Have you ever wanted to be a police officer but didn’t like the danger that came with it? Perhaps you are one of those gamers who loves to cause chaos, like you become a different person almost in a game. Well, whoever you are, Police Simulator: Patrol Officers may be the game for you! Let’s check it out.
The main menu is beautifully done, and almost looks reminiscent of the desktop version. You have just as many options for the Switch version as you would on the PC, perhaps minus the graphics settings. Shall we start our career as a chaotic…oop, I’m sorry, I meant to say police officer.
There’s not much customizability starting out, you get a few characters with pre-defined looks and details such as name, however you do get both male and female options in different skin tones so that’s a plus for representation! You also have two different game modes, and an option to turn off the tutorial in case you’re one of those types that hates manuals or you’ve just played the game before and want to start anew. We’re going to play as Frank Miller.
The game noticeably freezes up for about 5 seconds before it moves to the loading screen after pressing “A”, which some people may not like. Focusing on said loading screen however, it is beautiful, offering you helpful tips disguised as a social media platform resembling Twitter.
Once you’re in the actual game (the actual loading didn’t take all too long), you get into the very helpful tutorial starting you off in the police computer and shift selection, telling you that you have to play 5 shifts each week and you can take 4 days off a week (nicer than a 9-5 aint it). There’s also a handbook you can access by pressing “Y”, but we wont bother reading that! (Just don’t tell my boss)
As you progress through the game, you can unlock new weapons, tools, vehicles and even maps! You get points that you can use to unlock other parts of the world. Without further ado, let us…police.
There’s three different types of patrols that you learn about when you select it: Foot patrol, car patrol and open patrol. Open patrol is where you can pretty much do whatever, and you’re in a car, whilst car patrol you have to be in a specific area or you’re helping with a specific thing, and finally foot patrol is where you’re on foot, so its not just a driving game! We only have foot patrol for the moment so lets select it.
So when you first get into the game you’re at your desk, and you don’t have to press A to leave, you can just move your control stick around. You can look around with your right joystick and move with your left one. Upon initial impressions its not bad, but those PS1-looking flyer graphics sure are noticeable, and…they don’t get better much upon walking up to them.
Doors automatically open in this game, which is somewhat sad, but also a nice feature to have on this particular gaming configuration. Upon first walking outside, you are greeted by a nice flash of light, so be prepared for that, but then once you’re outside and take your first breath, you’re greeted by this nice message.
Yeah…we’re tooootally gonna read that handbook right guys? Anyways! Our job today is to issue parking tickets and stop litterers and jaywalkers. Now initial impressions on the environment are that the shaders are sick, but it does have its downsides such as moving cars, with the sun being unrealistically shiny on those windows. The clouds remind me of Texas though.
You can press down and move on the left joystick to run so I’m glad they put that in! Would hate to have to walk everywhere like some heathen. We found our first car! Its in the PD parking lot!!! You’ll know if you can interact with something because you’ll see that you can press the A button, and then you’ll get this menu with options. Let’s just call a tow truck, because I have to be fair to whoever got busted for jaywalking after all! The punishment must fit the crime!
And its gonna get towed, but aww…we lost points! But now we know what points do! I’ll act good from here on out, but still not reading the handbook, as that would be non-conducive to random policing!
Now there’s plenty you can do in this game, especially as you progress. And there’s shift points and conduct points. Shift points are typically positive whilst conduct points essentially rate you on your conduct, its like you’re constantly being performance reviewed at a company. Here’s what my report looked like at the end of my shift.
I did quite a lot, and there’s quite a lot to do, including tacking on as many charges as you want to a jaywalker who apparently also had a fake ID…how fun.
Now one thing I really like is the ability to play multiplayer, however I am not sure if it is crossplay or not! One other thing to note, is that there’s no jumping that I’ve found, so you have to jump over hurdles etc. which means you cant be Mario in a police uniform. Sad. You can access multiplayer in your shift selection screen!
Now I did find some cool, and odd, glitches. One glitch is you can give a valid ticket etc. multiple times to rack up points, and not be punished, even though, of course, they were already handled. I also found a glitch that’s not as fun, where cars that aren’t taxis parked in taxi zones that you ticket give you negative conduct points (of which I’ve only seen negative points be given, never positive, its negative or zero). I also find it doesn’t listen to its own no parking at X times, which it should be because those are ticketable, if not towable.
Another issue is that it doesn’t show you people whenever you catch them in the act on the map, so it is possible to lose them in some cases. Additionally, whenever you’re catching a suspect, you can’t call for backup while chasing them, nor can you chase them outside your district or your day ends and you have to restart so that sucks.
All in all, Police Simulator: Patrol Officers is a lovely game featuring the capability to do pretty much whatever you want! From being evil, to being the best of the best, to being somebody in-between! This is the game for you if you love simulation games, love committing corruption and love reducing, or perhaps increasing out of your own accord, crime!