One of the few good GTA clones (True Crime - Streets of LA (PS2))

Member Name: shaneo632

Product:	True Crime - Streets of LA (PS2)
Date:	12/09/09 (6 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Gameplay and graphics

Disadvantages: Supernatural elements may alienate some

True Crime: Streets of L.A. was quite a hyped game when it came out, with the expectation being that it may very well be the first legitimate GTA beater. Whilst this isn't true, it's still a very good game that pulls an interesting twist on the usual urban action thriller genre - it pulls in some more celestial elements from the Japanese Triads.

Visually, it outdoes the games of the time, such as GTA3 and GTA: Vice City - the renders are extremely well modelled and the locales also look very stellar indeed. The city and surrounding locales are also extremely detailed and very large indeed, rivalling the size of some of the cities in San Andreas for sure (despite being released first). My only gripe visually is that there are a few bugs, such as when you'll get trapped in the scenery, but this is true of the GTA games also (the notorious bike bug in Vice City), so I won't be too hard on it.

Control-wise, it's very well engineered - the driving in particular handles wonderfully and it's a little tighter than the controls of VC. Combat is also fun, and there's the added laugh of being a police officer, so you can hunt down suspects, cuff them, and if need be, also execute them on the pavement. There are also some fun slow-motion sequences where you can take more time to take the baddies down, although there are admittedly some clunky moments where the collision detection is a touch off and you don't always connect when you should.

The soundtrack is quite fun, although the problem does suffer from some insanely repetitive voiceovers from the protagonist - they're intended as fun witticisms but they come out as more cheesy and corny than anything. Fortunately, though, most of the time he can't be heard over the surplus of gunshots and epic explosions, so it's not so bad!

There's plenty to do in this game, from simply replaying missions to taking down and arresting perps - it's a varied and fun game that's a bit more daring than the GTA games with regard to its supernatural content, although some might find this a bit silly.

Summary: Daft but very fun