This Is the Police 2 trailer exposes new corrupt cop action

YouTube YouTube
Watch On

The crooked cop sim This Is the Police was, to my mind, a really interesting idea that didn't quite come together in execution: "Looks and sounds gorgeous," we said in our review, "but becomes dull and repetitive after the first couple of hours." Later this year developer Weappy will take another run at it with This Is the Police 2, a tale about another chief in another town, with some big problems of her own. 

Lilly Reed is the new sheriff of Sharpwood, a small, remote northern town plagued by smugglers, gangs, and worse. Corruption is rampant, and the officers under her command are a dodgy bunch at best. And now there's a new stranger in town named Warren Nash, who may or may not end up making things even worse. 

It's interesting that, while the game is ostensibly about Reed, the announcement trailer is focused entirely on Nash. It's also obvious that Warren Nash is in fact Jack Boyd, the lead character from the original game: He doesn't speak much but he sure sounds a lot like Duke Nukem when he does (that'd be voice actor Jon St. John, who portrayed Boyd in This Is the Police), and in case that doesn't sell it for you, he also pretty clearly says "Boyd" before throwing out the fake name. 

It sounds like the setup for a fairly conventional Hollywood action-redemption tale—broken tough guy retreats to a cabin in the woods to live out his days in solitude but gets caught up in a local power struggle and discovers that the real heroes are the friends he makes along the way—but the studio says it will offer the same sort of morally ambiguous "adventure and management" gameplay as This Is the Police, with new mechanics that will put a greater emphasis on strategy. 

"It won’t be enough just managing the equipment of your policemen and keeping in mind their individual skills. Every challenge requires the player’s direct participation, and the outcomes will depend on every decision you make," the announcement says. "Now your subordinates aren’t just some resource; they are living people with their own strengths, weaknesses, fears and prejudices, and you'll have to reckon with all these things in order to survive." 

The debut trailer seems to be aiming for some Tarantino-style tension—"What does Marcellus Wallace look like?" and all that—but I think it falls well short of the mark. It's too long, too slow, too static, and doesn't say anything about the game except that the members of the local constabulary are Bad Guys. It's not a disastrous introduction by any stretch, but I hope the final game shows more restraint and refinement.   

This Is the Police 2 is listed on Steam and expected to be out later this year. The original This Is the Police is on sale until February 6 for $5/£5/€5. 

Andy Chalk
US News Lead

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.

Latest in Adventure
Hogwarts Legacy potions professor holding a potion
An unannounced Hogwarts Legacy expansion and 'definitive edition' have reportedly been cancelled
A motley crew riding out in point-and-click adventure Rosewater
Promising '90s style point-and-clicker Rosewater rides out today, featuring trail-worn cowpoke authors and weird alt-universe science
It's ENA! From the free adventure Dream BBQ!
Mindbending free multimedia adventure ENA: Dream BBQ is out now, has activated all my neurons and opened my third eye
Image of illuminated manuscript-style drawings from the game Pentiment.
Random characters kept swearing in Obsidian's font-obsessed murder-mystery when its procedural error system ran amok: 'Naughtiness abounded'
An image of a corpse with the text "You've been re-educated."
I played the lost videogame sequel to 1984, and came away more nostalgic than ever for gaming's awkward adolescence in 1999
Rosella encounters a satyr in a forest in King's Quest 4
Eagle-eyed streamer spots that Roberta Williams' portrait in King's Quest 4 is based on her author photo on the back of the game box: 'I never noticed it before.'
Latest in News
A screenshot from SaGa Frontier 2, showing one of the protagonists wandering through a quaint fantasy village
One of Square Enix' most underrated PlayStation-era JRPGs just shadow dropped on Steam
The titular character from Princess Mononoke is depicted riding the wolf goddess Moro and carrying a spear.
Studio Ghibli AI image trend floods social media, cheered on by OpenAI and denounced by critics as an insult to Hayao Miyazaki
Marvel Rivals tier list - Wolverine
Marvel Rivals director says a future patch will reduce the shooter's insatiable hunger for RAM: 'It's a very big problem'
Hogwarts Legacy potions professor holding a potion
An unannounced Hogwarts Legacy expansion and 'definitive edition' have reportedly been cancelled
Story of Seasons - A cahacter in a purple tuxedo stands outside in a town square talking to the player
Story of Seasons is doing another Harvest Moon remake and it might be the best the series has ever looked
Assassin's Creed Shadows change seasons - An upper-body shot of Yasuke looking cheerfully up into the distance.
Assassin's Creed Shadows puts up the 'second highest day-one sales revenue in Assassin's Creed franchise history'