Customer Reviews

True Crime: New York City

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Chapter II in the True Crime series takes us to New York City, which focuses on Marcus Reed, a reformed street thug who becomes a patrolman. There are a decent amount of cases to investigate which provide the most involving action of the game (along with cutscenes where you find out more about Reed and the situation at hand). These cases are at times quite lengthy and challenging - at times you may get frustrated that there aren't save points within them.

After you complete basic training, you are taken to the borough of Manhattan, where crime is running rampant. In order to clean up the city, you are dispatched to answer a variety of crime tips, which range from stopping burglars, kidnapping victims, and closing down sweat shops, among others. You'll also find some other side missions in the game as well, such as racing and fight arenas. To improve your abilities in the latter, you can train in dojos to learn new martial arts and fighting skills. Now, let's weigh out the pros and cons:

Pros: This series is often compared to the Grand Theft Auto franchise. While it's a very tough act to follow, having a police officer as the main character (including the whole good cop / bad cop element, which all comes down to whether you perform your job ethically, or decide to kill unarmed criminals and sell crime evidence to pawn shops) along with the aforementioned crime tips are a nice unique touch to True Crime: NYC. You'll also find a very accurate Manhattan (right down to the street names and traffic directions) with all the sights and sections that it's known for (Chinatown, Little Italy, Hell's Kitchen, Harlem, etc.). This game offers a distinctive targeting system (including lethal and non-lethal gun shots), lots of indoor environments (you can find lots of businesses and homes to visit on pretty much every street), a nice assortment of weapons and guns, a great soundtrack with lots of good punk (Misfits), metal (Hatebreed), indie/alternative (Interpol), and hip-hop (Sugar Hill Gang) songs and a voice cast which includes Christopher Walken and Laurence Fishburne, among others.

Cons: The bugs in this game will turn off many gamers out there, and indicate that maybe Luxoflux (the game's developer) and Activision should have spent more time working out the kinks of the game instead of rushing it out for the holiday season. At times you will walk through a wall, or just completely freeze up. The mechanics of the game are also off - you can ram a commercial truck off the road with a motorcycle! The pedestrians are not as fleshed out as the ones you'll find in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas - they have a limited amount of dialogue, which for the most part consists of words that I can't type here on Amazon. Finally, the controls of the vehicles lack fluidity - they're not smooth and tend to accelerate or brake too quickly. Even after playing for months, I still get frustrated with the operation of the vehicles.

In summary: True Crime: New York City is not for those without patience, but those who have it will find it to be an engaging and entertaining game, despite its flaws. Of course, one wonders what this game could have been if a little more time was spent on improving the controls and reducing the bugs. It's still a game that I would recommend to any fan of the free-roam action genre, though nothing could ever top GTA:SA - definitely pick that one up if you haven't already.

Ok, you could assume without much information that GTASA is a better game than this, though since this is sort of an imitation of it, it makes it less worth while. That's just a foreword: this game is decent.

The graphics aren't great or anything, but they don't do a bad job of portraying NYC. The building designs aren't so great, they have the neighborhoods down and know where to place key structures (like churches or synagogues or famous food places, not just Statue of Liberty, Ground Zero, or Empire State). That said, the human model graphics are somewhat mediocre, but they're not as bad as the grand theft auto ones, and the building graphics are decent, and vehicles look fair.

The controls hold up pretty well. Compared to a lot of games, the combat engine is nice. Melee isn't anything special, but shooting holds up well, I just wish you could get weapons more easily (there's an armory that you can get as you go up in rank as an investigator, but it seems nearly impossible to be able to actually use them, unless I'm seriously missing something huge).

The gameplay itself varies. There are the neighborhoods of Manhattan that have different crime rates, and you can temporarily 'clean' them up, but they'll decay as time goes on, and you can help this decay, the engine of 'rotting buildings' is rather amusing. As Game Informer cited: The stores will slowly close down on the streets where you randomly punch people in the face. Basically, there are repeatable crime scenarios (there are many, so you don't end up using too many) and several routes to resolving the issue. The only problem is, when the violators are getting intensely violent (to the point of guns) and you need to shoot them, other cops who are helping to arrest them will sometimes shoot at you, and flashing your badge generally won't work, in which case you need to flee or shoot them, which will eventually lead to demotion. There are story missions as well, of course, in which at first you're chasing down what appears to be a run-of-the-mill drug ring, which evolves into a more complex storyline, but the storyline missions really aren't very entertaining.

In short, this game is a good effort, is generally entertaining, and has a decently good sense of city geography (central park is actually done alright, as is morningside. Riverside, like in spiderman 2, has shops on it which are illegal, there are no key spots.... well if you consider the actual meeting scene of The Warriors a key zone, and the park itself is just an intensely narrow strip. They have some buildings that are well-known, like Saint John's Cathedral, which is to an extent somewhat realistic). Basically, the subway system is done well, and it's a good free-roam game, but the storyline is mediocre.

When the first True Crime came out, it was the first real competition for the GTA series, and it was pretty good. Technically, this is a slight downgrade though. By trying to recreate the New York city feel, it becomes too bogged down and too slow.

