Police Chase Drifter

Summary

Don’t let the simple-looking top-down graphics fool you. As soon as you reach Level 2 (yep, that early on), you’ll likely realize you’re in for more of a challenge than you expected in Police Chase Drifter.

It’s a top-down getaway game where you need to collect money bags scattered across a suburban city, dodge increasingly aggressive police cars, then drift your way to the finish line before your health runs out. It’ll remind the old heads of the classic early GTA bird’s-eye-view chases, except your car’s seemingly been fitted with some budget part-worn tires.

As soon as you touch the throttle at the start, the cops are immediately relentless and will do anything to send your ride exploding into a fireball. At the beginning, your car is much slower than theirs, and pulling off your fanciest drifting techniques will often be the only way to survive.

You’ll need to throw down manjis, sharp transitions, and 180s, while using the whole road to your advantage and keeping the po-po guessing. It’s not the best game for understanding advanced drifting aspects like weight transfer, but for picking up the basics of sliding a car around and keeping it under control, it’s better than you might think.

Features

• Release date – June 14, 2021
• Difficulty – Beginner/Intermediate
• Levels – 20
• Number of vehicles – 22
• Vehicle customization/upgrades – No
• Multiplayer – No
• Mobile – Yes (iOS and Android)
• Developer – FreezeNova

Physics

The physics are as arcade-y as they look, but in a good way. All the cars kick the back end out quickly and confidently, and drift through the city without needing to worry about shifting gears, the clutch, or the handbrake. Even beginners can throw a slide and trust the car will go roughly where you point it.

If you’ve played Mr. Drifter: Car Chase Simulator, it’s pretty similar. Top-down, drift-ready, and built around outmaneuvering the cops rather than chasing lap times. Mr. Drifter also throws in randomized power-ups like Freeze and Shield to mix things up.

Be careful – the grass is even more slippery than the road, which makes off-road shortcuts a gamble, especially if you’re planning to squeeze through a tiny gap between two houses.

Graphics

You’re looking at a suburban city from above, made up of roads, houses, trees, and plenty of grassy areas. This general theme is the same across all 20 levels, so don’t expect variety in scenery. What does change, though, is the layout, the money-bag placement (and count), and the police aren’t shy about taking things up a few notches as you progress.

The explosions when a cop car gets totaled are super satisfying (but not when your ride goes up in flames, of course!). If you’re after something with a better visual experience, we’ve got plenty of other driving games at Drifted, and UNBOUNDED or Drift Hunters MAX are usually the top picks among fans when it comes to graphics. You’ll need to make sure your device can handle it, though. We’ve also got a dedicated DHM drifting guide if you want to hit the ground running.

Controls

PC/laptop/Chromebook

• W/Up arrow – Accelerate
• S/Down arrow – Brake/reverse
• A/Left arrow – Steer left
• D/Right arrow – Steer right

The cars are drifty enough in stock form that you don’t need a handbrake or nitrous here. Unlike a lot of similar games, there’s no auto-acceleration either, so you get to control the throttle and brakes as you please.

Mobile/tablet (iOS/Android)

• On-screen touch controls

If you’re after more chase games on your phone, our mobile games page has plenty of options that are optimized for touchscreen devices.

How to Play Police Chase Drifter

Initial Setup

The simple main menu shows your current balance in the top left and your selected car in the center. Use the arrows on either side to scroll through the full garage of 22 cars and check out how much you’ll need to save for your dream ride.

There are no performance stats or upgrade bars, but anyone who knows a thing or two about cars will have a decent idea of their capabilities, since they range from small city cars to Lambos.

When you’re ready, pressing ‘Play’ takes you straight to the level-selection screen.

Getting Started

Each level puts you into the city with a yellow arrow pointing towards the closest money bag. You need to collect every bag on the map (requirement shown in the top left), then reach the finish line without your car getting totaled to complete the level.

The bags themselves are just objectives until you escape. You only get to keep the money (current balance also in the top left) once the level’s over, regardless of whether you manage to complete it or not.

Your health bar sits in the top right (the blue bar). Big impacts like head-on collisions take huge chunks off your health, while smaller scrapes chip away at it gradually. Even light contact with a building or a tree costs you something, and enough damage makes your car explode dramatically.

The cops enter the screen from every direction with no warning. They’re fast, aggressive, and they know where you’re heading, which is why you’ve gotta pull out all the stops to fool them. From Level 4 onwards, they’ll start introducing roadblocks and only continue to crank up the difficulty from there.

