The Precinct Review (PC) – Nine-Nine!
The Precinct bucks the typical trend we see in video games of allowing us to live out all of our violent fantasies. Gunning down troves of enemies, smashing cars into fiery wrecks, breaking every road law ever conceived. While The Precinct has the same top-down, birds-eye-view from the original Grand Theft Auto games, you’re on the other side of the law this time. Though we’ve all tried to follow the rules in GTA before getting bored and going on a rampage, haven’t we?
I digress. There’s a city brimming with crime that needs the strong arm of the law to be brought back into order. As the rookie cop son of a decorated Police hero (because obviously), it’s up to you to dish out the fines and arrests. Are you prepared to walk the beat of Averno City? Take up your service weapon and badge and hit the streets with me to find out.
Cordell Off The Crime Scene
The year is 1983, the place is Averno City, you are Nick Cordell Jr., a rookie cop straight out of the academy. The son of a recently passed Police hero, Nick has some big shoes to fill as he steps into his first shift tackling crime in these dangerous streets. By-the-numbers would be putting the story beats mildly, from the hints of department corruption to the endless bad jokes about being days out from retirement, The Precinct runs it as safely as law enforcement would want a city to be.
A thread surrounding a calling card killer who seems oh-so-interested in Nick sparks a couple of moments of flavour, but these are as quickly dispatched as an ATB being put on a car with no wheels. Everything is passable, and there’s enough of a basic structure to carry The Precinct to its finale, but only just. I didn’t appreciate the very obvious AI voiceover for one of the late game reveals, though. Kills the vibe when you hear the TikTok caption voice over a significant letter.
While it won’t be winning any awards, and I found myself largely glazed over most of the story, Nick himself is decently voiced, and there is an interesting moral dilemma to ponder right at the end. If you’ve consumed literally any Police related media before, you’ll know what to expect before you even know what to expect, so don’t barge into this precinct expecting to make waves.
Just In The Nick of Time
Inhabiting the role of (hopefully) good guy Nick as he patrols his beats and chases down the bad guys is, thankfully, much better all around. Each day is formed of a shift, which will either be on foot, in your Police cruiser or airborne in a chopper. Apparently, Nick is so good right off the bat that he gets all the good gigs. On the ground, you’ll dish out fines, chase down perps, get into shootouts and perform searches. In the air, you catch vehicles and keep the spotlight on them.
Personally, I found the on-foot patrols to be the most enjoyable, as they have the most variety. The Precinct is an arcadey experience, prioritising XP gains and thrills-per-minute over meticulous paperwork. A pencil pusher this officer ain’t. However, when you’re then assigned to monitor speeding cars (finding which takes an age), or you take to the skies just to laboriously keep a light on a distant car, it struggles to maintain as much excitement.
In contrast, walking your patrol will have you dealing with gang shootouts, breaking up fights and yes, being the scourge of bad parkers everywhere. There’s even an achievement for being the most hated person in Averno City… for issuing 50 parking tickets. I got that achievement. I’m awful, I know. The Precinct isn’t afraid to throw a lot of crimes at you, sometimes up to two or three at a time, which keeps things fast-paced and engaging when you’re on a foot patrol.
(Lack of) Due Process
Catching criminals is only the start of your job, however, as you’ll need to follow the handbook if you want to bring real justice (and get XP) in The Precinct. Pull out a gun for someone littering, and you’ll be alerted to your poor conduct. Arrest someone for a fineable offence, and your partner will reprimand you. In real terms, you lose about 50XP and you just carry on, but hey, best not to dwell on it too much. However, the mechanic itself, while consequentially hollow, is sound.
Arrest a perp, and you’ll need to select what crimes you’re going to book them for. Follow the correct procedure and the in-game handbook, and you’ll be rolling in XP in no time. As mentioned before, there’s no real consequence to failure, in keeping with the arcadey experience, but it does feel shallow as a result. The game also isn’t totally clear what you should do when there are multiple offenders. Run after one guy to arrest him, and sometimes your partner will handle the other, or the game will assume they escaped… even when they were handcuffed?
Equally, being in the helicopter should be a put-your-shades-on-at-night cool moment, only for it to be rather boring. Using R1 brings up the support reticle for calling in backup or spike strips, for example, but they’re… not always the brightest bunch of cops. You can’t select where a roadblock goes, meaning more often than not, they’ll be placed in front of traffic, not your alleged criminal. A bit of fine-tuning of the system here would have really elevated the game. Instead, you just mash Square until they give up. Even so, flying a chopper and catching bad guys is still a thrill the first couple of times.
Drop The Weapon!
Being the long arm of the law also means you’ll end up in a shootout or three each shift – rough city. Gunplay is punchy, and Nick will go down harder than a drug dealer caught in a sting operation. Taking cover can be fiddly in moments, but generally works reliably. Popping up for potshots feels right for the theme of the game while keeping a sense of tension. Once you get the carbine, though, it’s basically game over for needing any other weapon.
Nick will level up after each shift (provided you’re doing a good job keeping those streets clean), which unlocks new patrol areas and provides upgrade points. The upgrade tree is fairly basic – more health, more stamina, tougher vehicles, more support slots – but functionally, it does make you more powerful. For the relatively short runtime, it does the job and grants a consistent improvement in power each in-game day.
During or after your shifts, you can partake in races or time trials, use completely defunct garages (you can literally call in a new vehicle at any time anyway) or find challenge jumps and collectibles. There are not too many of each, and the trials especially will be a good challenge if you want gold medals for the lot. They’re a nice addition, but not necessary or important by any means.
The Long Arm of The Flaw
Averno City itself has a delightfully grungy aesthetic and a visual style that’s again, very reminiscent of the early GTA titles. Sun-kissed streets in the afternoon along the docks as you chase down a rogue burglar, or doing gun battles from the window of your cruiser in the rain, has a vibe. Think of the Arkham games’ Gotham in terms of the colour palette and you’ll have a sense of the motif.
The Precinct did struggle for me when the chases were more intensive or the gunfights involved more than a handful of combatants, but I didn’t have any crashes. Loading times are also kept to a minimum, even in the open world, and the crimes occur seamlessly in front of your character or through scripted callouts. Performance-wise, it’s relatively solid considering the moving parts, but it does have the occasional speed bump.
For the first hour or two, The Precinct really does have an absorbing charm that’ll rope you in as a rookie. However, once you’ve seen a few crimes and walked the same beats a handful of times, you may find yourself musing towards retirement. There’s enough here to go through the motions, and Averno City has a grimy appeal to its sights, and even though I’d done it many a time, I still smugly smiled when I nailed the perfect arrest.
The Precinct is available now on PC via Steam (review platform), Xbox Series S|X and PlayStation 5.
Developer: Fallen Tree Games
Publisher: Kwalee
Disclaimer: In order to complete this review, we were provided with a promotional copy of the game. For our full review policy, please go here.
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