Turn-Based Tactics This is the Police 2 - now with turn-based tactics

[Zombra]

A lot of the cutscenes drag for sure, but I am for those who skip them. While the writing quality itself doesn't support the length, I feel it's important to spend this much time with the characters and setting to really "get it".

 

[Haba]

Yeah, they frontloaded a shitton of cutscenes. A bad move in that regard. Later the balance story vs gameplay is much better

Yeah, later you have entire days without anything. Which was nice.

But those guys really, really should have had someone edit their shit. Hopefully they are learning animals.

 

[toro]

I fucked up. I gave up on the game at the Nekties mission because I could not make that shit work without getting noticed.

I've tried several times and 2-3 times I almost did it but after 1 hour the frustration took over. I quit the game and watched the cutscenes movies.

And after I spoiled the entire game I found out that there are 3 ways to approach the Nekties mission. I'm a fucking moron.

So, for whoever is stuck on that mission:

Spoiler

There is a hidden forest part on the top-right part of the map.

Also question for whoever finished the game:

Spoiler

Is it possible to save Jack's soul?

 

[Haba]

A lot of the tougher assaults are literal puzzles, you have to figure out enemy movement pattern and then take them out in a specific order. I heartily recommend speedhack at 4-5x to make it more tolerable.

And no, it is not possible. Just like you can't win the competition. (though there is acheevo for doing that)

 

[toro]

A lot of the tougher assaults are literal puzzles, you have to figure out enemy movement pattern and then take them out in a specific order. I heartily recommend speedhack at 4-5x to make it more tolerable.

There is a church bomb mission and I had one non-loyal guy in the team which started shooting as soon as the mission started. Well, I simply winged it by shooting everything and I had won the mission on 1st try.

On the other hand the Nekties mission is almost impossible if you don't use the forest path ... which obviously I would have done if I noticed the damn thing.

What I want to say is that the access/approach routes are more important than the enemies movement patterns cause usually there is only one way to do it.

 

[toro]

Dude I was skipping them for 5 minutes and there were still more cut-scenes.

 

[Haba]

On the other hand the Nekties mission is almost impossible if you don't use the forest path ... which obviously I would have done if I noticed the damn thing.

I didn't use the forest path (besides to clear that side later).

You can do it from the left hand side, but you have to take each guard in specific order. If their body is on the wrong tile, the alarm will trigger.

Took 60 turns or something equally fun. Not a single enemy was standing.

 

[veevoir]

I did the neckties without forest path.. but I had all loyal guys with 3 stealth. That allows everyone to pick two perks - Ninja (3 actions instead of 2 when undiscovered) plus silent shot (shoot silently once per combat, useful when shit goes south).

Makes the mission much more tolerable.

I even arrested most of them

 

[Stavrophore]

Oh boy ive replayed this mission quite a lot, until ive learned the correct order of arresting guards. Its best to know how far the guard can be alerted[you can count the tiles] and then check if you kill a target it could possibly alert anyone nearby. Like the guards near the big circus tent, you kill these two on the left, and the middle guy will never notice their bodies, since his patrol route end, just before he could notice the body[9 tiles or 10 i believe].

 

[Mark Richard]

Finished the first game again. I had forgotten how much the Russian origins peek through despite the Western setting. Every once in a while the police dispatcher gets a call about paratroopers bathing in public fountains or a tracksuit-wearing family spooking the citizens of Freeburg. And being Russian, the game ignores lines Western developers refuse to cross. This is the Police must be the only title available on the Nintendo Switch that includes rape, torture, and child killing. Fallout 1 & 2 had some nasty stuff, but could you waterboard a kid to death? I think not.

