> True Crime: Streets of L.A.: Written by: Walter Hare 

 Publisher: Activision  Price: 19.99  Genre: Action   M for Mature

 

GTA clones are a staple of gaming today. Ranging from the absolutely
great to the absolutely horrendous, being a clone is a mixed bag of
good and bad. Good in that it can put a spin on established gaming
principles, yet bad in that most developers tend to put less effort
into the game, instead opting for recognized principles that generally
fail. True Crime: Streets of L.A. is largely part of this second
group.

You are Nick Kang, a suspended police office who is enlisted in a new crime fighting organization that has been given more extensive rights than normal police. This means you can shake down, take out, and arrest basically anyone you want to. Being able to check anyone on the street for drugs and weapons is wildly amusing... at first.

In regards to the story, I would rather be castrated in India and left in the desert for dead than have to progress through this one. A cool idea on Luxoflux's part was to create a branching storyline, so that if you failed a mission you would progress to another mission that reflected this failure. Unfortunately, it isn't very well delved out
to where it's fun, and most of the time you'll want to go back and complete that failed mission or two just to get the bonus you receive later on. Besides, the majority of missions aren't so hard that you'll have to do this often.

Couple this with the terrible dialogue in the game and you have a story that isn't worthy of recitation to a home for the deaf. It is largely similar to Lethal Weapon in that Nick Kang is a renegade cop out to kick ass and chew bubble gum, except that in True Crime there is no humor in any of the lines and none of it is interesting even in the least.

To go along with this storyline is the good cop, bad cop, and shield systems. By killing civilians you gain bad cop points, while arresting them gives you good cop points. There are no noticeable advantages to being a good cop except that other cops don't chase you down, so it isn't really a big deal. The shield system is basically how you continue, and doing various police activities give you shield points. Other than being your continues, these points can be used to by
upgrades and that's really about it.

A very promising part of this title was the absolutely huge cityscape that can be explored. The fact of the matter is that this huge area is another failed part of the game. Having a huge, immensely detailed environment is of no use when it is barely inhabited by anything useful. You are started into the mission that you have selected, so driving to those is removed from the game, and there is generally
nothing available to merit exploration.

The addition of Street Crimes almost makes exploration fun though. As you travel around L.A., you might be prompted to stop a fight among rival factions of whores, stop crazy car thieves, or rescue hostages in distress. These challenges range from the incredibly easy to the absolutely terrifying in terms of difficulty. Street Crimes were one of the few things I liked about the game, but because of the many other failings of the title they were handicapped in enjoyment factor.

One of the few things available for exploration is the upgrade center. By going to these areas you can gain new techniques for driving, fighting, and shooting. Here lies another good idea that turns out to be a failure. Almost all of the upgrades are utterly useless. Half of the gun upgrades had a purpose, but it ends there. All of the fighting moves and the vast majority of driving techniques have no practical use in any part of the game. Being able to gain newer, faster cars was a good idea, but there are only four earnable cars, so that fun ends pretty quick.

The look of the game is one of the few things that is at least decent. Buildings do repeat themselves pretty often, but with the huge area there are quite a few different kinds that make it look like a complete city. Day and night effects are all right, though having them be real time might have accentuated this more. Indoor environments lacked detail overall and character models lacked a certain polish, but all-in-all the graphics are one of the better points of the game.

Featuring some very popular rap artists, the soundtrack to the game will appeal to many, many people. Artists such as Snoop Dogg, Young Billionaires, and Lil Eazy-E contribute their voice to the west coast hip-hop scene. Unfortunately for me, I hate rap. The song lineup is respectable though.

Voice acting has one good moment in this game. That is to say, Christopher Walken contributes his eerie voice to the game. Too bad for Mr. Walken that he didn't read the script, as the terrible dialogue is not made much better by his name recognition. Every other voice actor is absolutely terrible, which coincides with the terrible storyline.

I had no issues with the control in the game, overall. By mixing shooting, stealth, and driving segments together, though, I do think that they put this issue on the back burner. Especially noticeable is the lack of tight melee combat controls, which in certain segments of the game is very annoying. Some of the gun techniques and almost all of the driving techniques are made more useless than they already are by poor control as well.

Fortunately, the targeting system isn't bad. Killing enemies who have hostages is a bit of trouble, but by the time you get to this worry you can probably take a hit and place a couple of lead Christmas presents in the bodies of a few civilians anyway.

There is absolutely no replay value in the game unless you absolutely want to see all of those lame branch-off missions mentioned earlier or see another ending. No one wants to do this, so there is no replay value in any meaning of the word.

Being a cop is gritty business, and as such you'll run into quite a few adult issues. Whether it's the aforementioned hookers, the immense amount of carnage dealt out by your own guns, or the consistently violent gangster story there is plenty of material to merit this titles 'M' rating.

Overall, True Crime: Streets of L.A. has a lot going for it on paper. In gaming reality, though, every innovation it tries to bring to the table is ruined by terrible implementation. Though the system of upgrades and mission branch ideas are good in essence, they are put into gaming reality in a matter more horrifying than "Jason X". Avoid this title and mock anyone who happens to purchase it.

Graphics: 8.0 | Sound: 6.0 | Control: 7.0 | Replay: 2.0 | Overall Game Score: 5.7/10