After losing my old laptop hard drive, I found while restoring to the new drive from backups a few of my old reviews for Animerica magazine. Those were the days... First up, my take on the long-forgotten "True Crime: Streets of LA". Enjoy!
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Review: True Crime: Streets of LA
Intro: the secret of realistic gaming
The other night, I had a dream about True Crime: Streets of LA. In the dream, I'm playing the "Making of True Crime: Streets of LA" videogame, which looks remarkably like the original Frogger. Taking on the role of Ribbit the Game Designer™, I had to hop forward through several Hollywood and 'gritty console action' clichés to achieve my ultimate objective, a happy life raking in bucks from mega-sales of a derivative game. Needless to say, I was run over repeatedly by double-fisted gunslingers, slo-mo dives, pseudo-witty pun-filled dialogue, and a slew of ethnic bad guys speaking in wacky accents.
Let's just get the obvious comparisons out of the way: Streets of LA is the illegitimate child of Grand Theft Auto and Max Payne. But like any mutt, Streets of LA manages to pick up mostly beneficial genes from both parents – the endless boring noir clichés and gravelly male narration of the Max Payne games are balanced by the non-stop autocidal mayhem of the GTA series.
Players take the role of Nick Kang, a cool cookie with a hundred-ton chocolate chip on his shoulder (oh wait, that's his boss, aptly named "Chief" and voiced by The Shield's CCH Pounder). Nick is a loose cannon detective, the kind who always starts a game out suspended from duty, overdue for a shave, and smelling of Cheez-Its and beer (come on, Sony, where's that NoseToy we've been asking for?). As Nick, players wade through the common "come back to work, Nick, we'll throw away the rule book" cut scene, the "Hey Nick, here's your new, goody-goody partner Rosie the ex-gang member" cut scene, and the "Nick and Rosie just happen to trade standoffish, lovers-who-don't-know-it-yet verbal barbs at the same Chinese restaurant the low-level-punks-who-eventually-lead-us-to-the-big-bad-boss-man decided to shake down for protection money" cut scene.
Lengthy and constant cinematics aside, the game eventually opens up to players, providing a lush and realistic 250-square mile battle arena known as Los Angeles. Having never been to LA, I can't vouch for authenticity, but the city does have a substantial presence of its own, far more so than the alternately crowded/abandoned streets of Vice City. In fact, just driving around the city helping out with 'normal' crimes is a load of fun in this game. As opposed to the random violence-oriented rampages and vigilante missions of GTA:Vice City, Streets of LA has a variety of police procedural missions, though most amount to 'chase down the bad driver', or 'arrest/kill suspects fleeing the scene of a crime'. Players earn points and 'karma' for completing these mini-missions as a 'good cop', and these points can be spent to upgrade weapons, vehicles, and even martial arts skills at a variety of LAPD-sanctioned 24-hour training centers.
When it comes to the main plot line, players also have some choices. In addition to racking up a reputation as a good or bad cop, players' decisions determine which future plotlines and end games open up. You can even continue the plot after a failed mission – and the bad guy who gets away may come back to haunt you later! Getting past the scripted portions of the plot, the game-driven elements are excellent in this respect, and truly give a feeling of control.
Speaking of control, Streets of LA uses a deeper control system for physical and ranged combat, but it still ends up feeling more intuitive than in either GTA or Max Payne. With martial arts combos, and even independent targeting for each of Nick's dual pistols, it's easy for the newcomer to get confused to death – literally. For the experienced gamer, however, this additional level of control allows for even greater heights of badass "DIDJASEETHAT" action. The hints prevalent throughout each mission are a good way to be eased into the multiple action/combat/arrest/kill modes.
My biggest issue regarding True Crime: Streets of LA is actually a general console and specific Playstation 2 complaint: the gamepad control system works fine for general use, but precision targeting would be much better using a mouse. The graphics of Streets of LA, too, look especially dark and perhaps a little low-res on the PS2. The Xbox release of Streets of LA should address this issue to some degree, but if you're a PC as well as console gamer, I'd definitely recommend holding out for the seemingly-inevitable Windows editon.
Even a four star voice cast (including the great Christopher Walken and Mako) ultimately can't hope to make up for the complete hack work of this game's script writers. It's a pity that I wanted to "be" Nick "Metrosexual Attitude Boy" Kang even less than either Max "Grumpy" Payne or Tommy "Blood-Spatter-Rorschach" Vercetti. But, while this problem child loses some story points for believability and immersion, he's still the boy (kills boy) genius of the Vercetti-Payne gaming union.
Rating: ****
Tested on Playstation 2
Out for PS2, Xbox, Gamecube
Publisher: Activision
Developer: Luxoflux
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