True Crime: Streets of LA

Worth the $1.90 plus shipping that I paid.
I gave it to my friend as a gift and he enjoyed it overall. The game is fun, but gets repetitive after a while.

My kids love it, but I think it is too violent for their age.

Here's ten reason not to get this:
1) Better games of the same genre are out, making this obsolete.
2) No multi player or online play of any kind
3) Slow motions is everywhere and it gets annoying.
4) Repetitive! Driving, fighting, shooting, and none are done well.
5) City looks bland.
6) Sound track can be improved on completely.
7) All there is to do is story mode
8) Characters aren't at all lovable. They are annoying.
9) Aiming system isn't that good
10)Combat system is weak!

True Crime: Streets of LA was my first experience with the free-roaming genre of games that Grand Theft Auto made famous. I've never played any of the GTA games so I can't compare them with True Crime, but on its own merits I had a lot of fun with this game.

You are Nick Kang, an Asian-American cop working on a case involving money laundering between various mafia groups in LA. Somehow, all this ties in to the death of your father years earlier. As Nick, you'll be sent on a variety of missions all over LA. You'll have straight shoot-outs, hand-to-hand combat, car chases, and stealth missions. In-between you'll get some free time where you can drive around solving random street crimes in GTA fashion.

I give the developers credit for mapping out all of Los Angeles and letting you drive around without any loading between city sections. It's a huge environment, and it's an amazing programming feat. I also like True Crime's story structure: depending on if you solve or fail the current mission, you get alternate cinematics and branching storylines that lead to different endings. It's very immersive and engaging, plus you can go back any time and try for a better outcome. There are tons of upgrades to collect including faster cars, stronger guns and deadlier combat moves. Finally, the voice cast rocks. The script is a pretty cliche mix of various cop movies, but the voice-acting is top-notch (including Christopher Walken, Michael Madsen and Michelle Rodriguez).

The game has some problems. The driving and shooting mechanics are pretty solid, except the zooming function isn't as precise as it should be. The stealth missions are a joke, and are more about running up and hitting a guy before they see you rather than genuine sneaking. Hand-to-hand combat can get frustrating when even after all the upgrades, it still boils down to random button-mashing. And the storyline takes an odd supernatural twist towards the end, which really kills the gritty "True Crime" atmosphere the game is trying to deliver.

Despite the flaws, I'm hooked. Maybe the GTA originals are stronger games overall, but I love being able to drive anywhere and do anything with Nick Kang. Some have criticzed the graphics engine for not cranking out enough cars on the freeway, different NPC characters on the streets, or making LA more interactive. They're valid complaints, but at the same time I think we've come up against the current-generation's graphical limits. Hopefully the PS3 and Xbox 360 will fix the lingering imperfections.

Highly recommended if you've never played a GTA-style game, and worth checking out for everyone who has.

The story is pretty generic. A great cop gets inplicated in a scandal and mysteriously disappears. His son has a few issues as a result, leading to violent behavior and a bad attitude. Still, he becomes a cop just like his daddy, trying to do the right thing or get revenge or something. Later on, an ancient Chinese ghost and a few zombies get involved, but it's still not a very good story. At the end, there's a lesson about what the "true crime" in LA is. Wouldn't want to spoil the amazing plot, though.

Even with the sub-par storyline, and the fact that this game is an obvious rip-off of Grand Theft Auto, I had fun with it. While there are similarities to GTA, like fighting, shooting, and driving your way through the city, there are some differences in how it's done. You could say that True Crime puts a little more finesse into those elements. When you fight, you can high kick, low kick, punch, or grapple. A bit more complex than GTA. Then you can learn various moves including running attacks and special grapples. This makes combat more difficult, since you have to remember how to use these attacks in order to win the more difficult fights. I had trouble getting past a few fights, because the enemies had high life or they were really good at blocking.
The shooting is more challenging and yet more interesting, too. You can just pull the trigger as fast as you can, but if you're up against a whole mob of baddies, that'll just get you killed. So, you can duck behind objects and take shots from your cover, dive out and shoot Matrix-style (Jeez, can't Rockstar come up with anything on their own?), and aim for critical areas of the body. You can upgrade your skill so that you can make a head shot or a neutralizing shot more easily. So, you can use some techniques other than the old "bring a big gun and try not to die" thing. Speaking of guns, you can't just buy them. You have to pick them up from criminals. The type of gun isn't as big of an issue, and there aren't cheat weapons like the cool ones in GTA.
And then there is driving. As with fighting and shooting, you can upgrade your driving skills. You can learn to do a "peel-out" or to ram a car the right way so it goes spinning, among other things. You can also shoot and target while driving. You can even blow up cars in one shot by targeting below the license plate. Sounds fun, huh?

As I mentioned, you can just shoot at a criminal, perform a head-shot, or neutralize him by going for the arm or leg. Why would you waste time with a leg when you can just blow his head off? (By the way, you don't actually see it blow off. It's not a bloody game.) Well, there is a point system. You get Good Cop points for putting as little hurt on your opponents as possible, and Bad Cop points for trying to kill people (shooting at civilians, shooting criminals in the head, etc.). You get different endings for good or bad ratings, and the happiest ending is for good cops. It's up to you how you want to play it out. You can choose to load an earlier chapter and get a different ending, so you can be bad then be good, if you want.

The music in this game was pretty good. There was some rap and hip-hop, and some heavy metal in the more intense scenes. The graphics are average. They aren't ugly, but they aren't beautiful. As I stated, this game isn't too graphic. No bloody stumps, no splatter of brains on the sidewalk. But there is some sexual content, such as strippers and talk of 'family jewels'. None of it is that bad, though.

This game does have a few problems. First, there are glitches. You might fall through the ground and get stuck in a gray zone if you walk in the wrong place, or have some skippy dialogue in a cut scene. Second, the controls aren't smooth. When you're fighting, it may feel like your attacks are slipping right by the enemy. It can make the battles iffy, even if you have the skill to win. Another issue is that the scenery appears when you drive near it, rather than reaching all the way to the horizon. Some things don't appear until you're twenty feet away from them, which can cause you to run into things. You think "I'll cut through the grass to save time" and then "Crap! Where the #%*! did that wall come from!?" Some walls don't even when you run into them at 100+ mph, and it's a real slowdown having to reverse and go around, not to mention you lose all the speed you built up.

Overall, I had a good time playing this game. There are little sidequests and alternate plot endings, which gives you more to do. The game is twenty bucks now, and that's a pretty good price. I'd say that this is up to a thirty dollar value. So, if GTA or games like that are your kind of thing, and you want to try the other side of the law, pick up True Crime: Streets of LA.