Customer Reviews

True Crime: New York City

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

There is nothing quite as satisfying at the end of a long, difficult day, than to come home, turn on the TV, fire up whichever gaming console you prefer (in this case, Nintendo Gamecube) and beat-on/shoot-up any pedestrian you come across. "True Crime: New York City" may have a plot, but that's irrelevant. You know damn well you're only buying this game because there is something morbidly amusing about shooting innocent civilians and crashing expensive cars. Does that make you a bad person? No, it's just plain fun.

In this game, the sequel to "True Crime: Streets Of L.A." you play officer Marcus Reed, in a rather cliche plot that has you avenging the death of your partner and busting drug-dealers who would otherwise be your friends. The game itself is actually quite fun, and the story does move rather fluidly -- my favorite part being a scenario where you have to escape a mental hospital with the aid of Beetlejuice, he of the "Howard Stern Show" fame. However, if you don't care to follow a plot and just commit random acts of violence, there is plenty to do here. I for one enjoy tracking down an arsonist and stealing his flamethrower. In the sea of "Grand Theft Auto" clones, this is possibly the best available -- and if you own the Gamecube, it's the only game of it's kind available, really.

Now, despite the guilty pleasure this game delivers, there are a few flaws worth mentioning. First off, the freezing. During gameplay, the game likes to freeze up at random moments, so make sure you save often. Also, the graphics are a little weak at times, with your view being obscured all too often (it would help if at nighttime, there were headlights for your car). But overall, it's a good game that is easy to pick up from time to time. With lots to do, a great soundtrack (featuring the likes of Danzig, Bob Dylan and Sonic Youth, among others) and great voice acting (Christopher Walken!!) it's hard not to like this game.

If you own a GameCube, you must get True Crime New York City. It's the next best thing to Grand Theft Auto Vice City and San Andreas. If you don't have a Playstation 2 then this is your only alternative. But it's not too shabby with a vast city to prowl around in and lots of action. You can play as good cop or a bad cop. This game, in my opinion, is highly underrated. It improves upon an already great game in True Crimes Streets of L.A. You can't miss with this one!

True Crime: New York City is the long awaited "sequel" to True Crime: Streets of LA (TC:SoLA). This time around, the game takes place in New York City (as the name of the game clearly indicates). If you're new to the True Crime series, you take the role of a police officer and have to solve crime related cases in an attempt to uncover parts of your past and avenge the death of someone close to you (once you get to play the game, you'll notice it's not as simple and monotonous as it sounds). You get to drive a vehicle (motorbikes are now available) around all of New York City, going from one case location to another, or simply solving random street crimes. You also get missions that involve shooting your way through a building, or simply fighting some guy until you can apprehend him/her.


Story (9/10)

You take control of Marcus Reed, a New York Police Department officer (Hence the disclaimer that comes with the box stating that the game isn't affiliated to the real NYPD). He grew up in a tough neighborhood, and was later rescued and joined the police. However, after witnessing something that impacts his life, he must question himself as to whether he wants to be a good cop or a bad cop while he tries to reveal the persons responsible for what he witnessed. It sounds a bit cliche, but it works for the game.

This time around the story isn't as lineal as TC:SoLA. The useless chapter system has been removed, and this time you'll get to choose the order in which you play the three major cases (There are actually four major cases, the first one being completely obligatory, plus an Intro and a Conclusion act), each with a variety of different sub-cases. If you fail a case (mission), you get the chance to repeat it or to continue on and later turn to the assistance of one of your informants to get the information you were supposed to get if you had passed the mission. So, you won't stray much from the main storyline.

Additionally, you can also spend time participating in Street Races to earn some extra cash (This time everything is bought with cash), taking advantage of the occasion to arrest the persons responsible for the illegal Street Race. Fight Arenas are also a new element in this game, although they are not much important.


