An arcade light-gun shooter with a camera to detect player movement, allowing the player to use body movement to hide behind cover and dodge the (slow-moving) bullets. It was the first video game with fairly accurate full-body motion detection, and probably the only one with a motion-controlled cover system.
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Hey! This is a pretty cool little game!
Police 24/7 reviewed quite lukewarmly in UK PS2 magazines, back in the day, often judging it based on playing with a Dualshock. Konami clearly had no idea what to do with the home version. Thanks to their stubbornness, it doesn't support Namco's G-Con standard, and without compatibility with Sony-licensed lightguns, there is no mention that this is lightgun compatible anywhere on the packaging. It's fully compatible with Konami's Justifier/Hyper Blaster standard though, and I played through the game quite happily on a Logic3 gun that's so old it has Saturn support.
For those unfamiliar, Police 24/7, or Police 911 (a name they sensitively abandoned for the game's 2002 release in Europe) is a bodytracking lightgun game. You physically duck and weave to reload and avoid incoming fire. I don't currently own a compatible USB camera (the list of supported models is pretty short), but still found this to be a pretty cool little shooter regardless.
It's a grittier game than its contemporaries, while retaining an arcadey charm. There's no bodybuilders who throw girders at you. Just average-looking people. Everyone goes down in one shot, including the bosses. Get a quick headshot, and they're ready to be handcuffed and thrown in the slammer. Take a hit and one member of your squad is dead, leaving you to take over as one of their colleagues. It's blunt and punchy. Quite unique for the genre.
Without the bodytracking the game plays a lot more like Time Crisis, with a button press ducking you into cover. There's still a hint of the bodytracking's appeal, though. You can still fire while in cover, and you sometimes get a better view of your target from under a vehicle or behind a pillar. It feels pretty cool to strategise on the fly about the quickest approach, rather than just attempting to fire at everything that pops up in front of you as quickly as possible. Taking out enemies quickly and efficiently will reward you with promotions, leading to higher scores and extra lives. Good runs feel really satisfying, while careless slip-ups are harshly punished.
Having played a lot of fantastical lightgun games, it's quite refreshing to see a location as shitty as Los Angeles in one of these. All the baddies are Japanese criminals, which I found to be an amusingly cute choice on the developers' behalf. If they were to paint immigrants of another nationality as cop killers, it would likely be seen as politically insensitive, but having the streets of LA taken over by murderous and destructive yakuza is a-okay from Konami.
There's a good deal of shared DNA between this and Konami's other lightgun shooters, like Lethal Enforcers and Silent Scope. "Innocent Victims" and distant baddies running around as tiny on-screen targets. It's a very different flavour from Namco or Sega, and one I can appreciate.
Police 24/7 is a really short game, even by lightgun shooter standards. My first runthrough was about ten minutes. A hard sell as a full retail price PS2 title, but it works as a little second-hand curio. These games can outstay their welcome pretty quickly, and even kings of the genre like Time Crisis and House of the Dead fill their later stages with tedious bulletsponges. Police 24/7 seems quick, punchy and modest in comparison. Just a snappy wee shooter to stick on every now and then.
I intend to reevaluate this once I acquire a suitable USB camera. I'm really impressed that I've enjoyed the game this much without even getting the full experience.
Police 24/7 reviewed quite lukewarmly in UK PS2 magazines, back in the day, often judging it based on playing with a Dualshock. Konami clearly had no idea what to do with the home version. Thanks to their stubbornness, it doesn't support Namco's G-Con standard, and without compatibility with Sony-licensed lightguns, there is no mention that this is lightgun compatible anywhere on the packaging. It's fully compatible with Konami's Justifier/Hyper Blaster standard though, and I played through the game quite happily on a Logic3 gun that's so old it has Saturn support.
For those unfamiliar, Police 24/7, or Police 911 (a name they sensitively abandoned for the game's 2002 release in Europe) is a bodytracking lightgun game. You physically duck and weave to reload and avoid incoming fire. I don't currently own a compatible USB camera (the list of supported models is pretty short), but still found this to be a pretty cool little shooter regardless.
It's a grittier game than its contemporaries, while retaining an arcadey charm. There's no bodybuilders who throw girders at you. Just average-looking people. Everyone goes down in one shot, including the bosses. Get a quick headshot, and they're ready to be handcuffed and thrown in the slammer. Take a hit and one member of your squad is dead, leaving you to take over as one of their colleagues. It's blunt and punchy. Quite unique for the genre.
Without the bodytracking the game plays a lot more like Time Crisis, with a button press ducking you into cover. There's still a hint of the bodytracking's appeal, though. You can still fire while in cover, and you sometimes get a better view of your target from under a vehicle or behind a pillar. It feels pretty cool to strategise on the fly about the quickest approach, rather than just attempting to fire at everything that pops up in front of you as quickly as possible. Taking out enemies quickly and efficiently will reward you with promotions, leading to higher scores and extra lives. Good runs feel really satisfying, while careless slip-ups are harshly punished.
Having played a lot of fantastical lightgun games, it's quite refreshing to see a location as shitty as Los Angeles in one of these. All the baddies are Japanese criminals, which I found to be an amusingly cute choice on the developers' behalf. If they were to paint immigrants of another nationality as cop killers, it would likely be seen as politically insensitive, but having the streets of LA taken over by murderous and destructive yakuza is a-okay from Konami.
There's a good deal of shared DNA between this and Konami's other lightgun shooters, like Lethal Enforcers and Silent Scope. "Innocent Victims" and distant baddies running around as tiny on-screen targets. It's a very different flavour from Namco or Sega, and one I can appreciate.
Police 24/7 is a really short game, even by lightgun shooter standards. My first runthrough was about ten minutes. A hard sell as a full retail price PS2 title, but it works as a little second-hand curio. These games can outstay their welcome pretty quickly, and even kings of the genre like Time Crisis and House of the Dead fill their later stages with tedious bulletsponges. Police 24/7 seems quick, punchy and modest in comparison. Just a snappy wee shooter to stick on every now and then.
I intend to reevaluate this once I acquire a suitable USB camera. I'm really impressed that I've enjoyed the game this much without even getting the full experience.