Review
Played on: PlayStationReleased: 1997
Recently I decided to replay the Psygnosis, sci-fi classic, G-Police. It used to be one of my absolute favourite titles back on the PS1. I played it at least two-three times to completion back in the day.
My first encounter with it was a playable demo in the Official UK PlayStation magazine for Christmas in 1997. I'd spend hours flying about shooting up cars, spaceships, road signs and billboards. The detailed, Blade Runner, visual aesthetic and flashy graphics really impressed and captivated me. Come to think of it, it's probably one of the first free roaming cities I ever played!
The following year I bought it, alongside Gran Turismo and a DualShock controller. The latter would majorly improve the gameplay, just like Gran Turismo, but also ease the control complexity of G-Police.
I became fascinated. I loved the artwork and lore; I'd even copy the font style and write the G-Police logo on things I owned. The manual inside the cover was made like an instruction handbook for new police pilots, in a lovely colour of dark blue with a hint of purple, spread across two CDs. More discs were always a novelty back then!
There's a distinct Psygnosis quality, a part of the 3D gaming boom of the 90's, I need to mention. From fantastic cutscenes, great voice overs and incredible 3D engines. At the time, the UK was on top of the 3D tech and Psygnosis, with a lot of developers beneath its large volume of published titles, was amidst the strongest contenders. From early 3D titles like Destruction Derby all the way in short time span to the matured tech of G-Police.
A fun fact is that Colony Wars and wipEout 2097 which are published and developed by Psygnosis from the same era, reviews here and here, are connected in the same lore and set in the year 2097.
Let's take to the skies for a closer look at this dystopian future!
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The intro, featuring Dolby Surround nonetheless, is still one of my favourite story beginnings in gaming. With fantastic CGI and narration it explains the aftermath of human wars when the earth is depleted of resources. Resulting in in crime filled cities and political unease in space colonies. A result of the war is the usage of the ageing Havoc gunship, think of it as a kind of helicopter, for police work. Violent work as such; a full powered gunship, armed to the teeth, to shoot down criminal gang vehicles and spaceships.
Seeking answers for what happened to sisters unexpected suicide while working as a Havoc pilot, the main character you play, war veteran Slater, volunteers for G-Police duty to get a foot on the inside of the organization. Through multiple missions the story slowly builds momentum and atmosphere, unravelling what’s actually going on. All while massively powerful weapons companies are pulling the political strings behind the scenes.
Main story events are depicted through CGI sequences, while most of the other events are radio chatter during flights and within the excellent mission briefings, the latter is narrated by a soothing female voice. I'm impressed by how well narrated it is, with solid voice acting.
Although it’s mostly a straightforward spaceship shooter at its core; lock-on to enemy spaceships or vehicles and fire the best suited weapon, be it the main gatling gun, rockets or heat seeking missiles. However, controlling the actual Havoc gunship can be daunting at first. Even worse, if you're on an original, d-pad only, PS1 controller there’s an overwhelming number of buttons and shortcuts to manage.
You see, the Havoc flies like a helicopter; it can stop mid-air, hover and go upwards and downwards vertically. In addition, you need to keep control over various weapon types and lock-on mechanics. It's a lot to get your head around but luckily the first few missions ease you in. Nevertheless, you’ll find yourself knocking into buildings or the ground at first. At least the Havoc can stand completely still in air, without needing power control by the player to do so. So, if anything becomes a little too disornetiating, simply bring the Havoc to a standstill and take it from there!
My strong recommendation is to use the DualShock controller, or a modern equivalent with dual analogue sticks when playing on an emulator like I did. It allows for the Havoc to steered with the left stick and the right stick is for moving your head around the cockpit. It helps keep your bearings as you turn in all directions. Further still, by moving the Havoc steering the left stick, the d-pad is freed up to be used to cycle through your weapon arsenal. Saving you a button combination to swap between steering and weaponry.
%20(Disc%201)%202025-03-27-07-59-28.png)
%20(Disc%202)%202025-03-02-21-51-48.png)
As mentioned, I played this on an emulator this time around. My vastly preferred way to do so is on DuckStation. With it, you can increase the PS1's CPU capabilities, allowing G-Police to run flawlessly in 60fps. Better still, it's one of the rare PS1 games that allow you to alter it’s graphics settings in-game. Unlike on original hardware, you can crank the draw distance and field of view to max, without impacting the framerate. A fantastic upgrade that really helps keep the experience more responsive and better looking than on an original PS1!
I’m not a huge fan of setting high resolutions when emulating old titles. I tend to keep as close to the original as possible, preferably with scanlines to recreate an old CRT. That said, G-Police holds its ground visually when compared to the rather limited amount of PS1 titles with free roaming cities.
