Police Stories is a top-down tactical shooter which might give off some Hotline Miami vibes because of the similar styled graphics. However, unlike Hotline Miami, this title has you play as a police duo who have to be tactical play it smart to clear out buildings with criminals inside. Despite how fun this title was when we finally unlocked some decent non-lethal weapons, this game is riddled with crashes and annoying bugs that really hindered my experience despite being a fully released game.

• Combat is a lot of fun if your playing co-op with a friend
• Different weapons and gadgets are unlocked as you collect points
• A variety of different items to use
• Game rewards non-lethal takedowns more so than lethal ones
• Has a lot of emphasis on tactical careful gameplay, any wrong move could kill you
• The RNG placement of enemies and evidence keeps the game fresh and different every time you fail

• Using warning shots wasn’t always reliable
• Don’t get any decent non-lethal weapons till a few missions in, making the first few missions a struggle to do without killing anyone
• Needs more distinctive enemy types with different attacks
• Mechanics are never really expanded upon all that much
• The game is overpriced for the amount of content there is (about 4 - 5 hours)

• Game crashed 9 times whilst playing co-op with a friend on Steam
• Sometimes there would be a red flicker of numbers on the screen every few seconds

You play as Rick and / or John who are a police duo neutralizing criminal threats in the city, each building that they solve leads them to another place to clear out either through their walkie-talkie or from the evidence that they find at the building they cleared out. The story follows these two as they uncover who is behind all of the bombings and various crimes and bring them to justice. It’s a rather cliche storyline so don’t expect anything that mind-blowing to happen.

Police Stories has a lot of emphasis on tactical and careful combat, any enemy that you encounter can take you out within seconds if you’re not quick on your feet to either shoot or subdue them. The combat was fun and somewhat satisfying after you had cleared out the building, there were a few intense moments near the end of some longer missions in fear that you might die and have to restart.

As far as weapons and equipment go you won’t find anything out of the ordinary, you’ll be given a standard rifle that you can use to either kill or subdue enemies with and you’ll unlock new weapons and items as you progress. However, since you’re part of the police force you have to abide by the law which means that unless an enemy aims a gun at you, you can’t shoot them. The other alternative is to fire warning shots near the criminals to make them submit, unfortunately these warning shots sometimes just don’t work, the criminal could either run away or shoot you back and by that time you’re already dead.

The non-lethal approach seemed to be mandatory as you would be given less points for killing criminals as opposed to making them surrender and cuffing them. These points give you access to other levels and unlock new equipment that can be used in missions to make the non-lethal approach easier. However, it didn’t take much testing to figure out which items seemed to be superior compared to the others.

The enemies that you encounter are all pretty much the same just with different weapons, the game never feels like it expands upon introducing different types of enemies to make the game harder (suicide bombers, holding civilians hostage etc.). The only types of enemies you’ll find are fake civilians and your standard criminals / terrorists, the game never felt that difficult as we managed to get through it within 4 - 5 hours.

The level design was consistently good throughout all the missions of Police Stories, with hand-crafted levels that force you and your partner to carefully traverse around the building to ensure neither of you get killed. You could either stay together to neutralize the threat as a team or split up and go through rooms solo to get clear out the building quicker.

This game tries to keep things fresh and interesting by randomly placing enemies and evidence that you have to gather throughout the level each time you fail or replay the mission. This also ensures that you don’t just memorize the enemy locations and makes going around every corner just as dangerous as the first time playing through the mission.

The missions never seem to outstay their welcome either, they were usually short and sweet that might only take a couple of minutes to get through (depending on if your playing solo or co-op). That being said, the game only consists of about 4 - 5 hours of content on the campaign and after you’ve completed that you can either go through the missions again for achievements or go to custom missions whereby you can set how many enemies / civilians are on the map and clear it out.

The soundtrack definitely keeps you on your toes as you clear out rooms with intense music playing in the background, the majority of the missions having their own unique soundtrack.

The visuals definitely gave off a Hotline Miami vibe despite the two games being quite different gameplay-wise. Each room was detailed and seemed to have a lot of thought put into it, however as you get to the end game missions some of the levels might seem kinda familiar. There didn’t seem to be enough variety int the rooms created to make the final few missions feel unique, instead it kinda felt like a mish-mash of different rooms we had previously seen all put together.

Police Stories was definitely an interesting title to play through with a friend despite feeling like a copy from a game called Swat 4 but with a top-down perspective. The price is rather steep for the amount of content you’ll be getting, and even though this game is ‘fully released’ there’s still had a handful of crashes and bugs to deal with whilst playing co-op. I’d recommend picking up this game, but only if you have a friend to play co-op with and when it goes on sale considering the crashes and bugs that are still riddled in this title.

