You’ve heard the saying: good guys finish last. While that’s usually the case, we had a soft spot for doing the right thing in Fallen Tree’s new isometric cop sim The Precinct.
The UK studio, you may recall, previously had a hit with American Fugitive, a top-down PS4 crime sim that appealed to that rose-tinted era of PS1 GTA games.
The Precinct flips the action on its head, putting you behind the desk of a donut devouring police officer who must work his way up the ranks in an 80s-inspired city named Averno.
In our hour-long demo, we learned the game’s copious simulation-style systems, which see you cornering criminals, searching them, and reading them the riot act.
While it took us a few minutes to wrap our head around the density of the mechanics here, we ended up finding it fairly methodical: you need to be precise with your accusations, otherwise you’ll lose XP, which is used to level up your character.
For example, if you fail to search a burglary suspect, you may not learn they’re carrying an unlicensed weapon, so that’s a penalty right away. Or if a suspect offloads some evidence before you arrest them, not bothering to find it will hamper your case.
All of the arrest systems are mapped to intuitive radial menus; our only concern is how repetitive it could become going through these once you’re a dozen or so hours into the game. In our short demo, we likened the meticulous nature of it all to extremely deliberate experiences, like Farming Simulator or Death Stranding.
When you’re not sifting through menus, though, the game looks and plays great. The isometric perspective allows the developer to really focus on putting high-quality assets on screen, and while Averno itself seemed somewhat small to us, it’s populated with dense districts, each with their own unique character and flavour.
The only thing we didn’t really like artistically are the static character portraits which appear when someone’s talking to you. They serve their purpose fine, but we think the artwork is a bit bland.
Still, the game certainly seems like it’ll be one to watch, especially if you enjoy that early era of GTA games. It’s due out on 13th May for the PS5, and a Limited Edition physical release will be available as well. This version will come with a steelbook case, soundtrack, and paper map, just to really hammer home those retro GTA vibes.
Will you be booking a copy of The Precinct when it launches in May? Do you think more developers should adopt isometric perspectives for their open world games? Take a look at the latest trailer above, and let us know in the comments section below.
Comments 28
It is deffinately something different and fresh. Worths the addition to favorites to see what price they will place on it.
May 13 👍🏻 I put all of my wishlist in order of scheduled 🤓
Day one, I loved the demo. Between this and the Terminator there are some nice 80's vibe games on the way.
I thought GTA started out being a 'bad guy' version of the Cop game APB so this seems to be more like a modern take of APB...
This game has been delayed 10 times I believe, so hopefully it will be released this time for real... I am very interested!
Will be getting this. Is it too much to hope for RT GI for Pro lol?
Haven’t played the demo, but I’m really looking forward to this!
I've been looking forward to this for awhile. I like police sims but prefer something more gamey and story oriented, so I'll definitely picking this up. Glad it finally has a release date.
Very excited for this one, I have very fond memories of American Fugitive.
I'd rather prefer Sleeping Dogs sequel, but we all know it'll never happen.
Cops are not good guys
@RBRTMNZ You'd soon be screaming for their help if a bunch of thugs started beating you up in town.
Back to the article, policing is very procedural, so I'd expect gameplay in a Cop game to be methodical.
Otherwise it would be no different to GTA but with special uniforms and cars.
I've not played a game that successfully pulled it off and made it accessible and entertaining yet, so whilst I have fingers crossed for this as it looks good, I'm not getting excited yet.
Any game that celebrates the heady days of proper paper maps being part of the package is already winning in my book.
@Cornpop76 I have never once in my life seen the police intervene in an ongoing crime. Crimes do not tend to happen right in front of cops.
Cops are ill equipped for crime prevention or mitigation because they are not a part of the communities they work in. Their actual role is to investigate crimes that have already happened but they’re so bad at that in the city that I live in that they have illegally stopped reporting stats on their effectiveness. And that failure is despite my city’s police department being the fifth largest military on earth.
Planted the demo on my Steam Deck and was really enjoyable. Can’t wait to play it on PS5.
“In our short demo, we likened the meticulous nature of it all to extremely deliberate experiences, like Farming Simulator or Death Stranding.”
That’s, uh…that’s kind of a wide range there…
Sounds awesome. I'm in.
As usual: 1312 ❤️
@RBRTMNZ (#11) my man knows his stuff!
A bit like a modern version of Hill Street Blues (the game).
@RBRTMNZ My intention was not to get political here.
The developer's previous game saw you playing as a criminal; its new game sees you playing as the police.
I think most people would understand, in this extremely simple context, that the criminals are "bad guys" and the cops are "good guys".
Yes, there's an enormous amount of nuance to this in the real world, but I just wanted to illustrate you're on the "other side" in this game.
@RBRTMNZ exactly, this is a load of rubbish, P simulator, who wants to play this nonsense 😂😂
@JalapenoSpiceLife I do. As do a lot of other people I guess.
@get2sammyb Touching a little bit on the ganeplay elements like searching a suspect for a weapon or tracking down a stolen item to build a case actually isn't too dissimilar to the old Sierra Police Quest Adventure series!
Didn't play them at the time vs some of the other Sierra titles,but have watched some walkthroughs...you used to apparently had an accompanying booklet explaining procedures lest you encounter one of the many game overs!😂
Hopefully turns out a bit better than that "Rustler" game a while ago,but one to keep a look on for the review certainly!🤔
@PerpetualBoredom no pyro no party 👊🏻
@get2sammyb I didn't think you were being political. I thought you were just making a pithy joke based on the setup of the game. I understood the point you were making and my response was not intended to be a rebuke your joke. It's more that I just never miss an opportunity to talk ***** on cops for all the real world harm they do.
American Fugitive was only let down by a very generic art style (and bugs). The illustrations looked like something from a FB game. Very much looking forward to this.
I like the look of this . And "a donut devouring police officer" made me laugh .
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