Recent reviews by Super Weegee

This is a mixed positive review. Overall, the game functions pretty well when it's not bugging out and is a simplified but fun process of what it's like to be a police officer in the United States. It's flawed, however, and definitely should have stayed in Early Access for longer. As such, this is going to be an "Early Access" review regardless.

Disclaimer: My playthrough was done exclusively on Casual Mode and the experience will obviously be different for anybody doing Simulation Mode.

Pros:
- It's pretty accurate for the most part, although quite a few aspects are definitely not for the sake of gameplay convenience.
- The game starts you off in Casual Mode by default, which is the right call. Crash into cars going 60+ MPH? Not my problem! I have an accident caused by a speeder to get to! If you want a more realistic experience, then turn on Simulation Mode or adjust some of the settings if it's too intimidating.
- Similarly, it starts off pretty simply and you have to unlock the call-outs and tools by doing your job properly and leveling up. It's pretty easy for newbies to sink their feet into.
- You can be hilariously petty with people. Does a driver have a cracked windshield that they almost certainly got in a crash thanks to a drunk driver? Give them an expensive ticket! I even ticketed people a few times for jaywalking right on the edge of a crosswalk, and it counted as valid. Those are almost certainly bugs, but it's funny to point out.
- It can get pretty chaotic at times in a good way. While you're dealing with an accident, doing interviews, doing DUI tests and all that, another car can decide to crash into the already totaled cars. You don't even have to respond to crime if you don't want to, and you won't even get penalized for it so long as you don't do "unjustified" actions.
- Adjustable shift times, with the real-time minutes representing how fast the 8-hour in-game shift is, means that it's easy to rank up hundreds if not a couple thousand experience points if you're competent. If you have the time to kill, you even have the option to play out the 8-hour shift in real time.
- Multiplayer. Pretty nice to be able to partner up with someone and go on patrols together.

Neutral/Mixed/Unsure:
- The autosave can be a lifesaver when the game crashes. Unfortunately, it only seems to kick in after an event is concluded and, if the game crashes during it, it doesn't save any experience points you get from it. IIRC, the timer doesn't get reset either? What?! I'd rather have it work this way instead of losing ALL of my progress, but still.
- Shooting people with your firearm will instantly get you a game over and there's no scenarios so far where you can legally use it, which begs the question of why the game gives you the option in the first place. The only reason this isn't a negative is because the developers stated that they're evaluating scenarios to be able to use them without bumping up the game's T rating and I'm willing to be nice about it.
- Leaning more into the negative, as of writing, there's six released DLC for different vehicles with various applications:
-- The Urban Terrain Vehicle lets you transport up to four suspects at a time. The Guardian PV bumps it up to six suspects.
-- The Compact PV allows you to drive it on foot patrols and use the trunk inventory like on a vehicle patrol.
-- The Multipurpose PV lets you tow vehicles and it increases your trunk inventory.
-- The Surveillance PV alerts you if a driver committed a violation while you're following their car...which the game already informs you about if you focus on the car in question. It's basically only useful if you don't want to stop your car to a full stop just to focus on them.
-- The Warden PV has a light bar for setting up road blocks or signaling people to pull over.
-- These are utility vehicles that aren't mandatory, but can certainly make your life on patrol a lot easier. In total, you have to pay almost $20 (or $3 individually) plus tax in a $30 game plus tax to get them all.

Cons:
- The NPC driving really sucks; be prepared for a lot of traffic jams on accidents even if you do your best to redirect them or set up a barrier. They'll often get in the way of tow trucks and ambulances, leaving them just sitting there, and the only guaranteed way for traffic to clear up is to drive far enough away to unload the area...which also concludes the event. You're honestly better off just ignoring traffic jams altogether.
- The camera can be finicky at accidents. You pretty much have to circle a car two or even three times to get all of the angles you need and even then you might miss something.
- When something immersion-breaking happens, it's pretty noticeable. A tow-truck can reach your location in seconds, if not outright teleport to you, but they can't reach a parked car fully on a sidewalk next to a road since it's "unreachable?"
- No communicating with your partner in multiplayer. Better hope you can talk to them using Steam Chat or some other third-party service.
- A minor example, but you can't stack violations on parked vehicles unlike handcuffing and ticketing pedestrians; you have to do them one at a time.
- Easily the biggest example, the bugs. While the developers ARE fixing these, the speed at which they do so isn't everybody's cup of tea. To list off only some examples due to the character limit:
-- If you decide to greet someone back, you won't be able to focus or use your tools with the mouse buttons. You can pick the interaction options with people just fine with the mouse, but with the focus and tools it suddenly becomes non-functional. The only way to fix it yourself is to greet someone else back when you get the option, which returns you back to normal. This makes the free 2 points you can get not worth it.
-- Sometimes you can't talk to a driver after an accident. You're just going to have to ignore them like they don't exist.
-- There's no hit-and-run interactions yet, but NPCs can still do this. An accident can occur right in front of me and someone can drive off without me being able to do anything about it without getting penalized. If they don't look like they're getting out of the car, you'll just have to place yourself in front of their vehicle and take as much pictures of their damaged vehicle as you can before they get too far.
-- A couple times when I found a wanted suspect, I got penalized because it was "unjustified" They have the same name and appearance like the game is telling me, with the UI telling me earlier when I focused on them that it's my suspect, but now they're suddenly innocent citizens. I was forced to let them go lest I get penalized even more.
-- Did your partner leave or crash during a shift while they're the host? Their character will just stand there, making you think they just went AFK. If you decide to continue like nothing happened and end your shift at the precinct, you'll be in for a nasty surprise as the game DOES NOT COUNT any interactions after the host leaves. I had around 2000 points on a 40+ minute shift, but the game only counted the 200 points from before they left early on. If the game really can't handle the host leaving like that, then either have the shift end early or at least have the game kick you out so you wouldn't waste your time.
-- The game crashed quite a few times on me. Some of these were unknowingly self-inflicted, like me being a prick and intentionally hitting a lot of drivers after my shift ended, but others just happen out of nowhere, like during an interaction with a drug dealer.

TL;DR: The game itself is ok/good when it works and definitely has potential for more content/updates, but it definitely should not have left Early Access yet. Wait for a sale, especially if you plan on getting all of the DLCs since you'll be paying double the price of the base game at that point.