Gameplay (9/10)

As I mentioned before, this game is mainly about driving through New York City, and having fun as you do so. Of course, while you are at this you'll have to solve street crimes if you want to clean the precincts (And if you don't solve them, the crime rate of that precinct and the neighboring ones will go up). Occasionally you'll be notified of a major street crime, which are more complex than ordinary street crimes. A variety of vehicles is at your disposal, which you can either "confiscate" for your temporary personal use, or buy at a car dealership or at the police headquarters. If you decide to buy one, it'll be added to your car inventory, and you can make it magically appear at the police headquarters or at any of the police boots throughout the city. There's one funny thing I've noticed. You buy your police car at your headquarters, assuming that it is a police car. However, you've got to pay some extra cash if you want to add the turret (thing with the red and blue lights) and add a siren to it. This kind of makes you wonder why it was considered a police car at all when you bought it. If your car gets damaged, you'll also have to pay to have it repaired.

New York is a big city. That's why you can grab a taxi cab or take the subway to get quickly (almost instantaneously) from one part of the city to another. Again, this isn't free of charge. You've got to arrest criminals and solve cases to earn points, which you later cash in at your headquarters. Solving crimes also awards you with job promotions; you can strive to become a first grade detective, which gets you better weapons, cars, and moves.

Shooting missions are quite fun, as long as you've got the proper guns. You can buy guns, each suitable for a certain situation, and they will be added to your inventory. However, if you run out of ammo, you'll need to go to the trunk of your (as in bought) vehicle to get more ammo. Guns you cannot carry due to your personal inventory being full will also be stored in the trunk of your car.

The biggest thing that improves the gameplay over that of the TC:SoLA is the ability to enter buildings. You now will be able to enter some of the buildings (Not all of them) to solve crimes or simply take a stroll. There are music and liquor stores, pharmacies, hotels, men's clubs (I'm not lying), and other different types of buildings that benefit from this ability.

The only bad thing about the gameplay is the controls. The least used button of the controller in most games is the annoying Z button. Guess what? It is one of the most used buttons in this game. The worst thing is that you are not able to change the configuration of the controls, so you'll be stuck with it. Even the programming for the game went wrong with the controls, since the manual clearly states that the down button of the d-pad is the one used to sound the horn, but in reality the horn is sounded by pressing the same button that changes the song you are listening to. Activision commented that it was a slight mistake. The response of the controls while driving also is not good, but that should not keep you from enjoying driving.


Graphics/Sounds (8/10)

The game does have very good graphics. In fact, if you had the chance to play TC:SoLA, you will immediately notice the superiority of those in NYC. While walking, you can take the time to appreciate the detail of most of the buildings and other landmarks. However, the same does not apply to while driving. One of the biggest problems of this game is the low framerate. After playing for a while, you'll notice how the game becomes very slow, and thus distorts the beautiful graphics of the game. This is an awful thing because it makes you think that the graphics of the game are not that good looking. Remember how in Streets of L.A. your license plate had your file's name? Well, this time it does not happen, since the plates are unreadable. Some things, like what I previous mentioned, were sacrificed in order to add detail to the graphics of other elements.

In the sound apartment, the game offers the ability to buy songs in Music Stores scattered throughout the city. However, this all comes down to personal taste. The game offers Metal/Punk, Alternative, Hip Hop, Rock, and Club/Dance music. The game does have some cool songs, while others are simply horrible. Thanks to the options menu, we can customize our preferences so that those songs are never heard again. You can also assign different ranks to the songs, so that some play more often than others. These songs can be listened to while driving.


Playtime/Replayability (10/10)

New York is a big city, which means that this game gets a lot of playtime and replayability. You'll spend a lot of time trying to clean up the precincts, solving random crimes, and driving from one place to another. Even after you've finished the game, you can still keep on solving street crimes much to your pleasure. In conclusion, this is one game that you won't get tired of after beating it, and you can play at any time, be it for a short or long time.


Glitches (0/10)

Glitches isn't normally a category to include in a review, but with a game such as glitchy as this one, you've got to state it somewhere (and I did not want to include it in the gameplay category). There are glitches in True Crime: New York City. If you want to compare it with Streets of LA, there are definitely more glitches in NYC. I don't know if it was due to poor coding of the developers, or if this game just skipped the testing/debugging part of its production.

