Retro Replay Review

Gameplay

The first hour’s draw is Pankrác himself. Lupany has two missing residents and needs a detective, but the man assigned to the case is emphatically not a model policeman. That turns the ordinary point-and-click routine of investigating a small village into something far less orderly. You control him through most situations, though his bouts of rage can take over and send him shooting at targets as absurd as a fish tank or a hobo.

That loss of control is the game’s sharpest joke and its likeliest point of friction. Point-and-click adventures usually ask you to settle in, examine the situation, and feel clever for moving the investigation forward. Polda keeps reminding you that its protagonist is liable to make a mess of that process. If you enjoy adventures whose humor comes from an unreliable lead character, the interruptions give the case a welcome unpredictability. If you want your detective to behave like an extension of your own careful thinking, Pankrác will test your patience.

The structure is still recognizably a detective adventure: follow clues, work through puzzle elements, and pursue answers over a three-day investigation. What makes it memorable is not a polished police fantasy but the collision of mystery-solving with reckless comic behavior. Give it a chance if a strange lead character sounds more entertaining than a tidy case file.

Graphics

One of the few concrete visual gags is Pankrác’s rage state, where his eyes glow red before he starts shooting. It is a blunt, cartoonish image that fits a game willing to turn a local kidnapping investigation into a joke at its own hero’s expense.

Story

At its core, Polda has a solidly usable adventure setup: two villagers vanish from Lupany, and Pankrác is sent to find out why. The small-town scale gives the investigation a focused starting point, while the gradual revelation that the case connects to his family gives the plot more personal stakes than its opening silliness suggests.

The tone is knowingly crude and irreverent. Pankrác is not simply a flawed detective with a few jokes; he is built to derail the dignity of every situation around him. Even the mention of Lara Croft’s sister tells you the game is happy to throw a broad pop-culture gag into its mystery rather than preserve a serious mood.

Notable Czech voice actors help make sense for a game leaning so heavily on comic character work. Its original 18+ rating also fits the material: this is an adult comedy with a deliberately ill-behaved protagonist, not a gentle all-ages whodunit.

Overall Experience

Polda aneb S poctivostí nejdřív pojdeš earns its reputation as an oddball. It takes the dependable shape of a village mystery and keeps roughing it up with a cop who cannot be trusted to act like a cop. That is a stronger premise in play than a conventional list of clues would have been, because every new lead comes with the possibility that Pankrác will make the situation worse.

The payoff is largely tonal. You get a detective plot with a family thread, but the reason to stick around is to see how far the game pushes its unruly comic voice. The joke can wear thin if you need constant control and a sincerely heroic investigator. On the other hand, adventure fans with a taste for abrasive, regional comedy may find Pankrác’s bad behavior exactly what makes the case worth solving.

A 7.4 feels right. This is not an adventure to recommend as a universal gateway to the genre, but it has a clear personality and commits to it. Play it for a strange Czech detective comedy in which the badge is less a symbol of order than another prop in Pankrác’s ongoing disaster.

Retro Replay Score

7.4/10