True Crime: Streets of L.A.: Cruisin' LA
Se7entySe7en
95% score
Imagine if you could combine Max Payne, Dead to Rights, and Grand Theft Auto III into one game. Now imagine that that game played as well as you hoped. That game is True Crime: Streets of LA. You play as Nick Kang. An LAPD detective with a bad rep and a bad attitude. Nick's story is weaved throughout LA's seedy underworld involving russian mafia and triads. With three endings and three different paths to take, the game is very open and a great deal of fun to play. There are three parts to True Crime: Streets of LA. Driving, fighting, and shooting. All three play as if they were the main function of the game, when in fact it's a third of the game experience. Driving around LA is great. You can commandeer any car you see and interact with every NPC. Just like GTA III you have free reign over where you go in the city and what you do. Want to bring some justice to the City of Angels? Follow your trusty radio dispatcher and dish out some pain to the bad guys? Want to reak havoc and kill some people? You can do that too. But you have to remember that everything you do has consequences on the story and it's outcome. The shooting aspect of the game is a combination of Max Payne and Dead to Rights. You can dodge in any direction and slow time while you do it, you have a targeting reticle that tells you where you're aiming, and you have damage specific locations. Fighting is kind of like Enter the Matrix...but much better. The fighting in True Crime is very fluid and very natural looking. Nick Kang has several combo's at his disposal. He can learn new skills at 24/7 facilities which can teach Kang everything from driving to shooting to driving skills. The graphics in True Crime are surprisingly good, considering that almost the entire city of LA is rendered in the game, from Downtown to Marina Del Ray. Character models for the main characters are individual and stand out against one another. NPC's and car models get repeated often, but that's to be expected with the size and scale of the game itself. Everything reacts to Nick Kang. When in a fight he can kick a perp into a table and have it break into pieces. In one level at a club, I shot an amplifier which caused it to break apart and then kicked a guy into it who then got electricuted by the broken amplifier. Everything reacts to Kang which really emerses you in the story and the environment. The sound in True Crime is stellar. Sound effects are dead on. Every gun shot is unique to the weapon. When an enemy or Nick crashes into something in the environment you can hear bottles breaking and wood cracking. When driving every car sounds different. The voice acting is incredible. Russel Wong, Michael Madsen, Gary Oldman, and Christopher Walken lend their talents to the game. The soundtrack is a nice mix of licenced tunes. Snoop Dogg, Taproot, and NERD among others, all lend their music to the game. Theres nothing like crusing around LA in a lamborgini-like convertable while listening to Poem by Taproot, believe me! But, it doesn't stop there. On the X-Box you can rip your own tracks into the game and create your own playlists. True Crime is a great game that no one should be without. Unlockable features and alternate endings, and the chance to play as Snoop Dogg. Buy it. Now. What are you doing still reading? Go get it. Suck it up and lay down the $49.99. Go on!