Basically, it's like all the city immersive games out there. Nothing really new. Again, like the first True Crime, the streets are real, but the buildings and scenery are just generic. Speaking of generic, you start off with a horrible cliched storyline. The same one sided characters and cheesy dialogue that has plagued every game that has anything to do with crime. So, I tried to get into it, but after ten minutes of pure unadulterated boredom, I just stopped caring and skipped all the FMVs.

The gameplay itself is decent. Nothing great, but very playable. If you don't want to get involved or frustrated (like what is required for GTA: San Andreas), this game is perfect. Driving is annoying, but after you discover the Subway and Taxis, you can move throughout the city with very little driving at all. This leads to the missions. The missions themselves are indoor third person shooting missions. Nothing complicated here. L2 to auto-aim, and shoot. They tried to add stealth, but it's absolutely pointless to try. That's about it for the major missions.

There are some minor flaws, like one example would be if you don't have the proper weapon (happened to me twice), you can't leave the mission to get that weapon. You have to reload and sometimes repeat a couple of missions to get to where you need to be. Also, selecting and picking up guns is not quite correct. For example, you'll pick up a carbine, but when the ammo is done, it will sometimes bring you to the stun gun. Valuable seconds are wasted switching to your .38 (which is the only weapon with unlimited ammo).

There are side missions that you can do (the major missions only yield 25% completion rate), they've eliminated the need for extraneous and useless combos, and even though some missions seem to drag on, it's nothing like the half hour borefests for the "Dragon" missions in True Crime: Streets of LA.

Finally, people say there are tons of bugs. I haven't see any except for the slow frame rate. Heck, GTA: Vice City and Prince of Persia: Warriors Within had a lot of bugs that were easily identifiable. If there are major bugs in this game, I didn't see them.

The game looks a little dated, and there is really nothing new except for the Subway and Cabs, but it's fun, never frustrating, and a good solid rental.

Pros:
Actual streets of New York.
Not frustrating at all.
Taxis and Subways rule!
Don't have to learn combos.

Cons:
Cliched story.
Dullest beginning ever.
Driving is a chore.
Framerate problems.
Some missions get really dull.

Frustration Level: Low

Difficulty Level: Low

Hours to Complete: 10 hours (major missions only)

I rented this game and I thought it was ok. The gunplay is the biggest dissapointment. The targeting reticles blow and the gunfights in the game are mediocore. Dissapointing sequel even though there's a large city it all looks the same. The things you do as a cop will get old fast and the driving is ok and the music isn't very good. It's a shame because i thought this game had potential. This series still needs lots of work.

True Crime 2 is just plain awful. It starts interesting, yet it doesn't present anything original or interesting.

The gun play just isnt that good compared to True Crime 1. True Crime 1 had you flying in different directions and doing slow motion dives behind cars. When cars would explode, you would be thrown backwards. In True Crime 2, you basically just point and shoot. There are different weapons that let you take people down non-lethally that you are given. There's no point in using targeting.

The melee fights aren't that cool either. In True Crime 1 you were doing all kinds of kung fu moves while breaking everything around you. In this game, you press a button 3 times and the combo is executed.

Also, the actual feel of the game has been lost a little bit. In True Crime 1, you had no map and were basically cruising to a destination unknown. It was fun driving to new objectives at night during the rain. In this game, you aren't quite as lost, but then again, that isn't a great thing. I enjoyed getting lost in True Crime 1 and I enjoyed feeling out of place everywhere. It was weird cruising as far as I could go and feeling like i should turn around.

One of the more interesting features about True Crime 2 is the fact that you can enter any building. This isn't a bad feature, but it doesn't make up for the limited gameplay.

I would skip this game and go for GTA 3.

I bought this game with my christmas money and went home to play it only to realize the best NYC graphics and the most real New Yorkers! First of all, you really can't just ignore the crime alerts for too long because eventually, the businesses in that area will shut down, causing you to waste time finding another store just the same that IS open. If you cruise through the areas that have the highest crime rate, you will notice the buildings have boards over the windows and there is ALOT of graffiti hanging around this area and if you frisk people that are in this area, they will most likely be holding drugs or a box of stolen jewelry!!! Bt, if you ride through the areas you have cleaned up, the buildings will be fresh looking and there will be less thugs in the area, and less crime alerts. But, all in all, the graphics are simply amazing! It is just so real in the life of a street cop, good or bad.
Hop my review helped!!!

The only true crime here is the shoddy work done on this title. True Crimes: Streets of LA was like many Grand Theft Auto rip offs. Big city, plenty of running around to do. Except instead of working for the mob or whatever, you're actually a cop. It may not have been the best game, but it was a start. Some of the mechanics weren't bad. Some were actually fairly well done. I guess one could only expect a sequel. In hopes that True Crimes: New York City would be better, I seem to have had my hopes up.

You play as Marcus Reed, a gangster who has just become a cop so he can clean up the streets of New York. And as Marcus you'll take on the assignments given to you by the police department. They're all pretty straightforward. Each mission is divided into parts. Each part consists of you gunning down all the thugs, and finding the bad guy. Rinse and repeat. The missions, like Streets of LA, are very simple and don't really call for any real strategy at all. And the bad guys are as stereotypical as the main character himself.

