slightly inconvenient to those lazy enough to want to be able to configure settings
with just one hand and there's not really an excuse for the absence. The options
themselves, as you probably gathered, are rather sparser than I'd like them to
be. There is no control over any individual graphical effects, and not even a
gamma slider, which would have been much preferred to physically adjusting my
monitor's brightness every time I loaded and exited the game (for me it started
off so dark as to be unplayable). Even
the installation was bothersome - one file on CD 3 (of 4) kept convincing the
installer that it was corrupt, and I had to start the long process back from CD
1. I can't really blame anyone for this, since it's very probable that there was
some imperfection in my disc, but I can ask why this game takes four CDs and three
or four gigabytes on my hard drive. Maybe I just haven't installed enough recent
games to become accustomed to this, but I would have been more accepting of this
use of my space if I could see some benefit in-game from it.
Now, up
to this point, the game could still be good - the above problems can be taken
care of or ignored to some degree. If everything else were fine, True Crime
would probably be worth playing. Unfortunately, everything else isn't fine - everything
else suffers from the same type of nagging flaws.
The first thing I noticed
when I got into the game is that it's not pretty and it should run more smoothly
than it does. Aliasing is very noticeable, but even in 800x600 I couldn't run
AA and keep the game at a playable framerate. The character models could use more
polygons to replace the use of textures designed to simulated more polygons, and
some of the characters that I can tell I'm supposed to find attractive (like Nick
Kang's useless new partner Rosie) just aren't, and are a bit scary instead. The
cars are better, but lack reflections and other nice things, like reasonably detailed
interiors. The draw distance is poor, and things pop in and out at odd times,
often leaving you only seconds to realize that that shortcut you were aiming for
is actually blocked by a fence, a car and three pedestrians. The locale itself
is pretty neat; except they apparently copied L.A. faithfully enough that they
didn't leave out or liven up the boring residential areas. In fact, one thing
that would make the game a lot more fun would be the addition of ramps or the
ability to go in the parking garages; basically, make the driving enjoyable, Midtown
Madness-style. As it is the houses and buildings may as well just be walls
lining the roads, although they do have many exciting indentations in which to
crash your vehicle and get stuck. (Also, every time you hit a pedestrian, you
lose a Good Cop/Bad Cop point - if you get below zero, cops and civilians alike
won't hesitate to take potshots at you.)
The indoor environments aren't
all that inspired, either. There really isn't more than one way to complete each
segment, and the levels are pretty much laid out in a long box format - you start
at one end and shoot your way to the other end, making your way around terra cotta
lions and old misplaced bookshelves, while everything around you suffers from
slightly under-par textures. Ironically, this almost makes the game play like
one of those arcade rail lightgun shooters, which can be good or bad depending
on your expectations.
In a couple missions, you're supposed to be stealthy.
This consists entirely of running up to people and then Left Clicking on them
to knock them out and gain a Good Cop/Bad Cop point. You could, if you wanted
to, Right Click on them to kill them, but it has the same effect as knocking them
out (the bodies disappear within five seconds either way) and makes you lose a
Good Cop/Bad Cop point, so I'm not sure why you would. I suppose you're meant
to sneak up on the bad guys, but it doesn't really matter because there are several
seconds between the time they notice you and the time they call for help; plenty
of time to finish running up to them. In the stealth missions you also start out
with a tranquilizer gun, which you never need to fire.
On the other hand,
the audio is better than average. The voice acting fits the movie feel of the
game, even if it doesn't fit the characters' mouths (the cutscenes and audio got
very out of synch for me). Some of the lines, especially Nick's, are pretty cheesy,
but sometimes it seems like they were meant to sound that way (sometimes it doesn't).
The soundtrack, despite scaring me initially with its claim of having the largest
hip-hop collection in any game ever, contained some alright rock and alternative.
Nothing I'd really personally listen to out of the game, but again it fits the
movie feel.
