I’ve had my eye on a great-looking game for quite a while now, developer Fallen Tree Games’ The Precinct. It is hopefully set to be released this year. As I patiently await the release of The Precinct, I decided to play through their previous game, American Fugitive. I have to admit to missing out on American Fugitive when it was first released back in 2019 – but I have since made up for that, hence this quick review.

“Framed for your father’s murder, you’ll need to do whatever it takes to unveil the real culprit. Tackle thrilling missions for the criminal underworld – just don’t let the cops track you down!”

Let me just cut to the chase here. American Fugitive is old-school GTA. Classic top-down shooting, driving and car stealing action. Playing as William Riley, you are a petty criminal who is framed for the murder of his own father. After escaping from prison, William becomes the titular American Fugitive and seeks out to clear his name and find the person who really killed his father.

The story here is pretty damn great and far better than I was expecting. There’s a good use of humour and the gameplay keeps things interesting by offering up various distractions if you want to take a break from the main goal of finding the person who killed your father. Seek out numerous jumps, take part in time trial races and even blow the crap out of vehicles and scenery with GTA-style rampage missions. There’s also the option of breaking into and robbing people’s houses. I really enjoyed this distraction because you have to case the building first and try not to get caught. There’s a day/night cycle and the residents’ behaviours changes depending on the time of day and just maybe, it’s not the best idea to break into someone’s home at night when they are in.

American Fugitive offers up some stealth action too, so it’s not all about going in all guns blazing. There’s a good mix of gameplay elements and the map is plenty big enough to keep you interested, without being so big that it becomes a chore to get around. On top of all of that, you get an upgrade system that allows you to learn or sharpen a variety of skills. I really liked this addition as it made progression much more interesting and rewarding.

There’s so much crammed into American Fugitive that it is easy to forget that you are playing a smaller indie game. The devs are made up of some of the team are from Free Radical Design, and Crytek. So yeah, you are talking about people who worked TimeSplitters and Crysis. That experience in he industry shows in American Fugitive too. Just like GTA, the police in this are overly aggressive. You can get a wanted level just by knocking down too many garden fences. At first, I did find this a tad annoying because the police can come after you for the slightest infringement. But, I soon grew to love it because the car chases are really good fun and I found myself wanting to get into a police chase more and more often. It’s even more fun to try to lose the cops. Switch cars, get your vehicle sprayed a different colour (classic). You can even swipe clothing of washing lines to try to get the police off your tail. So what if you end up wearing a pink dress?

American Fugitive is packed with things to see and do. Steal and sell jewellery and paintings. Find hidden and secret stashes. Work out clues to unlock safes. Beat people up with a toilet brush. That is on top of all the other action I have already mentioned. Since being released back in 2019, the game has had several updates to make it better, including the free State of Emergency update that includes new weapons, vehicles, the army and more – to add more chaos to the already chaotic world. Overall, American Fugitive is a really great game. Old-school GTA action, but with it’s own identity and ideas that keep that classic gameplay, but modernise it perfectly. If you shop around, you should be able to pick up a copy of American Fugitive relatively cheap these days, and I definitely recommend that you do.

I’m just patiently waiting for The Precinct now…