Highway Police Simulator review

Here’s something unexpected. While Highway Police Simulator lives up to its name, featuring the ability to attend emergencies and assess situations before issuing warnings or making arrests, what we have here is a story driven affair. The tutorial kicks off this crime-ridden tale, featuring an explosion on a prison bus – making for a dramatic opening. What then ensues is a string of busts as your unit tackles a succession of countywide heists. It’s a very different experience to 2022’s Police Simulator: Patrol Officers, which merely entailed spending entire shifts slapping tickets on poorly parked cars and handing out fines for littering.

There is something to address before going any further, though. Highway Police Simulator hasn’t launched in a very stable state. The frame rate is incredibly choppy, glitches are common (civilian vehicles are prone to randomly becoming airborne) and the lighting system rarely behaves. I once completed a mission only to find a parked car had spawned directly under the police cruiser, rendering it inaccessible. The highway is also permanently backed-up with traffic and I honestly can’t tell if this was intentional or if the driver/vehicle AI is simply unable to navigate the roads, resulting in a colossal jam. Even if it is a result of wayward programming, seeing countless cars sprawling into the distance is at least an impressive sight. Less impressive: the frequency of typos, not just within dialogue but general item descriptions too.

With that out of the way, there is a reasonably compelling experience hiding under the mountain of glitches and technical issues. That’s to say, an effort has been made to create something in-depth and with a degree of freedom. After making a character and choosing a background, which alters NPC’s perception towards you, said tutorial takes place followed by an introduction to the game’s cast. You play as Officer Marshall and are accompanied at all times by Natalia, who follows behind and can be given basic orders when attending emergencies. While her AI isn’t the greatest, she is capable of taking down bad guys should a shootout occur.  The two often converse when driving, which helps give the game personality, and there are a few other quirky characters back at HQ – including a receptionist fond of cats.

You’re going to be returning to the HQ often to file reports, switch to civilian clothing (essential for some missions), escort criminals to the holding cells, and progress the plot by talking to your superiors. It’s possible to fast travel here (and to other main locations) which helps keep the pace flowing. It’s also sometimes essential to fast travel back to HQ if your vehicle mysteriously goes missing – which is something that happened on a couple of occasions. Indeed, there are quite a few quirks like this to contend with  

The story missions are the focal point, involving meeting and talking to suspects, searching for clues at crime scenes, shooting bad guys via the most mechanically basic set-up imaginable, and so forth. While on duty, procedurally generated emergencies occur, taking place at set locations on the map. Alternatively, you can request a callout. A police chase involves ramming or blocking a car until it comes to a standstill, an accident entails breathalysing suspects and taking photos before filing a sketch and a report, while attending breakdowns requires a vehicle to be examined while seeing if the civilian is in some way intoxicated. You may even find drugs or a firearm in a car’s trunk, resulting in an arrest. Each mission is graded on how thorough you were, with XP given as a reward. This is then used to boost running speed and improve deduction skills, in addition to unlocking new vehicles – with a helicopter teased early on.

While this may sound engaging, Highway Police Simulator is very mechanical and crude. Arrive on the scene and you’ll find civilians lined up, ready to be spoken to, and their vehicles in identical positions each time. As for car chases, the first two I attended involved cars stuck in traffic. Not so much a chase but rather a gentle nudging off the road. This results in the experience becoming very predictable, to the point where emergency scenes start to look indistinguishable; the only thing that ever changes is the cause, which you’ll need to determine.

While Highway Police Simulator is structurally sound – with its combination of dialogue heavy story missions and randomised optional side-missions – it’s impossible to shake the fact that it’s blatantly unfinished. It’s as if the developers were forced to shove it out the door the moment it reached a semi-playable state. Something has obviously happened during development for it to launch like this, be it a lack of time or money, or perhaps the publisher pushing for an early launch. There’s no way the developers can be happy in the way it has reached the public – it’s easily the least stable game we’ve seen in some time.

The idea of playing as a police officer while attending emergencies and taking part in a bigger, more involving, investigation holds some appeal, but all you’ll find here is a glimpse of what could’ve been. Only the most curious of gamers should think about wearing this unit’s badge.

Aerosoft’s Highway Police Simulator is out now on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series. Developed by Z-Software.

SCORE
5