True Crime 2
Posted February 7, 2006
When we first walked the virtual streets of Liberty City in Grand Theft Auto 3 in late 2001, the gaming industry was changed forever. A vast area to explore, open-ended objectives, and branching storylines seemed like the future of gaming. Much like the Die Hard wannabes of the late 80s, games could be summarized as GTA in the future, GTA in the wild west, GTA on acid, etc. These carbon copies have resulted in the good (GTA sequels, Mercenaries, The Warriors, Simpsons Hit and Run), the bad (Mafia, Total Overdose, 25 to Life, and the ugly (this piece of excrement).
Gameplay:
Isaiah Reed and his son Marcus run a crime syndicate in New York. Everything is hunky dory until some generic underlings try to have them killed. Both parties live, Marcus blasts everybody in a crack house with a tech nine, goes to jail, gets out and becomes a cop. That's right, convicted felon Marcus Reed changes career paths, from gangster to police officer. (Next thing you know, Jose Canseco will be warning us about the evils of steroids.) Not surprisingly, the game comes with a disclaimer stating that "this game is not approved, endorsed, or connected in any way to the New York City Police Department." Which is good, since I'd hate to think that you could blow away like a dozen people and then ascend the ranks of the NYPD.
You control Marcus as he cruises the city solving a series of crimes, trying to make his bones. As you solve crimes you earn points, and when you earn enough points you get promoted (from Detective, 5th grade to Detective, 1st grade) and learn new techniques. You can solve a crime legitimately, or make like Vic Mackey and plant evidence and pocket some cash. The path you choose determines whether you earn good cop points or bad cop points. Earn enough bad cop points and you'll be demoted; which is the only application of the good cop/bad cop points system.
There are four main cases, and a decent variety of side missions (think Spider-man 2) You can beat the game in a few hours, or you can stretch it out to as long as you want if you complete side missions. You can receive side missions by means of police radio and informants, or get steady jobs if you're dirty. If you're clean, you beat up people, cuff them, and they disappear. If you're dirty, beat them up, plant evidence, cuff them, and they disappear – or just kill them. During the main missions you'll often have to interrogate suspects, but this is better in theory than in practice. You scare them then baby them, and the only way you'll fail to get your intel is if you try to fail.
One of True Crime's selling points is a fully rendered Manhattan (Also much like Spider-man 2). It can take ten minutes to traverse the city in a car, but it's not too hard to take a cab or the subway if you know where you're going. Maybe you could get around a little faster if it didn't seem like every car in the game was a taxi, police cruiser, or some tank-like faux-Cadillac that my grandparents would drive. The environments are not very interactive, which is disappointing.
My biggest problem with this game is that it handles less like Grand Theft Auto and more like Syphon Filter: The Omega Strain. You lock onto targets fairly randomly so you'll be slammed in the back of the head a lot. Combat is pretty mundane, light and heavy attacks and you can pull your piece if the perp is hostile enough. The first several times you die it will feel so sudden you'll think it's a camera glitch, which to quote Elwood Blues, happens so often you won't even notice it.
Graphics:
This game is dark. Waaayyy too dark. It's like there's no light effects. You'll see a light source but no resulting light. Indoors it becomes impossible to differentiate inanimate doors (which make up the vast majority) from the one you have to go in. Outside turns sneak up on you, lampposts sneak up on you, and even walls sneak up you. There are constant camera problems; if the camera passes through a light post the camera will jump to an uncomfortable position. In tight quarters it's easy to get nauseous with the confused camera. The frame rate is acceptable most of the time, but often when you're driving it will plummet to atrocious levels, and by often I mean once every few blocks.
Audio:
True Crime New York's strongest element is the sound. The soundtrack is fantastic: Grandmaster Flash, Kurtis Blow, LL Cool J, Blue Oyster Cult, Blondie, The Ramones, and more. The cast is impressive: Christopher Walken, Mickey Rourke, Lawrence Fishburne, and, the coup de grace, Beetlejuice and Stuttering John from The Howard Stern Show. I was psyched for Walken but unfortunately it sounded like his dialogue was poorly edited together from too many takes. The language is course, be ready for much dropping of the F and N words. The sound effects are solid, making the city feel more alive.
