What are the best police games? We have all briefly considered life as a super sleuth or detective. Whether drawn in by the position of authority, the puzzling casework, or even the hard-drinking, police games tend to deliver plenty of action and intrigue.
However, unlike many of the best PC games, cops aren’t all gunslingers in John Woo-esque shootouts or chasing criminals in high-speed car chases. The best police games often see you digging through crime scenes for evidence and carrying out routine procedures rather than pursuing perps with your gun drawn. If you’re looking for Sherlock and the other gifted PC game sleuths, check out our best detective games list.
The best police games are:
Chicken Police
As Sonny and Marty, two detectives in their prime, they’re about to embark on the case of their lives as they uncover a conspiracy that has the potential to grip the world. Yes, Sonny and Marty are a couple of humanoid chickens, but don’t let that deter you from a mystery that needs to be solved.
Discover a story dripping in murder, betrayal, and so much more in the city of Clawville, filled with anthropomorphic citizens who are looking to keep their secrets hidden. Featuring over 35 locations to explore, with a main quest to embark on as well as multiple side quests, it’ll take you multiple playthroughs to learn the truth. If you’re looking for an adventure game brimming with style and wackiness, Chicken Police should be on your wishlist.
Ready or Not
This tactical shooter drops you into the boots of a heavily armed law enforcement officer and throws split-second life-or-death decisions your way. Intriguing gunplay is partnered with challenging scenarios to bring an uncomfortably immersive experience to your doorstep. Rather than a typical shoot-em-up game, Ready or Not forces you to think about your decisions or be in the midst of a disastrous situation.
Players have described Ready or Not as “the best tactical shooter since SWAT 4”, but you’ll have to get your boots on the ground if you’re looking to find out for yourself.
Police Simulator: Patrol Officers
It’s not a best police games list without Police Simulator: Patrol Officers. Set in the city of Brighton (a fictitious, US one, not the British one full of seagulls), you’ll get to experience the day to day life of a law enforcement officer. Whether you’re chasing down suspects, snapping pictures of crime scenes, or attending multi-car pile-ups, there is never a quiet day in Police Sim.
Though been a few years since it first appeared on screens, developer Aesir Interactive has continued to iterate on the game with new features and improvements. It’s not perfect by any means – it still has its fair share of bugs – but this remains the closest you’ll get to the true beat cop experience.
Disco Elysium
It might not be the truest police experience, but Disco Elysium’s battered, beleaguered detective is one of the most interesting police game protagonists. After quickly piecing together who you are after an apocalyptic bender, you’re charged with investigating a murder that’s inexorably tied to the political tensions of the town.
Like all the best RPG games, you shape your detective by assigning skills and constructing a loadout of clothes and items. With no conventional combat system, those skills are all about your personality and psyche. Sure, you could leave your hovel wearing a suit and go about solving cases like a classic procedural police drama, or you could march out in your underwear, arguing with yourself.
Of course, if you still need convincing, we encourage you to read our Disco Elysium review.
Resident Evil 2 Remake
As a member of the Raccoon City Police Department, you can play as Leon Kennedy, a rookie cop looking to make his mark on the force. Unfortunately, there’s just the small zombie outbreak to contend with, and it has caused unprecedented levels of destruction and mayhem across the city. As a police game, you won’t arrest anyone here, but you will save individuals from dangerous targets.
Capcom knew Resident Evil 2 was one of its most beloved games, so it needed to justify remaking something that many considered nearly perfect. The use of the over-the-shoulder perspective and the incredible visuals produced by the RE Engine have helped to bring the classic game into the modern age. Resident Evil 2 Remake introduced the game to a new audience, showing millions of people why the series is so beloved. Take a look at our Resident Evil 2 Remake review to read our full verdict on the zombie-police game.
This is the Police
Unlike many entries on this list, this is more of a management game. This is the Police casts you as jaded police chief Jack Boyd, under pressure from the mob and desperately trying to amass enough money to retire with barely six months to do so. You will need to manage your staff, respond to emergencies, manage investigations, and work closely with the mob, using your instincts to judge the severity of each situation and decide which officers to send out.
