Police Simulator: Patrol Officers (XSX) Review

Respect my Authoritah!!

Stepping into the shoes of law enforcement with Police Simulator: Patrol Officers on Xbox, I honestly thought that this game was going to be ‘GTA: I am the Law’ but it wasn’t really that at all. Police Simulator is an immersive and remarkably detailed simulation that brings the thrill and responsibility of policing to your fingertips. With the addition of the Highway Patrol expansion, this game not only expands its scope and allows players to live out there ‘CHiPS’ fantasies (it’s an old TV show…Google it ya darn kids) but also enriches the experience with new challenges and scenarios.

What’s crazy, and maybe this is just the ‘old guy’ in me talking but its crazy we have a simulator game for everything but I have to wait for three hours in McDonald’s drive-thru because kids won’t go to work but are obviously playing virtual work games. I’ll get off the soapbox now. In Police Simulator players will choose their cop from a few premade choices, there was no way to make a custom character. I opted for what I assume was Danny Glover from Lethal Weapon, but from the first one when he was a few weeks from retirement.

MSRP: $29.99
Platforms: Xbox (reviewed), PlayStation, PC
Price I’d Pay: $19.99

As the name suggest players will patrol a small town in a fictional city, there is no real story here, no hero cop who takes over the squad after finding corruption on the force. (devs..DLC maybe?) Players will begin the game as a beat cop, ticketing jaywalkers, people littering and things like that. As each shift ends, players will progress to bigger crimes and getting a vehicle. Any NPC in the world can be spoken to but the game doesn’t allow you to go around and abuse your power. As much as I wanted to just run up on people with my gun out and scream “GET ON THE FU%&*NG GROUND!” I would lose valuable conduct or shift points which keeps you from getting promotions. And because I couldn’t figure out the control to scream that in the game, but I digress.

Being a cop is nothing like the movies, while you are free to walk up and accuse someone of a crime, this will count negatively against you. The game will highlight when someone has jaywalked or you need to approach a situation. Some of these can be resolved by simply asking for ID, but players are always free to give a warning or a ticket for any crime that is discovered. Its up to you to decide how lenient or strict of a police office you will be.

To the developers credit they have done a wonderful job getting a realistic traffic system working in this city. Car accidents randomly occur, which causes traffic jams, if players have to arrest someone, or call a tow truck all these things can disrupt the flow. Now, when this works; its awesome but when it doesn’t…its horrible. For starters there are shifts that players can work that are supposed to be at night; yet I have NEVER seen the sun set in this town. I am guessing this is supposed to be set in Alaska because it can be 11pm in the game but the sun is at high noon. Then there are the graphics, these are nothing to write home about; but combine that with the INSANE amount of pop-in, it just feels like an early 360 title.

But even with the issues, I had a great time playing this game. I think the biggest thing to remember is knowing what this game is, its is a police simulator through and through. It’s a slow burn, you will take endless photos of car accidents and talk to people but if working a shift as a cop sounds fun then look no further.

Review copy of game provided by publisher.

Good
  • Writing tickets and pulling people over is a lot of fun
  • Realistic traffic system is neat...
Bad
  • ...when it works
  • Only premade characters
  • The sun never sets in this town
7.5
Good
Written by
Terrence spends his time going where no one has gone before mostly. But when not planning to take over the galaxy, he spends his time raising Chocobo and trying to figure out just how the sarlaac could pull Boba Fett’s ship with its engines firing FULL BLAST into it’s maw with relative ease; yet it struggled with Han Solo who was gripping *checks notes* SAND!