In
late 2004 Luxoflux and Activision brought True Crime:
Streets of LA to consoles everywhere. While neither
an original creation nor a blatant rip off of any one game,
it lacked any real character to make it anything more than
a decent rental. Fortunately, Activision has a good track
record of sticking with a brand and making improvements
in follow-up games.
Following
a bloody night on the streets, gang member Marcus Reed quits
his thug ways and joins the police force. It's up to you
to decide what kind of cop Marcus is going to be. As you
run, drive, and shoot through the gritty streets of New
York, you be awarded points based on your actions.
Plant
evidence on an innocent bystander? Bad cop points. Shoot
an old woman for jay walking? Bad cop points. Shake down
an honest shopkeeper? Bad cop points.
I'm
sure there are ways to earn good cop points, but I didn't
find any.
The
missions vary wildly from routine traffic stops to homicide.
Stop enough crimes in a section of town and the crime rate
of that neighborhood will drop. Earn points to get promotions
and advance the main storyline as well as fame, fortune
and floosies. You'll have your choice of neighborhoods,
too, as New York City provides a massive backdrop for you
to get down and dirty in.
There
are minor improvements over its predecessor. Marcus is better
character than Nick Kang was and he's on a more interesting
quest. Your playable arsenal has been expanded and the game
feels far less linear than Streets of LA.
The
True Crime series is most often compared to the Grand
Theft Auto series largely due to the free form gameplay
and high body count. But what GTA does right --
engrossing storylines, decent AI, intuitive controls and
good old fashioned fun -- True Crime is still struggling
with.
Enemies
stand around waiting for you to shoot them. Buildings you
should be able to enter, you can't. The auto lock on targeting
system will often target enemies on the floor above you.
The game lags in certain sequences.
Driving
can be fun, but the physics are as robust as they were in
Atari's Paper Boy and the camera swings so wildly
the game should come with seasickness patches.
While
New York City and its assortment of famous landmarks are
entertaining, most of the time you'll be on generic grim
and gritty streets. The graphics never really get a chance
to shine or blow you away. The soundtrack is improved with
big names like Jay-Z and Nas providing tracks but once again,
GTA did it better.
While
not a bad game, you really can't tell that this is a second
effort by the developers. The numerous glitches and quirks
are distracting and it isn't a remarkable improvement over
the original. Still, there is some fun to be had and it's
not a bad game to rent and curl up with on a rainy afternoon.
