True Crime: Streets of LA

"Man this game is fun...wait, it's over."

I rented this about 5 days ago. I just completed the entire game. I probably got a total of about 6-8 hours of play time, but that 6-8 hours were some of the best hours I have spent on my Gamecube in a while. On with the review.

Graphics: 7/10
The graphics in this game all look very good and smooth. Character models look pretty good, however in some of the game's many cutscenes there are infamous ''jaggies'' during some of them. They certianly don't max out the GC's power, but then again, few games do. The reason why this is only a 7 is because the game has some framerate issues. I don't know if this is a problem on Xbox, but if it is a problem on GC, then it is a bigger one on PS2. Sometimes the framerate will drop to almost a slideshow for a few seconds. I also noticed when I heard the disc being accessed(a click from your machine) the game would momentiarly freeze. LA looks amazing. I heard about 260 square miles is recreated in the game. However, there are some generic houses and buildings. Despite the framerate issues, graphics are good.

Sound/Music: 9/10
The sound in this game is great. The sound effects were convincing and all the guns sounded good, but a few had some pretty generic sounds. There are TONS of licensed songs in the game. Most of them are either rap or metal songs that are pretty well-known. Even though I'm not a fan of either of these music groups, I found that I liked them in the game. Licensed music in video games these days is pretty rare, due to the high royalty charges developers have to pay. Nothing to really complain about, other than a little more variety in the music would have been nice.

Story: 5/10
The game definetly has a story, but it dosen't do a very good job of explaining it. I'm not supposed to tell you what it is. You can piece together what is happening throughout the game, but you often wonder ''why am I doing this?''. The story dosen't really come together until the last episode of the game, where some legenthy cut-scenes fill gaps in the story. The game would have been better if the story had been told better.

Gameplay:7/10
Like I said before, this game is very short. Let me break it down into bite-size pieces to you. There is a ''good cop'', ''bad cop'' rating that you have. Doing good things and non-leathally taking care of enemies earns you a good cop rating. Killing civilians and other bad things lowers your raing. There is are also ''reward points'' in the game. Solving street crimes and completing chapters earns you reward points. Get a hundred and you get another badge. You can use the badges to gain access to ''24/7'' locations where you can have a chance to earn an upgrade by playing a mini-game. If you win, you get the upgrade. If you lose, you have to either give up or pay another shield to try again.

There are 12 ''episodes'' in the game. All of them have 7 ''chapters'' in them, with a couple(as in 2) exceptions. You generally want to do all the chapters, but if you die during any of them, you can either choose to retry or skip the chapter altogether. There are 4 main divisions of chapters: Shooting, Driving, Fighting, and Stealth(not many of these).
Some chapters are very short, often taking only 1-2 minutes to finish. Shooting missions are my favorite. You start with 2 .38 revolvers, but they can be upgraded 3 times to a better revolver, a better pistol, and then an even better pistol. Getting the best pistol early helps greatly. When you kill an enemy, you can also take their weapon, even though it can only be used once. Once it runs out of ammo, you toss it away. You can always carry up to 2 weapons at once. Your gun has OODLES of upgrades, same with your car and fighting abilities.
Driving missions are usually either timed or a ''get to someplace whenever you feel like it'' Sometimes you have to beat the clock to a destination, which is marked on a small radar screen. LA is a big place, and there are lot of streets. One wrong turn can mess you up and force you to do the mission again. Fighting missions are very tedious. There is no real strategy to it, other than mashing buttons, trying to get your enemy ''stunned'' by hitting them enough times. Then you can press a button combo to do a special move. Rinse and Repeat. Stealth missions have you sneaking through a level pressing A near all the enemies to knock them out.
Bottom Line: A good game, while it lasts.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 12/22/03