I want to be honest with you guys: When a grenade crashed through the kitchen window of Jack Boyd in a short comic scene because I could not do enough good for the mafia, I cheered. Game over. Finally. As a game, "This Is The Police" is terribly boring. It consists of dragging policeman cards on policeman squares - and of waiting. After two hours I had seen everything. After ten, I wanted a different job. The secret of the other big bureaucracy simulator, "Papers, Please", is this: Papers, Please is an ingenious puzzle game even without its decision making about life and death. "This Is The Police" is a simple strategy game with a mean death spiral. Maybe that would not be so frustrating if the game had anything important to say. But it does not. The main messages of this game are: "Politicians are evil, perverted and corrupt", "The police is obedient to organized crime", "Only heroes are true men" and so more cliches like that. If I wanted to read about dumb stereotypes I could just turn on Facebook and read some comments. I don't really need this game for having that kind of experience...
Even though I remember this game's original release I never actually played it. Therefore I had the rare opportunity to play it nonbiased. After my playthrough I can conclude that you don't need nostalgic transfiguration in order to be able to enjoy Outcast. Even though the technical problems, massive glitches, bugs and jolty controls almost drove me to the brink of insanity I still managed to enjoy the game quite a lot. As Sci-Fi fan I really enjoyed the idea of a parallel universe. But what made me like the game most was its love for details: the teasing of clumsy Talanans (in a humorous way of course), or that moment when an alien bird attacked me throwing rocks. Somehow the game managed to constantly surprise me over and over again. Sadly, nowadays that has become very uncommon.
I really tried, but I couldn't achieve to feel frightened or anxious while playing this game (except for maybe two or three jumpscares). Seeing the style and hearing about the misterious story of this game, I actually thought it might be promising. But as it turns out it is just a nerve-racking, and boring walking simulator. Sure, it has some disturbing pictures to offer, but it's far away from causing discomfort like movies as Mullholland Drive. Also, a few more gameplay elements would have been good for this game. Solving 2 puzzles, hiding 3 times, run away 4 times. That's it. That itself resumes prefectly what Neverending Nightmares has to offer. It could have been so much more than that, though. And even though it's supposed to be a horror game, it fails at the most important point: it is NOT scary at all. Good thing is, that this nightmare is over very quick, as it has a very short playthrough time.
