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True Crime: Streets of L.A. review

Game: True Crime: Streets of L.A.
Platform: Xbox
Genre: Third-Person Shooter
Developer: Luxoflux Corp.

Reader review by hex

March 02, 2006

Imagine a kung-fu flick that has car chases, shoot outs and stars a cop looking to uncover the mystery of his lost father with gangster rap overtones. Now, imagine you could actually take control of this wacko combination and play it. True Crime is this interactive kung-fu flick, and it’s as entertaining as it is strange. Which is definitely a good thing.

While you’ll have Grand Theft Auto (naturally), your seriously toned The Getaway and your kid-catering The Simpsons: Hit and Run, True Crime stands out as the outcast. You take the role of protagonist Nick, who’s decided he’ll work for the police force in order to find out just what happened to his father, who mysteriously disappeared some time ago. Through your adventures as Nick you’ll get to experience all the various gameplay types mentioned above along with stealth missions. How fun these are to you depends on how seriously you take them.

True Crime is, really, a children’s game by heart, which is ironic considering the title. However, its extremely unrealistic action, improbable story and hilarious circumstances (at one point you’ll go toe to toe against some local bums) defines its position. To take True Crime seriously would be to take your girlfriend’s makeup kit and smear all of the ingredients over her face (nonsensical) and would leave you with the same result (an ugly outlook on the subject).

So True Crime isn’t The Getaway. As this is true, True Crime is far more enjoyable than it really ought to be. All of the stuff you do here is by the numbers, at times frustratingly stupid and always a step below its superiors. But it’s stupid, mindless fun. Who doesn’t want to take out a gang member in a coffee shop? Or clear his brother’s martial arts dojo of street punks? The more ridiculous True Crime gets, the more entertaining.

To True Crime’s benefit there’s the option for a custom soundtrack, which is practically needed, because the licensed soundtrack really doesn’t suit the game well with an onslaught of rap and nothing else. Throw in the custom beats to better suit the experience - like, say, Johnny Cash. Who doesn’t want to hear Johnny Cash while performing elite kung-fu against thugs? Imagine: I fell into a burnin’ ring of fire… as you uppercut a thug into the wall and then proceed to pick him up and twirl him to the ground. Hey get rhythm! When you get the blues…

The shallow gameplay won’t take you far; by the end of the game you’re bound to be just hanging in there hoping for another totally ridiculous mission (which, granted, is received). But it’s this shallow gameplay that also brings the game down; mashing buttons without using your head is only fun for so long. Now, True Crime does offer combo moves and other such things, but playing intelligently reaps no rewards and you can just as easily mash; so why not? It thankfully has backup; the streets. True Crime’s subtitle defined everything you can do outside of the main missions - basically just solving crimes. Handling the vehicle is easy enough, though it’s coupled with (predictably) unrealistic physics, and you basically get to experience more shoot out and kung-fu time while you attack and stop people who are robbing stores, jacking vehicles and brawling in the streets. It’s as entertaining as any of its missions, and it does give you rewards; it increases your cop points, or whatever you want to call them.

Cop points are another quirk in True Crime. You see, you don’t have to be a good boy, abiding by the law and being a good citizen while solving crimes in a well-mannered fashion. You can just as easily mow fifteen innocents down on the road and go on a mass killing spree, which depletes cop points. You don’t even have to solve all of the game’s missions. Taking this lazy, psycho route leads to several forks in the game’s story where you get to go on a detour and see another side to everything. It isn’t nearly as challenging as being the good guy, and while it may just be me, not at all as rewarding. But to each their own; the game offers the options.

Everything down on the table, True Crime shouldn’t be worth your time, but it’s difficult not to recommend it because of the first half of mildly entertaining stupidity. It certainly isn’t a refined work (as evident by just OK voice acting and mediocre visuals that don’t quite reach the gritty streets look the game seems to be shooting for) and it certainly isn’t worth picking up over more intelligent games in the same style like super popular Grand Theft Auto or even Mercenaries. It's a fun, funny little game that offers a mix of ideas that work fairly well together, in a chaotic sense, and you really can’t argue with that. Plus, there’s that martial arts dojo, and you get to fight your competent crazy martial arts brother in it. That’s badass.

Rating: 6/10

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