The Precinct review

The Precinct cinematic inspirations are immediately evident. Opening with honey-sweet saxophone riffs, you’re treated to slow fly-over over Averno City. A stand-in for any of the gritty backdrops of last century’s police films, neon is reflected in puddles of rain and gasoline, periodically obscured by the slow crawl of sedans.

The game’s set-up attempts to mimic the cop-talk of everything from Dirty Harry and Lethal Weapon. There’s everything from the perpetually cynical boss, the gallows humor, and your role as the rookie trying to live up to the legacy of his late, revered father. But developer Fallen Tree Games’ dialog is neither satire nor homage. Instead, it’s a feeble facsimile articulated by character portrait images that contradict the look of the streets. Imagining Grand Theft Auto with bishōnen novel cutscenes might be the best way to explain the visual dissonance.

“It Takes a Wolf to Catch a Wolf”

However, patrolling Averno City by foot or via car reveals the studio’s lofty ambitions. Crime is procedurally-generated and covers a wide-range of wrongdoings. If you want you can send protagonist Nick Cordell ticketing illegally parked cars, using a rotary-style user interface to select from different citation types. Or you can hit your squad car’s lights and pursue a perp. Not far from the simulated protocol found in Irrational Games’ SWAT 4, you’ll react to the suspect’s actions, applying force like it’s a pre-screen test for the academy.

And there’s where Precinct falters. The moment you mischievously baton a compliant graffiti artist, your missions ends, and you’re forced to restart. Although The Precinct mentions corruption, your day-to-day beat is following a prescribed set of rules, resulting in a rather uninteresting experience. Sure, things can go sideways, with a suspect’s actions inadvertently plunging an entire block into chaos during a intense getaway.

Semi-Lethal Weapon

But here’s the thing: all those old cop movies that The Precinct draws from had morally complicated characters. While Clint Eastwood might be remembered as an ice-cold renegade in Harry Dirty, the film also shows how alluring brutality can look. Likewise, Mel Gibson’s suicidal Martin Riggs habitually played by his own rules, leaving the police chief to deal with the repercussions. But Precinct rarely flirts with power abuse.

Ultimately, the game could have acted as a litmus test, tempting you with pocketing a drug dealer’s stash, planting evidence, or torturing a subject for intel about his kingpin boss. Instead, you’re forced to follow procedure in this world where there’s good and bad and little ambiguity. But even Precinct’s protocol is weird. When pulling over a speeder, my cruiser got rear-ended. Inexplicably, the game wouldn’t even let me speak to the reckless driver.

For some, this forced morality and bugs might be acceptable. Undoubtedly, The Precinct is far more ambitious and polished than sims like Police Simulator: Patrol Officers or Police Shootout. There’s no denying that taking out the helicopter to track high-speed chases is engaging and shooting out the individual tires on a suspect’s car is a highlight. However, at present, be aware that there’s a multitude of bugs. These don’t ruin the experience but do clash with the game’s more serious tone.

End of Watch

The Precinct strives to evoke the moody ambiance and moral complexity of classic cop cinema but ultimately falls short of capturing the genre’s spirit. While the game’s procedural crime system and attention to detail reveal ambition, its rigid adherence to police protocol removes some of the juicy moral ambiguities of its inspirations.

The Precinct was played on PC with review code provided by the publisher.