Polda 7

Polda 7 arrived after long years of preparation and delays, partly funded through a crowdfunding campaign, and delivered another case for policeman Pankrác voiced once again by the legendary Luděk Sobota. The gameplay stays true to the series' classic point-and-click formula — exploring the environment, collecting and combining items in an inventory, and conversations full of wordplay and references to Czech reality, this time from the late 2010s and early 2020s. Release was delayed beyond the original plans, among other reasons because of health issues affecting one of the key creators, which shows just how small and personally dependent the team behind the game still is, and how hard it is to keep the series alive after so many years. The game's creation was also preceded by a successful crowdfunding campaign among fans, who thus decided for themselves whether a seventh entry would even go into production.

Graphically and technically, Polda 7 moves the series closer to current standards, while keeping the recognizable style of caricatured characters and settings the series has cultivated since its beginnings in the late 1990s. Voice acting remains the key ingredient of the humor, and the musical accompaniment rounds out the lighthearted atmosphere fans have long come to expect from Polda, and without which the series would feel different. The game later also released on macOS and mobile platforms, showing the creators' effort to reach an audience beyond the traditional circle of PC players and secure the series more years of existence.

The release was welcomed mainly by loyal fans who had followed the series since the 1990s, but commercially the game was hurt by widespread piracy, which led the creators to think about the future of the whole brand and its continuation. Still, Polda 7 stands as proof of the remarkable longevity of a domestic game series and the lasting loyalty of its audience to the character of Pankrác, even more than two decades after the release of the first entry.

Why play it: For loyal fans who have followed Pankrác since the 1990s, it's proof of the remarkable longevity of a domestic game series, even more than two decades after the first entry.