Highway Police Simulator | PS5 Review

A couple years ago I reviewed Autobahn Police Simulator 3 and walked away feeling frustrated by its lackluster gameplay and wealth of technical issues. Despite that, I’ve always appreciated the idea of games that explore the mundane aspects of everyday jobs or routines. There’s something intriguing about a simulator that focuses on the less glamorous, yet essential aspects of law enforcement. So when the opportunity to review Highway Police Simulator came across the wire, I jumped on the chance, eager to give it a shot. What I didn’t know at the time was that Z-Software, the same team behind Autobahn, was also behind this game. As soon as I made that realization and started playing, I knew this was going to be a long slog. Fool me once, fool me twice…yadda yadda…you know the saying.

Stale “CHiPs”

Like its Teutonic predecessors before it, Highway Police Simulator is an open world “simulator”, trading the German countryside and Autobahn system, for the fictional Southwestern state of Caminora. You play as a somewhat customizable rookie officer, and I say “somewhat” because the customization on offer is barebones for a game of this type in 2024. But unlike many games of this type, Highway Police Simulator introduces an overarching story to frame its missions, which on paper sounds like a refreshing change for the genre.

Your first day on the job begins with a high-stakes assignment: investigating the ambush of a prison transport bus that has resulted in a major highway crash and the escape of a high-profile drug dealer. It’s a promising setup, hinting at an intense chase through the desert landscapes and a deeper narrative thread tying together your progression.

Unfortunately, any potential the story might have had is thoroughly undercut by the game’s near-broken state. The cutscenes are plagued by stuttering frame rates, unresponsive animations, and dialogue that plays like a parody thanks to lifeless voice acting. Worse still, the glitches that infest every corner of the gameplay seep into the story missions, robbing them of any impact or immersion. Moments that should feel tense and engaging instead become laughably bad as NPCs clip through objects, vehicles glitch out, and mission objectives fail to trigger.

Glitches on Every Corner

Highway Police Simulator boasts a variety of gameplay mechanics meant to capture the routine and investigative work of highway patrol officers. On paper, this sounds promising—players can check drivers’ licenses, vehicle registrations, and inspect vehicles for compliance. Spotting bottles of booze in a trunk or front seat unlocks the option to conduct DUI checks or substance tests, which should add a layer of tension to routine traffic stops. You can also pull over drivers for erratic behavior, theoretically creating a sense of dynamic engagement with the world.

In practice, however, everything falls apart. The vehicle AI and physics are so atrociously clunky that it’s almost impossible to tell whether a driver is under the influence or simply another victim of the game’s incompetence. The experience is further marred by your character’s awkward movement, walking like John Wayne after a long horse ride sporting a butt plug.

When it comes to action, the game really hits rock bottom. Shooting mechanics, when they’re even required, feel ripped straight out of an early PS2 game—or worse. Enemies are bullet sponges, requiring multiple hits—even headshots—to go down. This makes every confrontation drag on unnecessarily and robs the shooting scenes of any sense of intensity. Aiming is stiff and unresponsive, and enemies barely react to getting hit, which completely destroys any sense of immersion or stakes. 

For a game trying to balance mundane realism with occasional bursts of action, it’s a disaster on both fronts. One interesting difference compared to Autobahn Police Simulator 3 is that shooting moments occur fairly early in Highway Police Simulator. In Autobahn, for example, you had to work your way up through the ranks to unlock combat missions. Perhaps this reflects a contrast in gun culture between America and Germany?

Broke Down on the Highway

To say the graphics are underwhelming would be an understatement. Even on a PS5, Highway Police Simulator runs like a clunky mess. The frame rate is all over the place, and there’s absolutely no option to tweak the settings to at least try and fix the performance issues. I was hoping for some kind of improvement, but nope. Instead, it’s constant stuttering and texture pop-ins, making it nearly impossible to immerse yourself in the world, a world by the way I frequently tend to fall through into the void. 

Now, vehicle physics deserve their own special mention. In most games, a slight tap on an object doesn’t send your car into total chaos—but here, it’s a different story. A minor collision can result in your car getting nearly totaled. I once backed into a simple bush, and my entire bumper and trunk flew off the car like I had crashed into a brick wall. It’s laughably bad, but not in a funny way.

As for the sound…well, there’s nothing particularly noteworthy about it either. The voice acting is amateurish, as we’ve discussed, and the sound design doesn’t do much to help immerse you in the experience. Engine sounds are generic, the radio chatter is forgettable, and the music? Well, you’ll probably be too distracted by the constant performance issues to notice it much.

Final Thoughts

Highway Police Simulator had the potential to offer a refreshing take on police simulators with its mundane law enforcement tasks and fictional Southwestern setting. However, technical issues—including constant glitches, frame rate dips, laughable vehicle physics, and broken shooting mechanics—completely undercut any enjoyment. Fool me once with Autobahn Police Simulator 3, but I gave this game a shot, still hoping to find that perfect police sim that nails the day-to-day grind of working the beat without turning into chaos. Unfortunately, this game falls short in every department, offering little more than frustration.

With its narrative and setting, Highway Police Simulator could have been a modern Western, like Justified or Hell or High Water. Instead, those hopes are dashed under a pile of glitches. What could’ve been a compelling, gritty story about lawmen is buried beneath technical shortcomings. I’m sorry to keep piling on this game, but I couldn’t last more than four hours before giving up, especially after my PS5 crashed during my fourth hour of play. To keep my sanity in check, I had to fire up Astro Bot as a way to apologize to my PlayStation and tell it I still love it. It’s a shame—Highway Police Simulator had the right idea, but the execution is beyond disappointment. It’s the type of game that makes you question our famous mantra. And I’m still looking for that perfect police sim that I seem to crave.

To hear me talk more about Highway Police Simulator, be sure to listen to the December 23rd, 2024 episode of The Gaming Outsider Podcast around the 1:08:02 time stamp.

This review is based on a PS5 copy of Highway Police Simulator provided by Stride PR for coverage purposes. It is also available on Xbox and PC. As of this writing, the game is exclusive to those three platforms.