|
True Crime: Streets of L.A. Review for GameCube
Posted on Wednesday, December 17, 2003 @ 07:58:18 pm E.S.TIn early November, GameCube owners everywhere awaited the arrival of the highly anticipated title, developed by Luxoflux Corp., that would bring the GTA environment to their home system. True Crime starts you off as a Chinese fighting machine, named Nicholas Kang. He's your average cop-gone-badass who is a member of a special police division that gives him the right to steal, kill, and jab people in the ear with chopsticks.
The game's three main modes consist of driving, fighting and shooting down enemies, each with a totally different feel and unique controls. The best part is that each system is as fun as the next, and you won't find yourself dragging over one mode of play, waiting for a different part to come. You can upgrade your car, your guns and learn more fighting moves by practicing in 24/7 training areas. While each mode is in fact very good in its own way, the game is like a "jack of all trades," meaning that you'll find better driving in GTA, better fighting in Soul Calibur II and better shooting in Max Payne 2.
You'll drive some sick looking cars in True Crime.
The fun truly begins when you arrive at the first mission that allows you to wander around aimlessly in the world's ugliest city, Los Angeles. True Crime has a very interesting "crime generator" that will pop a small red dot up on your mini map, which indicates that some random felony is being committed and you, Nick Kang, are the man to stop it. There are ultimately two ways of stopping a crime: the good cop way, or the bad cop way. Say there's a street fight that you are forced to break up, if you stop the fight by smashing your car 80 mph into the two felons, you'll get a bad cop rating. However, if you individually fight and handcuff each criminal, you will earn good cop karma, which will bring you the best possible ending of the game.
One thing to note is the fact that your story will unfold in episodes, consisting of around 10 missions each. Every mission is completely different than the next, but you will still, for the most part, be alternating between fighting, shooting, and driving. There is, though, one more overlooked aspect of the game, and that would be the Splinter Cell-esque gameplay. That's right; there are a few missions in the game where you get to sneak around, 007-style, trying to break into various areas undetected. In these missions you are equipped with a dart gun, and a few new moves which include grabbing your opponents by the head and ending their lives quick and… well, quick.
Kang knows all types of Kar-ah-tay.
There is really not much to say about the graphics in True Crime. The visuals are half-decent, but there's nothing that will tickle your eye like Rainbow Six 3 would. One very impressive characteristic of the city of LA is the enormity and preciseness that you will encounter when you're in the large county, and unlike GTA3 or Vice City, you won't see any loading screens when driving from one side of the city to the other. Occasionally, the game will glitch out or even freeze up, but luckily, that happens more often on the Xbox and PS2 versions, rather than the GameCube counterpart. Character and car designs leave much to be desired, as well as the fine detail in the city, but the near-constant high framerate makes up for it.
Snoop Dizzle, fo’ rizzle.
I'll say it plainly right now: If you're a fan of rap at all, the music of this will melt in your mouth. Most every song of the game's soundtrack was rapped by none other than Snoop Dogg. Many of these jams are done distinctly for True Crime, and feature lyrics that often let you know you are, in fact, playing True Crime. Of course, if you are not a fan of rap, then luckily the game does include a nifty "mute music" feature for your liking. Also, let it be noted that the GameCube's soundtrack is around 3 songs shorter than the Xbox's and PS2's due to space limitations on the disc.
As for the sound effects of the game, they sound clear and precise and are much synched with the visuals. The best part of the audio in this game lies in the Hollywood voice actor's talents. True Crime features the amazing voice-overs of Russell Wong, Gary Oldman, Christopher Walken, Michael Madsen and Michelle Rodriguez, who each brighten up the game's livelihood. You will honestly be drawn more into the game's semi-shallow plot by the witty remarks made by Kang and the believability of the characters’ personalities.
Max Payne, anyone?
The replay is as good as it gets with these types of games, which is pretty damn good. You’ll find yourself purposely avoiding missions just so you can drive around and bust people up around town. True Crime's jam-packed with different things to do, and the crime generator will have you using all three modes of the game in different situations, depending on what the criminal act is. Even if you’re not a fan of the random crime generator, you are able to go back to any mission you’ve already completed, and most of the time an alternate intro will be included for that mission.
Another nice feature is that the game has three different plot paths you can take, which will lead to entirely different endings each time. True Crime starts you off with one course and a few episodes that gradually split into two, then three totally different trails to take. When you finally beat each mission in every episode, you’ll remember the most fun ones you played and will actually want to go back to play them again. And, if you are one of those people who likes to beat a game to the fullest extent (and likes rap), you’ll be glad to know that hidden throughout the giant city of LA are 30 “Dogg Bones” which, when all collected, will allow you to go through the entire game again as, you guessed it, Snoop Dogg. Believe it or not, playing as Snoop and the Dogg Patrol is actually quite fulfilling.
Overall, this game is definitely a must-buy for anyone who missed out on the GTA series, or who sincerely enjoyed the GTA series and would like to add a little more spice to their game. You’ll be finished with the main mode of the game in a few hours if you play straight through, but the vastness of the map will always have you exploring new areas you’ve never been to before. Review By: Dacvak - 1673 Reads
True Crime: Streets of L.A. Review Scores for GC :
| Gameplay |
| 9 |
| Graphics |
| 8.3 |
| Sound |
| 8.9 |
| Replay |
| 9.4 |
| Overall |
| 8.9 |
|
Go Back |
Reviews Index |
Post About It
|
