The struggle of the system versus its opponents is a tale of old as time, and can take many different shapes. I mean, if you look beneath the surface,HeatandSchool of Rockare the same movie, you know?
Most kids have played cops and robbers at least once in their lives, shouting “hands in the air, don’t move!” while making finger guns at each other, so this stuff would naturally translate well into the virtual world.
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It’s your cousin, Roman!
As you get older,the lines between good guys and bad guys can get a little blurry, which is why so many games love to play in the gray zone.
Today, we’re going to look into the games where you are the law. You can play the cartoonish good guy, you can be an oppressive tyrant, or both at once. The duality of man, as warrior philosopher James “Joker” Davis postulated.
To qualify for this list, the game must allow you to play as a member of law enforcement, the judiciary system, or other tasks at the behest of a government body. This means no private investigators, vigilantes and the likes. Better luck next time, Batman.
8L.A. Noire
Press X to Scream at Suspect
A traumatized World War 2 veteran,a decadent Los Angelesenjoying its post-war boom, and a police department that is happy to cash in on the shady business whenever suitable.
L.A. Noiremay not be the best open world game in the universe, but it compensates for its shortcomings there with unmatched vibes.
The writing is beyond incredible (and, dare I say it, better thanRed Dead Redemption 2), helped by the amazing work done with the face scans. None of that uncanny valley business games likeLife is Strangeoften trip on.
You solve crimes byvisiting crime scenes, interrogating suspects, and occasionally trading shots with them. This arguablywould have worked better as a more linear gameconsidering just how little there is to do in theL.A. Noireopen world, but nobody is perfect.
Lawful Tactical
Irrational Games’SWAT 4might be the spiritual grandfather ofReady Or Not, but the games have little in common besidesguys in masks throwing flash grenades into rooms.
SWAT 4is all about following your rules of engagement, and when situations get out of hand, you only have yourself to blame.
The base game can fall a little short of modern standards today, given that it has been out for two decades, but theSWAT 4modding scene has patched over most issues.
The AI, often the undermining factor in older shooters, is what makesSWAT 4so good.The game has suspects vary their location and ‘personality’ with each playthrough. Your teammates are also extremely reliable, and you’re able to control them with voice commands, which never gets old.
6Disco Elysium
Embrace The Hobocop
Disco Elysium
Hey kid, want to be ina visual novelabout an alcoholic detective with some of the most elaborate political thought and commentary to ever grace the virtual world? Why am I asking, of course you do.
Disco Elysiumcame out in 2019, but it feels like it’s been around forever given how much discourse, legal wrangling, andcopies it spawned.
There are so many standout aspects to the game, but perhaps the best one is how much freedom you have. We’re talkingactual gameplay freedomhere, not ‘here’s a six-choice dialogue tree every ten minutes that changes virtually nothing’.
All of this plays out largely through walls of text, reflecting the thoughts of the protagonist through his trials and tribulations.Discois sad, bleak, and strikingly beautiful all at once.It’s the kind of game that leaves you contemplating life, and the consciousness of ugly neckties.
5Battlefield Hardline
Gaze Upon This Fine Country Of Ours
Battlefield Hardline
If we go by the campaign, this game is a perfect fit. Otherwise, multiplayer still covers half the prompt, so it goes either way.
Battlefield Hardlineis the tragic tale ofgreat ideas executed through the wrong franchise. This was prime cops versus robbers content, executed in a bombastic way that would make Michael Bay proud, but it got a lukewarm reaction in large part becauseBattlefieldis about… well, battlefields, with tanks and planes.
Visceral Games put togethera cinematic gaming experience that felt straight out of aCopsepisode. As you sink ever deeper into Florida’s criminal underworld,Battlefield Hardlinekeeps you on your toes for the 4 hours and change of the campaign.
The multiplayer side of things has some more variability, with new game modes that moved away fromBattlefield’s more formulaic Conquest gameplay.
4We. The Revolution
Don’t Lose Your Head
We. The Revolution
The French Revolution cemented the demise of monarchist power in Europe, and its template for popular uprisings is still common worldwide today.
We. The Revolutionplaces you as a top judge in 1794 Paris. The revolutionary flame that stormed the Bastille has long given way topolitical division, the deep scars of the monarchy, and a terrifying aura of distrust.
Your job is deceptively simple: listen to the parties in the trial, look at the evidence, and then decide whether the defendant walks free, goes to prison, or is executed.
The zeitgeist makes the impartial application of justice complicatedthough. Going against the jury or a member of the tribunal might land you in the defendant’s seat soon enough. Sometimes, your own family will turn against you depending on how you act.
These moral dilemmas are presented in a beautiful and unique art style, but no matter how many times you play, the decisions never get easy.
3Ready Or Not
Woe, Flashbang Be Upon Ye
Ready or Not
The fictional city of Los Sueños is only marginally worse than real-life Los Angeles, and it sets the stage for VOID Interactive’s SWAT shooter,Ready Or Not. The game is a mix of serious-face police action, and a great little tactical Barbie minigame within.
Ready Or Notthrives on itsunconventional mechanicsfor a shooter. There is no sprint button, you earn extra points for taking enemies alive rather than shooting them, and every map is full of civilians caught in the crossfire, so you can’t just blast everything you see.
The online co-op mode is great, but my favorite is the campaign, where you play certified cutie pie “Judge” Beaumont and manage your SWAT team’s equipment, skills, and psychological state.
Playing too aggressively stresses your operators out, and makes them more error-prone in future missions. Too passive, and you risk losing an officer in a shootout.Ready Or Notis all about choices, and it rewards making the right ones.
2Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne
New York’s Killer Romance
Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne
Was it appropriate for a child to playMax Payne2? Probably not, but I enjoyed the hell out of it.Sam Lake’s finest tragic cop tale takes you through a New York underworld that is equal parts depressing and seductive.
I have yet to find a gameplay mechanic that gives me a feeling of unlimited power on par withMax Payne 2’s implementation of bullet time. Maybe it’s because we were collectively a little too obsessed with theMatrixfilms back then, but I digress.
Max Payne2thrives on presentation, withelegant noir comic strips mixed in with fantastic cutscenes setting the tone of the game.
The plot strikes a unique balance between cop thriller, romance, and that lovely gray zone when the law needs to play dirty to beat the bad guys.
1Papers, Please
A Bureaucrat’s Life
Papers, Please
I’ve moved countries a lot of times during my life, and spent many mornings waiting in the passport control queue with my passport in hand. No matter how many times I do it though, there’s always some irrational anxiety once it’s my turn.
Papers, Pleaseflips the script on that, and the result is one of the most emotionally engaging games you can play. Youplay as a pencil pusherworking at a border checkpoint, admitting or denying entry to Arstotzka based on ever-changing immigration laws fed to you regularly via diktats.
Wrongfully allowing a visitor or turning away someone with valid papers means part of your miserly salary is docked.Papers, Pleasemakes you manage the home front as well, balancing the books at home to keep your family warm, fed, and healthy.
Papers, Pleasegives you the option to be cruel on minor discrepancies in order to try and avoid a salary penalty, or be compassionate at your own risk. Back home, as you attempt to sleep in a warm bed with your family, the faces of those who you turned away stay with you.
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