russian, so I DO NOT RECOMMEND BUYING IT!

The vision determination is quite strange. Sometimes enemies appear within the field of vision, while at other times, they don't even when they should be visible, especially near corners and doorways. Often, invisible enemies would fire a burst of shots at me. The robot teammates seem to be in the same situation as me, that is, if I can't see the enemy, they can't either. When I ask them to guard a fixed point or direction, they would let the enemy pass right in front of them.
But now I get through all levels. Robot teammates is useful when he using peper and monitor.

To this day it doesn't work on Mac, even though it's marked as playable (if your game doesn't work on Mac just mark it us not supported as all other games do).

No.

A game that aspires to be Hotline Miami... but Swat. Slow, methodical, tactical.

So naturally of course the teammate AI should be a blundering, trigger-happy maniac willing to mow down a whole city to hit one guy. And of course for the enemy AI to John Wick quickdraw you. Want to play Decatur Police rules and smoke guys before they even draw? Nah you can't progress, because it lowers your points. SWAT 4 had the benefit of several difficulty modes that either forced you to play by the rules or if you were truly criminal, turn everything to "rookie" and then run in with a MP5 with extra magazines.

Trash game. Blacklisted the developers for garbage product.

10/10 will accidentally taser my partner again

Genuinely hard to play, in that, the controls are bad and having to fight your AI teammate might be the worst feeling ever. I've played some games with downright awful AI teammates but for 2019 this might take the cake. The game has an insane amount of RNG around every corner that isn't explained or made very clear, and I don't mean enemy placement. All of this stacks to create an unsatisfying top down strategy shooter, with a bland story to boot.

- I tried playing this game with a controller since it is supported (so your mileage may vary), thinking this would be an easy shooter experience; no. Instead of making the joystick a swivel for aiming it acts like a mouse in the screenspace... very slowly, even on max settings. You are at an insane disadvantage aiming if you use controller, not to mention the controls are just... bad. Commanding your ally to do anything is a chore and wastes more time than if you yourself just went and did whatever you were planning to hand off. To top it off, you are limited on controller to how far you can see and aim, so in long hallways enemies have the upper hand against you as they can see you before you see them (This issue doesn't exist for M&K).

- Damage is randomized. You might live, you might die. Most the time it will be a 1 hit KO. I thought this was based on where hits were landing but it seems very clearly randomized as knife damage suffers the same effect as bullets, you might live you might not, max HP being 3 hits without a vest, and even with a vest you can die in 1 hit, it's just far less likely.

- Enemy AI are crack shots. Them having good aim isn't the problem, the problem is their reaction time and turning; example, open a door, the suspect has 2 objectives currently. 1, kill the civilian he was guarding, and 2, killing both cops that just opened the door. If a suspect is in attack mode (which is randomized when it starts, could be instantly, might never start) he can and will kill all 3 targets in a second or less with a rifle or pistol if they are all within line of sight, and they don't have to be at the same angle, as the AI will turn instantaneously and shoot when on target, instantly changing the frame its current target is dead. Enemy AI also have a randomized HP system like the player where you might kill them in 1 hit, you might not; it does lean more towards them dying in 1 hit however.

- Suspect AI can shoot you while "invisible." You have a cone of vision, which can be blocked by corners, however the game doesn't render enemies when you see any part of them, You have to be able to see the entire NPC before their model/pixels appear; problem is suspect AI can and will start shooting you if you are within their cone of vision at all, no need to be fully within view. They can shoot you with only half their body covered and you can't see them at all even when looking in their direction. The AI teammate shares this ability of perfect vision, but rarely utilize it in a way that would benefit the player (I.E. They tend to rush an enemy that isn't in perfect view while being shot at, and dying.)

