The Precinct review - Hill Streets Blues meets GTA

Metro

15-05-2025

An interesting new indie title is a homage to both old school, top-down GTA games and 80s cop shows like Kojak and Cagney & Lacey.
Nostalgia is very much to the fore in The Precinct. Not just for video games but for TV. While its appearance, with an isometric style camera mounted high in its virtual sky, brings to mind memories of early, top-down Grand Theft Auto games, its content is a clear and unabashed homage to much-loved cop shows and films of the 1970s and 80s – from Kojak and The French Connection to Hill Street Blues, and Cagney & Lacey.
That's an unusual setting for a game, made more interesting because it tries to turn the GTA blueprint on its head, by playing as a police officer instead of a criminal. To be precise, you play as rookie Nick Cordell Jr., fresh out of the Police Academy and eager to make his mark on the mean streets of Averno City (a thinly disguised New York, without the skyscrapers but with lots of neon and forbiddingly rundown dark alleys).
This is basically a police procedural in video game form – and if you think about it, there have been precious few of those over the years (weirdly, RoboCop: Rogue City is about as close as it's come recently). So, if you've ever had a secret hankering to pound a beat, you should find plenty to interest you here. It splits its gameplay into working day chunks, so you can be sent out with a brief to do everything from issuing parking tickets to keeping a lid on rowdiness in the nightclub district on a Friday night.
While Cordell's days on Averno City's streets might start off as mundane, they rarely finish that way. There are two very active gangs (The Jawheads, centred on a punk band, and Crimson Serpent, which is based in Chinatown) and as you perform your duties, you frequently encounter their members performing crimes, which yields evidence enabling you to work up the food chain from captains to underbosses to bosses.
There are also other activities to pursue, such as very GTA style illegal street races (the story being that Cordell has been placed undercover to gather evidence about who's running them) and murders that the homicide cops get you to perform the grunt work for. Whenever you amass enough evidence to arrest a key gang member, you're given the honour of leading the charge in what inevitably becomes a big shoot-out.
The Precinct also has a role-playing element, in that as you level up you acquire upgrade tokens which improve Cordell's key stats (including stamina – in true 80s cop show style, there's an awful lot of running after criminals, weaponry (acquiring the automatic rifle is a game changer) and general privileges, such as the clearance to commandeer random cars and pilot the police chopper.
Despite all this, The Precinct's upgrade tree is commendably compact, in keeping with the game's general size: the main story takes about six hours to work through and then there's probably another six hours' worth of general sandbox style police work to pursue after that.
That will, undoubtedly, be added to via DLC, but The Precinct is not a game designed to occupy your every waking hour. Developer Fallen Tree Games, although full of industry veterans, is a small outfit and most of The Precinct was created by a team of just five people.
In practice, the action is fun: the cars are wallow-y and tail-happy – much like those of GTA – and the third person shooting uses a line-of-sight indicator, makes use of cover, and is heavy on the snap aim. But the odd thing is that perhaps the most enjoyable tasks to perform in The Precinct are the most mundane ones.
This includes the thrill of finding a car parked on a pavement, to which you can issue a ticket, and the satisfaction of finding something illegal on a random suspect who has committed a minor misdemeanour – which enables you to arrest them rather than merely issuing a fine. More Trending
Even when you're driving, you can run random cars' plates, and occasionally uncover wanted criminals, inevitably leading to some classic car chase action.
Despite its obvious homages to early era GTA, The Precinct looks pretty decent, too; whatever its viewpoint, it is fully 3D and properly textured, with some modern visual effects in evidence. It also nails the 80s atmosphere, with some very good music and hard-boiled dialogue – although not as problematically hard-boiled as many of those old cop shows are now deemed to be.
The Precinct is something of an antidote to games that are over-the-top and in your face: it has an understated, matter-of-fact air that somehow serves to make it more compelling. The fact that it is clearly a labour of love helps, as does its simple but effective structure. Anyone with a secret urge to live the vicarious life of an 80s cop should find it satisfyingly authentic.
In Short: A fine attempt at turning 80s cop shows into a video game, that wisely uses PS1 era GTA games as its gameplay template.
Pros: Well structured and with plenty of varied mission types. Decent action sequence and surprisingly good graphics and music. Nails the 80s tone.
Cons: The AI for criminals sometimes acts very oddly, and the driving can be a bit too reminiscent of GTA at times. Relatively expensive for the short length.
Score: 7/10
Formats: Xbox Series X/S (reviewed), PlayStation 5, and PCPrice: £24.99Publisher: KwaleeDeveloper: Fallen Tree GamesRelease Date: 13th March 2025
Age Rating: 18
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