The Precinct

If you’ve been searching for a truly unique police game, The Precinct might be exactly what you’re looking for. It draws inspiration from some of the biggest names in the industry but combines those ideas in a way that doesn’t feel like a mere copy. Instead, it delivers a fresh, innovative, and engaging experience.

The Precinct may not live up to the expectations of those who expect the madness of classic GTA from the point of view of the cops, nor of those who believe it to be just a bureaucratic simulator of police life. Finding a new, immersive and fun place between these two aspects, the game is surprisingly diverse in gameplay and carries with it the heritage of tone of the good buddy cop movies of the 1980s and 1990s.

From its overarching campaign where you try to take down crime lords to its day-to-day patrolling, there's a lot to love about The Precinct.

The Precinct effortlessly blends simulation, sandbox, and silliness. Imagine being a cop in one of the early top-down GTA games, but with modern game design and accoutrements. It's not perfect, but it nails the core gameplay loop that inspired it.

The Precinct is an impressive sandbox romp. Fueled by a dynamic crime system that offers up hours of fun, bite-sized objectives, it's a very difficult game to put down. Every patrol is different, and although tedium does start to set in as the campaign approaches its conclusion, it's still easy to appreciate the intricate and tight design of this ode to old cop movies.

The Precinct goes beyond offering a police simulator and offers an entertaining cycle of work days while we clear the streets of criminals and unravel the mystery of their history. The chases are fabulous and worth a try for just that, although its shootouts and other on-foot mechanics aren't as polished. A very enjoyable and addictive 1980s open world.

There aren't many traits to increase, but the character progression is quite stimulating. The most important thing when you sit down at the desk, however, is the awareness of having made Averno City a better place.

The Precinct sets out to do what it has promised in the trailers and a bit more. It's a chaotically good time and one worthy of picking up in-between some of the larger AAA titles. It doesn't succeed in everything but more than enough to warrant a large following.

Much like the 80s cop movies of yesteryear, The Precinct is a little rough around the edges, but also a lot of fun for those looking to hit the streets and deal with criminal scum. Although, honestly, just giving out parking tickets is surprisingly satisfying.

The Precinct has a great action and narrative proposal, but it needs to fix some things. Although the repetition of missions is a bit annoying, this feeling could be softened with some improvements in the control system, both on foot and in cars, the latter mainly. Otherwise, if you like old-school police films, you will be able to enjoy this game.

This game is teetering on the edge of something you think is pretty cool, with the daily loop of police work, otherwise you'll drop it pretty quickly as it simply gets too boring.

An action cop game that winks at Miami Vice, Hill Street and other historical detective series from the 80s. The game structure is interesting, the chases intense and challenging and the tasks to be performed quite varied, but in the long run repetitiveness makes itself felt and a few technical glitches break the magic. Technically we are close to average, but a few corrections are needed to put right the less than perfect fluidity and a few too many glitches.

If you fancy fighting crime in an open world instead of perpetrating it for a change, The Precinct might just be the game for you. Completing shifts and collecting evidence to progress the story forward can become a little repetitive, but ultimately you're free to take things at your own pace while unlocking new options and equipment to play with.

The Precinct puts the player in the role of a police officer in the 1980s, focusing on patrols, chases, and crime fighting. The game has good ideas, such as character progression and an interesting setting, but it suffers from weak AI, uncharismatic characters, and repetitive gameplay.

It's a shame that The Precinct ends up being an uneven title, perhaps due to some archaic systems, its predictable story, and its repetitive gameplay loop, because there was potential for so much more here. Still, fans of the GTA formula can find something to entertain them for a few hours, as long as they don't expect anything on the level of Rockstar.

The Precinct is a tribute to the police films of the 80s / 90s, with a formula that combines sandbox gameplay and solid storytelling. A real pleasant and fun game the controller, as we like to discover.

The Precinct reminds of old GTA games but on the other side of the law. The story is interesting and the destruction physics in the open world sandbox are fun to watch. Unfortunately driving vehicles feels very clunky and the boring main protagonist is wasted potential. But overall, The Precinct is at the moment the best police simulation out there.

Feel free to give this one a go and milk it for all its perks to reach the top of the ACPD, but you may want to send this one down with a DUI once it's all set and done.

The Precinct is a fun game with a lovely '80s feel. It's fun to play a cop in an early GTA-style experience. But the game lacks pace and remains repetitive overall, with gameplay issues, particularly with aiming. A game that remains cool overall.

The Precinct is a peculiar case. Its roughly ten-hour campaign doesn’t offer many thrilling moments: mostly talking heads and crazy criminals. Yet, it's surprisingly enjoyable in small doses. One would have hoped Fallen Tree Games had focused more on the story and clear objectives, rather than just a day-by-day shift cycle.

Fallen Tree Games walks on the law enforcement side with its latest title, though it still suffers from fundamental issues.

The Precinct had everything it needed to be one of 2025’s biggest surprises — and potentially one of the most fun games of the year. However, it stumbles over its own feet by presenting a collection of bugs and glitches that ruin much of the gameplay experience. While it tries to be innovative in certain aspects, the game quickly becomes highly repetitive, relying on shallow mechanics like issuing fines and chasing down suspects.

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.

The Precinct is a bit of a disappointment, even if it survives with a passing grade. Aesthetically pleasing, not a complete failure, but generally banal both in terms of how it is played and how it was conceived. An indie game lacking in ideas and programmed superficially, but disguised with pleasant graphics that hide its flaws. It is not completely bad, but it will hardly be remembered.

During my entire playthrough of The Precinct, the things that bothered me the most were rarely the base game, but the elements layered over it. This could have been a great, unassuming game about checking parking meters and occasionally trading shots, but the need to add more bombastic elements waters down the parts where The Precinct actually excels. In an ideal world, Fallen Tree Games drops some patches focusing on the quality of features rather than quantity. The Precinct is a lukewarm dish served after waiting for 2 hours. I don't hate it, and I'll still eat it because I'm hungry, but every bite reminds me of how good it could have been if they'd just done it right. As it is now, you're better off chasing your cop fix elsewhere.

The Precinct ultimately fails to make walking the beat feel immersive or rewarding. Routine patrols quickly become repetitive, with minor offences dragging down the game’s pacing. Even the main story missions, while more substantial, are formulaic and add little excitement. Coupled with a lack of cinematic presentation and a plot bogged down by tired tropes, the game squanders its retro cop-drama premise. What could have been a gritty, engaging throwback instead feels flat and uninspired.

The trailers created high expectations, but the reality turns out to be boring and weird. The cops of The Precinct are worse than the gangsters they're chasing.

The Precinct is a police simulator that quickly runs out of steam. Too much monotony meets a world that can't tell good from evil.

Unfortunately, The Precinct won't be unexpected gem that some players were waiting - it's even far from it. While some will undoubtedly appreciate the homage to the old GTAs, but from the other side of the fence, and the mechanics linked to that, the game's limitations in terms of narrative, repetitiveness and gameplay approximations betray its ambitions. In the end, despite an interesting basic proposition, the game is quickly overtaken by all these major flaws, which prevent it from delivering the “fun” experience promised by the studio.