Even the gameplay fits the movie feel - once you learn what
buttons do what, you don't need much skill with those buttons to keep the story
advancing. This is in part due to the fact that if you fail a mission you don't
have to retry it (you can instead do a "Crime Patrol" mission, which is driving
around and meeting an arrest quota by solving the very-common fist-fights, attempted
muggings and other disturbances that erupt every minute or so on the streets of
L.A.), but it's also proven by the fact that 456654 repeated ad infinitum can
win almost any fistfight you get into. Left Shift blocks, but there's really no
need. Once you stun an opponent by landing X attacks, you can perform a special
move - just continue mashing and Nick will do a Monkey Punch or other fun blow.
Shooting is fairly simple as well, and Nick's default dual pistols are
probably too powerful (they have infinite ammo, too). You can pick up opponents'
AK-47s, shotguns and other fun toys (as long as you don't mind being vulnerable
for an obscene amount of time while Nick flips the weapon into his hand with his
foot), but you'll have to watch picked-up guns to make sure you don't run out
of bullets. You've also got as much bullet time as you want - simply right click
while holding a direction and you'll perform a slow motion dive. I was in this
slow motion during most of my firearm combat, I'd say, because there's absolutely
no reason not to be. Likewise, there's no reason to hide behind the terra cotta
lions and bookshelves, because most things you see won't stop bullets. Realistic?
Maybe. Frustrating? Definitely. Your only safe bets are parts of the actual level
geometry, like round columns, which don't do you much good anyway because you're
usually facing more than one enemy at once, so one of them can probably see you
wherever you stand.
You can spend points you earn for completing segments
to learn new moves and improve your shooting and driving skills at dojos and shooting
ranges you'll see during driving segments, but, again, you don't need to.
Finally, all the gameplay is lightly patched together with story elements - story
elements such as those which call for a fight with employees in a strip club (they
robbed a bank, apparently) and for a fight high above the city on a helicopter
pad with a North Korean Army General. To put it bluntly, the only time the story
impressed me was during my ending cutscene (there are three) - it revealed that
you were missing out on the good ending in a standard but still well-done way,
with Nick storming off to uncover the real story on his own.
Also, the
game has multiplayer. It is, in one word, laughable. In two words, it's extremely
silly - and two is also the number of games that were going on when I looked for
internet games (there were a total of five players online). There are several
modes; the game I joined was a race. A very boring race - one long straightaway.
Very, very long. I persevered, holding W (accelerate) until the host cancelled
the game and apologized for the lag. Lag wasn't the only thing holding me back,
though - the game slows down a lot in multiplayer. Maybe the other modes handle
it better, but I'll never know - no one was playing them.
Overall:
4.5/10
The entire game is one mostly a chain of indoor fight sequence - driving
sequence (a couple are timed!), and the gameplay doesn't really change from one
fight to another. Luckily, the game isn't all that long, and you always know what
you're supposed to be doing. The only times you have to look for things to do
is when the mission is "Solve 4 Crimes", which is usually a punishment for failing
a previous segment. While being able to use interstates, L.A. exit signs and all,
is a pretty neat experience, the driving loses its excitement as you realize that
there's nothing special for you to do in your commandeered car. About all you
can do is run people over, and that happens enough on accident anyway. The assortment
of cars is modest, and while a couple models are much faster than others, there's
usually no reason to get out of Nick's car - what would you do with the extra
speed anyway? The fist-fighting is a mash-fest, and despite the Monkey Punch,
it has no depth. The shooting is standard third-person shooter fare. True Crime:
Streets of L.A. could have been good. If more attention had been paid to the
details, if a little more character had been injected into the driving, if a little
more effort had been put into the fighting system - it could have been worth the
3GB on your hard disk. As it is, though, there is no need to play this one - the
developers just didn't try hard enough, and True Crime can't stand up to
GTA, Max Payne or the hype that preceded its release.
Of
course, this is the only game I know of in which Snoop Dogg is an unlockable playable
character, but you have to ask yourself: is that really a good thing?
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