Ever since the first memorable simulation game, The Sims aka the granddaddy of them all was released, simulation games have been drip-feeding in over the last 20 years. These games can range from classic The Sims features such as controlling the lives of virtual people, creating families, getting a job to modern-day simulations of power washing various homes/objects, running a gas station to being a Police Officer, which is what brings us here today.

The depth that Police Simulator: Patrol Officers goes to, to do their best to accurately be a replicate being a legitimate officer of the law, is actually quite staggering and also mildly intimidating at first playthrough. But fear not, fellow citizen, allow us here at MKAU Gaming to run you through the basics of being a representative of the law

GAMEPLAY

As predicted, this game has you suit up as a Police Officer. It is your job to help out districts by responding to and handling a variety of callouts and/or incidents. These can range from parking tickets all the way to major crimes (drug dealing, vandalism, etc.).

Straight off the bat, Police Simulator: Patrol Officers does an incredible job with its tutorial and hints. The game can be incredibly overwhelming due to the detail and options that are required for you to accurately do your in-game job. Even after a few playthroughs, there will still be controls, shortcuts, and hotkeys that you may have not used or simply forgotten, but thankfully the game does a wonderful job of updating or reminding you of this. After your first duty, which will involve you marking tickets for parking infractions, you are rewarded District XP points for how successful your approach and judgment were.

For example, if a car is parked on the sidewalk, at an expired parking meter and is facing the wrong way, you must choose those three infraction tickets to be awarded points. Missing a certain ticket will not take points away, however you will miss out and not be able to gain the points until you start said ticketing.

After your shift is over, your District XP points are tallied up and added to your career experience meter. Hitting a certain number of District XP points will reward you with a Duty Star. The number of stars plays host to a variety of upgrades & unlockables that can be earned. Basically, the more crimes you successfully resolve, the more District XP you are rewarded, with the more District XP the more cool items you can unlock, including new districts, new police items/weapons (stun gun, flares, camera, flashlight, etc.), new criminal variety (wallet thief, drug dealers, spray painting vandalism) and police vehicles.

However, if you choose a blatantly wrong ticket, you will lose Conduct Points. Conduct Points is basically your police morale, doing the wrong thing (aka shooting a fleeing suspect without warning, destroying your police cruiser, and misjudging situations) will deduct CP. During your shift, if all your CP is lost, you will be fired from the force and have to restart the game. So, justice warriors, choose wisely!

CONTROLS

All controls are heavily explained during the first couple of shifts/tutorials. WASD keys are your movements, F key has you interact with citizens and cars (to inspect/issue tickets/tow vehicles). C is truly the key you need to remember and abuse during your gameplay, as it’s the hotkey for your police computer. Each time you scan a license plate or ask for an ID, you really do need to hit the C button during this time to start a background check on said vehicle/citizen. Doing so will reveal a history of the vehicle/citizen but, if nothing appears, then that ID you have been presented is fake, which means you can at once arrest the citizen you are detaining!

Holding TAB will bring up the item wheel, listing the variety of items/weapons that you can use during your shift. Pressing F near your police vehicle boot (if unlocked) will allow you to equip traffic flares, which is required during night time-based car accidents.

Sadly, though the vast majority of the in-car controls are very responsive and accurate, it’s actually the driving itself that is so poor. As a famous song once said “0 to 100 real quick”, which perhaps this game is the inspiration (probably not, but go with me here). Police vehicles have no sense of speed range, as lightly pressing the W key to move forward usually ends up flooring the car into oblivion.

Gaining speed, with sirens and lights blaring, as you race towards an incident is incredibly exciting, however, your light (and CP points) can come to a crashing end as the cars’ handling is so poor which may have you take a corner, overshoot and clip another vehicle or roadside hazard, or unfortunately, the game may sometimes glitch and smash the entire front end of your vehicle. With no car repair option available, you can enjoy continuing your shift in a completely wrecked car. Nice look, rookie.

GRAPHICS + AUDIO

Police Simulator: Patrol Officers have great visuals and sound for the amount of depth the game holds. Officers, uniforms, police stations, cars, citizens, and the world are delivered in impressive detail, much more advanced than other simulation games. Sure, some citizens are a rinse and repeat cycle of the same model with different attributes, but it honestly doesn’t harm the game much, if at all.

On the other side, the audio is pretty good, although sometimes dialogue subtitles and audio are in sync. E.g., your player or citizen may verbally respond differently to the subtitled dialogue on screen. (Note: There is currently a BETA release of the game, showcasing a demo of new and updated features, one of which is an addition and fix to various audio in the game, including dialogue. The official release of the new update won’t come out of BETA until April 12th.

SUMMARY

A fun, time-consuming simulator that is a heavily detailed and engaging look into the world of crime-fighting, the human way. If you’re a fan of modern-day sims and looking to kill some time, then this is definitely a game that you will start in the A.M. and have you wondering while you’re clocking off for your first break late into the P.M.

Written by: Brutaleo