The Precinct is what happens when someone decides to mix gritty ’80s cop dramas and a healthy disregard for police paperwork into one big neon-lit sandbox. Set in Averno City – a place that feels like the lovechild of Miami Vice – it tasks you with upholding the law, one traffic stop at a time.
Gaming Heaven
There’s ambition here. The procedural crime generation is impressive, and some of the systems are so detailed you start to suspect a retired traffic warden was involved in the design. One moment you’re breathalysing a litterbug; the next you’re in a high-speed chase that ends with someone launching themselves into a bin lorry. The unpredictability is genuinely entertaining. There’s a certain charm in cuffing a suspect, then charging them with everything short of tax evasion via a lovingly crafted drop-down menu.
Gaming Hell
Everything works… just well enough to irritate you. The shooting is serviceable but only if you consider aiming with a broken shopping trolley a challenge. The cover system is so restrictive you’ll start questioning whether your knees work. And co-ordinating all the controls and crime menus feels like filing a tax return in the middle of a bar fight. Worse still, the story – what there is of it – is delivered via static portraits and dialogue that wouldn’t feel out of place in a police-themed soap opera.
Final Judgement
A technically ambitious mess. Like being handed a badge, a gun and a spreadsheet, then told to save the city. Good for a laugh – preferably someone else’s.
