The 10 Best Police Games

Being anti-authoritarian has been a massive trend in video games for years. This is hardly a surprising evolution as games themselves have evolved more and more, creating vast open world where you have the free reign to do anything you like. With such technology, it's surprisingly difficult to make games about the strict nature of law enforcement work, even if games like Sleeping Dogs and L.A. Noire certainly have tried.

Maybe it's in part due to our cultures look on police officers, but despite everything their job is still to protect and serve the people and the fine folks who are willing to put themselves at risk every day deserve our praise.

Here's the 10 best games about being the police.

List items

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  Dynamite Cop!

  This sequel to Die Hard Arcade is an excellent brawler with different paths, tons of items and special moves. If you have a handgun you can arrest and handcuff enemies while grabbing them, but sometimes you'll be forced to shoot the bad guys... Especially if they're trying to throw a cruise missile at you.

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  Virtua Cop

  Whenever anyone gets shot by the cops, all you hear are people complaining "Why didn't he just shoot the perp in the legs or shoot the gun out of his hands?". Well, now you can see just how hard that is in Virtua Cop. You can also try juggling the enemies with your bullets for a combo score! A timeless light gun classic that defined the genre!

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  Lucky & Wild

  Namco's always been pretty clever at evolving games or genres from other developers, making things that turn out better. In this case, it's both Chase HQ and Operation Wolf from Taito compiled into one single, fantastic game about buddy cops cleaning up the streets. If you can find a cabinet in the wild you should try it!

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  Pursuit Force

  If there's something that the open-world genre has really put to rest, it's the traditional racing game. Why put cool car stunts and realistic chase-based law enforcement simulation into a standalone game when you can just mash it into Sleeping Dogs? Pursuit Force has a fun arcade feel to it and is well worth checking out, but don't count on a sequel.

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  Police 911

  Another arcade classic. Like Virtua Cop, this is another light gun game, but the cabinet had a weird cage-thing with sensors on it, where you had to physically move your body around to dodge bullets, just like real cops do every day. The PS2 version supports the PS Eye to allow you to do the same thing, but oddly enough there's no light gun support.

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  Urban Chaos: Riot Response

  When it comes to serving and protecting, Urban Chaos: Riot Response got it right. Rather than just being a generic FPS, it has some neat mechanics involving the use of a taser and riot shield. You also get to help out firemen and paramedics.

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  Techno Cop

  Very futuristic police simulator, where you drive around in a cool car and pull over to clear out crack houses of criminals. Your non-lethal option in this one consists of a net, which I guess makes sense because it's the future and people have so many gadgets that they become impervious to regular tasers.

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  Street Cop

  Do you want to become a real police officer? Then why not get in shape with Street Cop for the NES Power Pad. Being an officer is all about improvisation, so you don't have to rely on your trusty nightstick to take down bad guys, you can also throw trash and bombs at them.

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  Crime Patrol

  A fine FMV classic that teaches you just how fast thinking you have to be as a policeman. Thought that perp was giving up? No! He suddenly pulled a gun on you! Always be alert!

  My favorite moment is where a cop says "Winners don't do drugs" and then shoots an open suitcase full of drugs with an MP5. Now THAT'S police work done right!

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  Policenauts

  This is basically Lethal Weapon in space. A buddy cop adventure game by Hideo Kojima, which doesn't feature as many unforeseen twists and turns as his usual stories, but it's still a masterpiece worth playing.