Police Simulator Gold edition / Highway Patrol DLC – Review

I’ve spent almost 60 hours patrolling the streets of Police Simulators fictional city of Brighton, which since its release at the tail-end of 2022, held its place as one of my favourite simulation games on console, so I was eager to head to the highways with the new DLC which adds main roads around the city and plenty of new features to fit the new setting.

Coming in at £16.99 the Highway Patrol DLC isn’t a bad price, but newcomers will also find the Gold edition for £34.99 which not only includes the main game (usually £24.99) and Highway Patrol DLC, but also the Garage Bundle (£9.99) which includes the six vehicles (sold separately at £2.49 each) meaning there’s plenty of value. We’ve covered those DLC cars in the past and while never essential, each adds an extra element to gameplay, such as allowing you to transport more suspects to custody or nifty features such as towing vehicles or a light-bar to help create a road block and secure accident sites.
While we’ve already covered the main game and most of the vehicle DLC, for the sake of this review, we were playing the Gold edition.

Starting off in our newly expanded city of Brighton, things were very familiar, I was taken straight to the map to select my next shift, but zooming out, I was presented with the additional option of Highway patrols, there was no hoops to jump through so I was able to head straight to the main roads where I started cruising around.
It wasn’t long before I came across a smoking pile of junk at the side of the road with some random guy claiming the wreck was his trusty car which had just broken down. After a few checks, I called a tow-truck for him and sent him on his way.
A mile down the road, things started to get interesting, another car had clipped the railings, so while giving the driver a DUI breath-test and checking his insurance, another car clipped the exhaust pipe that was on the lane and veered into another car.
I turned around to see my own failure to secure the scene had now caused a 6 car pile-up behind me, so I slowly set about photographing the accident and actually making sure I picked up any debris this time.

The next shift, I decided to take it easy with the new weigh-bridge, so after heading to the correct area, I parked up to find 5 lorries queued on their scales waiting for inspection, this went a little more straightforward, although one guy was not only concealing an unhealthy selection of human teeth he hadn’t declared, but was also drunk with an expired license.
Thankfully things remain familiar and the same processes of DUI tests, checking documents and arresting before calling for a tow, stop the new features feeling overwhelming.
My only complaint would be the scales don’t seem to show the correct weights as shown in the documentation,
Initially the weight discrepancy lead me to do a search, which unveiled enough human teeth to make the bone collector jealous, but on another occasion a weight discrepancy between the documents and scales, didn’t reveal anything strange, so unless there was a hidden compartment full of illegal immigrants I wasn’t aware of, I can only presume those scales must have been dodgy.

As the hours and shifts passed, I found myself sticking with Highway patrols, but at any time, I could have returned to the streets for a standard patrol, but the fact I kept investing more and more time into the Highways, proves, there’s plenty new to enjoy.
Keeping on the subject of discrepancies, one other issue I encountered when dealing with a crash involving two vehicles, is the debris system.
Clearing up Debris counts towards those damage reports, so I set about clearing up the stray wheel, exhaust and number plates, but strangely after picking up the license plate, another appeared, and another, and another…
I eventually ended up with about 20 number platers which would have confused any officer, but after a few more attempts, I decided to leave a few lying around and hope to avoid another pile-up.
The only other bug to mention was when trying to search a car, I became stuck between the car and railing, which forced a player-reset, but this was quickly resolved via the pause menu which just respawned my officers in a safe area a few steps away.

Thankfully as we’ve learnt over the last 18+ months, the developers always do a great job of dealing with these bugs, so I’m more than happy to encounter them, and while there’s plenty of seriousness when dealing with the mean streets of Brighton, it’s nice to have a few more light-hearted moments.
Thankfully Police Simulator has always been full of moments, little mini-scenarios which just unfold dynamically as you play, just like that early pile-up I caused it’s an element of random that many simulation games just can’t deliver in the same way, which might be why Police Simulator always remained installed and ready to play.

This DLC definitely adds to the experience and while I could question whether the slightly loose driving controls are a perfect match for high speed chases, there’s really very little to complain about, and as an overall addition, with the weigh-bridge system, accidents, car chases or just crusing along behind random vehicles waiting for them to make the slightest mistake, the Highway Patrol expansion has definitely added to the experience.

Another area of improvement which I’ve seen with this update (which I’m presuming are part of the accompanying free title update or the overall “gold edition”) is the addition of customisation options, I found my officer could now be tweaked slightly to change her clothing and the cars now have the much more British blue and yellow chess design, which made me feel a little more at home.

This accompanies what seems to be the general graphical polish as things seems a little more fluid since I last played and even when crusing the motorway are 70mph, there was still only very minimal pop-in on distant tree’s which is impressive considering the amount of traffic on road and the state we see from some simulation games that try to recreate a living city.
To cover the sound, Police Simulators always been full of the hustle and bustle of city life and out on the main roads, audio is as you’d expect with the distant hum of cars, while voice lines are still clear and precise (even if some such as telling a lorry driver to step out of his car) are sounbites used from the main game, rather than entirely new.

Overall, there’s plenty to be excited about with the highway Patrol expansion, the developers have done a fantastic job of making it feel a part of the game, without taking you away from the gameplay you’ve enjoyed for over a year and while may Simulator DLC’s do have a tendancy to feel tacked on, this feels like it’s been implemented to a very high standard.

Aside from a few bugs, there’s nothing to complain about and I can be certain that fans of the game, will find great value with this expansion. While costing more than 50% of the base gaem, it’s worth considering standalone games can’t match the quality on offer and the base game is already amazing value.
When you take into account the £35 price tag of the gold edition, indluing the base game, vehicle pack and this DLC, it makes Police Simulator on of the best value simulation games currently available.

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