True Crime: Streets of LA

True Crime owes a lot, if not everything, to the Grand Theft Auto series. Indeed it is very difficult these days to have a free-roaming action game and not compare it to GTA but True Crime is so alarmingly similar that I'm surprised Rockstar didn't try to sue.

The story of True Crime is right out of a direct-to-video action film of the late 80s. It starts out as your typical renegade cop shoots first and ask questions later kind of pulp but ends up being about ancient Chinese wizards, huge fire-breathing dragons and sewer-dwelling zombies. If it began far-fetched then what it ends up as is just plain weird. However, that's not to say you'll not have fun. The plot is spread out over 9 different stages each with about 10 individual missions. It's possible to replay your favorite missions too.

True crime has 5 different styles of play. First their is the free-roaming bit where you can run all over LA solving street crimes. There there's the car chases in which you run bad guys (and sometimes airplanes) off the road. Third is the stealth missions in which you must sneak into places unnoticed and render unconscious anyone you see. Fourth is the one on one combat and fifth, my favorite, is the shoot-em-up levels, where you can do loads of stunts and diving through the air blasting away at bad guys. The slow motion as you zero in on the targets is brilliant. But I would have preferred if the game was bloodier. A few splatters here and there ain't enough.

But much of this game is boring, aesthetically at the least. The geographically accurate LA is impressive but it's so unbelievably bland. The dullest colors are used to paint the environment and the city is pretty made up of grey-scale. The cars also cannot do stunts. Which is crap. How brilliant would it be to drive right off the freeway and fly into the sky before plummeting 100 feet? Too bad, you can't do it because of the pointless invisible wall.

Pros:

Loads of action.

Blowing up stuff is fun.

Cool cut scenes with funny dialogue.

Great tunes.

Cons:

Some missions are boring.

No stunts.

LA is bland and thoroughly NON-interactive.

The fights with General Kim are IMPOSSIBLE!

Loads of very long loading times!

No matter how disappointing some parts of the game are I will still be getting the sequel, True Crime: New York City. But please do not make as boring as LA was and cut out those awful loading times!

Graphics B+ Sound A Gameplay A- Lasting Appeal A-

Just played "True Crime" and even though its most obvious inspiration from a gaming point of view is the ever popular "Grand Theft Auto" series. From a movie point of view, this action title seems to be a throwback to those wildly absurd, but oh so entertaining martial-arts thrillers from the 1990's.

Like Dirty Harry, the lead character, Nick Kang, voiced by Russell Wong ("Romeo Must Die") is a cop who doesn't play by the rules. He was raised in Japan, where he and his younger brother learned the martial-arts. His father, also cop from LA, was killed in the line of duty under mysterious circumstances. The police department still wonders, was he a dirty cop?

With a little help of his unwanted new partner, voiced by Michelle Rodriguez, and an old timer who knew his dad, voiced by Christopher Walken (where have he heard this before), Nick is determined to solve the mystery and avenge his father's death. But in order to this, he must survive both the Triads and Russian mob, who seem to up to something fishy in the streets of LA.

Unfortunately, midway through, the story pulls a 180 and starts to involve the supernatural that's right out of "Big Trouble in Little China". It doesn't mix with the rest of the story and seems a bit contrived. Still, as a gaming expierence, I enjoyed this title, although it's a bit brief. It involves a little bit of everything action-oriented, although it doesn't tower over the competition in any of the genre it delves in

Wong's cliched cop reminded me of the Brandon Lee character from "Showdown in Little Tokyo" and the areas in which build up your fighting skills in various dojos seemed right out of Jeff Speakman's "The Perfect Weapon". I loved the fight sequences in this game, more so than the "Max Payne"-esque shooting segments, which are also fun. Dozens of firearms and melee weapons are up for the taking and the indoor enviroments are fully destructable.

The "drive anywhere, doing anything" aspect from "Grand Theft Auto" is a bit limited, but is entertaining. You can play as good cop or bad cop, though I wish there was more variety to the random crime acts that occur. Also, the "choose your own adventure" branching storylines is welcomed and I also liked the soundtrack, which was appropriate, given that LA is a mecca of hip hop culture.

Still, as a whole, the game isn't up to the standard of Rockstar's "Max Payne" and "Grand Theft Auto" franchises. Few games are, but I felt this game was too short and the Chinese ghost story twist in the middle, was, well it was bad. But, its a hit with American gamers and I can see why, since I am one. I do hope the sequel is better and more worthy of a purchase. As far as this title goes, I think you should rent it before you buy.

I'd give it two and a half stars out of four. Not bad, but not really good, it's just fun.

I really enjoyed playing True Crime it plays out like grand theft auto, but having you take the position of being a cop the creators did a very nice thing you go up to peoples cars and go police need to borrow your car. The game also isn't perfect it's kind of short not to short just don't think it's going to be as long as the grand theft games and you'll love it. Ok to the story it's about a cop who is assigned a new partner. They don't get along at first, but then they start to get used to one another. The levels are really fun you can drive around destroying most of the city, you can make arrests which is cool, and for the people that can't pass a level and are tired of playing a level you can start another one. my advixe is to rent it first because you migh beat it and get bored of it I just rented it and I am going to tell all of my friends to buy this game and give it a try. *** and a half out of **** really good game.

This was a great game for it's time. This game incorporates martial arts, car chases, shootouts, hostage situations and some stealth missions. One of the things I really liked about this game was that you could create your own music playlist for fight sequences by accessing and selecting your own personal music data. The game play in this game will have you feeling like an action hero in a typical 90's undercover cop movie. You can accommodate vehicles and frisk suspicious persons on the street. My only complaint was that I wish there were more vehicles besides cars in this game. It can get a little bit boring roaming freely through the map. But if you stay focused on following the tasks and continue to complete your missions, you will maintain a value of excitement and stay entertained.

I have True Crime Streets of La for PS2. Believe me or not, this is the only video game that I have for my PS2. I literally play this game every single day. What I like about this game is that if you collect 30 dog bones, you can unlock and play Snoop Dogg as a undercover cop. All he have to do is solve street crimes. It's really nice that True Crime Streets of La is the GTA clone, which means similar to GTA, except that in True Crime, you have to play as a law enforcement officer. In GTA, you can do whatever you want like missions or killing people, stealing cars, robbing places, One of my favorite police undercover game ever!