Indie development studio Mighty Morgan is working on a new top-down tactical police shooter called Police Stories. It follows two cops as they venture through a series of hardcore missions involving various perps, crimes and dangerous situations.

The game sees one or two players venturing through various environments where smarts, wits, fast reflexes and an itchy trigger are all required to make it through each scenario alive. The thing is, your objective isn’t to kill all the baddies, but to take in as many as possible… alive.

This is where Police Stories’ Surrender System comes into play. Players will have to find ways to outwit and outmaneuver lethal forces by getting them to surrender. Sometimes pointing a gun at them will get them to drop their weapon. Other times firing off a few rounds in their general direction without hitting them will get them to drop to their knees and give up before anyone gets hurt. But it’s not all guns and roses, some perps won’t go down without a fight, as indicated in the Kickstarter pitch video below.

The little vignettes that play in between are perfectly done.

According to Mighty Morgan, Police Stories is mirrored after the action buddy-up movies and TV shows from the 1980s and 1990s. Obvious inspiration from things like Back to the Future, Lethal Weapon and Bad Boys can be spotted throughout the trailer.

What’s interesting, though, is that in the single-player mode players will have to issue commands to their partner Rick Bronx. In multiplayer another person will take command of Rick, and both players will have to strategically and tactically make their way through the levels and watch each others’ backs.

The real trick is that the game relies both on stealth and fast reflexes. Avoiding getting spotted means you can get the drop on enemies, while also being quick to spot and take down armed perpetrators means that you can avoid becoming another cop casualty.

Much like Hotline Miami, it only takes a few shots to end a life.

The 1990’s inspired hand-drawn aesthetic seems to work well enough. There’s definitely a lot of potential here for Police Stories.

The game is scheduled to launch this fall for $15. You can download the free alpha demo right now.

If you like what the game has to offer you can check out the Kickstarter page for more details.