Making a police game set in the United States today is a bold choice. A goodmodern cop gameneeds to deal with a plethora of social and political issues that don’t always lend themselves to the entertainment genre.
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It’s a thankless task for developers and writers —go too light on it and it gets called copaganda, but walk on too many eggshells and your game ends up being about nothing. The Precinct is not shy about taking on these challenges, andits developers are openabout wanting to get down into these complexities.
While Fallen Tree Games had last hoped to release the game in August 2024 as slated, I only caught wind of it after the first delay was announced. It’s disheartening seeing this many games blowing their published release date, more often than not with announcements coming mere days or evenhours before launch.
No two delays are the same, but many of them are caused bybiting more than one can chew. This also accurately describes most of my time playing The Precinct.
Confusing First Impressions
Going into The Precinct, we are treated to a little aerial trip through Averno City, very clearly inspired by New York City.The game kicks off in 1983, which is a nice touchconsidering it’s more or less when violent crime began spiraling out of control in the Big Apple.
The Precinct borrows inspiration from the classicGrand Theft Autotitles before GTA 3. You control your character, car, or helicopter from a top-down view.It makes navigating the streets of Averno City easy, especially in conjunction with the minimap, and adds a sense of scale to the action.
During the intro, the narrator says, “It may look peaceful from here,” but to be quite honest, I’ve seen active battlefields that look more welcoming than this mess of a city. In a vacuum, a tone contrast like this is easy to ignore, but it feels constant during the game.
Theneo-noir gritty narrationeventually gives way todating-sim-style dialogue screens, accompanied by voice acting that feels comically out of place. You meet a gaggle of characters dropping lines one after another in what is supposed to be banter.
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The static cartoon pop-ups hovering over the dialogue do a further disservice to the immersion, and it’s a bit of a shame because they are artistically cool. However,the jolly drawings never quite blend in with the dark 3D worldaround them.
If I could wave a magic wand and have the characters in The Precinct have conversations in the open world rather than transitioning to awkward press-to-skip dialogue sequences, I would. The world in the game feels alive, and it would feel even more so if conversations played out there.
For that to work, though, the phrases being said in The Precinct would have to be good, but that is rarely the case. I appreciate that all the characters you interact with in The Precinct are voiced, butwatching almost every joke fall flat is like being in the audience of a failing stand-up comedy routine. You don’t want to leave because that would be rude, but you can’t wait until it’s over.
Once the comedians vacate the scene, the game struggles with subtlety when exposing elements to the player. During the first hour and change of The Precinct, I lost count of how many times someone talked about how I’m the son of the cop that died.Hey, Dead Cop Jr., how are you doing? You remind me of your dad. You know, the cop. The one that died.
The Precinct tries to play into the classic cop show trope of the new guy with a heavy past related to the force, but that only works if you’re made to care about it. Unfortunately for my man Cordell, everyone just really wants to remind him of how dead his dad is.
Working Like A Dog
Once you are free from the shackles of awkward dialogue, you and your partner hit the streets to do some good old-fashioned police work. The Precinct does a fantastic job of being ajob simulator, with all the guts and glory of menial law enforcement.
You get to deal with a little bit of everything during your average shift — parking violations, vandalism, littering, street fights, you name it.The grounded approach to gameplay makes the occasional bombastic sequences memorable, as a nice adrenaline rush to punctuate an otherwise boring day.
The driving hurt my soul, and part of that is because the traffic simulation in The Precinct is great.
Call me a nerd all you want, but my favorite thing about the presentation in The Precinct is the officer handbook. The game comes with a comprehensive guide to operational procedures, andit goes into good detail about how you should handle each situation.
As you and your partner roll down the streets of Averno, the game tests how well you studied it. The flow is simple but pretty satisfying: identify the violation, approach the suspect, then go through the standard procedure. If the perp is in a good mood, they comply, you do the little ID check, and take them on a leisurely ride to the station for booking.
While that happens most of the time, you also run into people who are not in the mood to go to jail, so they bolt. That in itself is a crime, but you’ll already know that because you’re a good cop who read the handbook, right?
Walking In My Shoes
It’s once things kick off that the gameplay in The Precinct starts to fall apart.The movement mechanics fall short of any modern standards, which might have something to do with the project dating back to 2013. Whatever the reason, it’s hard to find valid justifications for the final product to end up like this.
When you control Officer Cordell on foot, moving the analog stick on the PlayStation 5 makes him jog. If you want to actually walk, you need to hold the X button to enter that mode. Now, if you want to sprint, you need to hold the right trigger instead.
