Reviewed: December 2, 2005
Publisher
Developer
Released: November 16, 2005
8 |
Anyone who played True Crime: Streets of L.A. will feel right at home when they take on the persona of Marcus Reed, urban gangster turned cop-with-an-attitude in Activision’s latest cop-drama, True Crime: New York City. There was a lot to like in L.A. and probably just as much to dislike, but thankfully Luxoflux managed to keep the good stuff and either trim away the bad or even better, replace it with functional content and game design, but even so, there is no mistaking that overwhelming sense of deja vu when you start busting bad guys. This is L.A. all over again, only with a New York attitude and plenty of refinements. For starters we have what is becoming a bit of a cliché in the story department. You play Marcus Reed, son of a major kingpin in NYC. A rival gang puts out a hit on you and dad but it all goes down wrong and you both survive - bad news for them since you immediately infiltrate their hideout and waste them all. Jump ahead five years and you are now part of the NYPD, mysteriously cleared of any charges in the slaughter, and close friends with another officer who apparently got you cleared and had you join the force. But in another tragic twist, your mentor gets killed forcing you to take to the streets as a one-man exercise in police brutality to solve his murder and clean up this town. The game eases you into the controls with an excellent tutorial that covers shooting and driving and basic movement skills, made all the more fun with a great narrative shouted out by a drill sergeant type officer who will have you thinking you just joined the army. Once in the game all of these skills are cleverly integrated into the game world and slowly expanded upon. One of the biggest complaints of the last game was the movement and aiming. There is now a kick ass lock-on mode that locks your target for as long as you press the button then returns to the great free-look camera as soon as you release it. It’s covered quite well in the tutorial and really shines during the game. With this improved targeting system comes a much improved melee combat system where you can intuitively lock onto the nearest bad guy simply by pointing at him then mashing the appropriate attack buttons. You will always have at least one story-related mission to deal with at anytime but there will also be a continuous stream of random 911’s coming in over the radio, and you are free to partake of these or ignore them. As with the last game, you are rewarded for following proper police procedures and penalized for shooting first. This all leads up to the whole good cop – bad cop alignment issues, which seem to be downplayed in this game. Other than losing out on some financial rewards, there is no real penalty for playing dirty. As with the first game there are a whole new batch of upgrades you can earn, but getting them is now a whole lot easier. Instead of going to the dojo or the shooting range you can now buy your upgrades with cold hard cash or earn them by simply ranking up within the force. Side missions are fun but it’s the story missions that really bring the game home even though they all follow the same formula of shooting your way through a few waves of thugs to reach a boss at which point you can interrogate (torture) them using some truly clever tricks that rival those in The Punisher, at least in creativity. The actual act of interrogation is basically a mini-game that is all too easy to win, but if for some reason you do blow it you can always find an informant who will have that same information, for a price of course, so be prepared to pound the pavement on an extra side mission. Some of these missions are actually pretty fun, so you might want to intentionally screw-up an interrogation from time to time. If you blaze straight through the story mode you will probably be a bit disappointed as the game reveals just how shallow it is, but if you truly immerse yourself into the city and the story and play the game as a real cop and answer those random calls every once and awhile, True Crime: New York City can be a very rewarding experience. In the tradition of open-ended city games you are free to drive (or walk) around NYC, which is a massive recreation to say the least. One trip to the subway and a look at the city map will give you just a hint at the scale you will be dealing with. It can take you a good 10-15 minutes to drive across the map, whereas a subway will instantly transport you to your destination. It might not rain in Southern California but it comes down in buckets in New York City. I can see why people kill themselves in Seattle. Nothing is more depressing than continuous downpours and even when it’s not raining the game looks “wet”. But allow me to elaborate. This is not an overall design decision but actually an element of the gameplay. New York is dirty and depressing as long as crime runs rampant but as you start to clean up the town the sun will start to poke out and the city will slowly morph into someplace a bit more pleasant. It’s actually a very clever real-time integrated meter of your overall progression with the story and your achievements. The city itself is impressive in scale but a bit lacking in overall detail. Don’t be surprised to see a lot of repeat architecture and textures as you race down city streets. Other than the major landmarks, NYC is rather unremarkable. The indoor missions all have a similar structure, usually a chain of rooms or combat areas and some minor details that distinguish them from the last place you fought. There are a lot of cars and motorcycles and they all have a good look to them. There are plenty of special effects, mainly dirty particle effects for all the trash in the city as well as gratuitous reflections off the wet pavement and lots of colored lighting. With a cast of seasoned professionals including actors such as Laurence Fishburne, Mickey Rourke, and Christopher Walken what more could you want? More. These guys all turn in fantastic performances and I wanted more. The scripted does get a bit cheesy at times but it never got laughably bad, and you just have to love the tutorial guy. Sound effects are a rich blend of cityscape noises, gunfire, and plenty of engine sounds that are barely unique to the vehicles. Actually, other than car, truck, and bike, I could hardly tell the differences when I got behind the wheel of any particular model. The game is mixed in Dolby Digital for an immersive experience. The soundtrack features more than 80 licensed tracks from a lot of thoughtfully chosen artists, many of which have helped to shape the NYC music scene. Bob Dylan, The Ramones, Blondie, Run DMC, Sonic Youth, Blue Oyster Cult, Public Enemy, My Chemical Romance, and DMX, as well as new music from Redman, including "Rush The Security" and two original tracks written for the game all shape one of the best soundtracks of 2005. As long as you play the game as it was intended you can easily get 20+ hours of quality fun from this title, but if you want to simply race through the story missions you can beat it in half the time. There is a whole lot to explore and a whole lot to do if you really immerse yourself in the life of the NYPD. There’s no multiplayer or branching stories to keep you coming back, but New York City offers plenty to do for the solo gamer who wants to lose themselves in the Big Apple for a few weeks. True Crime: New York City is definitely a better game than its predecessor, but only because it fixes what was wrong in L.A. It never really tries to go anywhere new (aside from the East Coast), and the familiar gameplay might get a bit predictable and even stale before you finish this big city adventure. But, if you have finished San Andreas and are looking for that next great open-ended, crime-driven city game, True Crime is the game and New York is certainly the city.
|