Contraband Police, an action packed Papers, Please simulator.
Founded in 2015, Crazy Rocks, a small studio from Warsaw, Poland, began developing games such as Street Warriors Online, a multiplayer brawler type game, and Ski Sniper, a casual action game of which have had mixed to negative reviews on Steam.
In 2018 Crazy Rocks started working together with PlayWay S.A, one of the leading PC game developers and publishers in Poland known for games like Car Mechanic Simulator and Discovery Gold Rush, created Contraband Police. By 2020 they released the demo for Contraband Police on Steam, and several months after the Demo’s release, they had opened up the game for a closed Beta until finally releasing the full game on 8 March 2023.
Since the release of Lucas Pope’s Papers, Please in 2013, we have been seeing a rise in simulator games that have taken inspiration from the Eastern European bureaucracy puzzle simulator. But by far, Contraband Police comes the closest to reviving the spirit of the game with a somewhat action-filled open-world experience where you take on the role of a young trainee officer in the year 1981.
Your assignment in Contraband Police starts with having to watch over the Acarist People’s Republic border post in the mountainous region of Karikatka. You have to be vigilant in ensuring no contraband makes it through and that the criminals who try are caught unless you want trouble with those in command. Unfortunately, not everything happens within the borders of your station, and you may have to chase down those who would believe racing past your post would be a simple task.
Not everything is as easy as it sounds in Contraband Police. The government continuously brings in stricter policies, which means more paperwork to sort through and a much more difficult time finding the discrepancies. Naturally, that depends on what is happening in other countries that may put those stricter policies in place, such as a pandemic or war that can derail the flow of things. Occasionally you will get someone hopeful of crossing the border. Their papers are in disrepair, or their vehicles simply don’t meet the required criteria; their causes however may just sway you to bend the rules a little at your own expense.
Whether it’s solving a murder, digging up hidden contraband, defending a base from attackers, or even just transporting prisoners from the border jail cell to the labor camp. It’s not all work and no play, just like real life; you get a break after your 9 to 5 grind in Contraband Police. There is so much to explore and see within Karikatka. Well, that is if you’re not too busy keeping the base out of the red with your daily costs going up with each upgrade you purchase.
The upgrades can range from upgrading the jail cell to being able to hold more prisoners to upgrading your storage area for more space. Hiring and upgrading new officers, whose paycheck increases with every subsequent upgrade. To purchasing vehicles, some are better for a day-to-day activities, and others are far more helpful when it comes to delivering your apprehended prisoners and confiscated goodies along with upgrading them so that they have better health. Another important upgrade would be your apartment, as this increases the energy you need to use the in-game document comparer, as well as an increase in your health, but your money can go down quickly.
Keeping a close eye on your daily costs becomes important as the days drag on. Some of the daily costs are base and vehicle maintenance as well as paying your fellow officers, but those are not the only costs you can incur during your time at the border post.
Destroying the vehicles of innocent travelers or having allowed criminals to cross the border in Contraband Police can cause money to be taken from your daily revenue. Your payment per vehicle depends on how thoroughly you go through the checks as well as any mistakes, meaning less money once they pass the border or get turned back. As for leveling up, getting a correct check with whoever comes through the border will give you experience points. The higher your level, the more a perfect check pays, e.g., 100, 120 or 130 credits.
Luckily there is more than one way to gain extra money in Contraband Police, besides the bribes that some criminals will try their luck with to get their ill-gotten gains through your post. From taking down your attackers in an ambush to searching for lost KGB files and Oberankov Caches scattered around Karikatka. Delivering criminals to the labor camps is also a way to earn cash and, at the same time, clear some space in your jail for the next batch of criminals. Don’t forget to drop the contraband off at the police base, where you will get paid depending on the type of contraband you bring.
Of course, no border control office is complete without their tools and so isn’t Contraband Police. From blades to cut through upholstery and tires to axes and blunts to get through tougher materials such as wood or metal. There are even spades and pitchforks to search through materials such as hay or gravel.
Though your toolkit is never complete without something to get rid of the attackers coming after your camp or those who mistakenly attempt to set up an ambush for you as you travel the winding roads of Karikatka. From your trusty pistol and ever-ready shotgun, to be ready to wage war with assault rifles, sniper rifles, and a little explosive power from your grenades, it’s hard to feel anything for human life within the borders of the Communist country of Arcaristan when your only responses are fight or flight, even with the game throwing moral choices at you every chapter.
Despite the possibility that the moral dilemmas you may face can seem, at times, too simple and oftentimes dry, you will have multiple chances to either stand strong by the side of the Arcaristan government or take the side of the Blood Fist rebels fighting for freedom from under communist rule. That’s not to say that the rebels are the only opposing group, as you will find you are often ambushed by the Oberankov gang looking to free their members from your prison and take back their confiscated contraband.
Animations of Contraband Police are smooth, including the weather appearance. The overall feel when using the guns tends to have a slight realistic catch with bullet spread. Getting in and out of cars has a rushed animation that can seem to glitch out if you close the car doors while still in an animation or the NPCs close it on you as they walk past.
The handling and control of the cars, including changing camera angles from inside the car to a third-person view make getting around and even chasing down criminals incredibly easy, depending on which vehicle you are using. Of course, there isn’t much in terms of the weather system, which only seems to shift between cloudy and sunny with occasional wind effects, as seen on trees. The day-night transition tends to be really smooth and oftentimes, it feels as if it goes too quickly.
As for the sound engineering, the voice acting was done quite, considering they had to design a whole new language for the game. The voice actors played their parts to the fullest with conveying the emotions their characters were feeling at the time. The ambient music, however, leaves a lot to be desired.
With it not being diverse in any way, it can become incredibly repetitive after a while, making the game feel far more tedious than it is when not in a state of combat, and even that can end up being tiresome. A slight saving grace would be the background noises you can pick up while using a decent headset. From the sound of bugs, such as mosquitoes, to the slight rumble of distant cars just brings in a slight taste of reality to the game.
Overall, Contraband Police has good graphics and a pretty dynamic storyline to keep you curious about what’s happening. From day-to-day occurrences to hopping into a van in the hopes of making it to a side quest in time. You’ll find that there is much more to the game than meets the eye.
