In some aspects, True Crime: Streets of LA is an amazing accomplishment. The sheer number of gameplay mechanics is staggering and most are implemented with style and balanced impeccably. Just about every element of this game plays better than entire games based on the same premise: The gunplay rivals Max Payne, the open ended driving sequences are more robust than GTA3, and the martial arts combat and stealth elements are fun and forgiving.
On the other hand, poor graphics and a myriad of bugs continually remind the player that he is merely playing a video game. It would be easy to dismiss this game as a half-hearted effort to score some bread from unwary Christmas shoppers – if it weren’t for the lamentable assload of wasted potential.
It’s Grand Theft Auto meets Max Payne…meets Shenmue… meets Metal Gear… meets WinBack…meets Narc?
Gunplay has a pivotal role in TC:SoLA. Most of the action will take place from a 3rd person viewpoint, using a functional auto-targeting system. As the protagonist always uses a John Woo-style akimbo approach, you’ll eventually be able to track multiple targets at the same time. Add in the ability to roll and do bullet-time shoot-dodges, and you’ve got a pretty intense shooter… but the buck doesn’t stop there. Pulling the right trigger and holding it there will bring up an FPS style aiming interface that will allow you to manually target specific parts of an enemy. Of course, all of these shooting elements work the same way while you’re driving in a car, too.
The hand-to-hand combat is handled in a comparably simple manner. Punch, kick, jump-kick and grapple buttons supply your basic arsenal, every five hits or so you’ll be able to enter in button combos to execute cinematic special moves. New attacks (such as running attacks) can be acquired throughout the game. While the fighting system is functional, I’ve found that the best way to consistently win fights is to simply mash buttons. It is worth noting that along with the cinematic effects, the environments you’ll find yourself fighting in are full of stuff to smash while you’re whooping ass.
Your character starts the game with a big, sluggish boat of a car. Any car on the street can be commandeered, and you’ll get upgraded vehicles as the game progresses. The handling on even the smaller and more nimble cars feels somewhat stiff and unrealistic.
Stealth elements play out in pretty simple manner. Tapping the green button will cause your character to sidle up to a wall or duck behind objects. In an interesting twist, these same moves allow your character to pop out from behind cover to deliver quick shots at nearby enemies during non-stealth scenarios, a-la the N64 classic WinBack or arcade fave Time Crisis.
As not everyone you come up against will be a murderous armed thug, you are equipped with many tools of the police trade. If an unruly person is causing a minor disturbance, try flashing your badge. If this doesn’t work, you can fire your gun into the air and watch them hit the deck. If all else fails, beat the piss out them. The end result is always a handcuffed perp on his way to the cooler. Incapacitating shots are encouraged only as the final means of pacification; the idea is that lethal force is to be avoided if at all possible. You can also search pedestrians for contraband at your leisure, which can prove to be an entertaining way to score some extra firepower.
City of Angels
When you’re not doing story-related tasks, you are free to roam around the very impressive virtual Los Angeles. Random crimes will happen at random locations, and if you choose to go defuse these situations you will be given points that may used to take up training missions that will upgrade your hardware as well as your abilities. This type of reward system actually gives the player a reason to go out and engage in side quests, adding greatly to the overall play time.
The plot is carried along by an all-star cast: Christopher Walken (The Prophecy), Michelle Rodriguez (Fast and the Furious), Gary Oldman (Bram Stoker’s Dracula), Michael Madsen (Reservoir Dogs) and CCH Pounder (The Shield) all deliver top-notch performances. Most of the music is authentic gangsta rap, which tends to be pretty liberal with the ‘N’ word… in fact, be prepared for a lot of very foul language. The rest of the dialogue can be grating, but the sometimes cringe-inducing cheese works well because it’s often self-referential or satirical in nature.
Smashes, crashes and gunshots are here in full-effect, Dolby Surround glory. I can’t think of one thing I’d do different in the audio department.
Oodles of Ass
All of this sounds awesome, doesn’t it? Well, I’m about to rain all over the proverbial parade:
The graphics here suck. Polygon counts are low, and textures are bland and washed out. Character models are worse than the environments, and look stiff when in motion. It’s obvious that this game was designed to run smoothly on the lowest common denominator, *cough-PS2* and no attempt was made to optimize the visuals for the more powerful hardware of modern systems. The real slap in the face is the fact that even though this is a sloppy multi-platform release, there is still crippling slowdown around every corner.
Ugh.
While driving his car in the very first cut-scene, the main character apparently steered telepathically – as his hand hovered inches away from the wheel. When his car hit a mild bump and his shocks compressed, the entire car disappeared into the street.
*twitches angrily*
As if the ugly, sloppy, buggy graphics weren’t enough… the game crashes! I had to take the first copy I bought in to exchange it, as my XBox refused to believe that it was a valid game. Shortly after returning with a good copy, it crashed when I attempted to enter my name; I had to time my button presses more slowly to keep it stable. Upon loading chapter 3, the game crashed immediately about 75% of the time.
UNACCEPTABLE!
Final Digs
It’s a shame (practically a crime against humanity) that such an awesome and ambitious game can be so thoroughly ruined by shoving it out the door before it was actually ready. A couple of months worth of polish would still have yielded a Christmas release, and True Crime could have avoided being crushed by the simultaneous XBox release of GTA3.
Instead of the perfect, mind-blowing game it should have been, True Crime ends up being an unacceptably flawed title. If you’ve got infinite patience for random crashes and sloppy graphics, go ahead and pick this one up – the rest of us would be better off scoring a copy of the GTA3 Double Pack instead.