What makes This Is the Police one of the best police games on PC is how well it captures the uncertainty and risk of police work. Sending a couple of officers out to deal with a ranting lunatic seems like an appropriate response until the suspect pulls a gun, downing several bystanders, not to mention one of Freeburg’s finest.
You can also check out This is the Police 2 if you want more of what the original game offers. It’s hard to call it in terms of which one is better – the second outing is more polished but falters in other areas, so it’s not as easy to pick between them as you might think.
Battlefield Hardline
Remember when you were five and a game called Cops and Robbers was all the rage? Battlefield Hardline is what happens when a triple-A studio takes that humble concept and runs with it; a TV action-drama in its single-player campaign and a bonkers, Michael Bay-inspired blockbuster in its multiplayer. As we said in our Battlefield Hardline review, it’s Fast and Furious comes to FPS land.
As police games go, you are hard-pushed to find another as explosive as this. Never mind the cop cars and tasers, Hardline is still a Battlefield game, collapsing buildings, LMGs, exploding choppers, etc. An increased emphasis on vehicles pushes the pace of Hardline’s multiplayer well beyond the series’ par, with modes like Hotwire – which shifts the traditional Conquest flags to drivable cars – rewarding speed and aggression over tactical play. Its driving model might be basic, but Battlefield Hardline can rival the best racing games for how good it feels to be behind the wheel of one of its muscle cars or coupés.
Despite plenty of predictable narrative beats and some hilarious AI goofs, its campaign is among the best of the series. You play Officer Nick Mendoza, a detective embroiled in a Miami drug war. Each mission sees you take on increasingly unofficial tasks. Whether you brandish your badge and arrest perps rather than gun them down determines what kind of officer you become throughout Hardline’s ten missions.
Murdered: Soul Suspect
Looking for some police games that you can play around Halloween? Murdered: Soul Suspect is a good shout, proffering a bizarre twist to the usual detective scenario by having you play as a disembodied ghost attempting to solve your own murder.
Yep, Murdered: Soul Suspect kicks off with you, maverick detective Ronan O’Connor, dying at the hands of a notorious local serial killer, leaving you trapped in limbo until you can bring your killer to justice. Additionally, being dead grants you a bevy of supernatural detecting abilities that make this one of the most empowering police games. You can access out-of-reach areas by possessing and controlling black cats, eavesdrop on private conversations, influence someone’s thoughts, and follow leads through solid walls.
Murdered: Soul Suspect is rarely challenging when piecing evidence together and uncovering leads, but exploring the historic town of Salem, seeing its spectral landmarks, and helping the many ghosts wandering its streets is a constant joy.
Lego City Undercover
Rather than combine Lego with popular movie franchises, Lego City Undercover takes inspiration from its long-running Lego City sets and police films. As Chase McCain, you play a cop who goes undercover to hunt down a notorious crime boss to put him back behind bars. Your disguises give you many talents, such as robbing banks, flying planes, or even herding pigs.
You also have the option to play Lego City Undercover as a co-op game, where you and your partner must take down the crime syndicate together. It’s an adventure worth playing if you like chaotic fun. Just don’t make us do all the paperwork after you leave piles of broken bricks in your wake.
Sleeping Dogs
Sleeping Dogs is one of those police games in which you shoot first and ask questions later. Playing as undercover cop Wei Shen, there’s danger everywhere: the Sun On Yee triad you bring down from the inside, their Jade Gang rivals, and even the city’s police. Fortunately, Wei Shen is a very talented protagonist, excelling at shooting, high-speed car chases, shooting from a moving vehicle, parkour, martial arts, and grating bad guy faces with air conditioner units.
Police games rarely let you be the bad guy, but you have to get your hands dirty in this crime game if you want to rise through the ranks of the Sun On Yee. Throughout Sleeping Dogs’ hefty main story, you desperately struggle to distinguish between good and evil. The moments when Wei Shen falls on either side of that line give the narrative an equal measure of heart and tension.
