This Is the Police trailer asks a hard question about the nature of corruption

This Is the Police is a game about a mostly-honest cop named Jack, the chief of a small-town police force, who's been unceremoniously told by the entirely-corrupt mayor that he'll be out of a job in 180 days. Jack's retirement carries a pretty hefty price tag: He needs to have $500,000 in his account before he's shown the door in order to finance the lifestyle he's accustomed to. What will he do to get it?

The obvious answer is, he'll do what he has to: Take a few bribes, run a few guns, maybe drop a hot tip to the right people now and then. Or maybe not. Corruption is a choice, after all, and not a destiny. Jack may even be capable of a certain amount of introspection that could round off some of his more jagged temptations. And of course, looming forced retirement notwithstanding, he still has to be a cop, with all the responsibilities, decisions, and consequences that entails. Whichever way he goes, there are risks and rewards—and rules that must be followed.

This is the Police had a successful run through Kickstarter early last year, and by all appearances the work is coming along quite nicely. I really like the visual style, and if the narrator's voice has a familiar ring, it's likely because it's coming from Jon St. John, better known as the man behind Duke Nukem. He clearly won't be portraying that kind of character in this game, though: There's an obvious element of dark comedy here, but some of the screens are just flat-out dark.

There's still no release date, but This Is the Police is expected to be out sometime this summer. Until then, you can find out more about what's coming on Steam or at Weappy-studio.com.

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.