We are used to a summer period without significant releases, but it seems that 2024 will be an exception in this sense, thanks to numerous more or less interesting products on the horizon. Between a Star Wars Outlaws and a Black Myth Wukong, the month of August is also preparing to welcome The Precinct, a title that should absolutely be kept an eye on.
In search of justice
The charm of The Precinct has its roots in the setting, given that the title immerses us in anoir atmosphere typical of crime films. We are in the fictitious Averno City in the 90’s and we wear the uniform of Nick Cordell Jr., a freshly trained cop who is immediately thrown into the streets of the infamous town, where groups of criminals continually commit new crimes. But there is a very specific reason if our protagonist decides to immerse himself in this criminal world and it is certainly not his vocation. 
Nick’s father was brutally murdered and the perpetrator of this act is still at large, waiting to be discovered. This means that our fight against crime in the alleys of the city will be accompanied by moments in which we will have to conduct investigations to get to the bottom of the mystery regarding the death of the parent.
A love letter to the old GTAs, but not only that
On the gaming front, The Precinct tries to re-propose the gameplay style of the old Grand Theft Autos in a modern key. Not everyone knows that, in its early days, the Rockstar Games series did not yet embrace three dimensions and consisted of productions with top-down views in which, for better or worse, you could have fun completing simple missions, massacring passers-by and stealing vehicles. 
The Fallen Tree Games title takes up this particular setting, but enriches it thanks to modern technologies: precisely for this reason, the game adopts a 3D graphics which makes it more appealing to today’s players. For the rest, however, we are faced with an action game with a view from above in which we live the “GTA style” experience but on the other side of the fencefar from the delinquent madness of the recent Maniac (our test of Maniac is just a click away).
According to what the developers have shown, the core of the gameplay consists of deal with crimes that are generated in a procedural manner: this means that we can receive a call at any time that will lead us to the place where drug dealers have been spotted, where a robbery is taking place and so on. At the moment it is impossible to establish how varied the offer actually is, but there is no doubt that it is a very interesting system, especially if we consider that in the videos shown not all interventions end in a shooting. 
It happens that you have to approach shady figures to search their pockets, issue a parking fine, question a witness to a crime or catch a criminal in the act and then lead him straight to the cell at the station. There is even the possibility of checking the suspects’ documents, so as to check whether they are wanted and act accordingly.
Fighting crime, of any kind
Obviously the range of situations in which we can find ourselves is wide and there is certainly no shortage of more frenetic momentsgiven that violent crimes do not rarely occur in Averno City. 
When it comes to real action, our Nick has to face more or less important dangers: in addition to the classic foot chases that end in arrest, it also happens that he has to resolve much more delicate situations such as a robbery in progress or a gang warwhere you will almost certainly have to get your hands on heavy weapons and enlist the help of some colleagues to keep up with opposing forces.
In a game inspired by Grand Theft Auto it would be a crime if there weren’t any vehicles: for this very reason, in The Precint we will be able to board a series of police transport vehicles to bring to life daring chases. 
But it doesn’t end there since, in addition to the four wheels, the good Nick is perfectly capable of fly the police helicopter: in emergency situations we will in fact be able to climb onto the roof of the police station until we reach the small heliport. By moving on the aircraft it will be much easier to keep the situation under control, so as to identify the criminals and bring them to justice.
At least on paper, therefore, the game promises good situational diversity, but only a road test will allow us to identify the strengths and weaknesses of gaming systems. There also remains a big unknown relating to the entire investigative part that will see us follow the trail of our father’s murderer, which we hope will be taken care of properly.
An open world full of unknowns
The Precinct development team has confirmed that the game will be set in a open world freely explorable in which there is also a day/night cycle. However, this is the only information we have on Averno City, whose actual dimensions are currently unknown. 
We know that it will be possible to visit the police station in its entirety, but as regards the rest of the city it is impossible to know at this time whether there will be other explorable interiors, or whether the city will offer a variety of scenarios capable of making the missions procedural less repetitive. It will also be interesting to delve deeper intotechnical aspect of the game, which judging from the gameplay footage shown could represent the Achilles’ heel of this production. In addition to a not particularly high visual quality, what is most worrying are the animations of the characters, which appear rather rigid in their movements.
In any case, our questions will not remain unanswered for too long, since there is not that long left until the game arrives in all digital stores. As announced at the Future Games Show, The Precint will be available starting next year August 15, 2024 on PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series.
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