The Precinct |OT| GAF Blue Bloods

Ironically police simulator just released on game pass as well. Wonder if it's back the blue month or something lol.
 
Finished the game on weekend after 15hrs. Quite nice little game. Remembered me much about GTA, especially the pursuit races. Was also the first game I played on linux. Worked flawless. :messenger_ok:
 
I got the platinum in two sessions. I'll share my thoughts.

Things I liked:
  • $30
  • Lightweight on storage. It installed so fast on my PS5 Pro that I wasn't entirely sure if I actually saw that it was 4.5 GB or if I just imagined that it was 4.5 GB.
  • Didn't require a day one patch.
  • Aesthetic.
  • I didn't mind that one of the songs in the soundtrack sounded like it wanted so badly to be Midnight City by M83.
  • I enjoyed the arcade-like feeling of the driving and the ease of obstacle destruction. It felt good to crash through most fences, gates, guardrails, and Jersey barriers without being heavily impeded, especially during a chase or a race.
Things I didn't like:
  • I played this on a PS5 Pro, and it doesn't run at 60 FPS.
  • The story is extremely short. Very disappointed by that.
  • 'Very Hard' difficulty wasn't actually very hard. I don't know if it actually made enemies do more damage and take less damage, as per usual, because most enemies (and yourself) are susceptible to one-shot headshots. Your partner is invincible.
  • The gameplay becomes stale rather quickly. And if I wasn't going for the platinum, I would've finished the game in one session. It's already uninstalled.
  • The only penalty for misconduct is miniscule XP losses. The game actually enables you to be a dirty cop (spiritually) in many ways.
    • You can commandeer a whole highway's worth of vehicles at will, run over civilians, profile civilians (gang colors on attire and vehicles), file false charges against civilians, unlawfully arrest civilians, and nobody gives a shit. Anything that you do which is morally or ethically wrong typically results in a tiny XP loss. If you escalate and apply the wrong type of force in certain situations, that just results in a fail state. You pick right up near where the callout failed as if nothing happened.
  • Your actions are of no real consequence in the world because your character must adhere to congruence with the story.
    • The only actual choice you have is at the very end of the story, but by then, who gives a shit? It doesn't even affect your character at all.
  • In free-roam, the crimes are procedurally generated as well as the criminals.
    • Normally, I wouldn't have a problem with this, but here you end up with an overrepresentation of violent female criminals, which is just silly. Either the devs didn't account for this, or they believe in interchangeability, which is just as silly.
  • No variety in cop work outside the story.
    • Any time you're not doing typical stuff in free-roam, you're just a rookie beat cop dabbling in detective work during story missions, and even that's very thin gameplay. But that's it. The campaign ends with you as a rookie beat cop. You can upgrade your character to become the most OP rookie beat cop that law enforcement has ever seen, if that's any consolation.
  • The minimap changes where it will place the player's icon.
    • Sometimes it can be centralized like normal, but if you have a route to a waypoint, the game tries to fit as much of that information inside the minimap that it possibly can. This pushes the player's icon to the edge of the minimap, which is discombobulating because the minimap rotates.
Bugs:
  • If you're in a helicopter, and none of the officers arrest a surrendered suspect (hands up, green handcuffs icon), and they ignore him, just abandon the callout. It will never fix itself.
  • You can request that your arrests be picked up and booked instead of doing it yourself, but sometimes it doesn't work. Either take him back to the station and book him yourself, or abandon the callout. It will never fix itself.
Overall, the full game felt more like a demo. Incomplete. The foundation of the gameplay is okay, though.
 
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Played a bit yesterday and the first impressions aren't that great. There were audio issues during the first briefing and I thought my headphones were acting up (based on google search it's a PS5 & Xbox issue). Also the first chase after the bank robbers clearly lacked better physics, like the cop car behaving unnaturally after driving through the fence.

I really like the cop work stuff, even though I expect it will become boring after x hours.
 
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Played a bit yesterday and the first impressions aren't that great. There were audio issues during the first briefing and I thought my headphones were acting up (based on google search it's a PS5 & Xbox issue). Also the first chase after the bank robbers clearly lacked better physics, like the cop car behaving unnaturally after driving through the fence.

I really like the cop work stuff, even though I expect it will become boring after x hours.

The cars do start to drive like crap when you damage them. I've had to quit some races cause my car was too beat up after 2 of the 3 laps.

You can always call for a new patrol car at least. And get the commandeer upgrade.
 
The cars do start to drive like crap when you damage them. I've had to quit some races cause my car was too beat up after 2 of the 3 laps.

You can always call for a new patrol car at least. And get the commandeer upgrade.
There was also a perk which inflates yr wheels when they are flat.

But where did you do races? :messenger_open_mouth: Didnt saw that at all.
 
Finished it up last night with 72% of the trophies. Hit max Cop Level, finished all the races etc.

They were right about tedium kicking in towards the end. Chases can drag on for WAY too fucking long so I stuck to foot patrols around the precinct neighborhood so I could quickly get back and end the shift :messenger_grinning_smiling:

I hope its successful enough for a follow up. They have something here. There were a couple moments towards the end that involved a little more than the routine actions you had been doing in the hours prior. Maybe build on those a bit. Overall I had a pretty good time.
 
