G-Police is a shooter video game developed by Psygnosis and released in 1997 for the PlayStation and PC. The game is set in 2097 in Blade Runner-eqsue cities set in domes. The player pilots a futuristic helicopter type aircraft (known as a Havoc Gunship) and upholds the law by raiding bases, destroying enemy aircraft, keeping corporations in check, bombing targets and generally bringing justice down on those who deserve it using a huge arsenal of various weapons. The game world is slightly free-roaming, in that player can choose to fly around cities as they pleased, although there is generally nothing to do unless you fancy blowing up civilian vehicles. Some missions even require you to get to a location as quick as possible before the target is lost. It was known at the time for taxing the PlayStation systems to their limit due to graphics strain from the free-roaming world it created. This meant the draw distance was set low to help compensate for the processor-heavy game.
The plot centers on a war which was fought over resources in the solar system, in which there were heavy losses. The game takes place on a colonized Callisto, where you take on the role of a veteran known as Slater, who signs up to the G-Police due to suspicious circumstances surrounding his sister's death. Slater decides he has to find out the truth behind her death.
The game received a 1999 sequel called G-Police: Weapons of Justice, which focused on the aftermath of the first game.
G-Police and G-Police: Weapons of Justice provides examples of the following tropes:
- Ace Pilot: Tachikawa, your wingman. He dies when his ship is sabotaged.
- Airstrike Impossible: In the first game: fly inside a huge capital ship, find its reactor, bomb it and get out. Sounds easy? It isn't.
- Authority Equals Asskicking: You play as a member of a police force, equipped with a variety of countless weapons handing out countless asskickings and destruction to countless other enemies and factions for over 35 missions.
- Armies Are Evil: In the second game. The commander of the space marines who come to help you decides to conquer Callisto and Earth
- Although rather mitigated by the fact that half the Marines, including their second-in-command, promptly join up with the G-Police to help stop their CO when they find out how crazy he is.
- Awesome Personnel Carrier: GP are fond of these. In bonus mission in the first game, you can race with it. In the second game, few missions involve you driving people from place to place and blowing stuff up.
- Book Ends: Slater saying "I never intended to join the G-Police."
- Bottomless Magazines: Your basic cannon, as well as laser and plasma cannons, never run out.
- Charged Attack: The Plasma Cannon, and so worth it.
- Chekhov's Gunman: Two. The Internal Affairs Investigator mentioned in the first game's intro sequence takes over as commander when Horton is killed by Ricardo. And the marines mentioned in the first game's ending are the main bad guys in the sequel.
- Cool Starship: GP carrier. Doubles as supply depot. Also in sequel, there are total of three of these stationed above Callisto.
- Critical Existence Failure: Subverted, after losing certain amount of health, enemy fighters go spiraling down. If you hit them during this time, they explode.
- Death Is Not Permanent: If your team mates get killed, they are back in the next mission. Justified slightly, as when shot down Tachikawa screams "Eject!", indicating there is an eject system. Too bad his eject system got sabotaged.
- Destructive Saviour: Considering how many missions require you blow up something, not to mention collateral damage...
- Elite Mooks: Venom Gunships which you face in the last 3 mission; fast, agile, tough and heavily armed. You face Riccardo in a souped up one of these.
- Energy Weapon: Lasers in this game are very powerful and can take you down quickly. It's wonderful when you finally get them and can deliver some payback.
- Escort Mission: Several of these make an appearance. Sadly, your targets would always move very slowly and unless they were equipped with weapons(and sometimes even then), they were easily killed. The ground vehicles never made evasive maneuvers and usually you would have to break off to finish one enemy off, only to return and find three more blasting away at your men.
- Fog of War: Due to how processor-intense the games were, the draw distance had to be reduced sharply to help. This means that you can get surprised by a sudden skyscraper appearing out of nowhere.
- Humongous Mecha: The Raptor MK II Ground Assault Vehicle. It could jump and glide, but not fly.
- Hollywood Tactics: Averted. When on defence, GP tries to stop enemy movement by harassing enemy supply lines. When on offense, many missions involve destroying enemy communications and sensor networks.
- Incompetence, Inc.: Slater's opinion of G-Police in the prologue, particularly in the early days; poor tactics, obselete equipment, institutionally corrupt, manned for the most part by desperate people running from problems elsewhere.
