“Bad boys, bad boys, what ’ya gonna do? What ’ya gonna do when we come for you?” The Precinct is the follow-up to American Fugitive from Fallen Tree Games. In this reverse-GTA, we find ourselves in the shoes of a rookie police officer with a strong family background and justice to be served. The Precinct has a fun open-world to engage in, policing systems that hold you accountable, and a neon-soaked city full of crime to stop.
The story introduces you as a rookie cop on the force. The circumstances of your arrival sparks a lot of conversation, as you’re the son of a famous police officer, who died in the line of duty. However, the case hasn’t been solved and there’s a lot of loose ends. Aside from tackling a lot of new things, there’s threads to pull throughout the story. There’s some really cheesy pieces of dialogue that seem purposefully placed to recall cop clichés and movie lines. The way the story unfolds through its cutscenes are serviceable, as they are stills of characters that jut out to identify who is speaking. This isn’t the strongest part of the game, but thankfully the rest of the game makes up for it.
The Precinct is set during 1983 in Averno City, a fictional and exhausting crime-ridden city. Completing the story should take anyone anywhere from six to eight hours to complete, and it’s a game that doesn’t overstay its welcome. There’s a lot of activities to complete, but the gameplay loop just starts to get stale by the time the credits roll.
The Precinct straddles a line of simulation and arcade from policing to walking to driving. You’ll be interested to vehicles first, and how to activate the lights & siren. There are six police vehicles in total, with five of them that have to be unlocked or earned. You’ll always be given a partner, who holds his own and is capable of assisting smartly during calls and tough situations.
Each day you come to work, you’ll take on a shift. Every day you have the choice of selecting your shift, which determines the work you’ll do that day. You can take on patrols, parking enforcement, vehicle patrols, chasing speeders, and urban cleanup. Eventually you’ll unlock custom shifts that allow you to select how long you work, the type of work you’ll do, and more. What you can’t do, is work longer than your shift or else you’ll enter unto unsanctioned overtime. During your shift there will be random events that you can either answer or decline the call for. If at any point you decide that the pursuit isn’t worth it, or you’ve done enough, you can end your shift early. There’s no penalty for doing so, and all the accolades you’ve accumulated will be presented in a summary.
All crimes have ratings of force, from no to restraining to restraining to non-lethal, and finally lethal force. This gives you the guidance as a police officer how to respond appropriately to them without getting penalized. When you capture suspects, you’ll detain them in cuffs. After that you’ll learn the procedure and steps to then take their ID and call it in, report on their crimes, and ultimately arrest them. You’ll have to select their offenses across crimes they’ve committed on-foot and/or in a vehicle. By default the game makes you select offenses manually, but there is an option that you can enable to set these automatically – and there’s no loss or reduction in XP that’s earned. Once a suspect has been arrest, you’ll escort them to your cruiser for processing at the station, or you can call another officer to come take them for you so you can resume your patrol.
A lot of this game is pursuits, both on-foot and vehicle. As you’re engaged in a pursuit, sticking close to the suspect, calling out for them to stop, and not injuring civilians will fill a meter. This meter, broken up into pips can be utilized to call for backup, lay out spike strips, or call for a helicopter to join the chase. Once you’ve stopped a suspect, you’ll have to stop them with a stun gun, subdue them with a swing of your baton, or ultimately engage in shootouts that are justified for lethal force. While there isn’t paperwork, there is a lot of clean-up work to ensure everyone is properly processed.
There are multiple gangs you’ll eventually be introduced to. And you’ll be tasked with taking them down. You’ll collect evidence, which piles up quick, as this gives heaps of information. First you’ll target the captain, then the underboss, and finally the boss which will allow you to take down the whole gang. This is part of the campaign, but a lot of this happens passively as you do your patrols and engage in your shifts.
At the end of your shift, you’ll get a lot of stats of your work, alongside experience that was earned. There’s even an in-universe leaderboard for a little competition at the precinct. That experience converts itself towards levels, and raises your rank as a police officer. New ranks provide skill points which can be invested in various areas, such as: physical, combat, policing, and vehicle. These upgrades unlock additional backup options, unlock a riot van, make tires reinflate after being shot out, and more. Every upgrade feels important and helpful in your progression.
This game doesn’t have a difficulty selection, but every mission and shift you play feels balanced and is never too easy or too hard. The city map is rather small, but this is a game that’s not short on things to do.
There’s many collectibles to find as historical artifacts are introduced. Then there’s Grand Theft Auto-style jumps to make. Races are special undercover assignments, and time trials are disguised as police vehicle training – each of them allow you to earn medals. When you unlock the ability to commandeer vehicles, there are rare vehicles to acquire, as well. None of these activities are unfun, and contribute to striving towards 100% completion.
The game has a day/night cycle complete with shifting weather like fog to rain. The latter being the most visually impressive part of the game, especially against a night sky and bright neon reflecting off the puddles. It’s a really gorgeous game that isn’t taxing on my system, but does have some quirks. This is a game that is Steam Deck verified. However, playing it on my PC, the only way to play is at a locked 60fps. Thankfully this was an option from the game’s menu, but having the game run unlocked led to a lot of unnecessary slowdown. With the framerate cap in place, the game is buttery smooth.
My PC Specs:
– Microsoft Windows 11 Pro
– Intel Core i9 13900K @ 5.8GHz
– ASUS ROG RYUJIN II 360 ARGB AIO Liquid CPU Cooler
– G.SKILL TRIDENT Z5 6000MHZ 64GB (32×2) DDR5 RAM
– ASUS ROG Strix GeForce RTX 4080 16GB GDDR6X
– WD_BLACK SN850X M.2 (4 TB)
– LG UltraGear 34GP950B-G (21:9 Ultrawide @ 3440×1440)
The Precinct plays in a smaller sandbox that you might be used to, and there’s a finite number of things to do, but it’s all well worth it. The developers have learned a lot since their last game, and it’s a richer and deeper experience for it. It lasts just as long as it needs to, and is not filled with any unnecessary bloat. Like its predecessor, The Precinct serves and protects as a homage to games of the past, and Fallen Tree Games offers restraint in its simcade police game.
A Steam code was provided in advance by the publisher for review purposes