Some of the glitches are insignificant, and you probably won't notice them unless you are actually trying to uncover them. However, the big glitches aren't rare. If you play this game often, I assure you that you'll encounter at least one of them each couple of days. They vary, from completely freezing the game, to not being able to enter buildings. You'll learn to save the game often if you want to keep your progress in case one of these glitches occurs. It's a shame that such a great game can be affected so much for having tons of glitches.

Oh, and GameCube owners beware, I've seen various persons complaining because the game corrupted all the data of their Memory Card. A suggestion: Use an empty Memory Card to save this game, or one that contains data that you no longer use or need. If you simply can't stand games with glitches, then this game isn't for you.


Difficulty (10/10)

This game isn't a very difficult one. However, you can manually alter the difficulty of the game by getting/not getting the different upgrades that you can acquire. For example, if you buy Rank 1 guns, you'll do much more damage to your opponents than if you use Rank 4 guns. So, if the game is too difficult for you, be sure to buy the best weapons and upgrades, but if you want a challenging game, then don't buy the upgrades.

Final Recommendation

Although True Crime: New York City does have some bad aspects, it is really a good game, and most important of all, a fun game. This is one game you will not get tired of. If you played and liked True Crime: Streets of LA, then this game is a must have. However, if you have played Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, then you might be a bit disappointed with this game, since it does not surpass San Andreas. But for the GameCube, it is the closest game to GTA that you'll get. Nonetheless, that doesn't mean that this game is a GTA clone. True Crime has a different gameplay and is a game you should definitely try out. My score: 8/10

So many of the game reviews are picky. One of the biggest complaints about this game has been that it is the same old thing. Just like Grand Theft Auto. WHen was being like one of what is considered one of the best games ever been a bad thing? That said, if you don't like violence or profanity, avoid this game at all costs. It has both in spades. The game is very similar to the whole GTA vibe. Lots of free roaming action, lots of violence to innocent people, lots of what people loved from GTA. YOu can get more details from other reviews. The truth is if you are a churchgoer, avoid this game, it will do nothing to improve your spirituality. If you love GTA you love this game.

I enjoyed True Crime: Streets of LA despite the fact that it was clearly just a poor man's GTA. Having just owning a Gamecube at the time it was the closest I could get to playing a GTA game on that system. TC: NYC had been on my wishlist for years but Gamecube games are increasingly hard to find so I never managed to track one down until recently.

Now that I own a PS3 and very familiar with Grand Theft Auto IV Special Edition, playing TC: NYC is a HUGE step down in quality. The graphics and gameplay are already very dated. TC: NYC came out at the tail end of the Gamecube's lifespan and for those of you who are spoiled by the slick nature of current generation consoles playing the game will be very difficult, glitches or not. Comparison's to GTA IV might seem unfair, but are inevitable since both take place in a nearly identical environment.

The plot to TC: NYC is right out of a typical 80s Golan-Globus trash movie. It's pure garbage, but entertaining garbage, and thankfully features none of the supernatural nonsense from the previous game. You'll be surprised how quickly it's over. There are plenty of side-missions but you'll get bored of them after a while since they repeat again and again.

Now to the glitches. Oh where to begin? It's a good idea to save your game every time you make significant progress since it has the tendency to completely freeze-up, requiring you to reboot your system. Sometimes you'll be unable to enter buildings, leaving missions unfinishable. There is also an extremely bad frame rate problem causing your character to jump all over the screen.

As for gameplay faults the freedom of GTA is not present here. It's virtually impossible to drive to crime scenes or pursue criminals without killing pedestrians, which pushes up the crime rate in the area. The other cops NEVER help, and ALWAYS hinder your mission. There are plenty of taxis in the game to get you to locations safely, but since there's no button to hail them it's very difficult to get inside one.

The whole game is set on Manhattan island, with endless streets of tall, foreboding buildings. There is virtually no sunshine either with lots of rain and night, giving TC: NYC a claustrophobic, gloomy and oppressive feel. If you are used to blue skies and sunshine of Sonic the Hedgehog then this might be a bit of a miserable experience for you.

