The Precinct

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.