Most players love the idea of exploring an organic world that reacts to their actions. As a result, most open-world games set within a city benefit from a police system where players are penalized for being too wild and erratic while making their way through the sandbox.
However, not all games nail the way cops are presented in their games, which is a shame. Thankfully, this is more of an exception than the norm, with players loving most games that do a great job of showinghow threatening the police can bewhen they’re pushed to the brink.
The originalPrototypetechnically featured a wanted system, but it was quite binary. Security forces would either ignore Alex or go all out in their attempts to kill him, with no in-between.
This isn’t the case inPrototype 2, which features a gradual build-up if law enforcement becomes suspicious of James' actions. They start tailing him, and players must be on their best behavior if they don’t want the situation to escalate.
Unlike most other crime-fuelled sandboxes,Mafia 2’s approach to the wanted system is pretty realistic. Something as minor as speeding or causing a disturbance can cause players to attract police attention, but this can be sorted out with a ticket.
However, things get serious if players are targeted by the cops, with serious crimes giving police the leeway to shoot Vito on sight if they wish. This is not ideal for obvious reasons, and players are better off running away and waiting for the heat to cool down instead.
Before Update 2.0, the NCPD was pretty lackluster inCyberpunk 2077. Police spawned from nowhere at high wanted levels and cheaply took V out, which didn’t feel fair. However, the update changed things to make police chases more organic and harder to avoid.
NCPD patrols occurred on a regular basis and could give players a hard time if V was caught committing a crime. If the Wanted Level reached five stars, then players would be ambushed by MaxTac, which could lead to a swift game over for all but the most skillful players.
Need for Speed Heatwas a return to form for the series, featuring both day and night races that changed the way players went through the game. Day races were great for farming cash, while night races let players build up Rep as they slowly accumulated Heat.
This madenighttime quite tense inNeed for Speed Heat. At high Heat, cops are ridiculously aggressive and will chase players every step of the way. Thankfully, swift cars can outrun most pursuers, and players can always rely on a jump to help them escape the cops if things get too serious.
With the advent of a new engine, it was clear thatGrand Theft Auto’s wanted system would witness a major overhaul. However,players didn’t expect Niko’s escapesto be so hard to execute, given how aggressive cops are inGrand Theft Auto 4.
A search radius forms at the last spot Niko was seen, which players must escape before the Wanted Level starts dying down. If choppers join the fray, then accomplishing this is easier said than done and makes for some of the most tense police chases in aGrand Theft Autogame.
Unlike most other Rockstar games, the waylaw enforcement works inRed Dead Redemption 2is pretty neat. Upon committing a crime, NPCs can report the crime and optionally inform the law about Arthur’s involvement if his face is seen.
Players can threaten tattletale NPCs, but the area where the crime happened will become a hotbed of law enforcement that will try to take Arthur out if he’s spotted. Even if he escapes, he’ll rack up a bounty that must be paid off if players don’t want the law and bounty hunters to track Arthur from time to time. Even if Arthur spends some time in prison, he can be freed by his gang, which is a neat touch.
2005’sMost Wantedhas stood the test of timeas one of the greatest racing games ever made. Players love making progress in the Blacklist to eventually challenge the toughest racers around, which is a gameplay loop that players never tire of.
The cops inMost Wantedare aggressive without going overboard, making for fun chase sequences that are elevated by the pursuit theme. To make things even better, players can use environmental hazards to take out pursuing cops and make it easy for them to evade the law.
Given thatGrand Theft Auto 5is a technical marvelon almost every front, it’s easy to see why the Wanted System also received some much-needed changes. Players needed to avoid cop view cones while hiding in the many alleys of Los Santos.
If players were spotted, they needed to avoid any significant areas of attention and outrun the cops before eventually finding a hiding spot. It struck a perfect balance, ensuring that cops were not too aggressive or too stupid.
