Customer Reviews

True Crime: Streets of LA

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(27)
3 star:		(17)
2 star:		(11)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

True Crimes of LA is actually a pretty good game. You get to explore a much bigger city than in GTA: Vice City, but the stale gameplay and such can easily bring this game down a notch. While more realistic in everyway, True Crime can be considered one of the more innovative games of this time!

First the graphics. The graphics in this game are ASTONISHING! They're almost realistic in everyway! Surprisingly enough the game looks like REAL L.A. (with the exception of there not being much traffic.). So as far as eye-candy goes, True Crimes does a brilliant job here.

Now the sound. Again, no mistakes here! Good sound overall, and you can't go wrong here. Sound effects are great as well as the music. Again, you're not going wrong. The only thing I can say is that if you don't like Rap, you may not like the soundtrack as much. In this case it's good that you can take advantage of the custom soundtrack that the XBOX allows you to give the game.

Gameplay is probably where te game begins to faulter. The game has a "Good Cop/Bad Cop" system which isn't a bad idea. Should you do things the way a cop in real life would (i.e. you don't kill those you capture, you only injure, you fire warning shots and only shoot people in the leg and such) then you'll be considered a "Good Cop". Do the complete opposite and you're a "Bad Cop." There is a meter that tells you on which side of the bar you fall on.

Good Cop/Bad Cop isn't too badly done, but it really brings down the difficulty level of this game. It's fun to drive around but the game is so simple to keep to one side. If you see someone rob a bank you can easily just hit them with your car and not kill them, which results in you being a "Good Cop". If you hit him and kill him, you're a "Bad Cop". This becomes simple gameplay should you approach it that way.

What also makes gameplay simple is that you can choose to redo any failed missions. Clearly you could try them over and over again until the game is done with. BUT you could continue and leave mission failed. If you do this it effects future missions. Missions are very realistic. You can go undercover and hope you don't blow it even. You can do various things that a cop would do. You can search them and see if you find drugs, weapons, etc. or you could flash your badge, which will result in a suspect running or something else.

What's not to like about the gameplay? Well, it's too simple for one thing. I already talked about how you could hit a suspect with a car and not kill them, and this finishes missions easily. The other part is that you could easily complete missions without shooting (just knock them out). The auto-aim is very nice however.

The other bad thing about the gamplay are those camera angles. You'll find yourself constantly repositioning the camera just to see some of the action. Because of the camera you could be "jumped" and never know who did it, or get shot from behind.

The game presents a branching story. The outcome depends on the missions you succeed in and whether or not you're a "Good Cop" or a "Bad Cop". There are tons of ways to go through the story but the final confrontation is the same. You "could" become a bad guy but it makes no difference.

The story is actually more like something you'd see in an action movie. You've got your average jerky character (Nick Kang) who doesn't want a partner and constantly refuses to work with his and goes at it alone. His father used to be a part of the LAPD but died working a case. Sound familiar? It should, and it's full of chase scenes, one liners, and everything else you could want in an action movie.

So while larger than Vice City by A LOT the game is actually fairly linear. The storyline is decent (although the main character takes a bit of time to like), the gameplay is nice and overall the game is pretty good.

The Good:
+Great graphics and sound!
+Though quite linear, TONS of missions
+Lots of weapons to choose from
+Branching story
+Multiple endings
+HUGE City to explore

The Bad
-Main character is unlikeable at first
-Annoying Camera Angles
-Missions are too simple

The game overall is pretty decent. You've got a lot of freedom to enjoy and a huge map to explore. A great experience.

If you haven't played GTA: Vice City, get that game instead of True Crime. If you have played Vice City, don't get True Crime because you'll just be dissapointed. What made Vice City so good is the same thing that makes True Crime not so good. Detail! The map is huge, too big for my tastes as I had no idea where I was most of the time, but it does seem to be a pretty accurate map of L.A., so if you are from L.A., you could probably visit the house where you are currently playing this game. Spooky. The game basically breaks down into three aspects; fighting, shooting, and driving. Because the map is so huge, I was mostly driving. This is where the game came up short. Most of the cars handled like 18-wheelers, and their top speed would rival most forklifts. Like most driving games, there are a few camera modes, and like most driving games the first person camera is planted on the bumper. Who would want to drive with their nose six inches off the asphalt? I have been to L.A. a few times and I know that they probably have more radio stations than any other city in the world, but in this game there is only one. I logged in over 100 hours in Vice City and never got tired of the eight different radio stations. In conclusion, my recommendation is to get Vice City. If you already wore that out, wait for Driver 3 comming in March.

Although I will always charish Grand Theft Auto, True Crime looks like it will blow GTA out of the water. Here are some reasons why I think this game is better than GTA:

1. You play as Nick Kang, a former EOD cop ready to take on the streets of LA.

2. There is 250 square miles of living, breathing LA turf. You heard me. 250 SQUARE MILES!!!!!! That is 10 times bigger than Vice City and 7 times bigger than the Getaway!

3. Branching Storyline lets you play how you want to play. No matter if you pass or fail a mission. With random crimes going on aside from the story missions, the game is totally unpredictable.

4. Over 50 cars to choose from created from scratch, yet still reconizable car models.

5. Bullet time. What can I say? Bullet time.

6. Driving. Fighting. Shooting. All in one to give you the most immersive game of 2003.

Although there may be other reasons, this game will be AWESOME!! But GTA will always be inside of me.

