True Crime: New York City

This review is for the PC version of the game.

I've never thrown a game into the garbage before, but that is what I have just done with True Crime: NYC. Fortunately I only paid about $10 for it at a discount store and not $50 or whatever its original price was.

The game had a lot of promise. The idea of a virtual NYC you could drive around was a cool idea, and that part of the game I really liked (although it got annoying after the 50th time I got smashed into by other cars). And I like the idea of having big name voice actors involved, though I have to wonder how hypocritical it was to have Marsika Hargitay of SVU playing a female detective whose skirt is only a few steps down from a thong (if there are cops who actually dress like this on duty outside of the vice squad, I'm signing up!).

And I liked the basic plot - what little I could get before i gave up in disgust.

And give up I did. I'm OK with games that are difficult, in terms of being able to achieve goals or fight and survive. But when one literally requires 4 arms in order to hit all the controls you need to accomplish anything, at that point I say the game is poorly designed and not worth my time. What's worse, actions that work perfectly well during the training mode mysteriously no longer work once the "real" game starts. As a result instead of frisking and arresting suspects, I ended up either pushing them in front of cars (which was fun, I'll admit, but not quite what the game wanted me to do) or my gun came out and I shot them, which again wasn't exactly the mission.

There is a difference between being frustrated with a game that is difficult and being frustrated with a game that is physically impossible to play. The first issue can be alleviated by finding a hint guide somewhere, or even finding cheat codes. But there's no cheat in the world that protects against bad design.

As I say, this is with regards to the PC version. Maybe the console versions are simpler to operate and therefore actually can be played. If you have a choice, take the console version. Unless you have 4 arms, of course.

True Crime: New York City is a pitiful attempt to cash in on the urban themed games, the game is the sequel to True Crime: Streets of LA, which was a decent attempt to cash in on the popularity of the GTA games.

One of the problems comes from the story, so bare bones and generic I was guessing the plot quarter of the way in.(And mostly right too!) The script is pretty bad, even though they've got Traci Lords and Christopher Walken in this game, they drop F-bombs and the N word every few seconds.

The only glimmer of hope in this game should come from the Graphics, sound, and gameplay... right? Well maybe the sound, but that's it.

The graphics are nothing short of unimpressive and uninspired, sure they mapped New York down to almost every nook and cranny, but it's useless when you've got nothing to do.

The gameplay combines sneaking,fighting,driving, into a mish mash of awfulness I can't even comprehend.

The sound is probably the only thing that saves this game, it has a combination of rap and the New York music scene.(The Ramones, Blondie, etc.)

But, here comes the worst part of the game. The bugs. Not your regular house hold bugs, but "destroy your game permanently" bugs. The x-box version gets the worst of it, including a bug that makes it impossible to finish the game. But that's not the only bug, oh no. Enemeies get hung up in objects and cars disappear. Which makes you have to restart the mission you where on at the time.

Overall, I give this mess 1/10. It's quite possibly the worst game i've ever played, don't even bother. Save yourself $50 or $5 dollars.

The coolest thing about this game is that it contains all of Manhattan. All the streets, anyway. Unfortunately, most of the buildings are generic with just a smattering of actual buildings and landmarks such as St. Patrick's and the UN building. You cannot enter into most of these buildings, however, with a few exceptions like Grand Central. The only buildings you can enter are generic restaurants, hotels, and laundries. And they are all the same - the interior of every hotel is exactly the same, as is every convenience store and strip club.

It was fun to roam the streets of Manhattan again, and safer than doing it for real. The game-play, however was pretty bad. The main story missions are somewhat amusing, but the regular police work is painfully repetitive. Stolen cars, fights among the homeless, rock bands wrecking hotels... you have to deal with these problems over and over and over.

This game might be appealing to anyone who has never seen, played, or heard of GTA: San Andreas. To everyone else, it's just a cheap, buggy, boring, knockoff. Forget playing the game. Just enjoy touring Manhattan without the normal traffic - sort of a Manhattan ghost town.

I enjoyed True Crime: Streets of LA despite the fact that it was clearly just a poor man's GTA. Having just owning a Gamecube at the time it was the closest I could get to playing a GTA game on that system. TC: NYC had been on my wishlist for years but Gamecube games are increasingly hard to find so I never managed to track one down until recently.

Now that I own a PS3 and very familiar with GTA IV, playing TC: NYC is a HUGE step down in quality. The graphics and gameplay are already very dated. TC: NYC came out at the tail end of the Gamecube's lifespan and for those of you who are spoiled by the slick nature of current generation consoles playing the game will be very difficult, glitches or not. Comparison's to GTA IV might seem unfair, but are inevitable since both take place in a nearly identical environment.

The plot to TC: NYC is right out of a typical 80s Golan-Globus trash movie. It's pure garbage, but entertaining garbage, and thankfully features none of the supernatural nonsense from the previous game. You'll be surprised how quickly it's over. There are plenty of side-missions but you'll get bored of them after a while since they repeat again and again.

Now to the glitches. Oh where to begin? It's a good idea to save your game every time you make significant progress since it has the tendency to completely freeze-up, requiring you to reboot your system. Sometimes you'll be unable to enter buildings, leaving missions unfinishable. There is also an extremely bad frame rate problem causing your character to jump all over the screen.

As for gameplay faults the freedom of GTA is not present here. It's virtually impossible to drive to crime scenes or pursue criminals without killing pedestrians, which pushes up the crime rate in the area. The other cops NEVER help, and ALWAYS hinder your mission. There are plenty of taxis in the game to get you to locations safely, but since there's no button to hail them it's very difficult to get inside one.

The whole game is set on Manhattan island, with endless streets of tall, foreboding buildings. There is virtually no sunshine either with lots of rain and night, giving TC: NYC a claustrophobic, gloomy and oppressive feel. If you are used to blue skies and sunshine of Sonic the Hedgehog then this might be a bit of a miserable experience for you.

There are ways to customize your character and vehicle, giving each player their own unique experience. But as you'll encounter on every street of TC: NYC; there is very, very little variety. There are about 10 vehicle models and about the same number of characters. Every street is populated by six or seven models of a single character. There aren't a lot of guns available either, and there's little difference between them.

TC: NYC clearly was not finished. Activision obviously wanted to rush the game to stores before the PS2, Xbox and Gamecube became relics. I can't imagine it selling well, which explains why I had such a hard time finding it.

I did enjoy playing it, which counts for a lot since there are plenty of bad points it had to make up for. But if you are the kind of person who easily throws the control pad through the TV screen when a game freezes then I'd certainly not recommend it.

Let me start off by saying that this is the 1st ever mature rated game that I ever bought. For any parent looking to buy this game for a child, the violence isn't too bad, but the language is definitely in full force. Anyway, back to the review. The bad? The game is glitchy at times, even stopping when entering a building or in the middle of a mission. Also, the game is very short, and the language feels overdone in certain places. The good? However short, both endings are solid and resolve the game for the most part, and the characters are very realistic and likable, especially the game's protagonist, Marcus Reed. I could not justify $50 for this game when it came out, but now, it is a great buy for $10 at your local Gamestop. Overall, a solid game.