Summary
- Open-world games often prioritize chaos over order, but few depict law enforcement realistically.
- Police Simulator: Patrol Officers offers a gradual rise in a police department, from tickets to major incidents.
- Despite love from players, games where players take on law enforcement roles rarely turn into franchises.
Raising chaos usually seems more exciting for gamers, and that is in direct contrast with maintaining law and order. Of course, many games depict heroes who try to bring peace back to the world, but it barely gets done in a more authentic way, similar to what would have been expected in real life.
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That being said, games where the player takes the role of a law enforcer still exist, and some of them have managed to reach a high profile in the industry, gaining a massive community of fans. The main problem is that most of the games in this specific genre never turned into a franchise despite receiving so much love from the players.
7 Police Simulator: Patrol Officers
Living An Officer's Daily Life
Police Simulator: Patrol Officers
- Released
- June 17, 2021
WHERE TO PLAY
- Developer(s)
- Aesir Interactive
- Genre(s)
- Simulation
- Platform(s)
- PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S
- OpenCritic Rating
- Weak
Depending on their primary department, police officers do not necessarily deal with homicides every day. Police Simulator: Patrol Officers is all about stepping up gradually and slowly within a police department. The players start small with jobs as simple as writing parking tickets and warning speeders.
As the player makes progress, they unlock new areas in the city, and they get involved in serious situations like major accidents or even crime scenes with homicides. Just like any other simulation game, Police Simulator is recommended to patient players who would gladly accept the initial grind before reaching the higher heights of the gameplay loop.
6 True Crime Series
A Police Agent That Can Be As Troublesome As A Criminal
True Crime: New York City
- Released
- November 15, 2005
WHERE TO PLAY
- Developer(s)
- Luxoflux
- Franchise
- True Crime
- Genre(s)
- Third-Person Shooter
- Platform(s)
- PC, GameCube, PlayStation 2, Xbox (Original)
Despite getting two entries, True Crime was a short-lived franchise that never survived the sixth generation of consoles, and one reason for that could be the outstanding success of the Grand Theft Auto series at the time.
In True Crime, players take the role of a police agent and have a main story campaign to follow, but besides, they can also freely roam around the city and complete some training missions at the police station to unlock new skills.
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Being a police agent, the player is able to borrow every citizen's vehicle in the city by showing their badge. The second game, New York City, delivers a much better experience gameplay-wise, depicting the true feeling of Manhattan with its insane traffic jams.
True Crime is a more action-oriented experience, and it comes with some cool cop features like handcuffs, but not as deep as a simulator.
5 LEGO City Undercover
A Lighthearted, Action-Heavy Adventure
While it doesn't take itself seriously, LEGO City Undercover does have a fun gameplay loop with 2-player co-op support to take down the notorious criminals of LEGO City. The game is set in an open-world environment with the player taking the role of an officer who tries to arrest Rex Fury, the most dangerous criminal in the city.
A wide variety of vehicles, like cars, boats, and choppers, are available to use to explore the city and hunt down criminals. Players go through various mission types and challenges in each district of the game and experience various action-heavy scenarios.
4 Grand Theft Auto 5 RP
Living The Life Of A Police Officer In Los Santos
Grand Theft Auto 5
- Released
- September 17, 2013
WHERE TO PLAY
- Developer(s)
- Rockstar North
- Franchise
- Grand Theft Auto
- Genre(s)
- Open-World, Action
- Platform(s)
- Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, Xbox One, Xbox 360, PC, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5
- OpenCritic Rating
- Mighty
The vanilla version of Grand Theft Auto 5 never allows players to take the role of a police officer, but this has now become one of the many popular jobs in GTA RP.
Anyone familiar with FiveM or even the GTA streamers probably knows it pretty well that it works quite differently from the original game. It's all about contributing to an immersive experience, which is why playing as a cop in FiveM is quite fun.
Now, there are many different servers in FiveM with different rules, but in the end, they all deliver similar experiences quite close to a life simulator. Raising chaos immediately is not an option anymore, and as a cop, players should try to arrest criminals in peace before drawing a weapon.
As an online experience, it's almost essential to have a microphone when playing on FiveM servers and to respect the rules.
3 Driver: San Francisco
An Epic Return To The Origins With A Creative Approach
Driver: San Francisco
- Released
- August 30, 2011
WHERE TO PLAY
- Developer(s)
- Ubisoft Reflections
- Franchise
- Driver
The entire Driver series follows the story of the FBI agent John Tanner, who pursues a die-hard criminal known as Jericho. All iterations of the game feature an open-world design, where the player can decide to follow the main story missions or just drive around the city and find some hidden secrets.
While the first two entries of the series turned quite popular, the release of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas and the utter failure of Driver 3 held the franchise back.
However, Driver: San Francisco was an epic return. The game ditched the GTA-style design that was opted for in Driver 3 and primarily focused on driving, which was the reason why this series became popular.
In Driver: San Francisco, players take the role of John Tanner again, but with him descending into a coma, they gain an otherworldly ability to switch between any given car in the city to follow the criminals.
The game comes with amazing car handling and a massive variety of vehicles, though there is no cop feature to make it stand out from other open-world driving games.
2 Sleeping Dogs
An Undercover Agent Sneaking Into Hong Kong Gangs
Sleeping Dogs
- Released
- August 14, 2012
WHERE TO PLAY
- Developer(s)
- United Front Games
- Genre(s)
- Open-World, Action
- Platform(s)
- PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, Xbox One, Xbox 360, PC
Sleeping Dogs is often known as the spiritual successor to the True Crime series, but it is much more than that. Playing as an undercover agent, players infiltrate the ruthless gangs of Hong Kong to collect evidence and take down the entirety of the organized crime families in the city.
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The open-world aspect of the game is quite fascinating. Free roaming is always available, and players even get to modify their cars. Unfortunately, there are no significant gameplay features in the game to let the player feel like a cop other than the story cutscenes, which is the reason why players almost play it like a criminal most of the time.
1 L.A. Noire
An Ultimate Detective Experience
LA Noire
- Released
- May 17, 2011
WHERE TO PLAY
L.A. Noire delivers a true sense of working as a police detective, and it nails it in almost every aspect. Inspecting the crime scenes, writing down the evidence, prosecuting suspects, and reaching a conclusion.
All of these are parts of the gameplay loop in L.A. Noire, and the players get to try these in multiple cases while also receiving promotion in their department. L.A. Noire was a massive technological advancement in using motion capture at the time, which is part of the reason why it is still loved by the audience.
Aside from main cases, players may also find smaller crime reports while patrolling around the city, which adds more fun to the game and makes the experience feel dynamic. It's a shame that Team Bondi was defunct before delivering a sequel to this masterpiece, but Rockstar can still revive the series.
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