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| Look! I'm Flying! For no reason! |
Haven't I seen you before? Seen you before? Seen you before? |
Perhaps hope springs eternal in game maker's breasts. That must be the reason. Misplaced hope is always somewhat pathetic though, and it is especially pathetic when it comes to True Crime: New York City.
The first complaint I'll have to make is the minuscule game play. There are four missions. Four. They are all about the same to play too. Which really makes you wonder why they bothered at all. It's like storyline was a hassle that they had to deal with, but would much rather not have done.
You find yourself as Marcus Reed, a young renegade cop, determined to put wrongs right, and commit his own brand of crime while he does it. It is a little confusing telling whether the “True Crime” part of the title refers to the gangsters you bust, or your own character, who has no respect for procedure at all.
There are a decent amount of side missions to go on, which helps disguise the lack of true storyline. They can be fairly entertaining to take part in, and actually introduce some variety into the game play. Part of your cop duties are doing things like taking part in illegal street races. Something tells me that the real NYPD's duties are by and large a lot less interesting than Marcus's.
The high point of this game is undoubtedly the way that New York has been recreated in a game world. Unfortunately most of us are not looking for 3D maps of New York, rather we're looking to play a decent game. Unfortunately this is not going to happen here. Part of the problem is bad underlying design, and part of the problem appears to be the fact that this is a poorly done port from Xbox and PS2.
The overall presentation of the game is very hit and miss. There are some awesome cameo appearances from people like Christopher Walken and Lawrence Fishburne. (Think Morpheus, he should just change his name to Morpheus anyway, that would be so cool.)
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| A brief moment of cool before you realize that the tires are made of straight lines. | You like it like this! Don't you? Oh yeah! Aren't you glad you brought the game now! |
A nice touch is the interrogation aspect of the game, which should interest anyone thinking of a career in international relations for the US Military. Other interesting things that should be mentioned are the shooting system, which I have to compliment, though purists will be upset because its too easy. This isn't a FPS, so an overly simplified shooting system can be forgiven. Basically all you have to do to take down a crim is fire in their general direction. What could be more simple?
Each successfully completed mission gives you career points, which you can use to be a better cop. You can also learn new fighting moves, driving moves, that sort of thing. New moves are learned at dojos scattered across the city, and the process of becoming a better fighter does feel a tad contrived, but hey, its not reality right?
No, it's not, and you'll be reminded of that fact constantly with the interesting array of glitches that have been left in the game for your amusement. There are so few character models that it almost feels like New York has been transformed into a city of clones. Perhaps there is more Matrix inspired influence here than we previously suspected, as you'll discover when a virtual army of blocky clones meander down the block.
Those are far from being the only problems though, your character seems to have trouble not only telling right from wrong, but wall from not wall. Look, he's halfway through it! Magic!
Graphically this game is, as my dear dad used to say, a dog's breakfast. Terrible textures, environments with buildings that are barely differentiated from one another, animations that will make you laugh, or perhaps cry.
Not much attention has been paid to physics and realism either. Cars and people literally pop in and out of existence right before your eyes, which is rather disconcerting at the best of times and teeth grindingly retarded at others.
Sound wise it's not much better, with voice actors clearly suffering from tourettes having been employed to give 'life' to the characters of the game.
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| Must.. destroy.. all... evidence.. of... game... | They either have broken knees, or they're about to dance the funky chicken... You decide... |
TRUE CRIME: NEW YORK CITY VERDICT
To sum this game up: Could have done better, should have done better. Needs to work harder. Doesn’t play well with others. Termination recommended.
TOP GAME MOMENT
Christopher Walken’s bit part. Who doesn’t love that guy?
