For those of you looking for a GTA-killer, you won't find it here. Not quite, at least. Don't get me wrong, I truly enjoyed True Crime, but it was not up to par with either of the GTA's. The graphics are good and realistic in some areas, however, being a resident of Los Angeles, I can say that while they did a good job in making some parts of the city look how they actually do, they completely butchered other areas, which is disappointing. Another problem I had with this game was that the city was too uniform, in the sense that the same type of people are seen everywhere. Whether you are in the fanciest part of Beverly Hills or Bel- Air, or the crappiest and most dangerous part of Downtown, you see the same women in sensible business attire, the same cracked- out white trash and and the same gang-banging minorities.
This game also had some serious clipping issues, and there are many places where one can run through a solid wall or fence with relative ease, and sometimes it takes a while to clip yourself back out. Though, I must admit, occasionally the clipping helped me out. For instance, the UCLA campus is fully built in the game, but they blocked it off with road blocks so you can't get in. However, run at the roadblocks or fences for a little while and you can slip right in. Although they tend to warp you back outside of the campus, I was able to see a few familiar buildings, which I found most enjoyable.
The gameplay was more ambitious than GTA, incorporating far more detailed melee fighting, along with third- person shooter action, and this was largely a sucess. The driving was also fun, and had adequate handling, though it could have used more cars.
This was a great game, and I thourougly enjoyed it, but it is not as polished as GTA. I really hope they decide to make a sequel. If they made a few more parts of the city closer to how they are in reality, fixed the clipping problems, made a greater variety of characters and paid more attention to where they placed them in the city, and cleaned up the action just a bit, it could be a true gem.
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