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Have You Played...This Is The Police?

Boys in blue

It's just 180 days until Jack Boyd's retirement in This is the Police. He's the chief of police who has to juggle many balls and not drop one, otherwise everything goes horribly wrong. The mayor is breathing down his neck constantly, while his staff plead for time off to volunteer at the animal sanctuary, all the while the crooks are plaguing the city.

Each day is split into various sections. Usually, the story first forces you to make important decisions, or talk to the press with multiple-choice responses to reporter's questions. Jack is voiced by Jon St. John - who voiced both Duke Nukem, and Big the Cat from Sonic Adventure. Here he goes for a disgruntled cop that does sound a little like Duke, but with more of a Brooklyn accent. It's a fantastic performance and really does set the tone.

The second part of your work is the day-to-day management of your staff. You are able to promote your staff with stripes, though during the day you're able to recruit new cops and fire underperforming ones. You do have the option to "Illegally dismiss" your employees, which can have repercussions financially. There are other facilities such as the city call to unlock, though that building's usefulness is at the whim of politicians, and we all know how reliable they can be.

This leads us to the bulk of This is the Police - sending out your cops to respond to crimes. If the reputation of your cops exceeds the unseen requirement, your cops will apprehend the perp. Sometimes you'll need to provide tactical support to arrest the criminals. More involved crimes require detectives to work it out, which you get to work out the timeline for each one. I'm not that far into the game, but the more I play, the more I'm becoming invested in making sure Jack's retirement is a smooth one.

This is the Police is published by industry consolidation machine THQ Nordic.

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