- While the enemy AI is busted, your AI teammate varies heavily moment to moment. He will either shoot them on sight before you even see the frame of a suspect lifting their weapon, or he will hear them shooting at him, missing because they are trying to shoot through a wall, and just do nothing because they aren't in view (which usually leads to both Suspect and teammate killing one another). Sometimes a suspect will also run at him with a knife, and he'll just stand by. It varies so extremely it's like sometimes the AI just turns off and doesn't know what to do, running at a suspect aiming a gun at them and then dying from the inevitable barrage. It is either overly effective at dispatching enemies or worse than having nothing, as the teammate has no regard for what is between him and the enemy when firing; it is actively a larger threat to the civilians than suspects are, and will kill the player as well if you are in the way.

- Missions are bland, and when progressing some unlocks don't make sense; example, you get a fore-grip for a rifle before getting an actual rifle. Even if it is a stat boost for every weapon, the starting pistol has perfect accuracy as implied in its own description, making the unlock useless when first obtained. I've completed the main story, but I've not touched the DLC even though I own it. It would be fine if I wasn't dying 10+ times per mission and the randomization of enemy placement didn't leave me unable to properly plan, but nothing feels different in any of these maps. Call it my skill if you want, but it's just boring considering how many times you will end up repeating it. It plays like Hotline Miami but worse.

All in all, I can't help but compare this to other games and notice how much worse it is. Do I think the game is awful? No, but certainly not great. I bought it during a sale, and I think anyone else who is thinking of buying this should only go for it if it is under $10 bucks.

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Wonderful game! From the graphics, to the level design, to the story, to the missions themselves!

good coop game

Police Stories is a refreshing take on the tactical shooter genre with a 2D perspective that packs a lot of punch. The minimalist art style really works here—it’s clear, effective, and adds to the tense, tactical nature of the game.

One of the standout features is how much more enjoyable the game becomes when playing with friends. The cooperative mechanics shine here, as you and your teammates work together to plan and execute your missions. Communication and coordination are key, and the tension of each new encounter is heightened when you're working as a unit, trying to subdue criminals without risking collateral damage. Solo play is still solid, but there's something about the teamwork that makes this game far more rewarding with others.
The level design is a real highlight. Each level feels meticulously crafted, requiring careful planning and strategy to complete. You'll need to think on your feet as you move through different environments, balancing speed with caution. The rooms are filled with dangers and civilians that need to be handled delicately. One wrong move, and it could all go south. The variety of locations keeps things interesting, from tight, claustrophobic apartments to open areas that demand quick reflexes.

As for difficulty, Police Stories is no walk in the park. The game doesn't hold your hand, and that's what makes it so engaging. Even when you think you've got a plan in place, unexpected challenges will make you rethink your approach. The tension from the constant threat of failure and the reward of finally succeeding makes every mission feel significant.

In conclusion, Police Stories offers a challenging and rewarding experience, especially when played with friends. Its 2D perspective, smart level design, and tough but engaging gameplay make it a standout in the tactical shooter space. If you're looking for something that tests your strategic thinking and coordination skills, this game delivers in spades.

I like

This game’s either pretty tough, or me and my friend just aren’t patient enough! We started figuring it out the more we played. It’s tricky, but still a blast!

Controls suck... I dont want to spend the time adjusting. Don't recommend

Honestly such a fun top down tactical shooter, very simple to grasp but the story was the last thing I was paying attention to but only because i loved the gameplay so much. PLEASE get this if you like the genre of top down shooters or realistic tacticals in general

good game fun co op. pretty bad connection thou

A high quality co-operative experience.

Cool gameplay

Can't open on mac laptop

There's a community map that we can be the quite kid and kill everyone in school

One can definitely tell that SWAT4 was an inspiration for these guys!

10/10 game
Ngl took 10 tries for me to complete tutorial mission, but still nice game

Tedious game that relies too much on luck.

For a game named "Police Stories" the story is the most boring thing i ever played through.

AI one shots you in 0.1ms before you can even see them and have to restart the extremely long level all over again.

God playing through this sucked.

Very fun 4-6 hours

There were a few bugs like, unable to interact ("E"), weapon disappear, glitchy arresting action, crazy ping crash, and game crashes for unknown reasons...

But overall, if you can get a friend to play together, this is a fun game to suffer with your friends!

