Police chase games: how to win a pursuit, and one to play free online

What makes a good chase game

• Speed you can feel. The number on the speedometer matters less than what tells you it: cars whipping past, the camera shaking over bumps, wind noise, the blur at the edges.
• One clear job. Catch the car, stop the car, or get away. You should always know what you're trying to do and how close you are.
• A city in the way. Traffic, junctions, roadworks and parked cars turn a straight race into a run of quick decisions.
• Things that happen. Something thrown out of a boot, a roadblock, backup that joins and crashes out, a helicopter overhead: set pieces that change the chase.
• Sound that carries it. Engines, sirens, tyres and the radio do as much as the graphics. A dispatcher calling the route makes a street feel like a place.
• Fairness. When you lose, it should be clear why: you missed, you hit a civilian car, you stayed exposed too long.

The kinds of police chase games

Driving chases. You're at the wheel, and you stop the suspect by staying with them and ramming or boxing them in. The skill is the racing line and reading traffic. Many open-world games have police chases where you're the one being chased, which is the same idea the other way round.

Shooting from the passenger seat. Someone else drives and you stop the car with a weapon. The game is about aiming from a car that brakes, swerves and bounces, and picking your moment to lean out. Arcades had cabinets of this kind with a light gun on the dashboard; on a computer the mouse does the job.

Arcade or realistic. Arcade chases give you big health bars, generous hit boxes and a timer. Realistic ones go for real cities, real handling, a weapon that sways with the car and damage you can see: dents, broken glass, tyres that blow and send a car spinning. Neither is better; the arcade kind is quicker to pick up, the realistic kind rewards practice.

In the browser or on a console

Police chases have a long history on consoles and in arcades. Taito's Chase H.Q. (1988) put you in an unmarked car ramming criminals off the road against the clock. Driver (1999) was built around getaway driving in real-looking cities, and Criterion's Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit (2010) let you play either side of the chase. Those are big downloads on a console or a PC, and most cost money.

Browser chase games used to mean small, flat arcade games. That's changed: browsers can now use the graphics card directly (WebGPU), so a free game in a tab can draw a whole city with reflections, motion blur and hundreds of cars. Sunset Bay Pursuit is built on that: it opens from a link, needs no install or account, and on a browser without WebGPU it falls back to a lighter look rather than not running.

How to play Sunset Bay Pursuit well

You ride with Officer Reyes of the Sunset Bay police. It starts as a quiet patrol; then Dispatch calls it in, the crew's first car bursts out ahead, and you lean out. There are three getaway cars, one after another, and each one stops when you've shot out two of its tyres. Reyes drives: he threads the traffic and holds you about 14 metres behind, so your job is the aim.

1. Go down the sights. From the hip the car's swing moves your aim; down the sights the game takes out nearly all of it. Hold the right mouse button (AIM on a phone) for every shot at a tyre.
2. Track the tyre, fire in bursts. The crew's car slides about in its lane. Keep the dot on one tyre and fire short bursts as it settles, rather than holding the trigger. The first car's tyres take four hits each, the second's five and the third's six.
3. Duck back in when their passenger leans out. The crew shoot back. The further out you lean, the more likely you are to be hit; down the sights, less. Your health shows at the top and mends after a few seconds, faster inside the car. Go back in (C, or IN/OUT), let it mend, then lean out again. Firing near the gunman makes him duck too.
4. Mind the traffic. Hitting a civilian car draws a warning and counts on the end card, along with your time, accuracy and crashes.
5. Watch the boot. Boxes, crates and rubbish bags come out of the back at random. Reyes ploughs through soft things, but they cost you a clear shot; wait for them to pass.

Which weapon when

The rocket flies rather than hitting at once, so aim a little ahead of a car that's moving across you. The carbine and shotgun hit where you point.

• Staying leaned out while their passenger is firing: you'll go down and the crew gets away.
• Emptying the carbine from the hip: most rounds go into the road.
• Firing the launcher into a queue of traffic: it counts every civilian car it wrecks.

The five levels

1. Sunset Bay: Yuzool's own city (the one Fare Frenzy's taxi drives): the seafront, the port and the flyover. Free.
2. Berlin: the real city's streets from OpenStreetMap: through the Tiergarten, under the Brandenburg Gate and down Unter den Linden. Free.
3. Sunset Bay at sunset: the city the other way, over the flyover and down to the seafront into the low sun. Pro.
4. Berlin at dusk: from Alexanderplatz back through the Gate into the Tiergarten as the lights come on. Pro.
5. Tokyo night drift: a made-up neon district after rain, with back-street hairpins, an avenue under a railway viaduct and an elevated expressway; both cars slide through the tight corners. Pro.

Each city has its own getaway crew, and Air One, the police helicopter, and Unit Two join the chase along the way, with a roadblock the crew smashes through. Every line on the radio, from Dispatch to Reyes, is a recorded voice.

Sunset Bay Pursuit Pro is a one-off $2.99 for levels 3 to 5; you can try them free first.

Controls on a computer and a phone

Settings has mouse and touch sensitivity, a separate speed for aiming down the sights, invert, volume and a switch for motion blur (turn it off if fast movement makes you queasy).

Is it OK for kids?

Sunset Bay Pursuit is a pursuit where nobody is shown hurt. You're the police, you aim at the getaway cars and their tyres, and the chase ends with the crew stopped. There's no blood. The crew's passenger does shoot back: when he hits you, the edge of the screen reddens, you hear a thump and you're thrown back into your seat; take too many and you're "down", the view goes grey and the crew gets away.

It does show guns being fired, a rocket launcher, explosions and crashes, so it suits older children and up rather than little ones. It has no rating from a ratings board, so the best guide is to play the first level yourself. It has no chat, no ads and no account.