True Crime: Streets of LA

"It's no GTA, but definitely worth a look"

True Crime: Streets of LA takes the Grand Theft Auto 3/Vice City formula, with a few twists: you play as a police officer, so unlike the GTA games your goal is to STOP crime, not create it. You'll spend your time stopping a wide assortment of random street crimes in addition to following the game's storyline. Depending on your Good Cop/Bad Cop rating and on victories/losses along the way, you can reach three different endings.

Gameplay - Overall, True Crime is a lot of fun despite the numerous (and I mean NUMEROUS) bugs and glitches. Running and gunning down suspects, ''commandeering'' citizens' cars, frisking random passer byes for contraband, fist-fighting a perp and slapping the cuffs on- it's a lot of fun, and that's just playing around between missions, disregarding the main plotline. The control scheme is a little odd and took me some getting used to, but after a few hours of play they're manageable (I still caught myself pressing the wrong buttons after beating the game, though). The targeting system is interesting (if not original) in concept- target individual limbs for neutralizing shots- but the system seems slightly off and a little jumping, leading to some frustration. The game is still playable, however.

Unsurprisingly, bullet time is present, but it's not always useful. When precision is needed the player can go into first person mode (or ''Precision Mode''), and for several moments time is slowed down, allowing for more accurate shooting- a great, helpful aspect of the game (this is especially useful when trying to shoot from a moving car). Unfortunately, the slowmoe diving during gunfights seems like a programmer's afterthought and serves little purpose (other than looking cool). In other words, don't expect Max Payne gameplay.

Oh, the glitches. I'll just list a few I've encountered:

*More than once a perp simply stopped running/driving and stood still. I couldn't interact with them in any way and was forced to let them escape.

*While driving/walking around the city, I apparently fell through the map and had to exit to the main menu and reload my game.

*Once while driving the unlockable muscle car over a bridge I crashed and got out of the vehicle. The car began to bob up and down inside of the road as if it were water. It then shot several hundred feet up into the air before smashing onto the road below. Weird.

These and other glitches (gameplay-related, audio-related, and graphical glitches are numerous) give the game an extremely unpolished, unfinished feel. I'm convinced this should have been delayed a little longer while the kinks were ironed out, instead of being (apparently) rushed.

Story - True Crime's storyline follows police officer Nick Kang, a loose cannon with his own way of dealing with things... yeah, it's not at all original. The plot is fairly uneven and often seems to serve only as brief segue between huge gun battles. The characters aren't badly written, but there's nothing here you haven't seen before. A lot more polish should have gone into the game's plot, though it does have its moments. It basically boils down to: not great, but hardly offensive... videogame players have cringed through worse. It's worth noting that the game in no way takes itself seriously- many of the clichés come off as parody, but not all of them.

Graphics/Sound - Graphically, True Crime is a mixed bag. The character models are good (if a little rough), and there's un unbelievable amount of detail to the indoor fighting sections of the game. You can break and slam into almost everything (indoors and out)- it really goes a long way towards achieving an action movie feel.

The huge city streets (accurately mapped from real life LA) are expansive to an impressive degree, but only if you don't stop and look closely. Many areas of the map seem to have been compiled automatically by a program using ariel photos- a cool ideal in theory, but it makes for a lot of unnatural looking terrain (buildings partially swallowed by earth, fences running into other buildings, etc.). There's no GTA attention to detail (diverse buildings, amusing billboards and stores), and it really detracts from what could have been an engrossing experience.

Soundwise, True Crime shines. The soundtrack is mostly rap and hip hop, and it always fits what's happening onscreen- it does a lot to set the right mood. It's not as big or diverse as Vice City's soundtrack, but really: what is? The voice acting is overall very good (Christopher Walken is hilarious!), though some of the dialogue comes off as awkward. The civilian chatter is nearly as entertaining as that of GTA3/VC's. Nick's constant quips range from hilarious to embarrassing.

Play Time/Replayability - I would say it took me over 15 hours to totally complete every mission in the game, but it felt too short. Most of the levels are extremely brief- you're left wanting longer, drawn-out shootouts- but they're fun. There are lots of upgrades to be found throughout the city, and if you have the patience there's a GTA-style scattering of items (Dogg Bones) around the city- 30, to be exact. There's a lot to do, but it pales in comparison to the open-ended nature of the GTA titles.

As far as replayability goes... I've played several times since completing the game, going back through my favorite levels (and playing as Snoop Dogg is a lot of fun- he's fully equipped with his own quips). But overall, once the game is over, it's over. You'll probably pop it in every once in a while and play around, but that's it.

Final Recommendation - True Crime is a lot of fun and is definitely worth playing (I'm really looking forward to the sequel), but I can't recommend this as anything but a very solid rental. Once it's over, it's pretty much over for good, but it's good while it lasts. I'd give it a 7.5.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 11/16/03