Level-5’s long-awaited detective game Decapolice has a new launch date, pushing it out of its previously announced 2026 window. The game is now coming in 2027 and has a new trailer showing it off in action.
Decapolice was announced in 2023 but has been repeatedly delayed. It stars Harvard Marks, a young detective and leader of the Special Investigation Unit’s rookie team. Marks, alongside fellow SIU members such as his friend and negotiation specialist Carl Oxford, must solve mysteries in the crime-ridden metropolis of Broadstone by visiting a virtual world counterpart called Decasim. This simulated world is a perfect copy of Broadstone but contains memories of past crimes that Marks must uncover to solve mysteries and bring criminals to justice. Sometimes Decasim’s data can be altered, changing the physical appearance of its inhabitants, such as turning Marks into a cat mascot, as seen in the new trailer.
Gameplay consists of inspecting recreated crime scenes in Decasim to solve mysteries, both story and optional, in the real world. This involves managing evidence on a case board, profiling and accusing suspects, and confronting criminals. When facing suspects, you can either talk them into surrendering or, if that fails, face them in turn-based combat encounters after they transform into monsters called Crime Beasts. To this end, Level-5 has partnered with Scrap, a developer behind puzzle/escape games such as Do Not Play, to help develop Decapolice’s case concepts.
Decapolice will be available on PlayStation 5, Switch 2, and PC when it arrives next year. For more Level-5 news, it’s upcoming Professor Layton and the New World of Steam got a December launch date during yesterday’s Nintendo Direct.