The game is pretty simple, and should you only do the missions, you'll complete it in fairly short time. The same thing plagued the first True Crimes game, and I was hoping there would be an improvement here. Unfortunately, that doesn't seem to be the case.

If you don't want to do the main mission though, there are alternatives. Much like GTA there are side missions you can do. You can street race, go off and stop other crimes, and you can frisk people for contraband, including drugs, obscene pictures, weapon parts, stolen license plates... and the list goes on. You can either turn these things into the station for Career Points, which help your rank.

There are five ranks in True Crimes 2, and they're all based on whether or not you're a good cop or a bad cop. Unfortunately, there's nothing special about the ranking system until you become an extremely bad cop, and that will overall lower your ranking.

Being a good cop simply means you've taken the proper precautions such as frisking your suspects, clipping them in cuffs and not killing anyone needlessly. Bad cops are obtained the exact opposite way. It's a lot easier to be a bad cop than a good cop, but it is still one of the points of True Crimes that sticks out as being plesant. You just won't notice until you're an extremely bad cop, or an extremely good cop.

The gameplay is simple. You shoot or strike down your enemies to death. You can lock on to them, but for some reason Marcus isn't always accurate in doing so. You can also pick up weapons your enemies drop but there isn't much variety in them, and in the end you'll most likely find yourself picking them up because you're low on ammo in one weapon, so you need more.

Melee combat isn't bad. You'll probably only do it because it looks cool, but it's almost suicide in some cases. You can pick up objects and lug them at your enemies and whatnot. You can also snap their necks if you're good enough, or throw them up against the wall. There's a lot of variety there. Hey, you can even do it to random pedestrians, but it isn't much fun (especially when they, for whatever reason, don't die).

The vehicles you drive around in are pretty realistic, based off of real cars, but you can't help but look at how messed up some of these mechanics are. A slight tap on another car will send it flying into traffic, without a doubt. It doesn't matter what the car is, it sends it out there! You'll also run into a moment or two of floating cars, and that's another of many bugs this game has.

There are more bugs than one can imagine. For example, you may just randomly fall through the ground into eternal darkness. You'll eventually die, but you'll wish you hadn't stepped on the crack when you do. Some of the scripted moments for whatever reason just stop, cars changing colors... the list goes on and on and on.

Surely the graphics will save this game right? Naw, and if you think they do, something is seriously wrong with you. This isn't up to the standards of this generation at all. The character models are blockier than a cube of ice, and the framerate is terrible. Every five seconds or so the game will freeze and then resume. This very apparent when you're roaming the streets of New York. In the indoor areas it's less frequent, but you'll lose several boss fights because of that. The game freezes for that brief moment, but the action does not. Not only that, but sometimes the sound will cut out.

As far as the music goes, it really isn't too bad. You can rank your songs so that the ones you want to play actually play, and if there's a song you completely hate, you can rank it a zero and it'll never play.

The voice acting isn't bad. Christopher Walken lends his voice, but sometimes the celebrity voice actors feel like a waste. Especially with the poorly written script. Now, I can be a good sport about cusswords, but not when they're used as senselessly as this. They come as sounding like little middle school kids saying these words just to "be cool" rather than to be serious or tough.

Truthfully, I think this is a game that isn't worth getting. Way too many bugs, the game is short, the dialogue is bad, is there really any reason to want to get ths game? Even the graphics lack. This isn't worth your time. Even if you like True Crimes: Streets of LA this just isn't worth your time.

The Good:
+The sound, for what it's worth, isn't bad.

The Bad:
-Choppy graphics
-Terrible framerate
-Bad dialogue
-Way too stereotypical
-Way too many bugs to enjoy

Just avoid it. Not worth your time.

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.

This game was okay i get tired of the samething over and over again. This game was like GTA3 but with some added stuff like going in store's and aressting people but the rest is the same. Okay let me tell you the game's that are no different, GTA1-4, GTA sanadrea's, GTAvice city, GTAvice city storie's, GTA libirty city storie's, and 25forlife. I'll give saint's row credit cause that's a awsome game with better quality and stuff and customization but back to this game. This game was okay if you really like doing repitive stuff then go ahead. I liked some song's in this game but that's it the rest is just no different. Yet again the picture view was terrible like GTA is, the picture quality is to small you can't even lie down on your bed and play the game you have to sit up and see what your doing that's the big problem. Interigation is pretty stupid, why bother threatning a clerk if you can easily beat the mess out of him for the money? so that did'nt make any sense. The storymode was okay it was'nt that bad but it was the same like GTA, so this game was okay.

I liked the first True Crime ok, but when i saw the screenshots for this new True Crime game I was amazed. I couldn't believe how good the graphics are. And now after playing it for the past week I can say it's lots of fun too! The story is good and the cinematics are awesome. And i always love Christopher Walken. I don't know why people say GTA is so great, their graphics are horrible and it gets boring driving around the city real quick. In True Crime you play as a cop and you can do cool stuff like frisk, interrogate, and give people tickets.