The Precinct is mostly harmless. Mostly.

The Keystone Cops were created a hundred years ago for early silent films at the Mack Sennett film studios. Their purpose, as with all silent films at the time, was to make people laugh at the ineptitude of those in power. A century later, their influence can be found in everything from Mel Brooks to the bumbling security droids in Star Wars. But, more importantly, they’re a foundational element of copaganda, the act of presenting systemic issues with the police with a light touch. 

The Precinct is not as insidious as copaganda gets, but there’s a level of thoughtlessness that makes it a worse experience than it needs to be. At heart, it’s an indie take on the Grand Theft Auto formula told through the eyes of an end of the century cop show. One part The Commish, one part Homicide. But it’s also an unquestioning, uncurious pastiche of cop cliches that feels out of time and place today.

Story & Gameplay

You play as a rookie cop starting out in the precinct where your father, a renowned super cop, was shot and killed under mysterious circumstances. On your first day, you’re thrown into a shootout with a mammoth criminal organization holding the city in fear, and it’s clear this sleepy department isn’t what it appears to be. 

At first, your days are filled with ticketing parking violations and litterbugs. Each “crime” comes with a standard operating procedure you have to follow, but there aren’t really repercussions if you don’t. So, in that sense, The Precinct is surprisingly accurate to reality. After solving enough ground level problems, you have enough evidence to take on a larger portion of the crime syndicate plaguing the city. This almost always leads into a shootout, after which the file — and the coffin lid — is closed on the bad guys. 

The gameplay loop is tried and tested. There’s an inherent level of gamification that goes into the procedural genre, and The Precinct understands its inspirations well. Everything from the precinct itself to the quasi-New York streets feel, if not authentic, moody and vibrant. For those of us who watched the classic cop shows of the 80s and 90s will feel right at home. 

Driving and shooting are wobbly at best. Cars handle like shopping carts and gunplay is inherently unsatisfying. You can upgrade your character and weaponry, but during my time with The Precinct neither of these felt like it made much of a difference in the gameplay. 

What’s worse is that The Precinct is an uncurious game more interested in replicating how the developers remember something from their childhood felt rather than exploring why these elements are so prevalent in this genre. Today, when the relationship between the police and the population is more fraught than ever, it feels like a glaring misstep. There’s something inherently disgusting about gamifying stop-and-search tactics and rewarding players with the ability to hijack cars with increasingly deadly force. 

In a series like Grand Theft Auto, which The Precinct emulates the most, the violence is part of the story. You’re not supposed to like the characters, even if they’re strangely alluring in their outsider status. The Precinct does not have that level to it. This is a straightforward cop story that, even when it tries to play both sides late in the game, is wholly unquestioning in its admiration of a highly specific fantasy of American policing. 

For example, the game rewards you for taking the right steps in police work. Let’s say you see someone littering. You stop them, check their ID, search them, and then either fine or arrest them depending on what you find. Sounds straightforward. But if at any point you stopped to wonder why are you searching someone for littering or running their ID for it, you’re bound to have a bad time with The Precinct. What’s worse is that everyone seems to be carrying either drugs or weapons on them, giving you a false sense of achievement in catching another bad guy in disguise. 

If The Precinct leaned more heavily into the absurdity of its presentation, it might be a better, more intelligent satire. At first, I thought this was the case. After all, the AI behavior of both cops and robbers alike is so bad the presentation feels downright silly. Cops will run over civilians and off ramps like they’re auditioning for the Blues Brothers movie. Criminals will trip over themselves and surrender while standing on top of a burning car. The whole game has an absurdist streak that is purely accidental. 

It’s fun until you realize The Precinct also punishes you for the accidents pulled by rogue AI. At one point, I was conducting yet another fascist stop-and-search to rack up points for new story missions when, out of the blue, my partner ran over the suspect as he tried to catch up with me. Out of nowhere, I was out a litterbug and saddled with deducted points for excessive force. 

To The Precinct's credit, this does lead to some wild and wacky hijinks during chases. Thanks to a smartly built city and solid technology under the hood, when you're just playing cops and robbers the illusion works in its favor. It requires you to ignore a whole bunch of stuff to do so, but that's a trade off we have to make.

Accessibility

The Precinct is an indie title from a small team. As such, don't expect too much, or really anything in terms of accessibility. This is the bare minimum package. On the PlayStation 5, I had issues telling where enemies were at times and identifying what was and wasn't a permanent obstacle, which lead to numerous chases ending in disaster.

The moody visuals are a throwback to early 2000s PlayStation titles. While often gorgeous and evocative, I found especially the night time and rain settings too chaotic for my liking.

Naturally, if you aren't autistic or don't have other cognitive disabilities, you'll be fine.

Technical Aspects

On the base PlayStation 5 console, The Precinct runs well without any noticeable hiccups or stutters. What it lacks in sheer technical prowess, it makes up for in moody art design and a visual language that understands its inspirations perfectly. From the neon-and-grime streets to the synth-heavy soundtrack, this is a audiovisual treat for fans of old-school aesthetics.

Controls are likewise traditional and mostly fine, although I found the gunplay to be a chore. It's unintuitive and often fiddly, at least on the controller, and most shootouts were a challenge simply because it was hard to figure out which of my shots were and weren't connecting.

Apart from that, The Precinct is a solidly built and unsurprising package that is also charming in how unassuming and ready it is. It just works, and that's a comfort.

Who's It For?

If you have a hankering for old-school Grand Theft Auto or, better yet, even older PlayStation classics like Urban Chaos, The Precinct might just scratch an itch you didn't know was there. By all accounts, it's a solid if unsurprising title that does one thing and does it mostly right. Just as long as you're OK with some fiddly controls and the repetitive structure is exactly what you're looking for.

But, on the other hand, if you can't get over the idea of copaganda, even reasonably mild stuff, The Precinct won't do anything for you. This is, at heart, a game that celebrates an idea of the police and does nothing to question it. In that regard, it's not as bad as an overt celebration, but it's not far off, either. By unchallenging the very structure it depicts, The Precinct makes the over-reach of power seem like a fun game, one that, when abused, results in only some docked points you'll make up elsewhere.

There is a better, more nuanced game buried underneath the blind love for the genre. I'm just not certain that The Precinct has the interest or skill to find it. As it stands, this is an acceptable if not great GTA clone that stumbles by ignoring the elephant in the room.