If you find yourself looking for a more grounded experience going into the new year, preferably one with a minimal amount of hand-holding, single-player, narrative-driven detective game The Department / Trosedd might be one worth adding to your radar.
Published and developed by Copa Gaming, The Department is set in a fictional city in South Wales, following Detective Sergeant Morgan Lewis as he “finds himself in a new country, new culture, and [battling] a sinister conspiracy set to tear the city apart.”
The Department / Trosedd
As expected, the bulk of the game revolves around investigating crime scenes, interrogating suspects, and drawing your own conclusions that hopefully lead to catching the culprit.
Each case in The Department has multiple suspects, and the risk of mishandling evidence or improperly treating those involved is always present, potentially taking you far from your target.
The developer explains that “the game isn’t going to give you the answers; rather, we want you to think like a detective. We’ll give you the tools to do that; ways of organising your evidence and investigating your theories, but we’ll never hand you the answers. If you’re wrong, you’re wrong.”
In a world where hand-holding has become commonplace in video games, the possibility of irreversibly botching a case sounds both exciting and terrifying.
“The game draws on real-world policing experience,” the developer notes. “Our Game Director, Osian, served in a Welsh Police Force. He wanted to see a game that better reflected what being a police officer actually felt like, and put players in a world where choices matter, where there are no second chances, and where how you solve the case is just as important as actually solving it.”
Attempting to set expectations, the team also explains that The Department is “a small indie project” and “not an open-world armed response sim.”
Developer Copa Gaming currently intends to bring its debut title to Steam Early Access in mid-2026. A demo should be made available at some point in late Q1 2026. If you’re feeling courageous enough, you can follow and wishlist the game on Steam.
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