Deep in the pre-history of 1997’s original Grand Theft Auto, an earlier gameplay concept that was being noodled on within the halls of DMA Design initially would have had us playing as police. Eventually the call was made to pivot and exclusively focus on the wrong side of the law, because it was decided being a criminal was way more fun than being a boring old cop. GTA as we know it was born and, a bazillion in sales later, it’s hard to argue they made the wrong decision. However, nearly three decades down the track, The Precinct has arrived to remind us that there actually is a way to make upholding the law just as engaging as breaking it, in an old school, GTA-inspired sandbox city. The Precinct may be a modestly sized package overall – and the crime-busting gameplay loops it throws at us do eventually become a little samey and worn over its roughly 12-hour campaign – but its isometric, grimy ’80s aesthetic is absolutely excellent and there’s real novelty in patrolling the rain-slick streets, seeking to chip away at Averno City’s neverending supply of miscreants, mobsters, and malefactors.
Setting The Precinct in the ’80s is the single best decision developer Fallen Tree Games has made here. There’s no cyber crime, social media, or mobile phone nonsense cluttering up proceedings. Rather, it’s a world detached from all manner of modern crap; it’s just you, your partner, and a radio. The Precinct is nothing if not an earnest and distinctly 20th century cops ’n’ robbers playground, and it’s all the better for it – it’s like an old TV show. I feel like my CD collection would probably make it clear I understand that police accountability is not a new debate by any stretch but, hey, even Henry Rollins found a way to go from spraying cops with Black Flag lyrics to playing cops in The Chase and Bad Boys II. The Precinct just wants to let us screech in, sirens blazing, and save the day. This is not a game that attempts to grapple with controversy, or the seedier side of ’80s policing – it’s an idealised portrayal of cops and how they’re supposed to properly protect and serve, rather than a commentary on how they actually do it.
At its core, it’s an action-packed ode to iconic 1980s police procedurals and movies; every day would be the busiest and most dangerous day of any actual cop’s career, baddies are cuffed and booked without delay, and the city will never run out of squad cars, no matter how many you destroy. No one would realistically continue to live in The Precinct’s Averno City by choice – it’s chaos. It’d be like living in the last 15 minutes of The Blues Brothers every hour of every day, as countless squad cars crash through crumbling concrete in their relentless pursuits of the city’s brazen crooks. The cop fiction cliches are certainly all here – you can check off the young, idealistic rookie partnered with a jaded veteran counting the weeks until his retirement, a moustachioed chief, and an officer named Kowalski.
I do wish the script had a bit more of a natural, spoken-word flow to it, though. As it stands it tends to sound a little overwritten and hammy, and some of the voice acting comes over a bit corny as a result. If The Precinct really was a TV show, it unfortunately wouldn’t be in line for any of Hill Street Blues’ 26 Emmys.
Cop gear
Fortunately the hokey dialogue does little to detract from what it gets right, and I was very quickly hooked into its cadence of daily shifts on the beat. These can be pounding the pavement on foot, with your eyes peeled for vandals and violence. They can be cruising the streets, prowling for carjackers, or watching for the telltale weaving of a drunk driver. They can even be aerial missions where you’re hovering above the city in a chopper, catching crooks in your spotlight and calling in backup to effect arrests.
There’s a great amount of variety in the types of crimes being committed, which is unfortunate for Averno City’s victimised citizens, but good for us as the emergent missions essentially never stop. I did eventually reach a point where the busts began to feel a little repetitive, but this wasn’t until I was quite close to the end of the roughly 12 hours I spent completing the core story. The procedural street crimes continue after the credits roll, but I suspect I’ll leave The Precinct sweating in the interrogation room for now, and come back to it later if it has anything further to offer me down the track – like fresh cases or different street crimes in a potential future update.
The action occurs both on foot and in vehicles so, whenever you’re not airborne over the city, a typical shift will involve hoofing it after some suspects before tackling and subduing them – and high-speed, paint-trading car chases to catch others. Those car chases are terrific thanks to The Precinct’s strong handling model. Vehicles may appear cute and toy-like on screen thanks to the elevated, isometric camera angle, but they’re not sticky or twitchy. They have a really well-honed sense of weight as you hurl their all-American bulk into handbrake turns to negotiate corners. When a gaggle of squad cars with sirens blazing close in on a fleeing perp all at once, there are times when The Precinct reminds me more of the original Driver than the old 2D GTA games. (The original Driver as viewed from a low-flying drone, that is.)
The range of era-correct lookalike vehicles is spot-on, too, from off-brand Mustangs and ’Cudas, to A-Team-adjacent Vanduras, and the classic, boxy third-gen Caprice cop cars I’ve seen Hollywood crash a thousand of over the years. It’s Detroit steel as far as the eye can see. I love the visual style, with subtle outlines on the vehicles that give them an almost illustrated look. Sirens are especially snazzy at night too, casting a soft blue and red glow on the slick streets. It’s a great looking game overall, and there’s a lot of granular detail that’s been baked into the environment – from heavily vandalised phone booths to the signage for slimy strip clubs. The level of care is admirable considering the distant camera perspective makes it hard to notice these finer touches while bombing through the map in a battered patrol car, but I was able to appreciate them after slowing down to better absorb the surroundings. Regardless of whether I was playing slowly or recklessly, The Precinct ran reliably for me throughout testing with no crashes.
By the book
The Precinct places a clear focus on following correct procedure, and you’ll earn fewer experience points if you make errors or stray from the rules. This will mean levelling up delays and slower access to the upgrade trees if you go rogue and accost people before checking their ID, attack civilians, use inappropriate force on perps, or issue bogus parking tickets. You won’t lose XP from your previously banked total, but being a bad cop will wipe out your daily gains. Most of the upgrades are fairly typical – resilience to attacks, greater ammo capacity, and the like – but naturally it pays to have as many as you can when you find yourself in a shootout. The abilities to call in heavy-duty riot vans and roadblocks are definitely useful in helping end pursuits, too.
It’s an interesting approach, and it’s one you can go quite deep with if you really want to take control of which individual charges you’re booking your suspects with, and escort them personally to the station (which will earn you more XP). This part of the process can be automated, however, and that’s what I opted to do on almost all occasions, in order to keep things moving along. I’d rather be out on the streets than riding a desk doing paperwork.
However, most arrests generally do unfold the same way: you ID your suspect, search them for weapons and contraband, and then arrest them, fine them, or let them go. It’s a system that wears a bit thin by the story’s conclusion because there aren’t enough variables or surprises to separate one from the next. It’s also always a little unsatisfying when it seems to misread the situation, such as when some scumbag is trying to run me over with their car and it scolds me for using my gun to defend myself. I’m a loose cannon, goddamnit! At least let me charge them with trying to kill me.
I’m not certain whether this sort of thing is a bug or just something that hasn’t been accounted for, but The Precinct is a little janky overall. I didn’t face any game-breaking issues, but I did encounter the odd gravity-defying fling and unexplained invisible wall that broke the illusion.
