True crime can be said to be a mix of various popular PS2 titles. Take one part GTA, add a little of The Getaway, and top it off with a dash of max payne. Feeding off the familiarity of these titles True Crime boasts to be the best of both worlds, driving and combat (armed and unarmed). Let's delve into the actual mechanics and whatnot of the game and see what we come to actually find.
You play as Nick Kang, a pissed off EOD agent that is out to solve a huge crime in Los Angelos. You basically partake in chapters, each delivering a certain amount of missions. Best part is that the game features a branching storyline....so if you fail a mission instead of being forced to redo it you can continue on within the chapted or retry which gives you a variation on the story. Also we find the Good Cop/Bad Cop persona that can be played with....go "postal" and your rating goes down and you are considered a bad cop and civil unrest will become evident. Do righteous deeds like stopping crimes without the use of firearms and safe driving practices will earn you positive feedback in the community. The Good/Bad aspect also ties into the story, certain chapters will be locked if you follow the path of the bad cop and vice versa.
Onto the actual cars and combat the game offers. Basically like GTA you can "Comandere" any vehicle you see fit. Vehicles take real body damage like flat tires, broken windows, body panels that become loose and fly off, and of course the good old fire that breaks out in the car engine right before the junker blows up. Located on the mini map you will notice a STEERING WHEEL icon. This is to start a street race (timed event) in which you will win the champions car to appear in your garage...like the manual says only cars with sirens can use them and each car Nick wins becomes equipped with a siren.
The guns and hand to hand combat are mediocre. You basically can pick up weapons bad guys drop in each hand (once bullets are depleted you return to Nicks pistols that have infinite ammo) and this is not only restricted to guns but also melee object. As with the races you can look at the mini map and search for Crosshair icons to unlock new gunplay moves like quick reload and so forth. Hand to hand is pretty simple....a punch, kick, jump kick, and grapple button. As stated above look for a dumbell icon on the map to unlock new fighting moves for Nick. Let me add that these training areas require one "Shield" to access...you gain shields by solving cases.
All in all the game got hyped up, everyone was excited about this game because it sounded so damn great. But in the end when I actually sat down with it and gave it a thorough go through I can see that it only merely stacks up as a solid rental from your local Blockbuster. Sure the game has random crimes that pop up here and there like a mugging, hit and run, gang wars, the endless pat-downs of pedestrians to see who is holding contraband and so on but the whole thing gets tiring because it lacks the driving physics that make the cars seem realistic, it lacks the fluidness in the hand combat department, and it lacks a seperation from other titles to make it in itself unique.....kinda dwindelling itself down to "Another GTA clone" as many people would say.
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