True Crime: Streets of LA

"It Would Be a True Crime Not to Buy This Game"

When I first heard about this game a long time ago I thought that it would be a reasonably good game not worth buying. As time went on and the release date kept getting pushed back, more and more screenshots and videos were released. Then I got the demo and realized I had to own this game. I picked it up, and I was blown away by the quality of the game. As the ads say: It’s not a shooting game. It’s not a driving game. It’s not a fighting game. It’s True Crimes. It takes those three aspects and makes them into one incredible game.

Gameplay 9/10
This game has a very unique quality in that the story branches out instead of being linear. As you progress, your actions determine what the story will turn out to be. If you fail a mission you don’t necessarily have to retry it, you could accept defeat and see how your failure affects the story. There are six different endings and three different paths to take depending on how good a cop you are. When you’re not doing missions, you can cruise around and explore the vast city of Los Angeles. When I say vast, I mean vast. The city is enormous and will take you weeks of playing to get a general idea of where certain things are. As you drive along, tons of different random crimes will pop up. They could range from an illegal street race to a hooker turf war to a bunch of bums fighting. You don’t have to stop them, but the more you stop, the more badge points you get. When you have enough badge points, you can trade them in for a shot at a test for a new upgrade. When you’re fighting hand to hand with one or more opponents, most of the environment is completely destructible. You can kick or throw people into objects and do extra damage. The only reason I didn’t give this a 10/10 was because some of the upgrade’s challenges can be a little too easy and the game doesn’t take more than about 15 hours to beat one of the paths. Keep in mind though; the rest of the gameplay is really good.

Controls 10/10
At first the game’s controls were a little hard to learn. Then I read the instruction manual and they made sense. This game plays great. Not only can you upgrade your driving maneuvers, gun skills, and fighting combos, but there are all sorts of different things you can do. You can go into slow motion precision aiming from in our out of your car and shoot out another vehicles gunman or wheels. Or if you’re chasing down a criminal, you can stop him by shooting his leg. On foot, you can break up fights or encourage criminals to surrender by flashing your badge or firing off a warning shot. When you’re fighting without guns, you can throw in all sorts of combos and throws, and when your opponent is stunned, you can execute killer finishing moves. When you’re engaged in a tense fire-fight, you can hold two totally different guns in each hand. After the first upgrade, you can aim at two targets at the same time. While you drive, you can learn how to peel-out, set up a road block, and all sorts of other things. One of the best things is the slow motion diving. It’s a lot like Max Payne, except you can do it an infinite amount of times.

Story 9/10
You play as Nick Kang Wilson, a renegade cop on the edge fresh out of suspension trying to solve the mystery of his father’s disappearance and at the same time trying to bring down the Triad and Russian mobs. But the story goes much deeper. Depending on the path you take the story will fold out in completely different ways. I don’t want to give too much away, but you’re in for a real treat. The only reason this didn’t get a 10/10 was because Nick’s character seems to have been done many times before in B-Movies and mediocre police TV shows.

Graphics 10/10
Beautiful. Absolutely beautiful. The face models are great. The characters look cool and match their personalities. The city is vast and absolutely breathtaking. The cars look really cool, especially the really fast ones. The cut scenes look great too. It’s so much fun to see the bullets whizzing by you as you dive in slow motion. Also, if you shoot a windshield, the windshield cracks. If you shoot a tire, the tire pops. The driving and fighting environments are completely destructible. All the graphics are done very well.

Sound and Music 10/10
The soundtrack in the game has over 70 songs and is fully customizable. It only offers rap, rock, and punk, but who wants to fight to a bunch of techno or gospel music? The game has great rap songs and invigorating rock songs. I love this soundtrack. However, as in every game, it does have its bad songs, but True Crime keeps them to a happy minimum. Only about 5 of the songs are bad, with none that you actually can’t bare to hear.

Replay Value 8/10
After you beat the game and see all the endings and beat all the alternate and main missions, which would easily takes you anywhere from 20 to 30 hours, the game has all sorts of things to upgrade. And once you’re done upgrading everything, you’ll still love to cruise around stopping random crimes. Also, you can replay any mission, so you won’t have to redo the whole game or create an alternate save point just to replay your favorite ones. I didn’t give this a 10/10 because after about 60 to 70 hours of play, the random crimes may get a little boring, and you might be sick of the missions. But then again, you may not. It really depends on the person.

Final Recommendation
Rent it and then see if you want to buy it. You probably will because it’s so fun, but there may be a few who don’t like this game. Bottom line: You’re going to have a lot of fun playing this game and it’s definitely worth a try.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 11/06/03