Review for This is the Police 2. Game for Linux, Mac, Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4, Steam and Xbox One, the video game was released on 31/07/2018 The version for Nintendo Switch came out on 25/09/2018 The version for PlayStation 4 came out on 25/09/2018 The version for Xbox One came out on 25/09/2018
This is the police 2 is the sequel to the game released in 2016 by THQ Nordic, This is the Police, which placed the player in command of the Freeburg police station in the role of Jack Boyd, presenting an unprecedented management title, at the same time endowed with a first level narrative component.
This new chapter is set in the city of Sharpwood, a cold and desolate place where crime, as well as the presence of strange ethically questionable cults and rituals, is widespread. The player will immediately meet the new sheriff Lilly Reed and his undisciplined underlings; the woman struggles to earn the respect of her subordinates, who dislike a female commander, and facing the various adversities to which a sheriff is subjected seems to be too heavy a burden for her.
As soon as an elderly man appears on the scene Jack Boyd, visibly tested by the events of the first chapter, Lilly does not hesitate to get help from the man. It will be at this point that the player, in the role of Jack, will take the reins of the police station.
Cops for a day
The game involves the performance of various tasks for Sharpwood agents, unraveled in the times of a working day whose passage is marked by a timer visible on the screen. We have before us a map of the city where requests for intervention are reported which must be taken over within a certain time limit, under penalty of the escape of suspects and the possible death of innocent civilians. Initially the calls can be many and the staff limited it is therefore good to carefully consider where to intervene and where to let it go, in fact, sometimes the requests for help turn out to be "false alarms".
In case there really is work for the agents on site, there are different possibilities of choice on the methods of action of the staff: in some situations we can seek an impetuous approach, in others a more cautious one; the important thing is to choose the most effective action based on the abilities of the agents at work, or to use one of the weapons assigned to the policemen on a mission at the beginning of the day. Following the success of the task, agents will receive points that allow them to gain experience and, in case they level up, increase one of their skills.
There is a minimum requirement to take action (given by the complexity of the case) level of personnel who make up the unit that takes charge of the request for intervention; It is also very important to keep an eye on an indicator placed under each agent that monitors the energy that, if too low, can lead the character to refuse to intervene or the risk that he falls asleep at the wheel, with all the serious consequences of case.
The guys at weappy studio have decided to make agents much more than just pawns to be controlled at will. We have characters who refuse to work with members of the opposite sex, others who arrive at work drunk (risking crashing into a car and end up in hospital or worse), still others who repeatedly ask for days off, showing a low propensity for prolonged work commitment. It is up to us to decide when to be permissive and when not to be, knowing that being too hard on staff will cause discontent, while being too compliant will generate constant requests for work permits.
At the end of the day, after selecting the staff who will have to go to work the next day, you will receive tabs of cans, which can be exchanged for new agents or simply for additional equipment. The amount of tabs acquired will be proportional to the number of crimes solved and civilians saved, with a bonus in case the criminals were not killed but arrested alive.
There are days when the requests for intervention are too numerous and impossible to manage with the staff available, so it will be necessary to neglect some crimes going to drastically decrease the number of tabs obtained. These peaks of work commitments are a questionable choice considering that, if for three consecutive days the balance of tabs is zero, it will be game over for us.
In addition to the various requests for intervention we also have some investigative cases to solve, which require the daily assignment of officers to gather evidence and listen to witnesses. We will then intervene in person to try to put together all the clues collected by going to accuse one of the suspects in the case.
An interesting novelty of the title is certainly the possibility to take part in more complex tactical operations, in which we ourselves command our subordinates through the modalities of a turn-based strategy. Before catapulting into the clash we can acquire further information on the enemy from some civilians, in exchange for specific objects, and also go to assign appropriate talents to the personnel in the field that will provide us with a hand to get the better of the criminals. It is advisable, once you get in the middle of the fight, make the most of the different covers that each scenario presents and move with caution, since the enemies are always numerous and a small mistake is enough to lose one of our subordinates forever. The agents, in addition to the classic guns, can take advantage of the weapons we assigned to them at the beginning of the day: taser, electric bollards, batons, and so on, each with different characteristics that allow us to try handcuffing criminals to catch them alive, increasing the number of tabs received at the end of the day.
The dark side of the police
Despite what one might think, history is a cornerstone in This is the police 2, and advances with sequences at the beginning and at the end of the working days. Although the characters that appear on stage have just hinted at facial details, the right emphasis and expressiveness is conveyed thanks to a dubbing and excellent dialogue writing that perfectly articulate even the most excited scenes. Conversations are well-kept but often get lost in one perhaps excessive prolixity, perhaps wanted by the guys on the development team to give a more realistic cut to the way of relating of the characters. The crude representation of the police is amplified by the various choices and situations that can be placed in front of the player, often led to break the rules himself in order to make some money, or get a suspect to talk, even resorting to unorthodox methods. We are also accustomed right away not to become attached to our subordinates, because the role of the policeman is, in the city of Sharpwood, the riskiest job there is and death is always around the corner.
The main story is not lacking in really emotionally charged scenes as well as various twists; usually the scenes are presented in a static cartoon style, but at certain times we will have animated cutscenes, rendered effectively by the characters on screen. Some events in the main story will have some repercussions on gameplay, slightly varying a formula which, however, over time, it can be repetitive.
This is the police 2 tries to do several things and, although it doesn't excel at any of them, it manages to make it all coexist very well. The realism in the game is given by the possibility, despite representing the body assigned to defend Sharpwood from crime, to make choices for one's own advantage, going to put aside personal ethics simply to get what you want. The new operations carried out in the manner of a turn-based strategy also go to satisfy those who, from the very first title, would have liked to take the field to fight the criminals together with their agents, trying to keep crime away from the city, at least apparently.
► This Is the Police 2 is an Adventure-indie-Strategy game developed by Weappy studio and published by THQ Nordic for Linux, Mac, Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4, Steam and Xbox One, the game was released on 31/07/2018 The version for Nintendo Switch came out on 25/09/2018 The version for PlayStation 4 came out on 25/09/2018 The version for Xbox One came out on 25/09/2018