Conclusion:
There are some games that feel so close to being something great. This is not one of those games. There are just too many things wrong; it's like they wanted to change everything a certain amount from Grand Theft Auto, and in doing so they put out a vastly inferior product. Save your money and your time. Every iteration of GTA is priced lower than this, so there is no excuse for owning True Crime: New York City over any of them. I suppose if you really wanted to walk the beat on the mean streets of Manhattan, then maybe give this a rental. But otherwise there are just too many other games that don't feel so pushed out the door. Skip it
Gameplay:
Isaiah Reed and his son Marcus run a crime syndicate in New York. Everything is hunky dory until some generic underlings try to have them killed. Both parties live, Marcus blasts everybody in a crack house with a tech nine, goes to jail, gets out and becomes a cop. That's right, convicted felon Marcus Reed changes career paths, from gangster to police officer. (Next thing you know, Jose Canseco will be warning us about the evils of steroids.) Not surprisingly, the game comes with a disclaimer stating that "this game is not approved, endorsed, or connected in any way to the New York City Police Department." Which is good, since I'd hate to think that you could blow away like a dozen people and then ascend the ranks of the NYPD.
You control Marcus as he cruises the city solving a series of crimes, trying to make his bones. As you solve crimes you earn points, and when you earn enough points you get promoted (from Detective, 5th grade to Detective, 1st grade) and learn new techniques. You can solve a crime legitimately, or make like Vic Mackey and plant evidence and pocket some cash. The path you choose determines whether you earn good cop points or bad cop points. Earn enough bad cop points and you'll be demoted; which is the only application of the good cop/bad cop points system.
There are four main cases, and a decent variety of side missions (think Spider-man 2) You can beat the game in a few hours, or you can stretch it out to as long as you want if you complete side missions. You can receive side missions by means of police radio and informants, or get steady jobs if you're dirty. If you're clean, you beat up people, cuff them, and they disappear. If you're dirty, beat them up, plant evidence, cuff them, and they disappear – or just kill them. During the main missions you'll often have to interrogate suspects, but this is better in theory than in practice. You scare them then baby them, and the only way you'll fail to get your intel is if you try to fail.
One of True Crime's selling points is a fully rendered Manhattan (Also much like Spider-man 2). It can take ten minutes to traverse the city in a car, but it's not too hard to take a cab or the subway if you know where you're going. Maybe you could get around a little faster if it didn't seem like every car in the game was a taxi, police cruiser, or some tank-like faux-Cadillac that my grandparents would drive. The environments are not very interactive, which is disappointing.
My biggest problem with this game is that it handles less like Grand Theft Auto and more like Syphon Filter: The Omega Strain. You lock onto targets fairly randomly so you'll be slammed in the back of the head a lot. Combat is pretty mundane, light and heavy attacks and you can pull your piece if the perp is hostile enough. The first several times you die it will feel so sudden you'll think it's a camera glitch, which to quote Elwood Blues, happens so often you won't even notice it.
Graphics:
This game is dark. Waaayyy too dark. It's like there's no light effects. You'll see a light source but no resulting light. Indoors it becomes impossible to differentiate inanimate doors (which make up the vast majority) from the one you have to go in. Outside turns sneak up on you, lampposts sneak up on you, and even walls sneak up you. There are constant camera problems; if the camera passes through a light post the camera will jump to an uncomfortable position. In tight quarters it's easy to get nauseous with the confused camera. The frame rate is acceptable most of the time, but often when you're driving it will plummet to atrocious levels, and by often I mean once every few blocks.
Audio:
True Crime New York's strongest element is the sound. The soundtrack is fantastic: Grandmaster Flash, Kurtis Blow, LL Cool J, Blue Oyster Cult, Blondie, The Ramones, and more. The cast is impressive: Christopher Walken, Mickey Rourke, Lawrence Fishburne, and, the coup de grace, Beetlejuice and Stuttering John from The Howard Stern Show. I was psyched for Walken but unfortunately it sounded like his dialogue was poorly edited together from too many takes. The language is course, be ready for much dropping of the F and N words. The sound effects are solid, making the city feel more alive.
Conclusion:
There are some games that feel so close to being something great. This is not one of those games. There are just too many things wrong; it's like they wanted to change everything a certain amount from Grand Theft Auto, and in doing so they put out a vastly inferior product. Save your money and your time. Every iteration of GTA is priced lower than this, so there is no excuse for owning True Crime: New York City over any of them. I suppose if you really wanted to walk the beat on the mean streets of Manhattan, then maybe give this a rental. But otherwise there are just too many other games that don't feel so pushed out the door. Skip it