Police Simulator: Patrol Officers – Contraband Expansion

Police Simulator: Patrol Officers has grown at a steady pace since its PC Early Access release in 2021. I’ve been playing since its console release, and I’m always keen to get back on patrol for the latest DLC. This time, that is the Contraband Expansion, which adds a new shift type and several new features for $19.99, or it’s also included in the $24.99 Season Pass, which is a far superior value proposition, in my opinion.

With a name like “Contraband Expansion” you can probably guess that PS:PO takes you to the border of the fictional state of Franklin, where you can now take on border patrol shifts at a border checkpoint. These shifts are broken up into three callout types: initial inspections, desk inspections, and detailed inspections. There are so many new systems in this expansion that it really needs a tutorial shift to introduce everything. I was confused at first but resorted to the in-game manual—which is fine—but I learn best with hands-on training.

Initial inspections are the first encounter when a vehicle rolls up to the border gate. You check documents and cargo declarations, using your observation skills and instincts to look for fishy activity from the drivers. For cargo trucks, you can also step into the inspection booth to review three pieces of equipment that scan trucks for anomalies, such as radiation. Once you’ve completed your initial inspection, you must make a decision to grant entry, deny entry, or send the vehicle for further inspection.

At the detailed inspection station, things get a little more intimate. Here is where you’ll do some of the things you see in the movies: run the mirror wand under the vehicle, do a detailed search of its interior, and run a portable x-ray scanner around the vehicle to look for hidden objects. You also get to do pretty much everything that happens during an initial inspection, so it’s really the best of both worlds.

And finally, there is the desk inspection, which is the most laid back of the three stations. At the desk, you once again check papers and declaration of goods, and scan people with the biometric scanner to see if their information does not quite check out. Perhaps they’ve got an international arrest warrant. Fun!

Hands down, I preferred the detailed inspection station since it includes a little bit of all three stations, but also has the majority of the new tools (at least the coolest ones) at your disposal. The detailed inspection is also where I saw most of my action, like the guy smuggling drugs who pulled a gun on me when I tried to frisk him. Or the lady who must have been the Pablo Escobar of Franklin, who was loaded down with pounds of cocaine, LSD patches, pills, and knives. She must have been headed to one hell of a party.

Okay, so here’s the catch: the new expansion is a bit of a buggy mess right now. That’s sort of always the catch with PS:PO, though. I’ve come to live with it to an extent, but you should know what you’re getting yourself into. At one point, vehicles just stopped showing up at the border checkpoint, so I was unable to complete the inspection callout. It was like the world abruptly ended. And then callouts that I never accepted kept stacking up, before I remembered to disable them altogether. I’m also certain that there is a bug with admitting or denying people entry. I kept getting points taken off for incorrectly allowing people entry or was penalized for writing them a ticket for an expired passport. So yeah, it needs a little work.

As has been the case since its initial release, PS:PO still suffers from technical hiccups, and it’s just kind of part of the charm at this point. Though some hiccups are more annoying than others, I still enjoy coming back for each new DLC. The Contraband Expansion adds a decent amount of content and tools to the base game, though if you are thinking about it, it makes more sense to spend $24.99 for the Season Pass, rather than $19.99 just for this expansion. Bottomline? If you already dig Police Simulator: Patrol Officers, you’ll dig this new expansion too.