This is the Police

There are a lot of things to like about this game.  You’re a 60 year old policeman three months from forced retirement.  All you have to do is survive (and fight crime, presumably).  Unfortunately, the Mafia may have something to say about that.  And City Hall – and they aren’t much better.

One thing I very much liked about this game was the perfect mood it sets.  From the record player in your office to the between-day cutscenes to the choices you make, this is what a game should feel like.  After about nine days, I restarted the game because I had made choices I didn’t understand at the time and determined to play better.  My next game lasted for 10 days until I was shot and killed in my home.  I think I will prefer to think of that as the real end to my game.  Mechanically speaking, my only real complaint is that the events are not randomized – at least in the first nine days, events proceeded exactly the same as my first time through.  That’s acceptable, if unfortunate for replayability.  Other than that, it’s almost perfect (well, besides the “start your car three times every day” thing).  Except… I cheated.  I read some reviews.  And while I understand some people thought it went on too long (and yes, 180 days is actually pretty substantial  – maybe too substantial), the real thing which ruins this is the real lack of choice in the face of apparent options.

During my research, I learned that even if you succeed beyond all expectation in the game parts, you lose in the story parts.  And that’s sad.  If your narrative says that the player will never succeed, then you aren’t really making a game – you’re making a movie.  A player that does well should be given the “third way” that allows them some escape – even if it isn’t optimal or a “perfect ending”.  But it should reward a player for creative thinking or superb performance.  Let me give you an example of a game that doesn’t do this.  At the beginning of Fable III (which is apparently dead on PC now – and I can’t say I mind), you’re told by the king to make a choice of whom to kill/exile: your childhood friend or a group of peasants.  I refused to make this choice – that’s not in my moral code.  I very much – both as a player and as a character – wanted to stride up and hit the king with my sword.  This wasn’t an option.  So as I sat there (trying very hard to use my movement keys to select the king), the king decided to do away with both my friend and the peasants since I didn’t do anything (according to the game).  I think as a player, I was supposed to feel bad about this.  I didn’t, for the simple reason that when a game give you a binary choice (or, more specifically, when a game tries to create a convincing illusion of choice), it should be within your power to reject both of the choices presented.  This is the Police does not allow you this (from my understanding of the endgame).  And so it goes to Tier Three, though I do not regret the few hours I spent playing it.

Steam link