The Precinct review — Taking a bite out of crime

I’m a compulsive gamer. When I see a new release, the fear of missing out kicks in hard. As a former GameStop manager and now a reviewer, that is a dangerous thing. The most recent object of this is The Precinct, an interesting indie title (at least in the perspective of it being a smaller game). I didn’t know about it until it was about to launch, and I just had to have it. Now that I’ve worked the streets for a while, it’s clear that Fallen Tree Games has what it takes to put on the badge.

Right away, the look of The Precinct pulls you in. Fallen Tree Games has gone for the classic, original GTA stylings with an isometric (overhead) view. Given the team isn’t trying to be as realistic as possible with their environments while still building a very believable one, this fits the bill for not having to go too heavy on the details. Don’t take that as a negative, however, when it comes to the visuals, as they are fantastic for the chosen style.

Stepping into the police station, The Precinct sets up the stakes immediately. You are a rookie – Officer Nick Cordell Jr – fresh out of the academy and ready to stomp on the beat. Sadly, your father, who was the former police chief, died in what’s been called an accident in the line of duty before you came on the force. As is customary in most police-related media, it’s up to you to clean up the city, take down the gangs that have infested the streets, and possibly find out the truth behind your father’s death.

From the beginning, I felt like I was watching a cop show. The Precinct tells its story through a lot of exposition with static, hand-drawn characters, with a light gameplay element accompanying some of these moments. It’s the standard affair of cops joshing with each other, talking about retirement – things you’d probably encounter during a season of Blue Bloods besides the family dinner. I like it; that distinct cop show flavor is right at home in what they’ve crafted. Although, I do have to mention the amateur voice cast’s efforts; I’m sure they tried, but man, it is not great.

Everything the narrative does ends a bit abruptly. The way The Precinct is structured (more on that below), it'd be possible to allow for a trickle of details on your father's death, but that's really only tackled in the final set of missions. While there's still some setup behind it, I think it falls a little flat.

The structure of the story is what makes The Precinct a great game. It doesn’t stick just to simulation, which often gets boring over time, but adds a narrative over the top that keeps you looking for the next bit. When you start, you’ll be out trying to find enough evidence during normal arrests to take on the first line of gang management, and eventually build a RICO case that will take you to the top. Mixing a more traditional story, even if it’s more brief in comparison to most games, to spice up the more simulator nature of The Precinct is a fantastic choice. As a big fan of structure – i.e. having specific missions to follow – this is a decision that keeps me invested.

While The Precinct might seem simple on the surface, it is anything but in gameplay. If anything, the complexities of a simulator give you a lot of mechanics to rifle through. You're presented with a few different shifts at the start of each day automatically by your captain, but you can adjust your shift to your liking with several sliders. On the beat, you'll take on the city of Averno three different ways: on foot, in a squad car, and in a helicopter. Your shift dictates which method is used, but you’ll almost always end up between the car and on foot for the most part.

Once you’re on duty, you’ll walk or drive around Averno open-world style looking for crime to stop. It’s largely what you’d expect, writing parking tickets, tackling muggers to the ground, and occasionally dealing with a perp or two with heavy weaponry. The Precinct takes the more intricate route when dealing with these situations, requiring you to back up your arrests or citations. If you’re going to take down a felon, you better read them their rights by hitting the prompt in time. When you start the detaining process, you’ll pull up a wheel and check their ID, search their person, and then book them based on what you know or have found. I appreciate Fallen Tree Games giving the option for me to add charges to them, but also just have my NPC partner fill out the paperwork before I choose whether or not to arrest them, fine them, or let them go. It’s a whole ordeal, but if you do it wrong, you’ll lose valuable XP, beyond just the ticked off citizen.

When you step behind the wheel, things get crazy. Some of this is because the controls are quite touchy; I was slamming into my fair share of cars, guardrails, and innocent bystanders. As this is a T-rated game, you don’t kill anybody like that, but the game will deduct XP from you if you make that mistake. Although driving can be rough, turning on your sirens will at least help clear the road. This is probably my most disliked mechanic in The Precinct, as the lack of control leads to a lot of these missions being tedious, especially when you’re in a car chase. Similar to the above, you’ll have to check IDs, use your breathalyzer, open trunks, and make sure you get all your ducks in a row before you haul someone away, assuming they deserve it.

Moving on to an underrated and unexpected mission, I love the helicopter patrols. It’s pretty simple, and you don’t ever touch the ground, but shining your spotlight on criminals and pursuing them is fun. This leads into another function in the game, the backup calls. In the heli, as you won’t be in position to make an arrest, you’ll fill up a meter for good pursuit skill and use the earned segments to call in officers, cars, spike strips, and more. The backup also comes into play on foot and in your cop car, but here is where you’ll use it the most. Again, this isn’t an over the top addition to The Precinct, but the helicopter patrols are a blast.

Exploring the open-world by any of the above means is another piece of why The Precinct stays a blast to play. The choice of a more cell-shaded art style works wonders, aesthetically pleasing and a strength to the isometric view. There’s a lot of life to the world, pedestrians walking to and fro around dark alleys and park cobblestone sandwiched between the neon-soaked busy streets. You won’t go into any buildings unless a mission dictates it, but the established atmosphere allows Averno to be a character of its own in this setting.

That said, many of the side tasks outside of the regular crimes you’ll document are open-world fodder. There are plaques to find, time trials to do, and more. The time trials are particularly egregious, given the tough car controls. While I’d like to say more, most of these are nothing to write home about, here for completionists to scream over. One side mission is awesome, and that's the quest to find a serial killer. I'd like a bit more detecting, but the overall atmosphere the dev team created in this mission is thrilling.

Occasionally, getting into a fight is unavoidable. There isn’t much to the melee system beyond a baton, so projectile weapons will come into play. Between the overhead view and aim line that appears when you draw your weapon, the shooting functions like a twin-stick shooter, although with depth you’ll have to calculate as well in moving your right stick. I don’t think it’s the best shooting out there, but works fine for what it is in The Precinct. There are a good amount of weapons to choose from, which spices up the combat a little bit. Most gunfights don’t require a specific arsenal, however, so if you want to use a shotgun or hunting rifle, it’s all up to you.

XP is important, because this is how you upgrade Officer Cordell. As a rookie, you aren’t ready to take on all the obstacles that come with the job, but being able to improve your sprint, take more damage, or commandeer vehicles are bonuses that are useful in the field. It’s nothing fancy, but I like the added layer to this game.