The variety of various effects from the weaponry, as well as awesome fire and explosion effects, lighting up the dark buzzing city, still look neat. While the draw distance crudely puts everything into complete darkness a city block away from your gunship, the amount of detail in buildings, numerous vehicles and small details like moving billboards, with real-life Diesel and Fuji company logos, and working streetlights, is nothing short of impressive
I always thought G-Police looked like a high-end PC title on the PS1 back in the day, indeed there even was a PC port, and I stand by that statement. It has a distinct late 90’s visual vibe, with small, but numerous and quite detailed amounts of 3D objects at any given time on screen.
While pretty, there's a lot of visual repetition. Each sector of the cities, accessed through impressively fast loading tunnels, all share similar aesthetics. There are some that deviate, with canyon and farming field domes, but overall, they feel empty and barren outside the areas with high rise buildings and traffic. To make an impression of a breathing city back then, corners had to be cut. However, considering the hardware and time it was made, it’s impressive work. I can't state enough that amidst a lot of darkness, the lighting is really nicely done. Even with coloured lighting from explosions and weaponry, illuminating surrounding environments in a cool way!
Let's take to the skies for a closer look at this dystopian future!
%20(Disc%201)%202025-03-27-07-57-30.png)
%20(Disc%202)%202025-03-02-13-10-23.png)
The intro, featuring Dolby Surround nonetheless, is still one of my favourite story beginnings in gaming. With fantastic CGI and narration it explains the aftermath of human wars when the earth is depleted of resources. Resulting in in crime filled cities and political unease in space colonies. A result of the war is the usage of the ageing Havoc gunship, think of it as a kind of helicopter, for police work. Violent work as such; a full powered gunship, armed to the teeth, to shoot down criminal gang vehicles and spaceships.
Seeking answers for what happened to sisters unexpected suicide while working as a Havoc pilot, the main character you play, war veteran Slater, volunteers for G-Police duty to get a foot on the inside of the organization. Through multiple missions the story slowly builds momentum and atmosphere, unravelling what’s actually going on. All while massively powerful weapons companies are pulling the political strings behind the scenes.
Main story events are depicted through CGI sequences, while most of the other events are radio chatter during flights and within the excellent mission briefings, the latter is narrated by a soothing female voice. I'm impressed by how well narrated it is, with solid voice acting.
Although it’s mostly a straightforward spaceship shooter at its core; lock-on to enemy spaceships or vehicles and fire the best suited weapon, be it the main gatling gun, rockets or heat seeking missiles. However, controlling the actual Havoc gunship can be daunting at first. Even worse, if you're on an original, d-pad only, PS1 controller there’s an overwhelming number of buttons and shortcuts to manage.
You see, the Havoc flies like a helicopter; it can stop mid-air, hover and go upwards and downwards vertically. In addition, you need to keep control over various weapon types and lock-on mechanics. It's a lot to get your head around but luckily the first few missions ease you in. Nevertheless, you’ll find yourself knocking into buildings or the ground at first. At least the Havoc can stand completely still in air, without needing power control by the player to do so. So, if anything becomes a little too disornetiating, simply bring the Havoc to a standstill and take it from there!
My strong recommendation is to use the DualShock controller, or a modern equivalent with dual analogue sticks when playing on an emulator like I did. It allows for the Havoc to steered with the left stick and the right stick is for moving your head around the cockpit. It helps keep your bearings as you turn in all directions. Further still, by moving the Havoc steering the left stick, the d-pad is freed up to be used to cycle through your weapon arsenal. Saving you a button combination to swap between steering and weaponry.
%20(Disc%201)%202025-03-27-07-59-28.png)
%20(Disc%202)%202025-03-02-21-51-48.png)
As mentioned, I played this on an emulator this time around. My vastly preferred way to do so is on DuckStation. With it, you can increase the PS1's CPU capabilities, allowing G-Police to run flawlessly in 60fps. Better still, it's one of the rare PS1 games that allow you to alter it’s graphics settings in-game. Unlike on original hardware, you can crank the draw distance and field of view to max, without impacting the framerate. A fantastic upgrade that really helps keep the experience more responsive and better looking than on an original PS1!
I’m not a huge fan of setting high resolutions when emulating old titles. I tend to keep as close to the original as possible, preferably with scanlines to recreate an old CRT. That said, G-Police holds its ground visually when compared to the rather limited amount of PS1 titles with free roaming cities.
The variety of various effects from the weaponry, as well as awesome fire and explosion effects, lighting up the dark buzzing city, still look neat. While the draw distance crudely puts everything into complete darkness a city block away from your gunship, the amount of detail in buildings, numerous vehicles and small details like moving billboards, with real-life Diesel and Fuji company logos, and working streetlights, is nothing short of impressive
I always thought G-Police looked like a high-end PC title on the PS1 back in the day, indeed there even was a PC port, and I stand by that statement. It has a distinct late 90’s visual vibe, with small, but numerous and quite detailed amounts of 3D objects at any given time on screen.