I've been playing this game with a friend and it's really fun I wish I could've discovered this game earlier cuz him and I were trying to find a good co-op game that we can enjoy. My experience was great the difficulty it's acceptable but sometimes I feel that the ai does some weird things but is not really that annoying, another flaw that I can find is that sometimes the co-op becomes really buggy, for example whenever I tried to play a game chapter with my friend once we skipped the dialogue it just showed our own players like we were playing individually. anyways it's a great game!

great gem especialy with steam deck end frends who have steam deck tru romote play togeter

It’s Time To Save The City!

A fresh take on top-down shooters with an emphasis on tactics that forces you to make split second decisions. Neutralize criminals, rescue civilians and defuse bombs in Single Player mode or Co-op. And remember - shooting first is not an option!

Follow My Review Group Here!

[table]
[tr]
[th]About[/th]
[th]Description[/th]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]💾Graphics[/td]
[td]Visually speaking, the game is pretty basic. It has this old school arcade game look to it. Personally, I actually like the aesthetic. It has a certain charm to it. The details in the maps are pretty good too! For example, killing an enemy leaves a trail of blood, and bloody footsteps do track around, which can lead you to an enemy, or to you. Bullet casing stays permanently, giving you a sense of immersion. The effects are pretty retro or arcady, like tear gas looking pretty odd, but looks just fine. Cutscenes do look super cool though, and well crafted.[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]🎮Gameplay[/td]
[td]Police Stories is a top down tactical shooter. I will say, don’t judge a book by its cover. This game may look arcady, but it’s far from it. This game is brutal, and super punishing if you don’t take your time and really plan. Speed will kill you, so take your time and check your corners. The only speed that will help you, is your reaction time, and trust me when I say this game will test that. You will experience many one shot deaths early on before you get heavy armor. It’s overall super challenging. The gameplay loop? It’s pretty straightforward. Rescue civilians, stop the bad guys, and if there is a bomb, then defuse that. That’s really it. You do have many cool police gadgets, but to unlock them, you may need to play the story first. Every run you do on a level, the enemies will randomly spawn each time, so there is no remembering enemy placement. The level design is also really good. Most levels are tight, with many fatal funnels. The main gripes I have with this game, is mainly the AI teammate, and the use of deadly force mechanics. Now for the AI, he just feels super inconsistent. Now maybe it’s just me not using him well, but on some occasions, he will throw flashbangs in horrible angles, blind himself, look at the enemy and get killed (not all the time), etc. The other issue I have is the use of force. I don’t get how when a guy that has a knife or gun runs towards me, I can’t shoot him. For the knife (or bat) he has to be swinging first before I can shoot him. Now that, I guess I can probably be more understanding, but with the guys with guns going towards me, I can’t shoot him without being penalized? I don’t really like that. Maybe this is a way to balance the game, so it makes less lethal useful. That would make sense if that’s that case. Besides those complaints, the overall gameplay is really fun! [/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]📜Story[/td]
[td]The story is servable. It’s not horrible, but pretty generic and not unique. Team up with a long time friend, kill bad guys, find the main antagonist, and save the day. The story does go by super quick, and to be honest, I don’t remember much of it, and I just beaten the game lol. It is pretty forgettable. Not a trash story, it’s just okay enough to keep the game interesting until the end.[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]🕛Playtime[/td]
[td]The game is around 8-10+ hours. You may find plenty more with co-op mode, and you also have a Steam Workshop! Also all of the levels have random enemy spawns, so that’s a huge plus![/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]🎧Sound[/td]
[td]Sound design is okay. Nothing crazy or amazing. I do wish there was more ambiance through the levels. Also, the soundtrack is not bad either. [/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]❗Bugs❗[/td]
[td]I haven’t come across any bugs. Maybe just odd enemy/civilian pathing at times. Overall the game felt pretty stable in terms of bugs.[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]🔅Performance[/td]
[td]Performance does need some work. Now I'm not talking about frame rate or stutters. Those parts of the game felt flawless. My biggest issue is crashes. I had like 4 crashes in 2 hours at one point. I only get this crash after missions too, like during the cutscenes. Not all the time, but it was frequent enough for me to make a complaint in this review. So be warned about the crashes![/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]✔️Pro’s[/td]
[td]

