True Crime: Streets of LA

"Fight, Shoot, Kill, Drive Fast and guess what it is all legal."

You know the games where you are the ringleader in some illegal operations. Those days are over now it is time to view games like that from the aspect of a cop. In this game you take LA’s finest scumbags. You are the law it is time to do your job and believe me you will have the ride of your life.

Story 8/10
You are Nick Kang Wilson. Your birth name was Nick Wilson and you were born in LA. Your Asian mother died when you were young. Your father was a top-notch police officer in LA. He vanished one day without a trace. So you and your brother were put into your relatives custody in an Asian country. There is where you adopted your relatives’ last name Kang. The kids harassed you for only being half-Asian but you learned to fight back. You come back to LA when you are older and get a job in the LAPD. After years of being in the LAPD you gain hands on experience with some of LA’s worst criminals. But then you get suspended indefinitely on counts of excessive violence and property damage. You come in one day just to do some shooting practice when the Chief of detectives and also head of the E.O.D. (Wanda Parks) confronts you and tells you that she needs your tactics to take on the Triads. You only accept because you want to investigate the disappearance of your father and you think the Triads might know something.

Gameplay 9/10
The gameplay is excellent. Some say this game is like GTA Vice City but they are truly wrong. This game takes what GTA Vice City did above and beyond what they could have ever done. This game gives you a broad range of fighting tactics, fighting moves, and there are a lot of moves that can be unlocked. The driving in this game is like no other. You can get a broad array of cars to choice from on the street and you have your very own car with personalized license plate. You get upgrades for your car from peel-outs to nitro boosts. Then you have your best friends at your side your 2 .38 Revolvers. These 2 guns will help you out a lot in the game especially when you are outnumbered 30 to 1. But do not worry if they are not that powerful because you can up grade them so you can take on bigger groups of Triads and Russian Mobsters. The life and cash system in this is badge points. When you die you lose badge points and if you do something wrong you will lose badge points. When you run out of badge points you get a game over. There is also a mode never seen in a game like this called stealth mode. You must get through a course killing/stunning your enemies with out anyone noticing you. In this game you can chose you course of action be being a good cop or a bad cop. The way you become a Good/Bad cop depends on what you do. If you kill civilians then you gain a Bad cop point for each kill person. But if you arrest civilians for crime they commit or for having drugs or weapons on them you gain a Good cop point. I first have to talk about the one that is the most fun to be which is being a bad cop. When you are a bad cop you are your own law do what you want when you want and take orders from no one but yourself. You can kill to your cold heart’s desirer but their are a few repercussions. When you kill innocent civilians you lose badge points. The hardest to be is a Good cop because their are fewer opportunities for you to get Good cop points. And if you accidentally kill some one by running them over with your car you lose Good cop points. But if you are a good cop till the very end you get the best ending to the game. LA is not a normal city in this game and I know from experience there is a multitude of things to do. You can go around frisking people to see if they have drugs or weapons on them. Or you can go around taking out the normal crime on the streets of LA. The crime on the streets can be from a simple fight to a murder with a machete all the way to a fully blown gang gun fight.

Graphics/Sound 5/10
The graphics and sound on this game are pretty good. The graphics are top of the line and they really show the detail of the people in the game. Almost each person in this game looks different. Most of the henchmen in this game look different but their are a few that look the same. And there are about 10 different types of civilians. By that I mean they all look mainly the same. This game has a pretty good sound track and the voices match the characters very well. I bet you are wondering why I gave it a 5? I gave it a 5 because there are to many one liners in this game. After every fight or chase he has a witty remark. I admit I found it humorous at first. But then it just got annoying.

Play Time/Replayability 7/10
This game is decently short if you go through each mission and not do any side missions. But if you go around helping the city of LA by stopping their crime they game can go on for as long as you want it to. There are 3 endings to the game so once you beat the game you can go back and get the other endings.

Final Recommendation 29/40= 7/10
I think that you should buy this game if you will replay it a lot but if not then just rent it for 5 days because by then you should have beaten it several times. If you love the game buy it, it is a really cool game to have. Also their is a lot of blood and swearing so it is not for the faint of heart.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 12/30/03