Autobahn Police Simulator 3

Autobahn Police Simulator 3 is the third game in the well-known simulation series developed by Z-Software and published by Aerosoft GmbH. The goal is to give players a sense of what an average workday in the police looks like, filled with various events.

Back at the station

The game puts you in the role of a rookie police officer returning to work after a serious traffic accident that occurred during an illegal car race. Your character doesn't waste time and quickly puts on the uniform, heading to work with your partner to prove yourself again. Their tasks will vary, sometimes even being comedic, such as when a driver hits a cow, and later it's up to you to clean up the mess from the road. Of course, traffic rules apply to you, so the game notifies you below the speedometer what the limit is for that part of the highway.

Repetitive content

The tasks you and your partner perform can become repetitive over time, as most of the time you will spend driving around, stopping cars, or helping to determine what happened at the accident scene. What saves the experience are the driving school and shooting range where you can take tests and earn points to upgrade your character. You will also come across various collectibles scattered throughout the map, including: warning triangles, SOS phones, various landmarks, and even rubber duckies.

Gameplay

The gameplay of Autobahn Police Simulator 3 is not revolutionary, as you spend most of your time either on foot or in the car. At the beginning, your character is quite slow outside the car, but with various upgrades, you can improve their speed or use points to make them run faster. You mostly upgrade cars to have greater damage resistance or to increase their speed. The patrol car you receive at the start of the game can sometimes feel like you're steering a ship when turning.

Graphics

Autobahn Police Simulator 3 has a passable graphical appearance, although it shows its age. Faces lack detail, and some have inconsistencies, such as one female colleague having darker hair but blue eyebrows. During the game, I also encountered some minor bugs, such as my character ending up in a table, talking to a colleague behind closed doors, and at higher speeds, my car took off into the air as if it hit an invisible wall.

Voice acting

What surprised me a bit when I launched the game was that the voices were set to English by default, which didn't make much sense to me, as the uniforms and all other text on the station walls are in German. Fortunately, within the settings, you can switch the voices to German, which enhances the overall experience.

Paid upgrades

Autobahn Police Simulator 3 has three paid upgrades that bring various useful items for your work: Off-Road (a dog and a vehicle for driving on land), Speed Trap (a speed monitoring camera that is installed on the police van), and Police Motorcycle.

Conclusion

I can recommend this title to anyone who is a fan of simulation video games or has watched an episode of the cult TV hit Cobra 11. If you are someone who has never touched this genre, the game may not attract you as much, but you can always give it a try, and maybe you will like it and open the door to the world of simulation video games.

A copy of the PC version was provided by the publisher Aerosoft GmbH.