True Crime: Streets of LA

"Going In and Looking Good"

True Crime has a lot of great features that some would say make this the anti-Grand Theft Auto game with a renegade cop in an open world city. What True Crime lacks is concept and character development along with longer play time. In the end True Crime is still a great game with plenty of surprises and non-stop action. You are Nick Kang, renegade cop with a chip on his shoulder and plenty of one liners that may or may not be the best one liners. True Crime has much better graphics than the GTA series (at least before San Andreas) and has a few alternate endings to give the game some replay value.

Story

Nick Kang is a cop on suspension following many incidents of brutality, property damage, and making Bruce Willis rethink doing another Die Hard. A special investigative force allows him to remain as he is to pursue an investigation of a string bombings in Chinatown. Nick is skilled in Martial Arts and weaponry and this game brings back some of those good old early 90's days of wanting to be a crime fighting karate kid. The story is narrated by Nick's good friend on the police force George, who used to work with Nick's dad as a policeman. The narration is beyond superb. What other video game could you name that has been voiced by Christopher Walken? I was astounded by this introduction to the Streets of LA when he started talking during the opening scene as it probably was the first time I picked out a familiar movie star voice on the video game screen. Walken does an amazing job in this game as George and he divulges the player and other characters about Nick's past. One of the endings to this game is very memorable by the way. Sometimes it is rewarding to not get the best ending in a game...

Game Play

There are many GTA similarities to True Crime except for a a few minor differences. Instead of having to call out the National Guard on you, killing innocent bystanders will decrease your Good Cop standing and it will determine what type of ending you get. A couple of the plot points also determine that. As with other open ended games you do not have to go straight to the next mission point in the game but can cruise around LA and stop petty crimes going on as well as pat down anyone to confiscate drugs or weapons to increase your Good Cop status. Most of the time you will have a gun to take care of the bad guys, but you will encounter many different fighting situations whether inside a joint or outside and depending on the circumstances you will fight armed or unarmed. The bad guys in this game range from a North Korean general to strippers so you can expect the unexpected in this game.

Graphics/Sound

The graphics I think were the best for this game compared to all other open ended games like True Crime. I doubt there would be that many people out walking around in LA, but the expanse of the city is very impressive. I am not sure how much to scale it is, but it is still impressive. The music and voice acting are what really drive this game. Most of the music in the game is from record label artists and of course I have mentioned Christopher Walken already. A very memorable part of this game for me was taking on a sniper with "Poem" by Taproot playing. It is the little things like that really make this game great. And Christopher Walken. Did I mention Christopher Walken is in this game?

Replay Value

Unfortunately True Crime is a great game that has a very short life span. You can complete the game very quickly thanks to the drive of the game. However there is considerable replay value in open ended games like True Crime. You can do a lot of exploring in the area and see if it is anything like the real LA. The many NPCs walking around may get overrated after awhile, but the game did do a good job of making them as diverse as the city is. The endings to the game are very much worth playing through again for, especially Christopher Walken's narration of the bad ending.

Final Recommendation

Well here I am trying to catch up on some of these old Xbox games to review and having not played the New York city sequel I couldn't tell you if this is the best of the series or not. I can tell you True Crime was very much worth the time to play back in the day and is an excellent rental. It is very hard to believe that this game is already five years old, but it has some very memorable moments as well as some fun game play that make it worth trying out if you have not played it.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 12/18/08

Game Release: True Crime: Streets of LA (US, 11/03/03)