In The Precinct, you play as a rookie police officer Nick Cordell Jr. You’ve chosen to follow in your fathers footsteps and join the force of Averno City. Now you get to prove yourself to the force and protect the great city of Averno.
The Precinct is played from an almost isometric, third person perspective. As Nick Cordell, you take to the streets of Averno City. You can either drive around the streets in your patrol car, hit the pavement on foot, or even take it to the sky with helicopter pursuits. As a police officer of this great city, you have to write parking tickets, stop robberies, hit and runs, arson, you name the crime and you can help take it down.
As you get better on your patrols, you gain experience points as well as skill points. These experience points will raise your level and unlock additional patrol routes, types of patrols, and move you up in rank on the force. Gaining levels gives you skill points which can be used to upgrade equipment and your abilities.
If you’re not on the streets with your partner, you’re in the precinct building talking to co-workers to get information, your commander to get the next intel on a mission or things to watch out for while on patrol. You may also find yourself processing evidence or maybe even interrogating a person of interest in a case.
Graphically, The Precinct has an almost cell-shaded look to it that really makes it look polished. The world in which you patrol borders on realism and cartoon, giving it a very unique feel. The game world, cars, character models, and the weather all have a realistic look to them but the art style gives it a slight cartoonish side to it.
I would have like to have seen the game go for a more realistic take like Max Payne or Grand Theft Auto V. Instead what we have here is a Max Payne and Grand Theft Auto China Town Wars mashup. That’s not to say the game doesn’t look good, because it really does look great. I also feel like this graphical style was on purpose due to performance. When it comes to performance, the game performs very well. Smooth animation, rather quick loading times, with only the slightest hiccup when it comes to frame dips.
I think what should have been done is to have made this game a current generation game only. I think that if the development was strictly focused on being an Xbox Series X, PC, and Playstation 5 only game, that we wouldn’t see the dips in performance and optimization issues as evident by the dips in frame-rate.
The world of Averno City is alive with sounds all around you. People talking and yelling in the streets. The sounds of traffic, sirens of your fellow co-workers being heard in the distance chasing down the bad guys, the sound of spray-paint from a spray can, even the occasional drug deal gone bad.
All of these sounds help to make the game world have a sense of realism that you don’t really see too often. I mean not even Grand Theft Auto V gives you this large of an audio gift as this game does.
Aside from the sounds of the world around you, the game does offer a sound track that kind of takes a back seat to the action which is nice to see a game like this do. It’s there and sounds really good, very period and cop movie centric. But at the same time allowing for the sounds of the world around it to come front and center really helps keep the player focus on what’s going on at all times.
I have really barely scratched the surface of what The Precinct has to offer. There is a lot more to this game than I have put into this review which was very much on purpose. My reasoning for this is because The Precinct is really a game that has to be experienced. It’s one of those games that has so much going for it that a review really can’t do it justice.
The Precinct is the Grand Theft Auto V replacement we needed. It’s more than enough to tide us over until the release of Grand Theft Auto VI in 2026.
Here comes the question, would I recommend purchasing and playing The Precinct? Well if the review wasn’t clear enough, that’s a resounding yes from the highest of rooftops!
Disclaimer: A review key was provided
In addition to writing articles, Ryan Byers also creates content for his YouTube channel called "Obscure Games and Consoles", collects video games, and dabbles in video game development.