If you want the more “modern” first-person GTA experience in your browser rather than the top-down style here, Grand Shift Auto drops you into an open city where you can steal police cars, run missions, or just raise your wanted level and see how long you last.

Game Modes

The single-player level campaign is the only game mode, spanning across 20 increasingly challenging levels. The early ones require you to collect four money bags, later ones bump it up to six, and the total keeps climbing from there. Once you’ve seen how hard it is to get four (then to the finish), you’ll have an idea of the difficulty!

Completing each level soon becomes a genuine relief, and you’ll often need to take a breather before going again.

Once you’ve cleared all 20 and still fancy more, Escape Road 3 takes the chase beyond the suburbs, venturing across farmland, deserts, and even the open ocean with a variety of boats. You also get tonnes of achievements and cars to unlock, as well as hidden mini-games like F1 racing and fire rescue tucked inside. It’s the same drifty top-down getaway, just with a lot more to explore, and it’s not much easier, either!

For something a little easier than both of those, Drift Escape is a good alternative, with an easier-to-see camera angle, smaller arenas, and a choice between Challenge and Endless modes.

Car List

All 22 cars are based on real-world vehicles (unlicensed, as you’d expect), though some are easier to spot than others in the top-down view. It’s a good challenge for gearheads to see how many they can figure out.

The free starter car gets you going (although it’s a little slow compared to the cops), with the remaining 21 ranging from 500 to 5,500 to unlock.

The budget end of the garage covers the likes of a Herbie-style VW Beetle and a handful of hatchbacks, with an open-wheeler and some classics thrown in for good measure. Further up, you’ll start spotting Ferraris, a Ford GT, Honda NSX, and the most expensive car at 5,500 is clearly based on a Lambo.

There’s no stats or details, but more expensive cars accelerate faster, reach higher speeds, and handle noticeably better. Even if your next car isn’t your dream pick, buy the best one you can afford early on to outpace the cops, at least, and it’ll undoubtedly help you progress (although you might need to control the throttle a little more!).

If 22 cars isn’t enough, there’s a garage with 60+ supercars and hypercars all unlocked from the start in Madalin Stunt Cars 3, plus three huge maps and online multiplayer lobbies for you to cause chaos with the homies.

Tuning & Customization

There’s absolutely nothing on offer in this regard, unfortunately. However, the good news is that the same team that made this has two popular drifting games with plenty of tuning and customization – Drift Hunters Pro and Drift King. DHP offers a JDM-focused garage with cars like the Nissan Silvia S15 and the Toyota AE86. Drift King opts for the supercar route with the likes of Lamborghinis and Ferraris, and they both offer free online multiplayer lobbies (along with private rooms for crew tandems and drift trains).

For something different, while still having police chases, all 15 widebody drift cars in GTR Drift Fever are unlocked from the start, with custom liveries, editable license plates, and four locations to pick from. It even has its own rogue cop that’ll try to T-bone you mid-drift.

Advanced Tips & Tricks

Be as unpredictable as possible

If you drive in a straight line, the cops will predict your path and destroy your car in one head-on hit if you’re carrying enough speed. Instead, focus on the sideways action by throwing down 180s, 360s, and sweeping manjis to keep them guessing.

The more you transition from side to side and make the most of the entire road (try to avoid the grass), the harder it’ll be for them to land a solid hit. If you want to take the drift skills you’re building here and apply them properly, our guide to drifting covers initiating, countersteering, and throttle control, which still prove useful here.

Slam on the brakes before an impact when a crash is unavoidable

You can’t always dodge in time, but slowing down before a collision turns a devastating head-on into a manageable scrape. It often saves just enough health to keep the run alive.

Get the cops to smash into each other

One of the most satisfying things you can do is lure two cop cars into a collision. Also, try to fool them by driving close to houses and trees, as they’ll likely come in too hot, which can take them out in one hit.

Don’t always feel you need to follow the yellow arrow

The arrow points to the nearest money bag, but it can switch targets if you go far enough off course (assuming you have more than one money bag remaining). Sometimes it’s smarter to take a detour and grab a different bag that puts you in a safer position.

Preserve as much health as possible for the sprint to the finish

As much as you’ll hope it does, collecting the last money bag doesn’t end the level. You still need to reach the finish line, and it’s often much further away than you’d like. There’s nothing worse than seeing the finish line and having a cop come out of nowhere.

Be careful when you venture onto the grass

Going off-road feels like a shortcut until you realize how little grip you’ve got. Threading through gaps between buildings can shake the cops, but one wrong touch and you’ll slide into a wall. Stick to the tarmac unless you’re out of options.

Police Chase Drifter FAQ