While pretty, there's a lot of visual repetition. Each sector of the cities, accessed through impressively fast loading tunnels, all share similar aesthetics. There are some that deviate, with canyon and farming field domes, but overall, they feel empty and barren outside the areas with high rise buildings and traffic. To make an impression of a breathing city back then, corners had to be cut. However, considering the hardware and time it was made, it’s impressive work. I can't state enough that amidst a lot of darkness, the lighting is really nicely done. Even with coloured lighting from explosions and weaponry, illuminating surrounding environments in a cool way!
The quality trickles down to the sound effects too. They have a heavy sensation, underlining the power of the powerful weapons like missiles and bombs with proper bass sounds. While an atmospheric electronic music soundtrack helps build the dark and dystopian atmosphere!
%20(Disc%201)%202025-03-27-08-00-21.png)
%20(Disc%202)%202025-03-02-14-44-41.png)
There is a healthy number of missions spread across the two CD’s, totalling at 35 of the main ones, all with voiced pre and post mission briefings. It feels like s olid package and lot of value for money, especially back in the day. As with many flight action titles, repetition of ideas kicks in throughout the multiple missions though. There’s a lot the same concepts repeated; distress call, fly over to the location, enemies attack, repeat. Then again, this genre isn’t exactly famous for its variety.
Luckily, the difficulty, with the exception of a couple of missions, is fair. There's more challenging amount of heavy fire from spaceships later on, but I managed with only a few retries to get through the harder ones. Newcomers to space and flight titles might be disorientated, much because of the blackness and short draw distance, and be challenged quite harshly later into the game.
Completion of the game doesn’t unlock much, outside of a special mission. Which incidentally is noteworthy; it allows you to race a car on the roads of a city. Clearly a testbed to see if wheeled vehicle would work for the main game, a feature taken to fruition in the sequel, G-Police: Weapons of Justice.
Overall, my reunion with this much-loved title has been a pleasant one. Undeniably the tricky flight controls are like second nature for me, but I could imagine newcomers struggling. The key is to not only control the direction of the gunship, but also use the dedicated up and down levitation buttons, to alter the height at which you fly. Once you have the hang of this, while keeping an eye out for your gunships shields, you'll be equipped to take on any of the missions.
%20(Disc%201)%202025-03-27-08-00-21.png)
%20(Disc%202)%202025-03-02-14-44-41.png)
There is a healthy number of missions spread across the two CD’s, totalling at 35 of the main ones, all with voiced pre and post mission briefings. It feels like s olid package and lot of value for money, especially back in the day. As with many flight action titles, repetition of ideas kicks in throughout the multiple missions though. There’s a lot the same concepts repeated; distress call, fly over to the location, enemies attack, repeat. Then again, this genre isn’t exactly famous for its variety.
Luckily, the difficulty, with the exception of a couple of missions, is fair. There's more challenging amount of heavy fire from spaceships later on, but I managed with only a few retries to get through the harder ones. Newcomers to space and flight titles might be disorientated, much because of the blackness and short draw distance, and be challenged quite harshly later into the game.
Completion of the game doesn’t unlock much, outside of a special mission. Which incidentally is noteworthy; it allows you to race a car on the roads of a city. Clearly a testbed to see if wheeled vehicle would work for the main game, a feature taken to fruition in the sequel, G-Police: Weapons of Justice.
Overall, my reunion with this much-loved title has been a pleasant one. Undeniably the tricky flight controls are like second nature for me, but I could imagine newcomers struggling. The key is to not only control the direction of the gunship, but also use the dedicated up and down levitation buttons, to alter the height at which you fly. Once you have the hang of this, while keeping an eye out for your gunships shields, you'll be equipped to take on any of the missions.
The graphics, lighting and visual effects, outside of the draw distance, hold up well and are a true statement of how excellent work Psygnosis did with 3D gaming back then.
Although I feel it's one of the best PS1 titles I played, I'm unsure if it’s a worth playing for newcomers. Similar to Colony Wars, it's a title for fans of the sci-fi genre, and indeed it keeps you intrigued with its dark story full of intrigues and plot twists. To be fair it's also a substantially easier playthrough than Colony Wars, but requires more rapid pilot control.
For the genre and as technical showcase, G-Police still stands and as excellent presented and complex space shooter for the PS1 system, years later. Just don't expect massive variety in missions and environments.
Although I feel it's one of the best PS1 titles I played, I'm unsure if it’s a worth playing for newcomers. Similar to Colony Wars, it's a title for fans of the sci-fi genre, and indeed it keeps you intrigued with its dark story full of intrigues and plot twists. To be fair it's also a substantially easier playthrough than Colony Wars, but requires more rapid pilot control.
For the genre and as technical showcase, G-Police still stands and as excellent presented and complex space shooter for the PS1 system, years later. Just don't expect massive variety in missions and environments.