The open-world snapshot of Hong Kong is the real highlight of Sleeping Dogs, thanks to details like a blend of English and Cantonese spoken by its denizens, traffic-laden streets, a rich ambient soundscape, and the most charming street vendors in gaming. The city feels lived-in and is brimming with activity – this is much more than a collection of landmarks and stereotypes. Sadly, despite being one of the best open-world games, Sleeping Dogs has yet to receive the sequel treatment, but a Sleeping Dogs movie is in the works.
L.A. Noire
Few police games manage to deliver on the fantasy of being a detective quite like L.A. Noire. You play Cole Phelps, a patrol officer turned detective, working his way up through the ranks of the LAPD by investigating crime scenes, questioning suspects, and battling against the seedy underbelly of golden-age Hollywood.
Unlike most police games, L.A. Noire is all about diligently combing through crime scenes and following up leads, which makes the rare shootouts and chase sequences all the more thrilling. Mostly, you are tasked with studiously analyzing evidence and questioning suspects and witnesses, reading their expressions to ascertain whether or not they are telling you the truth.
But L.A. Noire is a war game, too. Every character, including Phelps, carries the weight of the war years around their neck. Beyond the open-top sports cars and opulent Art Deco facades, you will find a city whose inhabitants are still reeling from the depravity of that conflict. Better still, Rockstar Games have adapted a few cases from the game to form a VR game, L.A. Noire: The VR Case Files – because the only things better than police games are VR police games.
SWAT 4
It might be over a decade old, but SWAT 4 is still among the most realistic and atmospheric police games. Simulating real-world police procedures, SWAT 4 casts you as the leader of a five-man team as you subdue armed targets and rescue hostages across 21 missions. It’s on par with the best PC simulation games for its attention to detail and realistic mechanics.
While you have access to an arsenal of submachine guns, assault rifles, and shotguns, SWAT 4 remains rigidly attached to realistic police protocol, punishing you for unauthorized use of force, incurring hostage injuries, and losing officers. Instead, you will use beanbag shotguns, tasers, and pepper ball guns to pressure enemies into surrendering before cuffing them. This emphasis on the pressures of upholding the law also makes SWAT 4 an illuminating experience, as you question whether to give suspects fair warning before opening fire, knowing that announcing your whereabouts gives the enemy a huge advantage.
Unlike the Rainbow Six series, SWAT 4 treats lethal force with its due respect: death is swift, and even the lives of criminals are valued. You are not an elite killing machine, armed to the teeth with deadly weapons, and if you play SWAT 4 with that mentality, you will not make it very far. If you’re hoping for a modern tactical FPS game then Ready or Not is a SWAT spiritual successor that’s development is worth following.
The Silver Case
What The Silver Case lacks in actual detective and police work it more than makes up for audiovisual zeal and an absorbing, techno-thriller narrative. Set in 1999, in a fictional Japanese city called the 24 Districts, you take control of a mute protagonist from a special forces unit called The Republic as you help the city’s Heinous Crimes Unit solve a string of murders that bear all the hallmarks of infamous serial killer Kamui Uehara. Just one thing: Kamui has been incarcerated for nearly 20 years. You can also play a second campaign that follows the same events from a journalist’s perspective.
Tapping into Japanese folklore and late ‘80s paranoia over the isolating effects of the internet, police games scarcely conjure up as much intrigue and mystery as The Silver Case. More impressive still is how The Silver Case creates such a rich atmosphere while being astonishingly light on gameplay, closer to a visual novel than its first-person exploration scenes suggest.
Police Quest: In Pursuit of the Death Angel
One of the most realistic police games of all time is also one of the first police games ever released. Sierra Entertainment’s 1987 adventure game is so faithful to proper police protocol that it was even used to train rookie officers at one point.
There are no traditional puzzles in Police Quest. No convoluted conspiracies or sprawling shootouts. Instead, you spend most of your time securing crime scenes, handing out speeding tickets, and arresting drunks.
That realism can make In Pursuit of the Death Angel a little dry, but if you really want a simulation of police work, then the original Police Quest series, and this one, in particular, will not leave you wanting
Right, now, we’ve concluded our list of the best police games, we must advise you that you have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law… wait, this isn’t the right conclusion script. Nothing to worry about; you’re free to go and look at the best action-adventure games if you want more excitement.
Additional contributions by Jordan Forward.