How do you find the artifacts? I've done most things in the game and I'm right at the end just about. Haven't found a single artifact other than the first one.
 
Apparently the races were near impossible to win and the devs patched it last minute. Now people are saying they're too easy. I didn't have any issues, but if you want to complete them, might as well do them now before it possibly gets patched again to make them a little tougher.
 
The cars do start to drive like crap when you damage them. I've had to quit some races cause my car was too beat up after 2 of the 3 laps.

You can always call for a new patrol car at least. And get the commandeer upgrade.
I don't have a problem getting worse performance as a result of damage, the car just didn't act naturally after the collision. I was expecting different physics I guess - more suspension work, more slides considering there's a handbrake button. But yeah, I've played only for a short while so I won't rate anything just yet.
 
Finished after less than 9 hours, the game knew where to end right when the gameplay was starting to get very stale.

Cute 6,5-7\10 game with ample margins of improvements for the sequel.
 
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The amount of small bugs & glitches this game has is staggering. My weirdest situation from today is that the riot truck hit the suspect vehicle, it landed on the roof of the gas station and the suspect wasn't accessible. Same if the suspect's car crashes and ends up on the side - can't get to the driver who'll be standing on top of it after exiting the vehicle.

XSX also likes to crash when you close the end of the day summary too early (when it shows results for different pairs). Probably related to the fact it's still saving in the background, thankfully I didn't get any corrupted saves.
 
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Completed the main story, all the races, time trials, jumps and fully leveled up. The only thing remaining is the theatrical killer side quest and artifacts. Don't know if I will do those.

Here are my final thoughts on the game

1. Driving feels great and cars have a weight feel to them that especially suits the era they are supposed to be from. It is arcadey but in the best way possible. Not to mention how different terrains and weather affects the handling and traction. Kudos to the team for really nailing that. The vehicle deformation system is cherry on top.

2. I grew to like the gunplay. It is average but you quickly get used to it. I like how the enemies aren't bullet sponges and due quickly, and so do you. If a prep suddenly starts shooting at close range, odds are you are going to die a quick death. It never felt unfair, just unexpected. Even fully leveled up, I still died a few times.

3. the graphics are really good and generally does a great job of setting the atmosphere of the game. I like the dynamic time and weather system on display here. The game also performs well, and I had very few frame rate drops or stutters. It was almost butter smooth. Also helps that the bug were minimal.

4. The story was average but it served it's purpose as an excuse for you to play the game. I like that it didn't outlive it's welcome. The main missions themselves are pretty short but they are fun to do. It feels like a 80s cop movie and I think that was what the devs were aiming for. Overall would give the main story a B, if I was a highschool teacher.

5. The crime patrol gameplay is great. I like how a small littering stop could somehow turn into a car chase with helicopters, roadblocks and the works. Spending millions of dollars trying to arrest a guy who dropped some trash, never really got old. Heck today I stopped a random guy for nonreason, he started running and so I arrested him for resisting arrest( that was literally his only crime, all other checks were clean).

6. It is easy to cheese the crime system, you could suddenly run in front of the car and suddenly the driver becomes a criminal who has done hit and run, for example. Finding different ways to be a bad cop was great imo.

7. I like how the only currency that exists is xp. It allows you to fully engage with every resource for every crime.

8. I like how you can commandeer vehicles and how each vehicle feels unique. It is not something I expected from an indie game but seriously great work with vehicles in general.

9. I like how even from the start the crimes can go haywire and crime difficulty doesn't really change, only the frequency of hard crimes. At the start there were a lot of instances wherein a culprit would escape( especially if there were more than one criminal). But as you progress and unlock more equipment, you also start becoming better at the game, and crimes that seemed difficulty become pretty easy.

10. They did a great job in restraining the scope. The map is small which keeps it more tight and memorable. They have also kept the road realistic. It is narrow and filled with traffic with sharp turns and small alleyways, all of which greatly adds to the sense of realism and speed. It also gives the car chases more life. It also helps that a lot of the environment is destructible.

Cons:

1. The game does become repetitive towards the end.

2. It is a bit sad that there is no reward for things like, completing every race or time trials. Even completing the main story doesn't really reward you with anything.

3. Helicopter patrols are pretty boring and too easy compared to other patrol types. Doesn't help that you could crash into a building at full speed and you just bounce away. Adding damage and a way to shoot at suspects would have spiced things up.

4. Kelly needs more dialogues for basic actions. For example, if you delegate writing up offences to him, he has only two lines that he keeps on repeating again and again and again. I honestly started writing up perps myself just o avoid hearing kelly speak.

Conclusion: a pretty decent game. It's fun and nails everything that matters. Doesn't oulive itself. It feels like an old school ps2 game in the best way possible. Also a pretty great feeling to play the cop once in a while. The 30 dollar price tag is more than justifiable. The game serves as a great foundation and I really hope they expand it further in future sequels.
 
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