The driving mechanics use fairly standard controls — one button accelerates, another brakes, and the left stick controls the car. In the brief flight sequences, you use the left stick to steer the helicopter, the right one to move the spotlight, and separate buttons to climb and descend.
The walking is by far the lesser problem in The Precinct, though I don’t exactly understand why they have a walk button on the PlayStation 5 when it could have simply been automatically triggered based on stick deflection.
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The driving hurt my soul, and part of that is because the traffic simulation in The Precinct is great. The pedals and steering wheel are much too sensitive for me, and the car fishtails about in every corner.
I’m far from a great driver, butdriving around the block should not feel harder than taking Eau Rouge in the rain. As the Good Cop the game wants me to be, I’d arrest myself for how my driving shows up here.
As far as the flying goes, the less said about it, the better… but you’re reading a review, so I will say things about it. I was never expecting The Precinct to have serious flight modeling as it would add virtually nothing to the game, but the idea of having you control both the helicopter (flown by another character) and the spotlight you’re there to hold in the first place is goofy.
I get that perhaps having helicopter chases where you’re just waving the big old torch about might be boring, but if that’s the case, thendoes the game actually need the helicopter sequences?
Bang Bang, Shoot Shoot
Now, it would be lovely if every day in the streets ended with a quick chat, a fine, or at most an arrest here or there. Unfortunately, Averno is a bit of a hellhole, so Cordell doesn’t get that luxury.
It’s not all that bad, though:since the game is set in 1983, you get to play with some period toys.Begone, Glocks and MCXs. We’re in revolver country now.
Your best friend in The Precinct is the good old six-shooter revolver, packing a strong punch and brimming with aura, but hopelessly outdated against most weapons in the game.
As you play through the game, you get tounlock other equally iconic weapons like the Colt M16A1. It’s not a major deal for most players, but I love a game that honors the classics.
Like many things in The Precinct, though, its potential is never fully realized. Shootouts typically play out with you going behind cover (which you need to press a button to do after reaching a valid position), then taking turns popping up and shooting. Holding the aiming button makes Cordell pop out of cover, projecting crosshairs and a predicted bullet path.
The aiming controls are a little too sensitive, but it’s the lack of excitement that dulls the combat in The Precinct.You pop up, shoot at an enemy that’s in cover, nothing happens. The enemy does the same, with the exact same outcome. Fun, right?
Every now and then, both of you pop up and trade damage with each other. Your health regenerates in cover, while the enemy eventually experiences death from a thousand cuts. A combat encounter concludes, you holster your gun, and life goes on.
The Meaning of Life in Averno City
Sometimes, a game can fall short in the technical side of things but still cement itself as a masterpiece (or at least a good game) thanks to its writing. A good story makes it easy to forgive jank, so long as the payoff for tolerating it is worth it. That never quite happens in The Precinct.
In fairness, the plot of the game is not necessarily bad.You have your usual trope of ‘new guy joins the police force, has a bit of baggage (did I mention his dad died?), and gradually discovers a network of corruption, lies, and deceit’.
The idea of having you control both the helicopter (flown by another character) and the spotlight you’re there to hold in the first place is goofy.
I like that The Precinct tries to explore the often symbiotic relationship between organized crime and law enforcement agencies. However, the execution leaves a lot to be desired, held back by the writing and design decisions.
You end up witha story that lacks the action grit of Battlefield Hardline, the finesse of L.A. Noire, or the visceral touch of José Padilha’s Elite Squad movie. It’s not bad by itself, but it makes you wonder if this is the best use of your time when playing. That’s a feeling that completely turns me off from a game, and one that The Precinct is guilty of making me feel much too often.
Now, beneath all of it, I still feel there is a solid Cop Job Simulator.Once I walked away from the awkward dialogues or scripted combat missions, I got to enjoy playing the role of an officer doing officer stuffwithout being reminded of that time my cop dad got shot in the head every 90 seconds. It’s a shame that feeling never lasted too long.
Closing Comments:
During my entire playthrough of The Precinct, the things that bothered me the most were rarely the base game, but the elements layered over it. This could have been a great, unassuming game about checking parking meters and occasionally trading shots, but the need to add more bombastic elements waters down the parts where The Precinct actually excels. In an ideal world, Fallen Tree Games drops some patches focusing on the quality of features rather than quantity. The Precinct is a lukewarm dish served after waiting for 2 hours. I don’t hate it, and I’ll still eat it because I’m hungry, but every bite reminds me of how good it could have been if they’d just done it right. As it is now, you’re better off chasing your cop fix elsewhere.
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The Precinct
Reviewed on PlayStation 5