- It's Personal: This is the half of the premise of the first game. The introduction of the game combines general backstory with Slater talking about how he'd come to join G-Police. Slater signed up for the G-Police on Callisto because that's where his sister had been stationed before her mysterious death.Slater: Now, she's dead. Another good cop among many. They don't keep count anymore. But Elaine Slater was different. She was my sister. The inquiry gave a verdict of suicide, linked to stress and depression; I didn't buy that. Elaine had won commendations for closing a couple of cases, and had even hinted at romance. Depression just didn't fit the picture. If I didn't believe the suicide verdict, that left only one option: someone had murdered her and went to the trouble of covering it up. I had to find out who.
- Lost Technology: Or more precisely, banned tech. Mega Corps are not allowed to build capital ships. Gunships are OK, but building of military grade capital ship is strictly banned.
- MegaCorp: You work for these guys. "Government" is a group of Mega Corps pulling together. In the first game, you fight against Krakov to stop their war with another Mega Corp, and then Nanosoft who tries to tip balance for itself. As well as build battleship to take over the solar system.
- The Mole:Ricardo in first game. You get to shoot him down later.
- Oh, Crap!:
- The first time you see a Gunboat.
- For the final mission, "Look at the size of that thing!" is an appropriate response to what's hiding in the sealed off dome.
- One-Man Army: Zig-Zagged. Player has wingmen and several missions include ground based troops, but without player GP forces get their ass handed to them.
- One Name Only: Slater is just Slater. He has no first name.
- One Nation Under Copyright: Well, One Star System Under Copyright — Earth is ruled by coalition of Mega Corps.
- Paper-Thin Disguise: Slater's fake ID to get into G-Police lasts about 5 seconds in front of his new Commander Horton.
- Space Fighter: The second game has these, along with some Old-School Dogfight.
- Space Marine: Guys you try to call for help in first game and the guys you fight in the second game
- A Space Marine Is You: To a big degree in that you could play the game from a first-person perspective, you were in the military during the war as a pilot and the game is definitely science fiction.
- Space Police: In the first game you are restricted to a colony. In second, you get to the space itself.
- State Sec: Surprisingly, you. G-Police(Governmental Police) are government sponsored police force, with it's own combat vehicles, military grade weapons, air fleet etc. etc. They job is to keep the balance between MegaCorps. Sometimes they need to level half of the dome to do it.
- Storming the Castle: In the first game, both Krakov's HQ and Nanosoft's, in the second game, your own after it's taken over.
- The Syndicate: Gangs in second game. They are even called that.
- The Wall Around the World: The domes. In the second game you leave them behind to fight some baddies IN SPACE!
- Urban Warfare: Well, you fight in heavily populated domes. Several mission demand you to protect buildings from attacks or destroying them.
- Video Game Caring Potential: The player can get a feeling of protectiveness over the nearly helpless ground units that filled the missions. The player character's fellow law enforcement officers that are on the ground need your air support, or they aren't going to last long. The small, weak but relentlessly persistent vehicles engender a Papa Wolf feeling.
- Wide-Open Sandbox: Somewhat averted in that you had a wide open city to fly around, but due to most of your missions requiring you to reach a destination quickly, you never have time to explore anyway. Although all you could do if you did explore was shoot civilian vehicles.
- Wingman: Useless sort, unless you are attacking gunboats. Then they provide nice distractions. The skill of them seem to vary in the three you get. Tachikawa was more of the Maverick and used more maneuvers, Ricardo was the veteran and the most experienced while Kreyzig was more of a newbie and less useful.
- Would Not Shoot a Civilian:
- Averted. If you want, clear the skies! Although some missions involve protecting civilian buildings. The game also keeps track of how many civilians you kill throughout the game. Like in most games with high civilian populations, it's really hard not to kill them! Especially since, unlike newer games such as the Godfather, these civilians have absolutely no survival instinct. For instance, if your mission requires you to blow up a bridge, the vehicles traveling along that road don't stop. Instead, they drive right off the bridge to a spectacular demise in the chasm below. So you can imagine that they think nothing of flying right through a vicious dogfight.
- In the second game, being tricked into attacking some civilians by a hacker who spoofed your mission control and gave you fake orders becomes a plot point.
- You Killed My Father: Sister, in this case. Though it's never explicitly stated who was responsible for Elaine's death, it's implied to be your traitorous wingman Ricardo. Gunning him down in the second to last level is immensely satisfying.
