The 1980s and the early 1990s have left us with some great detective series. Perhaps this is why many of us have grown up adoring the genre and researching games with this theme so that we can fully immerse ourselves in the stories that have captivated us so much.
Police Stories is a perfectly designed tribute to this type of production which, in addition, reflects in the smallest detail in pixels this atmosphere of the eighties. The development of Mighty Morgan with Digital HypeTrain in the post (which also brought us the big Breathedge) he tells us about the somewhat hectic lives of John Rimes and Rick Jones (generic names if there are any) in their day-to-day policing activities. Over the course of the different missions, we will get to know certain aspects of the life of these friends who met at the police academy and to whom a normal call of an assault at a bar will lead them to unearth problems more important than ‘they didn’t initially have it in mind. .
The story is told in retrospect and begins on the first day the two companions reunite after a long stay in another division.
Take your regulation weapon and your badge, in this story you will need both and you will have to know how to use them correctly. Ready to serve and protect? Put on the sirens, let’s go.
Technical section
To talk about the art of Police Stories, I have to refer to the only game that looks like me from a distance: Police Quest: SWAT 2. The isometric perspective of this Sierra title and the quality of the pixelated graphics are quite similar to what people of Mighty Morgan starred in this production which we’re reviewing today. For those who are not old enough or memory enough to remember this gem of the Sierra, in comparison one could also think of the graphics of the Hotline Miami.
The atmosphere is covered with a kind of haze that represents the visual field that we cannot reach with our characters, all of this worked with a Pixel art very well done. The animations of the main characters and enemies are extremely detailed, which adds a lot of value to the development team as the perspective chosen for the game often does not allow for an excessive level of detail.
The designers wisely chose a correct color palette to make things easier for us and thus be able to distinguish civilians from criminals more quickly thanks to the poor visibility that we will have in certain phases.
The only negative detail in this section is that maybe the inclusion of some type of map that lets us know the details of our mission at a glance, especially in scenarios that have multiple rooms. to go, would not have been too bad.
The details of some phases will make us appreciate various objects referring to movies or series of pop culture, such as the Sons of Anarchy painting who was in the Teller-Morrow workshop in the series o dear DeLorean.
Musically, the game is also out of the ordinary by bringing melodies with serious tones that move away from the traditional midi-techno sound whose developers usually decorate this type of game with a retro visual style. To pick up on what I was telling you about the ’80s vibe, the use of synthesizers in the soundtrack is the order of the day in almost every song you’re going to listen to, so I suggest that if you don’t do not like this musical option, that they already lower the volume of the options.
The sounds of gunshots and shouts of orders to our partner and suspects are clear and stand out from the music and add tension to the atmosphere which is not at all calm.
The game is localized to the Spanish of Europe in all dialogues and menus, not in the digitized voices, although these are really very few in number and do not make a big difference or hinder those who do not know English to understand something important.
Playability
The structure of the missions begins with the information provided to us by the central, which includes the number of enemies that we will have to neutralize, the hostages and false hostages that swarm in certain phases. These are the most difficult enemies because there is no way to recognize them until they threaten us with a weapon or shoot us directly at point blank range.
Once we have the details of the mission, we will proceed to the selection of our weapons and that of our partner. It goes without saying that as we progress through the levels our arsenal will grow unlocking new options until we reach a total of 16 which will give us different tactical variations even for the phases we already have. completed. At first we will have the option to equip up to three items that can be expanded to a maximum of five. Among them we will have pickaxes to open locked doors, pepper spray to interrogate suspects, stun grenades, a device that allows us to see under the doors, handles for our semi-automatic rifle and other safety equipment. police.
It will be the player who decides what is the best type of gear for each mission, but all of them can be very useful at certain points in the game.
In addition to the additional equipment, we will have the faithful help of our MP5K submachine gun which has an automatic and semi-automatic fire mode (this extends to the level of shots you can take per second). We’re going to have three full, justice-laden cartridges but never in all the hours I’ve spent analyzing the title on my Xbox Series S have I needed them all. The tactical level required by the game do not admit that you face the levels by shooting stupidly and madly.
The levels are quite linear, we will have to enter different structures and neutralize the criminals and save the hostages. When I say “neutralize” I mean that many times we will be able to arrest suspects and many times we will see the need to use lethal force, although this section could be more elaborate. Nuestras acciones translates into puntos que nos permiten avanzar a un próximo nivel, por ejemplo si matamos a un sospechoso antes de que saque un arma, nos descontarán puntos por el uso excesivo de la fuerza, aunque esa persona tenga una escopeta en la mano lista to use.
In the levels we will also find evidence such as drugs and weapons, which when collected will give us extra points to improve our tactical arsenal and move on to the next stage.
The view of the scene will be limited to what our character sees with a few exceptions. As we move around we can hear the sound of our enemies’ footsteps and thus get a rough idea of where they are, the same is true when an enemy loudly threatens a hostage.
The title gives us the option of our partner being controlled by AI or by a human locally. If you have that option, I highly recommend the latter option as the game is much more enjoyable that way. Our partner’s AI is very bad and even with our orders we will end up dying because no one has covered their backs or because they didn’t shoot a criminal in time.
As you will see, death will not be uncommon in Police Stories and we will have to start phases over many times to get through them. It could have been something quite tedious or monotonous, but the developers found a solution: to make the scenarios procedural, which will make both the items we need to collect as evidence, as well as enemies and hostages. are in different places than in the previous game. For many it can be a bit boring, but in my opinion it’s a great success.
Our character’s health will decrease as we take damage, which seems obvious to mark it, but the way the energy is reduced is what makes the clarification valid. So many times a cliché will not make us meet Saint Peter at the gates of this pixelated sky, many times it will. It will depend on how far we are receiving the shot, what kind of caliber we are shot with, and a large number of etc. The health indicator is represented by a red aura that surrounds our character when injured in addition to the sound of breathing which becomes more difficult.
Duration
Completing the Police Stories can take you around 8 hours easily, and it will depend on your patience level. Completing the game’s 18 missions is no easy task and the fact that each game is different from the last one undoubtedly adds a lot of value in this regard.
In addition to the story mode, we will have the fast game mode and custom missions that will allow us to enjoy a game much more casual than the traditional mode.
conclusion
Police Stories is a game that I have followed since its launch on PC and whose Harbor The Xbox is second to none, not even in terms of control where I thought the keyboard and mouse were going to be hard to match.
If you want shooters tactics, which today are not abundant, this title is made and thought for you, especially if you have a colleague to sit down for a while and enjoy locally, the game will give you lots of laughs, discussions and good fun in imitating a time when things were simpler.