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Enforcing the law and locking up criminals is something many people have probably wished they could do at some point in their lives, apart from those who are committing the crimes of course.
The arrival of Highway Police Simulator hopes to satisfy this wish, providing the opportunity to put on a police uniform to maintain law and order on the highways. It is however coming from developers Z-Software, whose previous game Autobahn Police Simulator 3 drew much criticism for a whole host of reasons.
Have lessons been learned to ensure Highway Police Simulator is a simulation game worth immersing yourself within, or will you be handing in your gun and badge after a single shift?
Life in Highway Police Simulator begins with an extremely simple character creation offering. There’s a limited selection of preset faces alongside some rather bad looking hairstyles and just three different casual outfits that haven’t been in fashion for decades.
But I digress, it’s not all that important in the grand scheme of things, except for a choice regarding your back-story. I like that you can either be a third generation cop or a man of the streets who joined the force to make a difference. Depending upon which you choose, certain groups of people will show more respect and behave differently towards you.
And then you’re off to explore the fictional American region of Caminora, where the stakes are high from the get-go. Tasked with escorting a bus carrying inmates, you and partner Nataly Cordero are behind schedule and must try to catch up with the convoy in a police-issued vehicle. It basically serves as a tutorial mission that also lays the foundations for the main narrative, which is where you get a real glimpse of what’s to come. Sadly, it’s not a pretty sight.
As the very first cutscene kicks in, depicting a brazen breakout attempt and the escape of a prisoner, you’re left thinking ‘wow’. Like wow, Highway Police Simulator is like something that was released over a decade ago with poor visuals, terrible effects, and quite possibly the slowest, most unbelievable crash ever. This is followed by conversations between characters in which the models are stiff, dead behind the eyes, and plagued with textural anomalies. For some reason the audio occasionally goes awry as if they’re talking over the radio, and cuts off abruptly just before the end of almost every sentence too. Such issues continue beyond the early stages, which is disappointing, but these are things you could maybe overlook in return for quality gameplay.
Throughout the story missions and the optional free roam callouts, there’s actually a decent variety in what you can do. Analysing the scene of an accident, car chases, pulling people over to check out their credentials, attending a shootout, and even helping with a breakdown. Engaging in such activities garners experience to level up and unlock points to spend across three skill trees. The ideas are sound enough, with you having to record statements, take photos, inspect documents and search vehicles for anything illegal, before writing up reports detailing your findings. The execution however, is bloody awful.
The driving mechanics are beyond woeful, with handling akin to when you’d be behind the wheel in Out Run. This makes traversing the streets and the highway a real chore, especially as other drivers are blissfully unaware of your existence. For some reason there are always traffic jams en route to a job and it’s almost impossible to avoid contact with other cars while trying to reach the scene. Unfortunately, the slightest damage can see your vehicle health deteriorate disproportionately compared to driving into a wall at full speed.
Outside the car things aren’t any better, with weapon malfunctions seeing you doomed during shootouts. The amount of times the pistol refuses to fire once drawn is ridiculous, leaving you to watch the mannequin-like AI baddies firing into the ground, somehow still managing to hit you or Nataly. When it does work though, the whole setup is basic at best and nothing about it feels right.
There are even problems inspecting vehicles to uncover evidence as you look to bolster your case against a perp. After a handful of full restarts and a shed load of reloads, the interactions with contraband in car trunks just don’t register. You can’t go around accusing people of drug possession if the game doesn’t recognise that you found any. And while it’s not such a big deal on regular patrol, it’s essentially a game-ending issue when the main objective requires a thorough inspection.
That’s not the only bug though, with prior missions failing to spawn vehicles which are crucial to progress, for example. It’s really not fun to embark upon every mission fearing you might have to reload from the last checkpoint, or start a brand new save entirely.
That’s not the full extent of the technical issues found in Highway Police Simulator either, with cars randomly jumping in midair. And, in certain situations, everything lags. The police station is where you’ll suffer the most as incessant stuttering occurs, ensuring any actions are difficult to perform. Heck you can’t walk down the corridor without the whole thing going haywire, which is darn irritating.
While the developers are aware of issues, the updates released are merely patching over a few cracks. I don’t know if it’s possible to fix the amount of bugs and glitches I’ve experienced, however I am absolutely positive that Highway Police Simulator on Xbox is in a poor state right now. Sure, there are some good ideas that could lend themselves well to a decent police sim, but it’s not worth wading through the plethora of problems to uncover them.
It’s almost criminal that Highway Police Simulator is available to buy when it’s such a mess, so please put your wallet down and step away peacefully.
Highway Police Simulator Races onto PC and Consoles: Enforce the Law and Choose Your Path – https://www.thexboxhub.com/highway-police-simulator-races-onto-pc-and-consoles-enforce-the-law-and-choose-your-path/
Highway Police Simulator sets off on September patrol – https://www.thexboxhub.com/highway-police-simulator-sets-off-on-september-patrol/
Buy Highway Police Simulator on Xbox – https://www.xbox.com/en-gb/games/store/highway-police-simulator/9pjqlds9pkcv