Causing maximum collateral damage.
QUEST LOG #21: THE PRECINCT (DEMO)
This game is in pre-alpha, and as such, everything is subject to change, and what I talk about here might not be quite the same in the final release.
It’s Steam Next Fest time again, and as with last year, I was struck by another law enforcement game. Last time it was RoboCop, this time, it’s The Precinct, developed by Fallen Tree Games Ltd and published by Kwalee Ltd. I’ve not played anything developed or published by either of these companies, so I really didn’t have any gauge for what to expect, which is actually quite a rare treat, as often word of mouth can populate your mind with preconceived notions (just like a blog post can, but ignore that…)
The game opens with suitably cheesy 80s style music as the camera glides across the sky, looking down cinematically on the mean city streets of Averno. This is accompanied by an equally apt voiceover - gruff and brooding, extolling the virtues and vices of the city and its inhabitants. Max Payne would be proud, that’s for sure.
After the intro is out of the way, you join the ranks of the Averno City Police Department, and are introduced to your colleagues. Heavy conversational chunks of the game are portrayed by 2D illustrations of those you’re speaking to, highlighting them as they talk. It’s a fine enough system, although sort of at odds with the mostly realistic aesthetic of the rest of the game. Anyway, as I say, you’re introduced to your colleagues, and they’re made up of a nice variety of police officer tropes, with a slight leaning towards douchebaggery. You’re the rookie, of course, so you get assigned to the old guy, who turns out to be a bit jaded, and incredibly lazy - perfect reasoning to have you do most of the work… I mean gameplay.
When you first gain control of your character, you’ll find yourself in the police department interior, and a very detailed interior it is, and not only that, it’s all very realistically portrayed and rendered. Your view is isometric-ish, with a quite zoomed out third person camera. While inside, you’ll see a cutaway of the rooms, and this is somewhat visually reminiscent of the Sims… I quite often went for the police officer job with my sims… Anyway, as I explored the station, I found that there is some interactivity - you can talk to people, although most don’t say much (this is likely to be different in the full game), and you can turn on the showers and flush the toilets… if that’s your sort of thing. You can’t turn on the basin taps though, so no washing your hands after taking an imaginary dump. Speaking of jobbies, your first job, after nosing about, is to drive your partner around, to learn the ropes, and to get a hotdog. Perfect policing.
Upon getting in the car, you’ll be notified of the controls, and it’s all pretty standard stuff, although there are a lot of additional commands, as you are an enforcer of the law. Activating your sirens/lights, calling for backup, checking licence plates… these and more make up your curser driving repertoire, and equip you nicely for the role. The responsiveness of the vehicle is pretty good too, and as you drive around Averno, you’ll be able to take in the sights of the city, and, as with the interior of the police department, quite a sight it is too! It’s beautifully rendered, well populated, and lousy with the detritus of a lived in city. The map in the demo is very small though, so I can’t speak of the size of the final version, but having said that, what little area you can explore does feel quite expansive, purely because of how interesting it is to look around (at least visually). The graphical style of it put me in mind immediately of a less futuristic Pacific City, the setting for the 2007 game Crackdown - perhaps it’s the styling and semi-cartoonish models? Or perhaps it’s just a similar tone? Either way, it’s no bad thing, as Crackdown is one of the better law enforcement games out there (at least if fun is the metric, which it should be).
In my second run (what you have access to in this version is very short, so a couple of playthroughs is recommended to get a proper feel for the game), I played around a little more, ignoring the directives the games gives you to see what is possible within the confines of the demo. I discovered that there is a functional subway system for fast travel, and that there is a ranking system too, which apparently allows you to drive certain vehicles… eventually. For example, the only vehicle you can drive in the first part of the game is the patrol car - riot vans are around, but are off limits, requiring a certain rank in order to drive them. A ranking system makes sense within the logic of the game, and I can only surmise that it will extend to weapons and equipment too in the full release. If you’re confused when in game though, all cars, save for the cruiser, are unavailable in the demo.
Also, in my not-befitting-an-officer-of-the-law rampage, I tested the destructibility of the environment to its limits, and unlike so many similar games, be it open world, or driving, the physics system is largely realistic (for the most part). If you’re driving at full speed, a concrete barrier or a streetlamp won’t stop you dead. Indestructible and immoveable objects that under normal circumstances would be VERY destructible and equally moveable are a bugbear of mine in many games, so I’m glad to see that it isn’t the case here, although big metal bins do somewhat cross this line… You can even ram your car through certain shop windows too, just like a proper good police officer. The damage that the city suffers through your recklessness is great, and it extends to the vehicles too, with localised damage and deformities to the bodywork occurring where impacts take place. This feature is nothing new, but always appreciated. Luckily you can request a new patrol car at any time, as abusing your vehicle is all too easy and oh so tempting.