Still collecting my thoughts on the sequel. Early days yet. The way the story's told seems very different. The internal hard-boiled narration of Jack Boyd is gone, replaced by long rambling Tarantino dialogue exchanges that are sometimes crap, sometimes great, and often inbetween. This is a shame since the story was such a highpoint of its predecessor, up there in quality with the comic strips from Max Payne 1 & 2. On the other hand, the lacklustre gameplay of the previous game has been greatly improved. Sure there's the tactical missions, but even routine calls have multiple approaches that take into account the skills & equipment of the officer, whereas before everything was reduced to one unifying professionalism score. Investigations also throw a curveball by adding the possibility of arresting the wrong person.

Yahtzee shared a video yesterday and gave up after the second mission.

 

[orcinator]

I decided to go look for the fast forward button myself.
I can't find it.
Maybe it got patched in right.
Surely they don't expect players to spend all that time waiting for the police cars to reach their destinations and then go back to the precinct for another 300 or so days?

 

[Stavrophore]

I decided to go look for the fast forward button myself.
I can't find it.
Maybe it got patched in right.
Surely they don't expect players to spend all that time waiting for the police cars to reach their destinations and then go back to the precinct for another 300 or so days?

Use CheatEngine speedhack. And the game is short.

 

[Mark Richard]

Fini. Those isometric combat missions sure give the series some much needed depth and elevate This is the Police 2 beyond the classification of a glorified visual novel like its forebearer. Great stuff, though it's easy to see where criticisms over the difficulty comes from - the pacing is all over the place. From mission two onwards the number of hostiles doubles, putting you up against timers and brutal labyrinths of overlapping patrols where detection results in instant failure. Then a multi-tier mission requiring days of preparation pops up, only to turn out to be a cakewalk.

On the other hand, complaints about an inability to cobble together a cooperative workforce are premature. It's really quite simple, boiling down to loyalty and hidden traits. Disloyal officers have a visual indicator (no hat) and refuse to go out on errands on the town map or obey orders in combat. There are numerous opportunities to gain or lose loyalty. Hidden traits are extra conditions on an officer's cooperativeness. As far as I know they're permanent and unique to that officer. The starting workforce has around 4 of them, so you get the impression that you're going to need a pen & pad to keep track, though in actuality these traits are quite rare. Trust me, even if you have the memory of a goldfish with Alzheimer's, you'll have no trouble here. Traits contribute to making the team more distinct without becoming a full blown annoyance. Like this dude named Bradhi whose portrait keeps changing to reflect his customised police uniforms (lederhosen, a Cossack uniform, etc). It's been oddly fascinating seeing what he'll come up with week after week.

I thought the narrative was going to suffer from latent trilogy syndrome, where the first game has a self-contained story, and the second would turn out to merely be the first of two parts. This wasn't the case. To my surprise everything was wrapped up by the end, though it left a bad taste in my mouth.

Spoiler

Jack has 4 issues to deal with and solves them all with a gun, getting what he wants by killing every major character. This is like a fan fiction rewrite of Breaking Bad where Walter White is healed by meth fumes and retains his position as a drug kingpin, or if Scarface ended on the 'Push it to the Limit' montage. Lilly is nowhere near as important as the advertising material lead me to believe, never evolving beyond a passive observer who commands about as much authority as a child in a Sheriff halloween costume.

The production quality has risen sharply. There's over three hours of cutscenes packing far more visual detail. I just wish the dialogue retained the crisp style of the last game instead of the stuttering ad-libbing. Weird how the strengths and weaknesses of the series have kind of crossed on the spectrum.

 

[Zombra]

I went back to the game after stalling for months on the Neckties mission. Finished it and I'm glad I did. The story went even darker than I expected ... impressive. This is incline for sure - note that doesn't mean perfect.

 

[Mortmal]

I went back to the game after stalling for months on the Neckties mission. Finished it and I'm glad I did. The story went even darker than I expected ... impressive. This is incline for sure - note that doesn't mean perfect.

It is incline but i find the tactical mission poorly balanced, its more or less some sub xcom 2.Story is fine indeed but that's not enough to make up for it.

 

[Zombra]

Everyone who played or was interested in this game should be made aware of the tactical spinoff game "Rebel Cops", releasing in just a couple weeks.