This game was so loud and obnoxious it gave me a headache. It just tries too hard to be a "street" game by dumb, wannabe "street" dialogue that is neither funny nor interesting. The controls are horrible! You run around the street trying to point your character towards the bad guy, and there is no "quick adjustment" to send the camera behind Nick (main character). It's a slow rotation--five punches at your head later from the bad guy.

It is LACKING in atmosphere. Atmosphere is what made GTA (Grand Theft Auto Series) a winner. I felt like i was in the world. With True Crime, I felt like I was playing an annoying video game.

Music: Can we fit more "F" words in a song? I mean, yes, once in a while it's fine, but it's almost as though they were going out of their way to fit as many curse words in the soundtrack as possible simply to call attention to itself. I'm not a fan of that type of music anyways, but there ARE songs from that genre (Rap etc..) that are good. Just, not many of them are in True Crime. GTA had a number of different genres to choose from, which was nice.

I would rent this game first. Don't fall for the commercials like I did (and I never will again)--let Blockbuster be your friend. If you like it--then buy it. But this is not the type of game I would blindly buy. Leave that to the GTA series....

I have had this game since Monday and was able to play it. The game opens you play as Nick Kang a member of Elite Operations Division (E.O.D.) Your job is to take down the criminals of L.A. The cool thing about this game is you can either go to a crime in progress and help or you can go to your intended destination and progress to the next level. If you are killed or fail the mission you do not need to redo it if you don't want to. The soundtracks pretty good no real compilants you can also custimize your soundtrack. The game isn't too bad the graphics are nice and sound is good and the voice acting is good look out for a few big HollyWood names. Overall I like what I see thus far and I quite enjoy this one but GTA comes out in the next few days for the xbox which will you be playing?

This game is awesome! It's like Kung-fu fighting mixed w/ max paine, GTA and need for speed all in one! The missions are fun and theres almost endless gameplay. You can complete the set missions or bust street crimes. If you like the mindless GTA style bloodbath then theres some of that too! You can go on killing rampages w/ the awesome bullet time(Max Paine,Dead to Rights). You can roam around the city of LA while jacking citizens cars and speeding around corners causing chaos. All of this of course will give u a bad cop rating. But you can do good deeds(busting criminals w/ out killing them and not killing civilians)to earn a good cop rating. The graphics are average(cmon,2d trees!?)and the music is cool. Most of the game is very realistic untill you get to the later levels. Dragons, Zombies, Magic? Last time i checked this wasn't a fantasy game. I guess i've talked enough so i'd just like to say 1 more thing... Buy this game! Tons of fun!

i hade a ps2 and i loved true crime.when i got the xbox 360 and saw that it was one of xbox games would play on the 360 i went online and got it.i have missed it so much.the map is so big and has real street names i love this game.

True Crime Streets in LA is a your average LA Cop game. If there where any others, But the Sequal should come out this Hoilday Season. Anyway There are goods and bads to the game lets start with the goods. The graphics are nice and a huge map to play with. The moves are cool. And if you dont want to do the missions you can allways help out with the crime in LA. I Loved the soundtrack to True Crime. It had all your favorite Like Lil flip lil mascare and all thoses Bling Bling Bitches. The negitive is your character is a real dick, He thinks he funny but is a real loser. And the moves are old and crapy. Instead of getting this get Grand Theft Auto San Andreas. Pretty much this game is a bad coppy over of the GTA Seris. I give it 3 Stars

i think this game was all right and could have been better for all the time was put in to it it sould have been better way to big of an area for me and not split up enouf for me basicaly streets of la was all right and may be bout by idiouts every were
rock over london rock on chicago

True Crime has the largest area I've ever covered in a game. Think about really taking a freeway from Hollywood to downtown L.A. and think about how long it would take-that's how long it takes to get there in the game. Streets are placed in ALL the right places and everything is well designed and looks just like, if not really close their real-life counterparts, oh, and if you've ever been to the Staples Center, you should check it out in the game-and LAX. Now to the gameplay...everyone was hoping it would be a buffed-up version of GTA with more area to cover, the truth is-it's not like GTA at all except for the ability to go around and shoot people. Trust me, the similarities stop there. Not only is there a great storyline to follow with multiple endings, but during the missions you have choice to go straight along them, stop the various crimes that are happening in the area (crimes range from people stealing video game trucks to disgruntled men who just lost big time on the stock market and are shooting people), or just go around and steal cars, frisk people, or shoot helpless innocents. Also, there is various facilities around the 240 square miles of L.A. that you can visit that offer training, new moves, new cars, new weapons, health, and more. The shooting, driving, and fighting engine really beat the hell out of GTA's. Especially the driving and fighting. The fighting engine is on par (and in some cases beats) with the best fighting games. This game is seriously fun, and if you like freedom, huge areas to explore, and a very good storyline, then True Crime is for you. As for the graphics-not the best seen, but also not the worst. The best things are the good car designs and the real-time reflections on the cars, also the extremely accurate city design. The music? Well, it mostly consists of aggressive rap music that matches well with alot of the gameplay. There's also a little rock found in the game. But if you don't like the music and you own the Xbox version of True Crime, you are in luck because this game supports custom soundtracks! All in all...this game is great.