The Precinct Review: Chaotic Messy Fun (PS5)

With the recent delay of Grand Theft Auto VI, fans are looking for something to scratch the itch that the juggernaut left behind. As a result, many have switched their temporary focus to The Precinct, the latest crime sandbox video game to release. Its neo-noir aesthetic, over-the-top crime scenarios, and player freedom have piqued many players’ interest.

I found myself having a good time with The Precinct. It had a slow tutorial, but it grew on me the more it went on. It’s a chaotic video game that both works in its favor and against it. I suspect that players that know what they’re getting into will have a blast. This review of The Precinct will be spoiler-free.

See Also: The Precinct: 8 Beginner Tips and Tricks

Story: The Averno Gangs

You play Nick Cordell, a rookie cop fresh out of the academy. You work for the Police Department in Averno, 1983. Your father died in the line of duty, and you make it your purpose to find out the mystery surrounding his death. The Precinct has a straightforward crime narrative. You are paired with Kelly, a veteran officer who is a few weeks away from retiring. You work with him and the other officers in the police department to bring down the different gangs running the city.

Collect evidence on the two gangs in order to unlock story missions.

I appreciate the effort developer Fallen Tree Games Ltd has put into the story. With the way it’s structured, you gather evidence through everyday police work. When you have enough, you can tackle the different gang bosses in Averno, moving the main story along. It’s simple but effective. I felt like Kelly, the officer who accompanies you on daily patrols, could have participated more in the story. He felt present in the beginning, missing in the middle, and then he came back in the end. I did like his conclusion, though.

Meanwhile, there is a mini side story occurring with a serial killer. I was pleasantly surprised every time I received a call about the serial killer, because a lot of the police work around that was different than what I was doing on a regular shift. When it concluded, I was a bit underwhelmed. It didn’t feel as though the Developer went as far as they could with the story.

Solve the mystery of the serial killer in Averno City

Players can choose when to progress in the story at the start of a shift. The option to arrest a gang leader is available at times, and choosing this option will have you work with the detectives to apprehend the criminals. The Precinct is about 10 hours if you select the gang options each time they appear. 

Voice Work

I don’t typically analyze the voice acting done in video games unless it stands out. And it stands out for the wrong reason here. Some of the voice acting was rough to listen to. The cutscenes in The Precinct display static character portraits with text boxes. Characters take turns to talk with pauses between each one. It’s a little awkward. Moreover, when a character says something funny and the rest of the cast laughs, it’s late and clunkily edited in. Characters don’t sound natural. While the dialogue itself wasn’t always sharp, the voice acting wouldn’t have worked even if it were better. This isn’t for every single character, but it was a fair amount of them.

Gameplay – Different Each Day

While not a police simulator video game, The Precinct often plays like a light and dramatic version of one. Time passes in the game by completing shifts. At the start, you will complete specific police work in specific parts of town. This can include on patrolling on foot, writing up parking violations, or catching people speeding on the roads. Later, you’ll get to choose which activity you want to perform and even where to perform it. Essentially, you’re just going out into the city and handing the law to people.

Be careful to choose which violation you hand people, as you can lose XP with the wrong one.

When a crime is committed, you’ll typically be notified about it on the radio, your partner will say something, or you’ll just see it. A majority of the time, you’ll see the crime occurring. You’ll then want to stop them, which, for many criminals, is just seeing you walk up to them. Oftentimes, though, there is some form of resistance. If they bring out a weapon to attack you, you are then allowed to defend yourself. That can be with a gun, your stun gun, or good old-fashioned wrestling. If you harm someone without the authorization to do so, you’ll either lose XP or have to restart from the last checkpoint.

Criminals will often turn on you, so be careful and bring lots of bullets.

Once you apprehend the suspect, you have to assign them charges. You can first check their ID, though, and find out if they have any warrants. You can also search their pockets and see if they have any illegal substances. This increases the number of things you can charge them with. This is one of The Precinct’s strongest features. It gives that “simulator” feeling to the game, which is otherwise a chaotic ride. 

See Related: Grand Theft Auto VI: We Will Have To Wait May 26th 2026!

Chaos

Now, ideally, you’ll want to go around town and calmly perform the above tasks of stopping criminals and assigning charges…but it won’t always be like that. There are so many crazy situations that can occur. For example, the people committing a crime will notice you and run away. They can then steal someone’s car. You subsequently get in your vehicle and follow them, leading to a high-speed chase. You try to keep up with them while trying not to crash or hit civilians. If you follow the criminals enough, this will unlock a support system. This includes asking for spike strips on the road to stop the criminal, calling for backup, and so forth.