This product was reviewed using a free key provided by the Developers

[h1]🎤Introduction[/h1] [b]Police Stories[/b] is a top-down tactical shooter which might give off some [b]Hotline Miami[/b] vibes because of the similar styled graphics. However, unlike [b]Hotline Miami[/b], this title has you play as a police duo who have to be tactical play it smart to clear out buildings with criminals inside. Despite how fun this title was when we finally unlocked some decent non-lethal weapons, this game is riddled with crashes and annoying bugs that really hindered my experience despite being a fully released game. [h1]✔️Pros[/h1] • Combat is a lot of fun if your playing co-op with a friend • Different weapons and gadgets are unlocked as you collect points • A variety of different items to use • Game rewards non-lethal takedowns more so than lethal ones • Has a lot of emphasis on tactical careful gameplay, any wrong move could kill you • The RNG placement of enemies and evidence keeps the game fresh and different every time you fail [h1]❌Cons[/h1] • Using warning shots wasn’t always reliable • Don’t get any decent non-lethal weapons till a few missions in, making the first few missions a struggle to do without killing anyone • Needs more distinctive enemy types with different attacks • Mechanics are never really expanded upon all that much • The game is overpriced for the amount of content there is (about 4 - 5 hours) [h1]❓Bugs[/h1] • Game crashed [b]9 times[/b] whilst playing co-op with a friend on Steam • Sometimes there would be a red flicker of numbers on the screen every few seconds [h1]📖Story[/h1] You play as Rick and / or John who are a police duo neutralizing criminal threats in the city, each building that they solve leads them to another place to clear out either through their walkie-talkie or from the evidence that they find at the building they cleared out. The story follows these two as they uncover who is behind all of the bombings and various crimes and bring them to justice. It’s a rather cliche storyline so don’t expect anything that mind-blowing to happen. [h1]🕹Gameplay[/h1] [h3][b]Combat[/b][/h3] [b]Police Stories[/b] has a lot of emphasis on tactical and careful combat, any enemy that you encounter can take you out within seconds if you’re not quick on your feet to either shoot or subdue them. The combat was fun and somewhat satisfying after you had cleared out the building, there were a few intense moments near the end of some longer missions in fear that you might die and have to restart. As far as weapons and equipment go you won’t find anything out of the ordinary, you’ll be given a standard rifle that you can use to either kill or subdue enemies with and you’ll unlock new weapons and items as you progress. However, since you’re part of the police force you have to abide by the law which means that unless an enemy aims a gun at you, you can’t shoot them. The other alternative is to fire warning shots near the criminals to make them submit, unfortunately these warning shots sometimes just don’t work, the criminal could either run away or shoot you back and by that time you’re already dead. The non-lethal approach seemed to be mandatory as you would be given less points for killing criminals as opposed to making them surrender and cuffing them. These points give you access to other levels and unlock new equipment that can be used in missions to make the non-lethal approach easier. However, it didn’t take much testing to figure out which items seemed to be superior compared to the others. The enemies that you encounter are all pretty much the same just with different weapons, the game never feels like it expands upon introducing different types of enemies to make the game harder (suicide bombers, holding civilians hostage etc.). The only types of enemies you’ll find are fake civilians and your standard criminals / terrorists, the game never felt that difficult as we managed to get through it within 4 - 5 hours. [h3][b]Missions[/b][/h3] The level design was consistently good throughout all the missions of [b]Police Stories[/b], with hand-crafted levels that force you and your partner to carefully traverse around the building to ensure neither of you get killed. You could either stay together to neutralize the threat as a team or split up and go through rooms solo to get clear out the building quicker. This game tries to keep things fresh and interesting by randomly placing enemies and evidence that you have to gather throughout the level each time you fail or replay the mission. This also ensures that you don’t just memorize the enemy locations and makes going around every corner just as dangerous as the first time playing through the mission. The missions never seem to outstay their welcome either, they were usually short and sweet that might only take a couple of minutes to get through (depending on if your playing solo or co-op). That being said, the game only consists of about 4 - 5 hours of content on the campaign and after you’ve completed that you can either go through the missions again for achievements or go to custom missions whereby you can set how many enemies / civilians are on the map and clear it out. [h1]🎧Music & Sound[/h1] The soundtrack definitely keeps you on your toes as you clear out rooms with intense music playing in the background, the majority of the missions having their own unique soundtrack. [h1]🎨Graphics[/h1] The visuals definitely gave off a [b]Hotline Miami[/b] vibe despite the two games being quite different gameplay-wise. Each room was detailed and seemed to have a lot of thought put into it, however as you get to the end game missions some of the levels might seem kinda familiar. There didn’t seem to be enough variety int the rooms created to make the final few missions feel unique, instead it kinda felt like a mish-mash of different rooms we had previously seen all put together. [h1]💭Closing Thoughts[/h1] [b]Police Stories[/b] was definitely an interesting title to play through with a friend despite feeling like a copy from a game called [b]Swat 4[/b] but with a top-down perspective. The price is rather steep for the amount of content you’ll be getting, and even though this game is ‘fully released’ there’s still had a handful of crashes and bugs to deal with whilst playing co-op. I’d recommend picking up this game, but [b]only[/b] if you have a friend to play co-op with and when it goes on sale considering the crashes and bugs that are still riddled in this title. [i]This product was reviewed using a free key provided by the Developers[/i]