You are Rookie Nick Cordell, the son of a well-known hero police chief of the city of Averno. Nick Snr. was killed in the line of duty by persons unknown. Set in the early 1980s, Nick joins the police academy to avenge his father's death. After a brief intro you get teamed with world-weary Sgt. Leo Kelly as your training officer, and find that he went through the academy with your dad.
Your first shift as an ACPD officer sees you called to a bank raid staged by one of the city's many hoodlums, the August Gang, and the subsequent shootout and car chase acts as a good tutorial/intro.
During this first chase you're introduced to the support token game mechanic; stay close to a suspect vehicle and you'll earn a support token, pressing 'RB' gives you options to call for backup/assistance. This could be another patrol unit, helicopter backup or a spike strip–and yes, you can get your tyres punctured by running over one!
Controls are pretty standard, in addition you can hold 'A' to toggle walk/run, while in-car 'LB' turns lights & siren on/off, 'B' is handbrake and 'A' is shoot. You can even fly a helicopter to track or chase down certain suspects, and earn support tokens by keeping them in the chopper's spotlight.
If the Grand Theft Auto franchise hadn't gone fully 3D with GTA III and Rockstar had decided that being a lawman was more fun than being a thief, GTA may well have looked and played a lot like this-indeed, did actually remind me of playing GTA Chinatown Wars on the Sony PSP...
The vehicles can be tricky to drive when pursuing a perp, but I did get used to the handling and was soon doing handbrake-induced drifts and hairpin turns. Chasing a 'runner' down is always a mixture of excitement, frustration and satisfaction. The scenery is mostly destructible and the vehicles show a good amount of damage before bursting into flames and exploding.
The noirish music is apt and most of the voice acting is fine, but Nick's calm voice as he tells a criminal to stop or freeze during a foot chase is just plain wrong. There are no cutscenes for conversations, just voiced-over static screens.
Successful missions earn you XP, XP earns promotions and new weapons, vehicles and equipment.
Rather than feeling like Starsky or Hutch, I felt like a mixture of the GTA cops, Sledgehammer and Frank Drebin (Police Squad/Naked Gun).
Custom Shifts allow you to decide the district beat, the type, duration (a 12 hour shift is approximately 24 minutes) and you can even do a 24-hour shift and drop Kelly and go solo.
So yes, The Precinct lets you live out your dream of being an ’80s cop — assuming your dream involves paperwork, parking violations, and the occasional car chase that ends with you wrapped around a lamppost.
Patrols are fun until you realise the game’s crimes are basically on an infinite loop: stolen cars, gang fights, more stolen cars, another gang fight, a guy littering (the true menace). Helicopter and tow truck patrols change the pace and add a little variety.
The combat can feel clunky, but honestly you’ll be too busy trying not to crash your cop car into pedestrians and lamp posts to worry about the far-from perfect gunplay.
Is it a bit janky? Yes. The AI can be unintentionally hilarious. Does it sometimes annoy as much as it pleases? Also yes. Will you spend far too long chasing a suspect who runs like he’s powered by pure caffeine while for some reason Nick can't hurdle a waist-high object? Absolutely.
But, here's the non-jury verdict: The Precinct is a charming, chaotic, slightly buggy police sandbox that costs £24.99 or less. There are plenty of missions, races, time trials, stunt jumps (thanks, GTA III) and 40 or so collectables to find. If you want gritty realism, look elsewhere. If you want ’80s vibes, accidental slapstick, and the ability to give someone a ticket for loitering with intent, this is your game.
Many thanks to Fallen Tree Games, Kwaleee and PressEngine for the review code.