There are ways to customize your character and vehicle, giving each player their own unique experience. But as you'll encounter on every street of TC: NYC; there is very, very little variety. There are about 10 vehicle models and about the number of characters. Every street is populated by six or seven models of a single character. There aren't a lot of guns available either, and there's little difference between them.

TC: NYC clearly was not finished. Activision obviously wanted to rush the game to stores before the PS2, Xbox and Gamecube became relics. I can't imagine it selling well, which explains why I had such a hard time finding it.

I did enjoy playing it, which counts for a lot since there are plenty of bad points it had to make up for. But if the kind of person who easily throws the control pad through the TV screen when a game freezes then I'd certainly not recommend it.

I ordered this game for my son and he enjoys playing it...He likes the graphics...the only thing downside is there is foul language in the game.

This game is really fun. A great and far better sequel to 'Streets of L.A.' Much more detail, player can do so much more and extremely better visuals. It does freeze from time-to-time. Just be sure to save often. But I'm a Nintendo user. SNES to N64 to Gamecube to Wii. And this game is unlike any other available on Nintendo. I bought it used, around $13/shipped. Great investment. And to imagine this game is years old too!

Ok I'm confused,sluggish controls,bad sound,bad graphics,not even comparible to True crime streets of LA,man I thought sequels were supposed to be better,I was excited about this one but I played a little of the beginning and turned it off in disappointment,guess I'll play the original.

You start off in a life of hard crime taking revenge. Your name is Marcus Reed, turned to law enforcement and become an undercover cop in the Mean streets of New York City. You have witness mentor die in front of your eyes. Now you must shake down New Yorks most powerful crime syndicates to track down the killer.

Its starts off nicely with a decent opening scene of violence and chaos. Basically you shoot everyone in your path. Leading to the open streets of New York as a free roaming game taking out crime of murder, rape, hostage situations and grand theft auto, chasing them throughout New York. The city crimes are your choice. They will get you promoted. You have choices to work as a bad cop or good cop. The confidential informants sometimes require working as a bad cop, which works out nicely, giving you chances to work as both.

Some may think that this is at the same level with Grand Theft Auto. This is no where near it. Sure it maybe the same style game, but its not the same quality. The graphics, even with New York City done brilliantly, it flaws with glitchy cameras throughout. The fighting can be fun but irritating with frustrating controls. The gameplay is ok but can lead to a bit of repetitivness. The car controls is a bit stiff that takes a bit of getting used to.

The biggest problem that you really must know is that it has some technical flaws with glitches and crashes. This can really annoy and you will soon realise that this shouldnt be.

But even though its not as good as Grand Theft Auto, it still has its resemblence. If your a Grand Theft Auto fan then this wont have anything new for you. But gamecube owners should at least check it out, because this is as close to Grand Theft Auto your gonna get.

Great game. I bought the first True Crime, and to tell you the truth it was dissapointing. This one totally made up for it. Think Tommy Vercetti of GTA mixed in with Alonzo Harris. This is less like the previous True Crimes, and more like the GTA series. You are Marcus Reed,gangster turned cop. After your mentor is killed you go on GTA like missions to avenge him. You, of course, can solve street crimes and clean up the 20 precincts of the city, doing so earns you points. You may extort, kill, maim, fight, and do anything you see fit to avenge your mentor. Their are litarelly hundreds of buildings and interiors that you can enter. You can buy different weapons, cars, fighting styles, clothes, haircuts, and even music. Plus if you find 10 pairs of Puma shoes, you get a full Puma track suit. You can choose to do missions for informants, but beware, this will lower your good cop rating. The ONLY bad part of the game is it has glitches galore, which anger me sometimes. This game also freezes from time to time so save often. In the end, if you like GTA, don't hestitate to buy this gem of a game. It does away with the flaws of it's predecessor and introduces many new things that make this game a great one. This is one of those games that will be on the best games of all time lists. The best game of 2005.