True Crime: New York City

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.

True Crime NYC is the next in the True crime series after streets of LA. IT is a very good game in my opinion with fair graphics, OK gameplay and a fairly good story. Although the music in my opinion isn't very good as it is mainly all rap, and you are sometimes shot through walls it is still a good game. It is also longer than Streets of LA as in that game you could pretty much just skip every mission and have it done within 2 days. The shooting is also better in streets of NY. However, the game does have some 'bugs' in it, for example one time i got trapped underneath some stairs and could not move so i had to restart the console, i was meant to be going up the stairs. also sometimes the game jumps and everything starts flashing all the things i just mentioned as well have nothing to do with how clean the disk is.

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.

Just reading SOME of the "reviews" of this game, it's clear that they have been written by prepubescent kids that are playing a game they should not be in the first place. Let's ignore the graphics and all the other stuff that DOES NOT MATTER, let's talk GAMEPLAY.

TC:LA was bad, bug ridden and boring. So I was hoping they could work on these problems for the sequel...they didn't. TC:NY is just as bug ridden and boring as it's previous incarnation. Yet it's VERY slightly better in terms of gameplay. First the bugs, I have lost count how many times I died during missions cos I was getting shot at THROUGH walls. Then I lost count of how many times I was pushed or punched THROUGH walls during fights. Did they even bother to hire gametesters? And don't even get me started on the driving bugs. Then there is the TERRIBLE AI, cars crashing at random, the police shooting at you and killing you as you try to arrest someone, the police shooting and killing key suspects even though they are out cold on the floor, etc.

OK, you get a great re-incarnation of NY to explore, trouble is only around 40% of it is actually used in the game, so what is the point? At least in GTA there is a point to exploring the cities and almost every corner of them are used. It takes too damn long to drive around between missions (cos the map is so damn big for NO good reason). But at least you can use taxis & subways to get around, which is dull but far better than having to drive everywhere.

The missions, you get 3 main story missions split into several parts. So you get around 17-20 story missions....compared to GTAs 50/60+ or so, that's pretty damn weak really. But let's not forget the sub-missions...all 3 varieties of them. You got racing missions (which would be great if the driving sections were not so terrible), you get 3 tiers again split into 3 races and 1 final race, so 10 races altogether....YAWN! Then there are the informant missions, which basically have you working for a cabbie, working for a "madame" or taking "jobs" from you dad...at least these are varied. Then finally you have the mele fighting missions, split the same way as the races so you get 10 fights. The mele fighting is probably one of the few good points of the game, but the fight arenas do get repetitive, good job there are only 10 fights. Oh I almost forgot (it was so dull) you also get to clean up the city by "solving" random crimes around town.

Yes you can go into almost any building...trouble is they are all the same. All hotels look the same, all restaurants look the same, all bars look the same...you get the idea. So what is the point of being able to go into almost any building if they are all the same anyway? All of the interesting building in NY you can not enter, just generic hotels and bars, etc. No getting to the top of the Empire State for a great view here.

The best part of the game is the mele fighting, you get to learn all sorts of styles and can even swap styles mid fight. Start a fight as a "brawler" then finish them off with some "Kung Fu". There are also mele weapons skills to learn such as sword, and bo (staff) fighting.

One of the main draws of the game is being able to play as a good (arrest people turn in evidence) or bad cop (kill people, accept bribes, sell evidence)...but it makes NO DIFFERENCE at all to the game what path you choose...so it's ultimately pointless. Maybe if they added different story missions to follow depending on which path you choose, it would have added some extra value to the game. The only minor difference between good/bad cop is the good cop gets promoted quicker, but the bad cop makes money faster.

You get to spend that money on new cars, guns, clothing and skills (driving, guns and fighting). So at least there is some point to the cash. Trouble is it's one of those games (like GTA) where earning money is so damn easy, you end up with too much and nothing to spend it on.

The collecting of "evidnece" for crimes is a nice idea, though it makes no difference to the outcome whether you do or not. It would have been great if you had to collect enough evidence to convict a bad guy instead, but as it stands evidence is just another excuse to make money. So again, a nice idea wasted as it's pointless really.

To be honest, there is more variety and enjoyment in GTAs sub-missions alone in comparison to the WHOLE of TC:NY.

Overall, this is a VERY average game full of bugs with fairly dull and flat gameplay. But all these turn out to be good points as the game is so damn short, you don't have to put up with them for too long. TC:NY is just to damn flawed to warrant higher praise...but the "teenagers" that are too young to play the game and think it "cool" to run around shooting people will lap it up, just that "true" gamers will spot the flaws in the game's design and gameplay and see it for what it really is...a BADLY programed game forever to be in the shadow of the games it rips off so much. If you can find a copy of this in the bargain bucket at you local shops, lap it up. But there are much better games on the market that do this sort of thing with much more style and sustenance. (I'm looking at GTA:SA and even to a lesser extent The Godfather)

Oh man I love this game so much.Story is really good and both ending is powerfull.Too bad It's little short but side missions also have.I know game is little buggy but bugs make the game funny and enjoyable.Voice actor is so damn nice for time.Laurence Fishburne,Mickey Rourke,Christopher Walken and bonus is Redman is in BonusGame.You can enter almost all building.You can buy clothes chance hair buy some weapons from black market buy cars.You can join the Fight Club or Race.I don't care what you saying I love this game.