Call backup whenever you have the opportunity and catch those criminals.

More often than not, I call for backup. And that is because the Averno police officers are absolute animals. I have seen these cops do the most insane drifts, cause the craziest car pile-ups, and completely destroy criminals by just running into them at 90mph as though they graduated from the Fast and Furious school of driving. I have genuinely had so many laugh-out-loud moments at the things I have seen these police officers do, and other things that occur in the world.

The police department in Averno does not play around.

It’s chaotic. I could be writing up a fine for someone, and right behind me comes a police car chasing a gang member in their van. Meanwhile, someone across the street could be selling drugs. It’s hard to tackle so many things at the same time. There are ways to speed up the process, including delegating paperwork to your partner so you don’t have to sit through and list all the charges.

Driver’s Permit

Driving can be a little difficult at first. The patrol car in this game goes 0-90 in 3 seconds and hits speeds of up to 120. You won’t want to drive that fast, though. There are a lot of turns. If you drive at that speed, you’re crashing. You have to learn how to drift, and that took me a while to do. And while I have gotten better at it, I found the best approach is pretending you have stolen the tumbler Batmobile from Christopher Nolan’s Batman and just running through fences, street lights, and other cars. I have learned that the car is almost a tank and can sustain a fair amount of damage before you need to worry. There are also other vehicles you can unlock that will sustain an even greater amount of damage while dishing out more too. 

Criminals will sometimes try to make a getaway by stealing someone’s vehicle.

There are a lot of random bugs and annoyances that can occur when criminals run away. I’m sure this is going to be something that annoys people when they first start to drive. The criminals escape with perfect driving, and you’re often left with a character who is slow to respond to these situations. Even if you steal a pedestrian’s car (yeah, you can unlock this ability), having them get out of the car and then getting into it means the criminal is already a few blocks away.  

Crimes and Shifts

While there are two different gangs in Averno, they essentially act the same. There aren’t any differences between the two besides one having a red outfit and the other having a purple outfit. I wish there were more to them, and maybe there is some other slight difference, but if there is, it’s way too small to notice.

After the tutorial, you’re able to choose which task you want to tackle.

Another thing I wish were more varied are the shifts. As mentioned earlier, players have the option of choosing what they want to do during their shift. But this doesn’t really matter at all. For example, if I’m on foot patrol in an area, and I see a car parked on the sidewalk, I can still fine that car and get XP for it. It doesn’t change anything. It’s not like I lose XP. The same works vice versa, if I’m handing out parking infractions and I see a drug deal happening in front of me, I can go ahead and stop that and get XP. It ultimately makes it meaningless to choose what you want to do on your shift. Again, maybe there is some difference, but if there is, it’s way too small to notice. 

Graphics and Audio: Averno City

The Precinct has a top-down/isometric perspective that oddly feels right here. The neon-noir city is lit gorgeously, with street lights and various store signs lighting up the streets. The various districts each have a vibrant point of interest to them that makes visiting each area almost worth it. Easily my biggest complaint about The Precinct is that the world doesn’t really feel lived in. Various NPCs are around, often in pairs of twos, talking to each other, sleeping on benches, or driving. While this is okay, the various buildings feel like cardboard cutouts, not meant for players or NPCs to interact with. 

The streets can sometimes look lively when NPCs are staged like this.

I would have loved it if the buildings had more details in them that showed that they were being used. Even having NPCs go in and out of stores would have added a lot of depth to the world. I’m not expecting to be able to enter all of these buildings, of course. But I would have liked the illusion of a world that was functioning outside of the streets. 

This brings me to the audio as well. It’s something that I noticed immediately. While there is sometimes music playing in the background while you’re patrolling the streets (and it’s always the same two songs), there are times when there isn’t. And when that happens, you lose immersion. That is because NPCs don’t speak. You don’t hear pedestrians chatter or birds chirping. You don’t hear the wind blowing or rain falling. The only thing heard is your own footsteps and cars that pass by. Averno City feels incredibly hollow as a result. I’m hoping this is something that is added later because it’s easily the weakest part of this package.

Are you interested in The Precinct? Do you already have it? Do you agree with this review of The Precinct? Let us know!

The Precinct was reviewed on PlayStation 5 with a code provided by Renaissance PR.