• Steam Workshop
  
• Co-op with friends
  
• Good level design
  
• Many cool police gadgets
  
• Detailed mission briefings
  
• Quick play & custom missions
  
• Complex Tactical Gameplay
  

[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]❌Con’s[/td]
[td]

• AI teammate kinda sucks
  
• Use of deadly force needs can be frustrating
  
• Frequent crashes (only happens in cutscenes after missions)
  

[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]🏆Rating[/td]
[td]7.5/10
Buy this game on sale for around 50% off.[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]🔗Conclusion[/td]
[td]Police Stories is a really fun game, especially if you are looking for a tactical shooter. It’s intense, brutal, and filled with surprises. This game will test any experienced tactical shooter. So grab a friend, and end the wave of crime in this criminal filled city. This is a must buy for fans of the tactical shooter genre. Absolutely fun![/td]
[/tr]
[/table]

https://store.steampowered.com/app/539470/Police_Stories/

Specs for Review:

• GPU: RTX 3080 (Laptop GPU)
  
• CPU: Intel Core i7-11800H 4.6 GHz
  
[*]RAM: 32GB Ram

Police Stories is a top-down, SWAT 4- like gameplay, where "shout first, shoot when threaten" is the ROE of the entire game. Of course the game comes with a service-able story that fits nicely with the game.

Impressive stuff

The pixelated graphics looks nice, and I love the vision cone mechanic too (that I can't replicate myself till this day). The ROE is literally 1 to 1 SWAT 4; You cannot shoot a fleeing suspect unless threaten.

Story wise, its something out of the any cop-themed TV series would do, fighting the baddies, betrayal by goodies, nothing special, but its serviceable and I don't mind at all.

Weapons and equipment are variety enough, even better, it gets even better as the supporter edition trumpet definitely takes the cake in terms of goofiness and tactical advantage (IYKYK)

Issues

Very obviously, alot of reviews already pointed out how horrible the AI works in this game. But I'll still add-on my personal observation on why the AI is lackluster and designed that way:

- The civilian and suspect AI is not the same as SWAT 4 morale system. The civilian and suspect AI seems to be running on RNG check afaik, like everytime you yelled at them, its either they instantly comply, stubborn, running away, or they draw their weapon. But when they're doing these actions, they will not be interrupted by any additional shouting until they're done running to a set location (and will not comply during weapon drawn). Unless you interrupt them via fist, shooting (direct hit or one/multiple warning shot) or pepper spray, they will comply with no issue. But stunning them via flashbang, blast concussion, and tear gas does not affect their compliance RNG tbh.

Plus, only suspect & fake civilians will come check out any shots fired. So you can already determine its no good.

- Because of the AI's behavior, player are being limited to only few tactical options: Rush in and interrupt them before they either run away, kill a civilian, or turn lethal. Or go lethal when being threaten. Its literally these 2 options, there's no 3rd or 4th option.

- Suspect accuracy are either designed to be unforgiving by able to 1 shot you at times, or its just a poorly done method to add difficulty to the game.

- The civilian and suspect sprites are being recycle way too often. At times, it felt very out of place of them showing up in weird places.

- Partner AI is only slightly better than the suspect and civilian, but horrible at being self-conscious of his surrounding: always getting your line of fire, chasing against fleeing people across the room and die, blocking your way, staring at un-cuff people at times, always bad at throwing grenades properly, so on-so forth.

- Doors are annoying in this game, especially in an enclosed space where it literally fu*ks anyone over by a inconvenient door, blocking, or pushing anyone away.

- Breakable walls are good addition, but alot of times its easily missable due to how subtle it was (and almost only few levels has it, literally easily forgettable)



Overall, this game is good and fun, but it can be better. Everything is basically being held back by how the AI is designed. I know Im asking way too high, but seriously, a SWAT 4-like game is not something taken lightly, especially the entire gameplay loop really depends on how well the AI can behave, not the map design or story.

You can hit women

JEJE ta bueno