From Beat Cop to Border Guard: The Expansion’s Big Swing
When Police Simulator: Patrol Officers first launched in 2021, it carved a niche as the only game brave enough to make you care about parking violations. The Contraband Expansion, released November 19, 2025, for $19.99 (or part of the $29.99 Season Pass), finally gives players a reason to leave the cozy cul-de-sacs of Brighton and head to the state line. Two brand-new checkpoint districts, a hulking Titan SUV, biometric scanners, spike strips, non-lethal shotguns, and the long-awaited ability to pop trunks and X-ray luggage turn routine patrols into full-on border-control drama. It’s Papers, Please meets Highway Patrol, with a healthy dose of L.A. Noire interrogation tension thrown in for good measure.
The core fantasy is simple but intoxicating: you’re no longer just writing tickets for expired meters. Now you’re waving vehicles to a stop, running plates, scanning passports, and deciding whether the nervous driver with the shaky hands is smuggling coke in a teddy bear or just late for grandma’s birthday. One wrong call and the cartel rolls through; one right call and you haul a van full of contraband to lockup while the shift points rain down like confetti. It’s the most satisfying power trip the series has ever offered.
Checkpoint Chaos: The New Patrol Loop
The expansion adds two checkpoint locations: a sleepy rural rest stop and a busy interstate gateway. Each shift follows the same addictive rhythm. Vehicles queue up, you wave them forward, and the investigation begins. Check documents, run fingerprints and eye scans (yes, actual biometric stations), search luggage with an X-ray machine, and decide whether to wave them through or call for backup. The Titan SUV is a beast: reinforced doors, a prisoner compartment, and enough trunk space to haul an entire drug mule operation back to the station.
Inspections are layered and tense. A mismatched manifest might lead to a hidden compartment; a nervous passenger might slip up during questioning and trigger your Intuition perk. Miss the clue and a van full of guns rolls into Brighton. Nail it and you get that glorious moment of dragging a handcuffed suspect to the holding cell while their buddies scatter. The non-lethal shotgun and spike strips add escalation options: pepper a fleeing vehicle or shred its tires when they try to run the gate.
Co-op shines here. One player handles document checks while the other sweeps the vehicle, turning what could be a solitary slog into coordinated chaos. The banter is gold: “You missed the fake bottom in the spare tire!” “That’s why you’re on trunk duty next time.”
Progression and the Grind That Follows
Shift points from successful inspections feed directly into the main game’s progression tree: unlock better scanners, upgrade the Titan, open new checkpoint shifts. It feels meaningful at first, but the loop is undeniably short. Four to six hours and you’ve seen everything the expansion offers unless you’re a completionist chasing every hidden contraband variant. The base game’s 20+ hour campaign suddenly feels like a marathon by comparison.
The Intuition system carries over beautifully: spot inconsistencies in stories, notice twitching hands, or catch a passenger avoiding eye contact. It’s the same detective itch L.A. Noire scratched, but now with actual consequences. Fail too many inspections and your shift score tanks; succeed consistently and you’ll unlock the coveted “Contraband King” title and a shiny new skin for the Titan.
Visuals, Sound, and the Little Details That Matter
Brighton’s new checkpoint districts look fantastic: sun-bleached asphalt, flickering fluorescent lights in the inspection bay, and distant city skylines that remind you what’s at stake. The X-ray machine’s green glow when you spot contraband hidden in a suitcase is genuinely satisfying. Sound design is on point too: the clunk of the Titan’s doors, the hiss of the spike strip deploying, the nervous stammer of a driver who knows they’re busted.
Peaks and Pitfalls
Peaks: The inspection fantasy is perfectly realized, co-op coordination is brilliant, the Titan feels like a proper police beast, and the Intuition system adds real detective depth. Pitfalls: It’s undeniably short (4–6 hours), the loop gets repetitive fast, launch bugs were brutal (mostly patched now), and there’s still no proper chase mechanic for runners.
Final Thoughts
The Contraband Expansion is the shot in the arm Police Simulator: Patrol Officers desperately needed. It takes the series from “glorified parking attendant” to “actual law enforcement” without abandoning what made the base game weirdly addictive. Yes, it’s short. Yes, it repeats. But when you’re dragging a handcuffed drug mule out of a minivan while your buddy covers the driver with a bean-bag shotgun, none of that matters. This is the most fun you’ll have being a cop without the paperwork.
We prepared this review with a digital copy of Police Simulator: Patrol Officers and the Contraband Expansion for the PS5 version provided by astragon Entertainment.
