True Crime: Streets of LA

"GTA clone? Think again!"

Have you ever watched the show COPS? If you have, then you might feel somewhat familiar with this game. Like COPS, it has drug rings, police frisking, and even good time humor. Unfortunately, it isn't as realistic of a game as what was first said about it, but who cares? Either was Grand Theft Auto III and yet it was still a blast!

Being an undercover cop in this game gives you many freedoms, like frisking pedestrians for drugs or illegal weapons to getting in a car and solving street crimes. Of course, you can complete and street crime any way you want, by either arresting them or to killing them for theft. By what you do effects whether you're a good cop or a bad cop. If your a good cop people will respect you but if your a bad cop you will have a hard time, also meaning more fun. If you solve street crimes and arresting people makes your cop rating go up. Killing people in any way or solving crimes with a death makes it go down.

There are other cool things you can do in this game, like shoot from your car if you're chasing someone in a getaway car. There is also fist-fighting which you can do anytime with a ped, but makes your rating go down. That's the best part though, doing things your way, Burger King style!

With all the killing, running over, etc., there is also a story. Not that strong of a story but entertaining to say the least. You play as Nick Kang, a L.A.P.D. officer who likes to do things his way. He can complete any mission and solve anything, but he uses what he can, and it tends to get him in trouble. The story starts off with a simple fight with a gang-banger, then escalates into a huge problem that involves Nick, his brother, and his fellow officers. The story also branches off into separate chapters so you can get different endings. You get the best ending if you complete the game 100% with a good cop rating. Another catch is that if you fail a mission, you can go on with it and not do it. Sure, you may seem like doing that and only have about 10% of the game complete and no good ending. If you complete a chapter 100% you have a chance to earn a new car, moves and a new set of guns. There is always a good thing to complete missions.

When you have a time, always take that precious time to go and coast around L.A. with the radio going. Turn it on and, what’s this! Hip-hop and rap! Sorry, not for me. Some people don't like the songs on this game, so thanks to good ole' XBOX you can put in your own songs that you prefer. You can also change music from cruising to gun-fights, anything you wish.

There is actually another similarity to GTA and that's its graphics. Decent, but still could have been better. There are also the ever-so-familiar glitches like running through a wall. Yeah, have your laugh with is but it gets old really fast since it also cause the game to freeze from time to time.

With all of that said, you would think the game would be fun to play over and over and over again. Wrong. The street crimes, although fun, do get boring and repetitive. The regular missions are too short and you could get one ending in just a few hours of game play. Buy at your own risk, but this is a great rental for a weekend.

So you think this is a GTA clone? I don't, even though it is similar in ways, but it just isn't fun compared to GTA. It is refreshing though, you are a cop instead of always being a bad guy, but good things never last. This game is a good example of it.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 12/07/03