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False Crime

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: July 13, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Can it truly be what we hoped it was? - the 3rd-party answer to the once- PS2-exclusive super-hit, "Grand Theft Auto 3"?
Needless to say, after the revolutionary PS2 title showed us just how addictive it can be to go on city-wide homicide treks, even the most hardcore XBox- and Gamecube-devotees wanted a piece of it. Of course, buying a rival console was too much to do for some, so we all waited patiently, unti word came of a title being developed that would allow us to experience the same guilty thrills we experienced at the controls of the GTA franchise.

"True Crime: Streets of LA" itself promises to deliver what you had been hankering for, for in addition to its apparent style of environment and manipulation, it claims to give the welcome addition of kung fu as a means of combat.
Sounds pretty good, when you add the strengths of a full plate of voice-acting and a storyline involving the Korean and Russian mafia activity in Los Angeles. How can this game go wrong?

Well, consider that "True Crime" had already been made before, in the form of 'GTA3: the conceptual version.' Imagine "GTA3" without the nifty environments, the ability to horde weapons, and (thereby) the ability to indulge in the full-scale fire-assault that was so gosh-darn fulfilling, when following the storyline missions got boring. Imagine "GTA3" with those stipulations, and you've got "True Crime."

I'm not sure whether the game's developers realized at one point that they were falling short of making a carbon copy of the Playstation2 blockbuster, but if that was the case, that was probably the moment when they began developing the story, which turned into one of the game's biggest assets.
"True Crime", quite simply, can't hold up to the dynamisism of GTA; players will have to focus on other aspects of the game to make up for its lack of firepower.

Sadly, even when you're not making direct comparisons to GTA, "True Crime" is a bit dissapointing: the game is composed largely of gunplay, auto-driving, hand-to-hand fighting, covert sneaking, and (as a side-action) frisking folks on the street...but none of these actions live up to the potential they could've possessed, in style or presentation. All-around, the gameplay has a half-baked feel, not unsimilair to the dissapointing and old-hat "Dead To Rights 2" and the godawful 50 Cent-themed game.

Then again, I suppose it is passable, considering that I played it through, three times, to get all of the possible endings; the storyline is worth a look, despite encompassing the silly '80s-era, one-liner-spouting bionic hero in Nick Cang. The voice acting is fairly good, even if the animation is often lacking.

"True Crime" won't satiate you if you're looking for the follow-up to a GTA game, but it's a time-killer that'll serve its purpose for at least a few hours.

My kids love it

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: January 21, 2007
Author: Amazon User

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

I was expecting a GTA and I got a game with every part of it's presentation flawed.

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 0 / 1
Date: January 11, 2007
Author: Amazon User

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!

A very fun package

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: February 22, 2006
Author: Amazon User

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.

Just another GTA wannabe, but still fun

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: September 21, 2005
Author: Amazon User

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.

Not worth a buy.

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: August 22, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I rented this game an after an hour of playing it I realised that it was a mesh of different genres put into one game. But it really hasnt been done well. The driving mechanics are similare to those of gta, the fighting system sucks, and the shooting is too simplistic. The story is horrible on top of that and the main character is an annyoying prick who digs up cliche lines that are suppose to be humurous. It plays second hand to gta but it's too repetitive none of ur missions have a clear objective and u just run, gun and fight ur way through a fairly short game. The story wasnt even immersive. I cant imagine buying this game, give it a rent first.

great game

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: August 20, 2005
Author: Amazon User

t is a great buy the graphics rock it's a bit more on the adult side due too alot of bad crap but who cares roaming L.A. is awsome and fighting crime and going on rampages is sweet and to all you people who think grand theft auto is better than this YOUR WRONG! grand theft auto 1, 2, 3, and vice city suck!.

Grand Thet Auto Rip Off

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: August 15, 2005
Author: Amazon User

This game is not that great. The controls are pretty good, but the shooting sytem is terrible. The cut scenes are pretty fun when Nick (the main character) smart mouths. And it is pretty fun to jack cars and cruise around the city. But it is not fair how lola and general kim are impossible to fight. It has ok graphics. Rent this game before you buy it.

Poor man's GTA is actually quite fun

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 7 / 9
Date: July 19, 2005
Author: Amazon User

True Crime owes a lot, if not everything, to the Grand Theft Auto series. Indeed it is very difficult these days to have a free-roaming action game and not compare it to GTA but True Crime is so alarmingly similar that I'm surprised Rockstar didn't try to sue.

The story of True Crime is right out of a direct-to-video action film of the late 80s. It starts out as your typical renegade cop shoots first and ask questions later kind of pulp but ends up being about ancient chinese wizards, huge fire-breathing dragons and sewer-dwelling zombies. If it began far-fetched then what it ends up as is just plain weird. However, that's not to say you'll not have fun. The plot is spread out over 9 different stages each with about 10 individual missions. It's possible to replay your favorite missions too.

True crime has 5 different styles of play. First their is the free-roaming bit where you can run all over LA solving street crimes. There there's the car chases in which you run bad guys (and sometimes airplanes) off the road. Third is the stealth missions in which you must sneak into places unnoticed and render unconsious anyone you see. Fourth is the one on one combat and fifth, my favorite, is the shoot-em-up levels, where you can do loads of stunts and diving through the air blasting away at bad guys. The slow motion as you zero in on the targets is brilliant. But I would have preferred if the game was bloodier. A few splatters here and there ain't enough.

But much of this game is boring, aesthetically at the least. The geographically accurate LA is impressive but it's so unbelievably bland. The dullest colors are used to paint the environment and the city is pretty made up of grey-scale. The cars also cannot do stunts. Which is crap. How brilliant would it be to drive right off the freeway and fly into the sky before plummeting 100 feet? Too bad, you can't do it because of the pointless invisible wall.

Pros:

Loads of action.
Blowing up stuff is fun.
Cool cut scenes with funny dialogue.
Great tunes.

Cons:

Some missions are boring.
No stunts.
LA is bland and thoroughly NON-interactive.
The fights with General Kim are IMPOSSIBLE!
Loads of very long loading times!

No matter how disappointing some parts of the game are I will still be getting the sequel, True Crime: New York City. But please do not make as boring as LA was and cut out those awful loading times!

Graphics B+
Sound A
Gameplay A-
Lasting Appeal A-

4 hours of gameplay not worth the price

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 1 / 4
Date: April 09, 2005
Author: Amazon User

The maps of LA are cute. Except for all the strip malls that they put in where they haven't bothered to find out if it is a residential neighborhood or not.

From start to finish, the game was done in under 4 hours. Not even worth the price of the game.

Lackluster plot, limited fighting moves. The only thing that could be considered fun about the game is driving around the streets and taking over cars. If you want a game to do that, buy GTA, not this garbage.

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