Have you ever wanted to be a crime fighter or hero, just like the ones we see on the roads every day? I’m talking about the police who are constantly trying to protect and serve the community against those causing problems for others or those that require and need some help. On the other hand, how about just having the power, while obeying the law and being able to take control of situations that require you to figure out who’s guilty or innocent and even what may have happened? Well now you can, with the game Autobahn Police Simulator 2!
How Does it Feel Be the 5-0
I should first mention, I’m a huge fan of simulated games. So when you can pretend and feel how the life of being a police officer would be like, well right there I’m a bit excited! There are so many corrupt things that happen during the day, and as the duty of being the police in this game, we need to prevent them from reoccurring or getting worse. Plus, with so much going on, many missions; jobs needing our attention, it can be a bit challenging to stay on top of everything.
Therefore, as a rookie, starting this game out from the beginning can be hard to keep up with everything going on. If you don’t get to all these commands, you may just find yourself restarting back at the station. This game is one that I have noticed will keep you on your feet, with plenty of things to accomplish. However, with all good games, even those that appear great, there are a few flaws that make the simulated style of this game a bit off from feeling or expecting to be really pretending to be the real thing; being a real policeman or policewoman.
First, let me start with the positive aspects of the game, afterwards, I’ll voice the few features that made the game lackluster. Especially, what little ideas I have that could make the game better and play even closer to the real thing. To start, I do want to mention that these are my own opinions and I don’t have anything against the game, it really is quite well designed. However, not all games are perfect and some things are left out on getting put together completely when the rest of the game is complete.
So beginning with the favorable parts of the game. Example one is that I do enjoy that you can voice your opinion when being asked a question. You as the player can decide how you want to answer and what kind of person you want to be. So you don’t have to follow one path when it comes to the game, even the responses you can give throughout the game.
There is even a nice feature of being able to move the player with ease, it isn’t difficult to walk around or run. You can easily search and get to the locations you would like to visit that are accessible to you, which will be labeled with either a letter that’s on the controller so you can open, move to, speak to, and practically everything that you can or can’t do. So there may be limitations in this game, but it does keep you from doing something that may cause you to get lost.
So I haven’t found myself getting confused or lost, where I need to move or locate my next mission. The game is very well designed in that manner, which I’m grateful for! Some games can get you to fall off course and get lost on how to get back, this isn’t that difficult, cause it isn’t with too much freedom, not much like a Grand Theft Auto Game.
Now for a few, well many negative features, which I don’t want to sound like there are many, but I did find some issues that take away the realistic gameplay feel you get with a simulated game. One thing, for example, is its limitation on choosing how you want to set up and customize your character; your police officer. The game is limited to just 3 options of males and females. Now it’s not that I don’t mind an easy setup when personalizing a character, but when you are limited to just a few ethnic groups, which not everyone wants to be.
Sometimes you may want to be able to look like yourself in the game. This would make it feel closer to what it really would feel as if you are playing a simulated-realistic style game. Especially, so much more realistic when you can be free to have light tan skin, shorter hair or longer hair, maybe even curly or for the males, a mustache or beard, and so on. It would be great to be able to design a character that matches the real person playing or one that wants to have tattoos, pink hair, or anything unique like that, who says you have to look proper to be a police officer, many in the real world have tats and other looks that aren’t all very conservative in the modern-day.
Also, let’s talk about the mapping of the controller. It may be easier to move the character, but it can be a little hard to understand the controls especially when driving. It might be easy, but I struggled with getting out of the vehicle, remembering which is to backup, using the brakes, turning the siren on and off, and even using the quick signal options or just opening the menu options while in the vehicle. So much you need to know and it takes some time to get used to it. However, with a few trial runs of playing the game it can become a bit easier, just takes some more time to figure it out.
Another issue of the controls that work with the camera, well it can be a bit hard to always keep it on target when moving a different way or looking straight ahead. I feel that the game’s camera rotation can be a bit of a headache when you’re trying to get everything caught up with the camera as you move. Sometimes, I actually wish I can automatically have it move when or whichever view I’m looking towards. Even more so, it can, especially make you feel a bit sick if you have or get vertigo with fast movements or going around in circles.
Oh yes, and if you are looking to get out of tricky situations. For example, if the vehicle gets caught into the trees, possibly bad driving or in a tight spot. There is no way to back out or get out it’s like you have to restart. Just feels a bit off on that and I wish there was a way to backup and get from the problem, which it would or could be possible, but not in this game. It’s nothing like driving in Grand Theft Auto, just wishing it could be, but it’s so much more restricted and difficult.
One last thing is the graphics. It’s not totally horrible, the background scenes and the design of everything is perfect, but the animated style of how things are opened or moved can be slightly off. Especially, when the arms of your created police officer don’t actually move, but the doors will open up or it just happens to be in your hands. It just feels less like you are doing a real action. Only if it’s some type of magical witchcraft you can open doors without using your arms. However, it doesn’t just stop at that!
Another issue is with objects. One especially, in particular, the police car. I noticed right away that you can walk right through the door after opening it. I would think a door would block you from moving forward, not going right through it. So there might be a bit of an animated and graphic issue, but at least the realistic appeal is still there, just that it could probably use a little fix and things might feel a bit more like reality verse just a game that is partially complete or in a stage that is like beta, with a few glitches.
Overall Conclusion
I feel the game has its good qualities and its bad ones. Maybe it just needs a little of these things fixed to be a brilliant game. However, it just can come off a bit less realistic. Even with a simple thing that acts as a meter to locate your next location. It tells you how close you are getting towards an object, well this blue marker does count down, but it never gets to 0 to tell you that you’ve arrived. it just gets to about 2 something, and that is the location. At first, I was thinking it would have to be further, then just right there, but it isn’t.
I’ve played many different games with that type of location thing, but to see it not really do an accurate counting, and the rest of the issues. I only can think that the game is close to playing a beta version of the game, not the completed one. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a great game, but maybe it needs a few adjustments to make it just a bit easier and well put together.
Lastly, I’d like to say that in reality sometimes people, like myself may be afraid of the police in real life, not all are nice, but when I get to be the police it’s kind of fun to see how it is and what they have to face daily. Nevertheless, this game is action-packed and quite fun and challenging at the same time! Even if it isn’t super close to perfect, the game of being a real police officer still allows you that exciting feeling to be a real cop, or even if you want to just say be a pretend cop in this fun game, Autobahn Police Simulator 2!
