The Precinct was provided by Kwalee for review. Thank you!
Back in October of last year, there were a couple of games that stood out to me after the Next Fest event. One of which was a police sandbox that made me think of GTA Chinatown Wars, and I loved it. The Precinct wowed me at the time with its beautiful city to explore, sandbox elements to play around with, and fantastic driving mechanics, and I can say that, for the most part, it still holds up in the full release.
The Precinct may be a sandbox-style game, but there's a heavier focus on being a cop and doing your job. Each day, you take a shift that specifies where you will be stationed, what you'll be focusing on, and for how long the shift will be. Once there, you will roam around taking care of any crimes you see being committed or responding to 911 calls. You will arrest your perps, write up all of the crimes they committed, and then either take them down to the station or call for an escort car. Then, the cycle repeats!
It may sound tedious, but it's my favorite part of the game. Observing crimes, wrestling with the ones who resist arrest, checking their ID and possessions, and writing them up. It can range from something as simple as a fine for vandalism and diverge into an all-out lethal shootout or intense car chase. Not knowing what kind of crime you will have to stop next is part of the fun, and adjusting to the situation as it unfolds leads to some exciting moments that make me want to keep playing.
For example, I pulled someone over for reckless driving successfully and made them get out of their car. I checked their ID and used the breathalizer (and of course, they were over the limit). However, as soon as I tried to pat them down, they shoved me out of the way, ran me over, got into a car, and I had to chase them down. I ended up cutting them off and ramming into their car to tip it over, but they got out and made a break for it. I ended up tackling them to the ground and arresting them, adding more offenses they committed. It was exhilarating.
The Precinct's sandbox aspect makes it feel more alive and random, keeping the game interesting. It can sometimes feel like so many crimes are committed in one location, way more than naturally possible, but I didn't know what crime could happen next. I also want to make a special note of the physics when driving. Car chases were especially exciting because I could ram into stores, barricades, and gates and just plow through them. Having debris fly everywhere while chasing down criminals just pumped me up further.
Another great feature I found, utilizing more and more as I kept playing, was calling on support. You can call upon your fellow policemen for support when taking care of crimes based on a bar filling up as you deal with the crime. This can range from extra policemen to call on during combat, road blocks and spikes during car chases, or getting a Riot Van to back you up. You can even spawn in a new Patrol Car whenever you want to, which is extremely helpful when you are running around and lose your car.
However, combat itself walks a fine line between clunky and enjoyable. You have an over-the-head view with a line of sight to aim guns at enemies, which makes it hard to land any shots. It felt really satisfying when it did, but taking cover behind cars sometimes led me to shoot the car instead of the people because of how aiming works. This extends to melee combat as well, and taking cover in general, which I just couldn't enjoy. Combat has enjoyable moments, but it felt too clunky, with an odd camera angle for aiming, which made it hard to get into.
You also have your AI partner with you, and while they were useful here and there, I ended up feeling like they got in the way more than actually helped a situation. Every time you go out for your shift, you have to go with your partner, and he has to come along wherever you go. While this could lead to them being helpful, like taking care of the second of two perps to arrest, but I found they just get in the way most of the time. There were more times than not that my partner Kelly would just stand there and not get one of the suspects or take so long to get in the police car (since I have to wait for him) that I lost sight of a reckless driver, and they got away completely.
As you play, you will get experience points depending on the crimes you solve and how correctly you handle them. These level you up, unlocking new gear (like new guns), support options, shift assignments, cars to use, and more. You will also get upgrade tokens to unlock new perks on your skill tree. The system is very simple and easy to understand, and compared to a lot of JRPGs I have been playing recently, it was a welcome breath of fresh air. The perks were generally helpful, giving even more support options, a new weapon slot, more ammo, extra health, and more support bars.
Some upgrades and unlocks are so essential that they should have been given by default, like the Timed Breath to keep running without all stamina disappearing, Commandeering vehicles, and setting your own shift to decide what you want to do for the game, but it doesn't take long to get any of them in general.
There are some mini-games you can find throughout the world, like street races and looking for artifacts that someone has lost, so I always felt like I had something to do, even when I wasn't taking care of criminals.
While there are some interesting moments in The Precinct's storyline, I never felt fully invested in it. You play as Nick Cordell Jr., a rookie cop joining the force in Averno. Your father was the old chief of the police and was highly regarded by his comrades, but was murdered. So, on top of doing your job, you will have to work to bring down the gangs taking over the town, keep the citizens safe, and find out what actually happened to your dad.
In some ways, it feels a bit like I am watching a TV show drama about a Boston police station in the 1980s, which has its charm. There are some interesting moments, and I was curious about what happened, but I was never 100% invested. It just didn't hook me like I wanted it to, and I cared more about going out on shifts and arresting criminals.
The story advances as you take down the gangs. There's a hierarchy leading up to the big boss of each, and you have to collect enough evidence to unlock the missions to bring them down. It feels like targeted raids, which are quite fun as well when the combat is working, but I never found myself fully invested in the narrative and motivations behind the characters.
After initially testing The Precinct during last year's Steam Next Fest, I was quite excited to try out the full game. It already had Steam Deck-specific graphical settings, so I had a feeling the team was going to do what they could to optimize the game and give us the best experience possible, and I believe they did, for better or worse. I tested all of the game's quality settings and upscalers, and I found the Steam Deck preset to be the best and most stable way to play, which also includes a lock at 30 FPS.
While standing around and dealing with one crime, the Steam Deck can push a decent amount of power and hit higher framerates and higher quality, but as soon as you get in your police car and start driving, the framerate will tank. I also found that most 4-way intersections will also be tough on performance, so I did a majority of my testing during driving and at these spots.
During this testing, I found that the Steam Deck preset, which has a mix of low to high settings, was better performing than the Medium quality and better performing than the low quality with FSR 3 on Quality mode. So, this made the Steam Deck preset the best for a quality focus and battery life. As for framerate, I tested at the lowest possible settings with FSR 3 on Ultra Performance, and it would regularly drop under 40 FPS at these choke points, so 30 FPS will be the way to go.
I was hoping for better results, but it isn't the end of the world. It's still very playable, looks decent, and battery drain sticks to an average of 11W - 13W. There is some ghosting around our character that we can more clearly see when under the light, but for the most part, I never paid too much attention to it and didn't get distracted by it. It's a playable experience through and through, and there will be no issues that pop up other than the occasional battery drain spike, but it will be a solid 30 FPS:
You can change the difficulty, toggle camera distance and shake, dialogue flow, vibration, change auto aim, toggle large text, minimap size, subtitles, and audio sliders.
The game does support 16:10 resolutions, cloud saves, and controllers. It does not have any HDR settings.
The Precinct is an enjoyable police sandbox that is a blast to play a majority of the time. Being a policeman is a lot of fun, and I had a blast running through Aveno, stopping crimes and bringing perps in. I absolutely adored car races and the physics of driving through stores, lights, gates, and watching everything fly up around me. The story is a bit of a hit and miss, and combat can be a little clunky due to the way you aim and use cover, but it has its moments.
The game is also quite playable on the Steam Deck using their specific preset. I wish we could make it better with a higher framerate or higher quality settings that don't need upscaling, but it's at least playable and enjoyable.
Our review is based on the PC version of this game.
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The Precinct is a great sandbox game that has many exhilarating moments with some minor issues here and there, and it's definitely playable on the Steam Deck.
