The Precinct
Developer Fallen Tree Games
Publisher Kwalee
Format PC (tested), PS5, Xbox Series
Release Out now
Seen from The Precinct’s overhead-camera perspective, Averno City circa 1983 is a simplistic diorama. Gangs and civilians, cops and criminals – they’re all nondescript, person-shaped blips that can slot into archetypal dramas for your avatar, fresh-faced beat cop Nick Cordell Jr, to intervene in. Some are tussling on a street corner for reasons unknown. Others are lugging boxy TV sets away from a clattering burglar alarm. All can be taken away in a shiny new pair of silver bracelets.
Visually, it’s early Grand Theft Auto. But it’s also the most flattering angle for the American law enforcement apparatus, if not any policing system: zoomed out to the big picture, the roles are obvious and the details extraneous. From this distance, the system appears impartial and ironclad, able to meet every infraction with a binary answer. Street brawlers must be cited for assault and arrested, burglars cuffed and sent to the clink. The Averno City diorama is so clear, so simple, so rigid that it’s even governed by points. Check an ID, +25XP. Ask someone to step out of the vehicle, +50XP.