One of the biggest problems when developing these types of games is meeting the high standards that the Grand Theft Auto franchise has set, and with no exceptions True Crime Streets of LA does just that. You take on the roll of a Los Angeles police office, suspended indefinitely for untold reasons. You are quickly told about your father and the great man he was, the uncertainties of his death drive you to find out what happened. You are Nick Kang reinstated into the force as a member of the EOD Elite Operations Division a special unit with jurisdiction over the whole city and so the game begins.
Graphics
Overall the look of this game is great considering the amount of content and the size of the city, the great part is there are no loading times while you are cruising around this huge city. But at time the camera can get hung up behind walls and makes it really awkward to see what you are doing and this can be bad especially if you’re in a fight. The very well done cutscenes come complete with lip-synching, whether he is on foot talking on his cell phone or driving the cutscenes used to explain the missions you just completed or the missions you are about to take on are very well produced.
This game has very nice particle effects when you drive into fences poles and walls, while it’s unrealistic for a man with Nick’s build to be able to punch and kick holes in solid walls it looks very nice in a fight both indoors and outdoors and the animations are very well executed. Some of the downfalls of this game are the repetition; you will see a lot of the same looking pedestrians and cars in certain areas around the city.
The representation of Los Angeles is very well done, accurately mapping out all the streets and parts of L.A from downtown LA to Beverly Hills and as you enter each section of the city you will notice the surroundings change from the clean looking and fancy houses in Beverly Hills to the more damp and “trashy” looking town houses and “hoods”.
Sound
Everything from the voice acting to the Score, the sound fits the mood. The music is compiled from various west coast hip-hop artists from minor artist to major groups like Westside connections, Ice-T and some BONE Thugs-N-Harmony. The sound effects are decent but the car, gun, and combat effects all sound second rate to the voice acting and hip-hop artist, even the radio dispatcher will drop some jokes from time to time along with cheesy lines and the comments are very funny.
Gameplay
The gameplay is just sweet; from the freedom to do as you please to the 24/7 missions and training for better driving skills, fighting skills and shooting skills, along with the size of the city you will be playing for hours. Along with the side missions you also have the main story to keep you going, and even in between the main story line in cretin missions before going to meet your objective you can take a timeout and browse around the city to do other missions or training and the ability to go and replay older missions and even alternate missions this game will keep you going for a while.
With the good cop/bad cop continuum will give you another goal to reach since there are certain crossroads in which you have to be a good cop to be able to enter otherwise you will be forced to a much less then great ending. But its ok because at first you are inexperienced you will be running over pedestrians on the sidewalk at high speeds and shooting innocent civilians, but its ok because of the ability to go hop back into any mission you want you can do that and do some extra missions to bring up your good cop karma. When it comes to shooting this game hold its own along with auto target you can choose to free target and shoot the enemy in the arm or leg or other limbs to disable them and freeing any hostage they may hold.
TC features some very nice weapons everything from handguns to machine guns and shotguns to even grenade launchers along with the ability to hold two different weapons at the same time makes it a lot of fun. Beyond all this you also get traffic that reacts to real time. There is just so much in this game that will keep you going. Speaking from experience, I once pulled up with my car to a crime scene and criminal started to fight me he ran and got into my car and drove off so I got into another car and chased him down when I got close to him I shot the car and he got out and started shooting at me I shot him once and ran at him he hit and I got knocked down he ran and stole the car that I was in. I was shocked at the AI’s level of intelligence, and also taught me to stay on my toes, because if you think it will happen odds are it probably will.
Along with the good also comes the bad, the targeting system isn’t the best around in fact it sucks, not only does it take a long time for the targeting icon to pop up but sometimes it wont even target the target that you want, you could change the target by moving the right thumb stick left or right but become annoying, the auto targeting can be a nuisance if there are multiple enemies on the screen when you kill one the targeting movement from one person to the next is slow and when your getting shot at by three people you don’t really have any time to waste.
The fighting system is very well done and I mean very well done some of the moves and combos you can pull off are done very nice and with the 24/7 training you can always go and learn new and better moves which really help move the game along.
Conclusion
This is it, rent it, buy it, or burrow it–just make sure you play it. It is loads of fun its got a nice story line great cutscenes and some of the best voice acting around, along with a wicked sound track humorous lines and so many options is a game even after you finish you can go back and replay older missions some that you know you could have done nicer or even just cruise around the city cleaning up the crime it’s a blast to play from beginning to end.
