“Alexa, play Sound of da Police!”

Welcome to Averno City in the 1980s. Let me set the scene: cold, dark streets, neon signs reflecting in puddles of rain, drug deals happening in dark alleys. Something about this place just makes you want to put on a long coat, a dark fedora hat, light up a cigarette and hit the streets in a 1990 Chevrolet Caprice.

Instead, we put on the blue uniform of young rookie Nick Cordell Jr., who’s following in the footsteps of his late father. We hit the streets alongside our old-school partner, Kelly, with one goal in mind: clean up the crime-riddled streets of Averno City, clearly inspired by New York City.

Another Day, Another Parking Ticket

Here comes our first shift, and we’re facing the police’s biggest nemesis: bad parking.

We’re running around the city issuing parking fines for expired meters, parking too close to fire hydrants or parking on the sidewalk. Eventually, we graduate to chasing perps, busting drug dealers and catching murderers.

Daily police work includes catching speeding drivers, arresting graffiti artists, investigating hit-and-runs and responding to robberies. There’s certainly no shortage of crime in Averno City.

Every time you decide whether to arrest someone, there’s a checklist to follow. Read them their rights, check their ID, search them, search their vehicle if applicable, and then decide whether they deserve a night in a cell.

Once you’ve made your decision, you can either escort the criminal back to the precinct yourself or call for backup to do it for you.

This is where the game starts to feel repetitive. Thankfully, the developers seem to have noticed this too, as you can turn off these individual steps once you get bored of them.

Each correctly completed step rewards you with XP, which you can spend across four separate categories:

• Physical: Stamina, speed and health.
• Combat: Armour, ammunition and reload speed.
• Policing: More backup options, including helicopters, spike strips and additional police cars.
• Vehicle: Cars that take less damage and tyres that don’t pop as easily.

Accuracy is crucial here. If you perform a search or take action without a valid reason, the game penalises you by taking away XP. Once you turn off the individual procedures, you’ll mostly find yourself losing XP for things like excessive force.

The Precinct wants you to be a good cop, and it rewards you for following the rules. Even if those rules eventually become a little tedious.

Just Another Quiet Shift in Averno City

Driving around Averno is where the sandbox really works.

You don’t have to respond to every call. If you’ve dealt with three drunk drivers in a row and spot a fourth one, leave him for your colleagues to deal with. You’ve done your bit for society today.

What makes the game fun is how quickly a seemingly innocent traffic stop can turn into absolute chaos.

You pull over a car, only to discover it’s stolen and the driver is wanted. Suddenly, you’re in a high-speed chase that ends in a crash. The driver jumps out and starts shooting. The whole street panics, innocent bystanders are being run over by terrified drivers trying to escape, cars are exploding and helicopter searchlights are lighting up the streets from above.

What started as a routine traffic stop has turned into something resembling a Hollywood action movie.

These situations usually end with a call to the coroner’s office to clean up the bodies and a tow truck to clear the streets.

All in a day’s work, I suppose.

It’s these unpredictable moments that make Averno City enjoyable to patrol. You never quite know whether the next call will be another boring parking violation or something that turns half the city into a crime scene.

A City Worth Getting Lost In

The whole game is played from an overhead, top-down-style perspective, somewhat reminiscent of the first two GTA games. But that’s about as far as I’d go with the GTA comparison.

The Precinct isn’t about becoming the city’s biggest criminal. Quite the opposite. You’re the one trying to clean up the mess.

And the atmosphere? It gives me Blade Runner and Drive vibes. This post is not sponsored by Ryan Gosling.

The neon-soaked streets, rainy nights and dark alleys give Averno City a distinctive identity. It’s a place that looks great when you’re cruising around in your patrol car, waiting for the next call.

The soundtrack helps bring everything together and really enhances the experience. The directional audio cues are particularly useful, helping you work out where a crime is happening around you.

There’s something oddly satisfying about driving through the city, soaking up the atmosphere and responding to whatever trouble comes your way.

There are also a few side activities scattered around the open world, including collecting hidden drug stashes, finding stolen goods and street racing.

That last one feels a little out of place.

The game spends so much time telling you to be a good cop who follows the rules, and there you are taking part in illegal street races.

To be fair, the game introduces racing through the story. You’re working undercover and need to win a race to find a lead in a case. That makes complete sense.

The rest of the races? Not so much.

Maybe Nick just got a taste for it and decided he wants to become the next Lewis Hamilton.

The Story Takes a Back Seat

The story is told mostly in the background, so don’t expect detailed cinematic cutscenes. Instead, we’re treated to still images with voice acting.

It’s a fairly familiar tale of a young cop trying to make a name for himself, working his way up from parking tickets and small-time criminals to taking on the city’s biggest players, all while trying to uncover what really happened to his father.

The story isn’t particularly important here. It serves more as an atmosphere builder and gives you a reason to keep climbing through the ranks.

The voice acting doesn’t do it many favours either. Some performances are average, while others are just outright bad.

Our partner Kelly is another interesting example of how the story and gameplay don’t always come together.

During the still-image cutscenes, he’s presented as this big, imposing figure with years of experience. He’s a mentor, an old friend of your father and someone you’d expect to have your back when things get messy.

During gameplay, however, he feels like a completely different person.

He gets in the way, is often too slow to actually help when you’re chasing perps, and you’ll probably get bored of his chit-chat pretty quickly.

For someone who’s supposed to be showing the rookie how it’s done, Kelly could occasionally do with a few lessons himself.

The shooting and melee combat can also feel a bit clunky. It’s functional, but neither feels particularly polished, which becomes more noticeable when a routine arrest turns into a full-blown shootout.

Fortunately, combat isn’t the only thing The Precinct has going for it.

Is It Worth Losing Sleep For?

The Precinct promises to be an arcade police simulator, and that’s exactly what it delivers.

It rewards you for following the rules, gives you a city full of criminals to chase and lets you experience everything from handing out parking tickets to calling in helicopters during a high-speed pursuit.

Yes, the gameplay becomes repetitive. The story is nothing special, the voice acting is hit-and-miss, and the combat could certainly use some polishing.

But here’s where the game wins you over: despite all its flaws, it’s fun.

There’s something refreshing about playing as a cop, and a good one at that, in a neon-noir setting. The atmosphere does a lot of the heavy lifting, and those moments when a simple traffic stop turns into absolute chaos are where The Precinct really shines.

My biggest issue is what happens once you’ve finished everything. As much as I enjoyed my time patrolling Averno City, I find myself thinking there’s not much reason to return. Once the cases are solved, the activities are completed and the novelty wears off, the city loses some of its appeal.

And that’s why I’ve had such a difficult time settling on a score.

It’s not quite a 3/5, because that would feel unfair to a game I’ve genuinely enjoyed playing. But it’s not quite a 4/5 either, because its shortcomings are difficult to ignore.

So this time, I’m settling somewhere in the middle.

Averno City is worth a few late-night shifts, even if I’m not quite ready to make policing it my full-time job.