The story of True Crime follows the path of Nick Kang, a cop who has been known for his tough guy attitude. Kang has now been reassigned (after a suspension in the homicide department) to a newly formed division of the LAPD called the Elite Operations Unit. Kang is in charge of investigating recent crimes involving the Triads. Fortunately for you, he’ll get a lot more than what he bargained for.

True Crime seems like a new step into creating a new genre by blending driving, fighting, and gun shooting, while also mixing in certain RPG elements like upgrading to new moves, cars, and guns. Hopefully all of this will give gamers everything they can ask for out of an action game. Even though there is an actual story that takes place in TC you are by no means rushed to complete it. The game can be played at a slow pace and you are free to roam around the entire city without any restrictions. During your time driving around in TC you’ll combine many of the aspects of the whole game: driving, shooting and fighting. This “free mode” is extremely fun and yes, is reminiscent of your time spent playing in GTA. The one huge difference is that now you’re the cop not the criminal. When you’re on the streets you’ll have the option of solving crimes for the city of Los Angeles. Crimes like street fighting or riots will break out and it’s up to you to solve them peacefully or not, the choice is yours. Solving crimes in a good fashion rewards you as being a good cop while solving crimes in a more ruthless manner will demean your status. Certain situations require certain actions. Breaking up a street fight by putting a bullet into both of the victims isn’t exactly a good idea but perhaps shooting an armed robber in the leg might look good for your stature. Depending on your status as a cop will determine which missions you can branch onto. The good news is that you can always change the way you are and redo missions if you want to branch off to the other side. There is no “one choice” in True Crime which makes it even more fun to play.

As mentioned before, during the storyline you’ll have multiple modes of gameplay. After the first two episodes you’ll get an idea of what to expect from TC. In each episode you’ll have multiple missions to accomplish. To explain this in the easiest way I’ll break the missions up into categories: shooting, stealth, and fighting. During a shoot out you’ll be able to duck, dive, and even use a little slow mo (Max Payne anyone?) to your advantage. While it can be a lot of fun ducking, shooting, and picking up someone else’s weapon or using someone as a human shield, there are flaws that make this from being better than it could have been. For instance, you can choose to fire away like a mad man or zoom in up close in slow motion and aim precisely where you want to shoot. It’s a cool effect but in the later missions where there are plenty of baddies firing at you it becomes less useful as you’ll usually take a bullet in the head. I even had some times where I wanted to run and gun but for some reason I kept zooming in. Targeting in tight corridors was also a problem and would cause the camera to stutter a bit. The problems weren’t halting the game but became increasingly frustrating towards the end.

Stealth plays another role in some missions and isn’t exactly a complicated part of TC. Basically you move around the level trying not to be seen. Give someone a karate chop to the head (good cop) or snap their neck (bad cop), the choice is yours. Stealth missions usually last about three minutes. It’s a nice change of pace (even if it is very basic) and offers gamers something different than a run and gun atmosphere. Again though, elements could have been added to make it more entertaining.

Though fighting is definitely a blast, it’s another part of TC that could have been better if it was polished off a bit more. You have your basic kicks, punches, and throws that can be chained into combos. Nothing too advanced but it works and is a lot of fun. You can also acquire new “finishing combo moves” and throws throughout L.A. Combo moves are flashy moves that you can do when your opponent is stunned. Again it’s nothing we haven’t seen already but they are pretty damn cool looking. Probably the best part about fighting is that pretty much everything around you can be destroyed. So I had a lot of fun kicking goons into walls, benches, bathroom stalls, and anything else you can think of. The problem with fighting is two fold. First, it seems that everyone in L.A. has the same fighting style… Prostitutes, bikers, old ladies, it seems everyone knows a little kung fu. It became a little tiring after awhile to see the same moves over and over again from my opponent. Blocking was also a problem. It worked fine but it just seemed that the AI was always (and I mean always) blocking no matter what. It became less interesting to fight and more of a get lucky type of deal.

Regardless of the problems each area has True Crime still manages to be fun and I found myself going onward to complete the next mission. There are some memorable experiences that the game has to offer and while it could have been better, still is a good time.

True Crime might not be the prettiest game you’ve ever seen but it does have a lot of depth in it. First off the city of L.A. was scrupulously designed. The place is huge and without any load times is a technical feet to be proud of. Each area has its own attitude and image. Chinatown looks like Chinatown and Beverly Hills looks like Beverly Hills. There’s no mistaking the hard work put into creating present day L.A. From Pacific Palisades to Downtown L.A., you’ll have plenty (and I do mean plenty) of road to cover.

There are also some added effects while touring the city of angels. Cars taking damage, street polls falling over, explosions, and high beams on a rainy night… While some parts of TC might not look hot, added visual effects like these make it much more enjoyable.

That being said there were a few graphical glitches that I noticed throughout the game; mainly the sight of bullet decals being stuck in mid air. Stuff like that shouldn’t go unchecked and is a little disheartening to see. All in all I wasn’t blown away by any special effects of glorious texturing and bump mapping but I did come to enjoy the little nuances TC offers and probably the biggest map to explore in quite some time.

A lot of work was put into making True Crime sound and feel like the real Los Angeles. The sound track is chocked full of over 80 songs and mixes rock, rap and hip hop for your listening pleasure. Even though I’m not a big fan of rap and hip hop I really enjoyed what TC had to offer. The one problem I had was that you couldn’t switch tracks while you were listening (music is played while in a car, or during shoot, stealth, and fighting missions). There we some times when I would be listening to the same song two or three times before I heard something new. There is a slight fix for this as you can customize which songs you would rather listen to.

The voice acting is also well done and put together just like any other top notch video game (GTA, Max Payne, Legacy of Kain). Christopher Walken, Gary Oldman, Michelle Rodriguez, and Russell Wong all do a great job of bringing the story to life. Sure there are some corny one liners and Nick Kang (Russell Wong) has a few too many repetitious one liners but the good far out weight the bad. The ambient voices of the city are also top notch and manage to have some comedic tendencies.

True Crime offers gamers a true gaming experience with 16x9 (widescreen) option, 720p viewing, and of course, In-Game Dolby Sound.

You’ll also have plenty of things to watch out for on the screen. The map (during driving) is detailed with dots and icons to let you know where certain places are (garage, health, upgrades). Yes, it’s much like GTA as well so if you’ve played that you know what to expect. You will also have Kang’s health and ammo on the top left corner. If in a car, the structural damage will also be displayed next to the health icon. One thing I particularly liked and residents of L.A. will probably appreciate this, is an indicator on the top center of the screen that lets you know what streets your own. It’s kind of cool to see the street names change, especially if you live on that street.

The problem with blending so many things into one game is that there is the possibility that people won’t like certain parts. Fortunately all the parts of True Crimes are done well enough to make it an enjoyable experience. However, while it shares similarities to other top notched games like Max Payne (slow-mo, bullet time) and Grand Theft Auto (driving, shooting, crime ridden city) there should be no comparison. Regardless if you played both titles you should still give TC a chance. While there is no mistake that TC could have been a better game if it was polished off a little more and some issues were corrected, it still manages to succeed in being fun and offering gamers a good story/action sequences/total mayhem. Hopefully we can see a more refined sequel in the future.