Police Tactics: Imperio (PC) Review

The plot is very unexciting even for the already low standards of simulation games, and especially those dealing with tha police. A New York-ish city is having some problems with some bad fellows, and it's up to generic greenhorn cop, what's-his-name, to Judge Dredd their behinds. Even "better?" It all begins with a still image of a large city, with scrolling text underneath briefing the player about it all. Meh… at least Star Wars' exposition had style.

Of course, this is not an RPG, therefore the plot isn't a necessity, although it could have helped with immersion, as Police Tactics: Imperio is audio-visually bland - nothing is ugly, but also nothing stands out. In other words, it's up to the gameplay to save the day. Basically, this is a resource management type of RTS, with the main purpose having to do with the use of the few available resources to stop thieves, murderers, violent protesters, and Social Justice Warriors (hey, a man can dream, can't he?).

The order of the day (as it all takes place in 24-minute "days") is to fight crime. In order to do so, policemen and women must be hired, and vehicles must be bought. After that, making the city a safer place consists of, first, lowering the crime rates by creating patrol routes (the creation of which is very simple and easy), and, two, assigning officers to cover specific tasks that appear in random, whether that's stopping ongoing thefts and riots, or solving cases of murder by investigating a scene of crime.

Hiring/firing, buying/selling, and, later on, upgrading, will be done via some simple menus, but the actual crime-solving is all about issuing commands to the available units. The thing is, though, that, while it's possible to do things in the simple, overhead map, most of the time will be spent in the lifeless, but otherwise, far more helpful, Strategic View, since it provides a bigger picture of the city, as well as because it makes it easier to micromanage the "troops."

Police Tactics: Imperio should spend some more time in the oven, as its UI is not exactly very user-friendly, which can make certain actions a bit harder than they should, whether that's controlling the camera (right click for rotation, as well as issuing commands = not good), or simply selecting one or more units. Furthermore, some bugs still exist, with some affecting the AI of your units, and others their path-finding skills - send a large enough S.W.A.T. battalion to help some hostages and see what this means.

This is not a broken game, though. Far from it, since it just needs some patch up work here and there. The real problem lies in how fun this actually is. You see, video games are nothing more than pieces of software, where the only thing that you really do is pushing buttons. You're not saving busty princesses, you're not shooting down demons, you're not winning the championship - you are just pushing buttons. The trick is to make this all feel real, as well as exciting.

In other words, it's all about immersion, and Police Tactics: Imperio isn't very good at that. Blame the boring story, the dull audio-visuals, or the sterile strategic view which makes it all feel like another day at the precinct (for some, at least), but, in the end, it all goes down to gameplay. What's wrong? Well, the main flaw is probably the fact that this doesn't feel like a strategy game at all! Want to solve a crime? Send an investigator there. Don't have one? Just "upgrade" one of the simple officers to become one. No one has skill points yet? Wait a while… nothing will be wrong after all.

To put it otherwise, this is so easy, that it soon starts feeling like… like just pushing buttons. A burglar is there? Oh, just send someone to get him. A district is turning Red? Get someone to patrol the area - and so on. The final nail in the coffin, however, is the fact that there's not much to do. The "story" mode (the only mode so far) is divided between simple and story missions; both being exactly the same, with the only difference that the latter ones unlock more districts, as well as more vehicles and upgrades to buy - and once that ends… nothing! Thank you for playing and have a good night's sleep.