Kelvin and the Infamous Machine

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This is the Police

"I want to be a policeman!" I imagine it was said by at least someone in the course of childhood, and that it was in any case a desire that developed over time, at least in those who, in the end, actually became a policeman. This is The Police offers a realistic and very noir vision of the life of a police chief, with all his problems that are related, incredibly or perhaps not, more to the managerial and political side of the job than to the mere management of crime .

The character you are going to play, a police chief 180 days after the forced withdrawal with a few extra pounds and the incipient baldness is an ambiguous, broken figure. A man of solid principles in a world almost entirely devoid of these principles. Day after day we will have to divide between political requests, crimes and investigations, personal problems of the team in charge and "favors" to do to a mafia boss whose attention is inherited from what was the deputy of the police chief. As much as you may want to stay as clean as possible, the end result is that at best you can navigate on sight in a sea of shades of gray whose only final effect is to make you disillusioned about how some things work.

The typically "playful" mechanics of This Is The Police is rather repetitive: you look at the map of the city from above, crimes come up every now and then and you have to send one or more policemen of those who are available to solve various problems nature. What makes the game interesting is the constantly developing underlying plot, the interactions with the various policemen whose personal affairs will begin to interest and of course the sessions in which through a multiple-choice dialogue system you will have the power to deeply impact that that happens in the game world (or even just saving a hostage from his kidnapper).

The presentation of This Is The Police is not the most elaborate. The graphics appear represented by simple animated drawings only sporadically. Where the game shines is in the fantastic dubbing and soundtrack, although perhaps having Duke Nukem to give the voice of the police chief may make you want to do "Rambo" more than is actually advisable.

Definitely a title worth paying attention to, provided that the genre is not one of those who are indigestible regardless of a certain category of players.

Platforms: PC
Genre: Management Noir
Price: € 14.99
Rating: 8.0

Andrea Giongiani

The Turing Test

The Turing Test takes us to Europa, Jupiter's satellite, but shows it to us only for a few moments, and then locks us in a huge scientific establishment structured as a series of tests in full Portal style. In the role of the protagonist, we have to face various tests that separate us from the final goal, to help an artificial intelligence that is not able to do it alone. Why? Well, the idea is that the puzzles proposed by the game require lateral thinking for their solution, which an artificial intelligence is not really capable of. Hence the title that pays homage to the test designed to understand if you are talking to a person or a car. All this translates into a first-person puzzle game in which we go around with a pistol through which it is possible to collect and deposit energy globes even remotely, through which to activate doors, mechanisms and various devices. Let's add other mechanics, they reveal themselves slowly and we have a very interesting base. Unfortunately, the realization only partially convinces.

The puzzles, in fact, rarely go to really propose that lateral thinking on which they should be based and instead tend to exploit the basic mechanics in a rather flat way. The Turing Test is a pleasant game with a good rhythm, but it offers a challenge that is mostly quite low and, above all, it rarely manages to elaborate its ideas in a really ingenious way. The flashes of real fantasy are manifested in the optional rooms, really well thought out, which however are few and are used more than anything else to unlock additional elements of the story. And in the end the feeling is a bit of a lost opportunity, at least on the gameplay level, because the elements to do more were there. Instead, it is better from a narrative point of view, with a slender story that deals with interesting themes and manages to put them in an intelligent way and capable of arousing some reflection.

Platforms: PC (tested version), Xbox One
Genus: Laboratory mice
Price: € 19.99
Rating: 8.0

Andrea Maderna

Cossacks 3

Do you remember Cossacks? If you have passed the twenty-five, I bet yes: published in Italy by FX Interactive, when there was still little talk of digital delivery, Cossacks is one of those games that happen to be played, as kids, if for no other reason than you can find them on newsstands at a good price. We are not talking, however, of a disposable title, but rather of a great old-school RTS classic, totally worthy of looking in the eyes, at the time, Age of Empires and Rise of Nations. So why not bring it back to the younger audience now that remakes are in fashion? And so here that GSC Game World (those of STALKER, so to speak) comes out with this Cossacks 3. Let's say immediately that the numeral in the title is not exactly sincere: more than a third chapter, it is an almost pedissual remake of the first episode, with an outline of five new campaigns and, obviously, a graphic update.

What we find in our hands is a real-time strategy set in modern Europe, between the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, at the time of the pike and musket. The campaigns trace a series of historical conflicts, from the English civil war to the clashes that saw the eponymous Cossacks as protagonists, between Ukraine and Russia. The campaigns are, in fact, the most interesting component of the title, not so much for the (limited) historiographic accuracy, but for the variety and narrative imprint of the missions. Captain, occasionally, small multiple-choice events: do we want to spend gold to hire mercenaries? Which section of the allied deployment do we decide to cover with our troops? Half a novelty for the genre, which would be nice to see exploited in other titles as well. There are missions in which a town is built and soldiers are recruited, others who see us in command of a small contingent, still others which are real pitched battles. The fact that the latter are as simple as the best are the main problem of Cossacks 3: in terms of mechanics, it is an old title.

As long as it is a matter of moving musketeers and cavalry towards the enemy, the game, even with some pathfinding problems, works and has fun. The moment you have to build a base, however, the pace becomes glacial. The mechanics are rather trivial and the game certainly cannot serve as a city builder, yet certain missions require you to take care of the infrastructure and then recruit the soldiers, one at a time, very slowly. Seen and considered that there may be thousands of jockeys, the impression is that of a hybridization between the battles in Total War and the dynamics of a Command & Conquer: an unhappy marriage. Just to give you an example: we can control our soldiers one by one, all passionately together in RTS style, or by bringing them together in regiments. Such regiments can only consist of multiples of thirty-six soldiers (don't ask me why), and require the presence of an officer and a drummer nearby.

Maybe fifteen years ago such a thing was normal, but it does not make sense that, to date, a player is forced to jump over the interface obstacles when a single click would have been enough to recruit the entire team directly from the barracks. Here, this fidelity to outdated stylistic features makes Cossacks 3 an unsuitable title for the contemporary market, and cuts off a considerable portion of the public. If you are among those who remain, expect an above average level of difficulty, and a fair variety of troops and nations, including pikemen, heavy and light cavalry, frigates and galleons, Ottoman Janissaries and French Musketeers at Dumas. Graphically, Cossacks 3 is "plastic" but all in all pleasant, with the troops on the screen reminding a little of the toy soldiers, with their bright colors and woody movements. The fact that the riflemen never reload and that the cannons move on their own could also be part of the atmosphere. In short, the "new" Cossacks has very little new: dedicated to lovers of the series, it risks being a little digestible for the most refined stomachs, also considering the presence of a few too many worms, especially in multiplayer.

Platform : PC
Genre : As in the old days
Price : € 19.99
Rating : 6.5

Claudio Chianese