TRUE CRIME: STREETS OF L.A (XBOX)


Puts the fight back into crime fighting

By BUTT NUGGET

The Streets of LA are a tough place, and they need a tough cop to get the job done.

You are Nick Kang, back on the job with the E.O.D. (Elite Operations Division) after coming off a suspension.

Sure, Nick is prone to excessive violence and wanton property destruction, for which he was suspended, but goddammit, he gets results.

That's what the city of LA needs.

Nick was orphaned young, his cop father going missing while being investigated by internal affairs. He was sent to live with relatives in china where he developed his formidable kung-fu.

His fighting skills, combined with his crazy driving and handguns akimbo make him the baddest ass motherf*cker LA has seen since the last clichéd videogame protagonist.

True Crime is a game in the vein of Grand Theft Auto 3. The difference is you can bust perps as well as nailing their arses to the concrete. The city of True Crime is massive, and this is an understatement.

It would probably take up to 10-15 minutes driving flat-chat in a fast car (maybe a Dodge Viper or Ferrari F40) to drive across it end-to-end. It's large.

Nick gets around driving hot and sometimes stolen cars, whatever's available. When punks want to rumble, he shows them who's kung-fu is stronger with fast-paced hand-to-hand action. If their firepower is high, he has head shots, neutralizing shots and a hail of bullets at his disposal.

The Streets of LA look great. Detail on everything including cars, buildings, pedestrians and backgrounds is exceptional. Yet there are no regions to the city, no loading and no chugging - even at high speed the framerate remains smoothe and detail remains high. Drawing distance is good in general, though some objects like street signs can materialise unexpectedly.

The sound on the Streets of LA is top-notch. Nick has a hundred-and-one tongue-in-cheek one liners, a notable one being the French-accented "I fart in your gneral direction" classic from Monty Python's Quest for the Holy Grail.

Pedestrians and crooks also have plenty to say, from jive-talking pimps to slurring winos to hookers who try to charge you $5 when you frisk them for drugs.

But it's the music that makes it. This game has a well-selected and rockin' soundtrack.

You may recognise tracks by the Deftones, Megadeth and N.E.R.D. The beats and riffs combined with copious profanity and gangsta lingo really fit the ambience of the game and draw you into the world of Nick Kang.

Cruising the Streets in your '69 muscle car while lyrics such as "I - don't f*ck- with no bitch - ass," "F*ckin' posers...." and "Ass and titties, Ass and tiities" blare from the stereo give the game an edgy, gritty and very real modern day American feel and really add to the enjoyment of the game. Even pedestrians tell to you f*ck off!!

General gameplay is very good. You spend a lot of time in the car, driving to mission locations and dealing with the optional street crimes.

They're optional because they're not directly mission related, but how you deal with them can affect your 'fate' i.e you can be a good cop or a bad cop. If you diffuse situations and bust the offenders then you gain good cop points.

If you blow shit up, run over lots of pedestrians and give street scum two in the chest and one in the head then you become a bad cop. This can mean other cops and even pedestrians will attack you, but also that you can't gain the 'best' ending (of which there are three). Bummer.

Nonetheless, busting dudes can be fun as well. Sometimes they'll give up with a blast of the siren, a flash of the badge or a warning shot. Others will need to be beaten into submission - and this is where the kung-fu comes in. It occurs frequently in both story-related missions and street crime resolution.

Moves are basic: punch, low kick, and jump kick, but upgrades can be earned and combos performed. The best aspect of the hand-to-hand fighting is finishing moves, which are performed when the opponent is stunned by a flurry of blows.

These are done in slow-mo matrix style and Nick calls out the name of the move or something stupid like "kung-POW" or "Jumping Monkey!" as he does it.

Onto the driving aspects of the game, and the physics are adequate, though nothing ground-breaking. There is a minimap for aiding navigation, which comes in handy when trying to lose angry triad members or get somewhere fast.

Some cars handle better than others, but all can come unstuck while performing the upgrade moves which can be earned. They tend to be a little out of control, which can be fun, but also irritating if you clean up five pedestrians, ruining your good cop status.

Pedestrians also have a habit of jumping in front of your car if you're fishtailing all over the footpath. Stupid pedestrians.... It is also difficult to fire from and look around while in the car, impairing ones ability to effectively nail a streetracer in a hotted up Civic. Further, street crimes have a tendency to occasionly glitch, meaning you can't complete the bust or your good cop status gets damaged.

If you can't be bothered fighting or chasing crooks you can always just blow 'em away. This happens a lot. Blowing people away is the most effective way of resolving situations, and Nick likes to do it. Don't we all?

Targeting single enemies is straight forward, with an auto-aim crosshair tracking any crim in your field of view. If you want to go for neutralising (good cop) or head (bad cop) shots, you hold the trigger for precision aimimg. While in this mode time slows, allowing that split-second to get the shot.

This is a good feature, especially when performed from inside your car while chasing a crook, in order to shoot out their tyres -- but unfortunately the reticle moves very jerkily and 'bullseye' shots seem to happen a little randomly or not land even when you think you're dead-on. The precision mode also has a habit of popping up unwanted when you're in the middle of a hairy gunfight and rapidly squeezing the trigger.

While all the core areas of the game are solid, some of the finishing touches leave a bit to be desired. Most notable among these is the camera.

While driving it's great, unless you get stuck in a confined space where it tends to crap itself, and often leaving you in the lurch if you're on a time limit or have nasty dudes with machine guns bearing down on you.

Unfortunately the same rings true for the interior missions. The pace of fist fights tends to leave the sluggish camera behind, meaning you're continually adjusting your direction to avoid getting your arse kicked. It takes a bit of getting used to.

Where the camera really screws you is during the indoor gun battles.

These missions tend to be pretty linear, but even so, the camera has an annoying habit of getting out of position and making it exceedingly difficult for you to pop skulls while providing an excellent view of your skull getting popped.

A couple of other small niggles are the fact that street crime always seems to appear behind you when your hooning along in a car, or right next to you when your on foot. A bit more randomisation would be good.

Moreover, chasing enemies who are fleeing on foot can be frustrating. It is sometimes very difficult to tackle them and neutralising shots tend to either kill the perp or innocent pedestrians.

Also, perp AI can be low, for instance when you target and blow a car's fuel tank, the crim often gets out and stand next to the flaming car until they achieve immolation. Annoying if you were looking forward to the bust.

All up, True Crime is a very enjoyable game, even if it is merely a good re-working of the GTA3 classic. Unfortunately in some areas it lacks the polish of the GTA3 experience, which means despite its many high points it will not reach classic status in this gamer's book.

ORIGINALITY 70%
SOUND/GRAPHICS 90%
PLAYABILITY 75%
ENJOYMENT 95%
OVERALL 85%