Getting back to the job at hand, and after eating your hotdog, things get a little bit more exciting with a call for backup over the radio - a bank robbery is going down! After speeding across town and arriving at the scene, you’ll have a chance to use your firearm, shooting the bozos as they emerge from the bank. I’m sure that if you’ve played the demo, you too will have gotten your gun out at the first opportunity after leaving the precinct and shot some random bystander. The game punishes you for doing this by reloading, but you’ve got to do it… The shooting is pretty basic, but by no means bad. There are cover mechanics too, and as with the driving, there are a raft of on foot law enforcement commands too, such as shouting for a criminal to surrender, arresting, escorting, and issuing fines, along with a bunch of other options.
The first time I responded to the bank heist, I ended up with a survivor who surrendered, second time though, I was more headshotty (less paperwork). More goons escape out the back after that though and your first pursuit begins. Here you can request things like roadblocks, spike traps, helicopter support, and additional backup units. As well as this, you can shoot while driving too, assuming you’ve been given permission. After the last remaining perp gives up, you and your partner cuff the bastard and drag him back to the station, processing him before calling it a day. You head to your desk, and on to the next shift.
It’s daytime for this next section, and the job becomes a bit more ordinary all of a sudden. Rather than shooting and chasing, it’s time to hit the street for a classic beat. This shows off some of the general policing mechanics nicely by having you issue various parking tickets, fining vandals, making arrests, calling for support and defending yourself from a vicious criminal by battering them (non-lethally) with your baton. At the start of your second shift, you’re introduced to the handbook, and it’s there that you’ll find all the various crimes that you’ll come across, as well as the standard methods of dealing with them, detailing exactly what to look out for and how to respond. It’s rather in depth and very useful, if you can be bothered to read it. Luckily, most of the job is instinctual, and if you shoot someone for parking on the curb, then oh well, it’s just a reload.
On to the next shift after that, and you start the day with a summons to the chief's office. There you’re introduced to a couple of detectives, and later a pilot. It’s here that you’re told you’ve been assigned helicopter duties - the pilot protests, and I think she’s in the right, we’ve no experience of piloting, and we’ve only just mastered the car. The chief disagrees though, so who are we to argue? It’s up up and away, and by that I mean we have to climb the stairs to the roof. Once there, you’re free to take charge of the chopper, and as with the driving, the flying is fairly straightforward. You have a similar repertoire of commands too, such as calling for vehicle support, requesting roadblocks, and deploying spike strips. You also have control of the searchlight, which if aimed correctly on the suspect you’re pursuing will generate pursuit points (just like close tailing when driving), and these can be spent on the aforementioned support options. As well as this, good use of the light will also make the suspect surrender quicker (usually).
During your inaugural flight, you pick up the trail of someone who is linked to the earlier bank robbery, and it’s your duty to provide air support for the officers on the ground, tracking the vehicle and appropriately ordering support units. This is pretty easy, and once he’s caught, it’s back to the precinct you go. You can fly about a bit before heading back, but there really isn’t much to do, as you can’t piss about in the helicopter as much as you can the patrol car. A shame, but understandable, I suppose. Once you return to the station, you have a quick chin wag with the pilot and the chief, and then, rather abruptly, the demo ends.
The Precinct, or at least what you see in the demo is absolutely brimming with potential. The systems seem deep, the world is engaging, the physics, driving, shooting, movement, and everything else seems pretty solid too. What I hope the final release will have though, is more of everything it shows off in the demo, and a set of systems that allow for emergent gameplay (seems like this is already the case, but it’s hard to tell in such a brief session). If the whole thing is locked within a narrative, that’s fine, but if it is, it’ll have to be a good one. I hope that they’ll at least offer a mode where you’re let off the leash, so to speak - but we’ll just have to wait for the full release to find out. I can only speculate on what else might be available further in the game, but it would be cool if you can specialise in certain areas, such as homicide or narcotics. Either way, and however the full game pans out, the demo was fun and engaging while it lasted, and I’m looking forward to giving the game a go and to fully explore all the policing systems within it when it finally releases.
There we go, a nice bit of policing. Have you tried the demo? What did you think? If not, you can download it over on the game’s Steam page. It’s due to release some time in Q4 of 2024, so perhaps we’ll be playing it sooner rather than later.
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