True Crime : New York City
Technical Info -
Publisher: Activision
Developer: Luxoflux
Genre: Modern Action Adventure
Release Date: Nov 15, 2005
Players: 1 Player
Also On: PC | XBOX | GC
-----------------------------------
Activision and Luxoflux first made True Crime : Streets of L.A. It featured road maps identical to those of the real Los Angeles, but the visuals didn't. Every street and block looked the same. When it was compared with GTA (Vice City at the time) it had many things right and many things were screwed as well.
It had a better fight mechanic, much better graphics, a bigger, larger area.
But now its time for its sequel, it actually has no connection with the storyline though but at least has the same name!
Anyway's, on with the review! -
What is this game about ?
If you love free-roaming games like GTA, Getaway, Mafia etc, or if you plan to stay in Manhatten - This game is pretty worthy of at least a try! Some of you may have been spoilt by the gamespot's review, but for some reason they just gave this too low, IGN has reviewed this better.
About the game - It features a real life location - Manhatten, New York City. The map in the game is a blueprint of the real Manhatten map! Developers themselves said this. The city looks very real-life-like. Gta San An lookes to cartoonish in front of this.
Its one of the good offerings of this game. The city, looks very real in the game, almost as if you're playing through a movie.
Story :
Marcus Reed is a gangsta turned cop. His father is an underground lord, and right now in prison (though a very luxurious prison i must say, Laptop with internet, wine, sofa, royal curtains, i would definitely would want to spend a day in there, lol)
Now since his father was into this business, it didn't take time for little Marcus to follow in his father's footsteps. However, they both get screwed by other crimelords and gangs. They kidnapped Mr.Reed and Marcus thinks he's dead. He busts in the other gangs resting house and raises all hell (you play that) He kills everyone.
He was later saved by a family friend who happened to be a cop and cleared all charges on Marcus when he was actually offering himself to the cop after he wrecked the place. He was told his father is well and alive, but in custody. Marcus started a new life, he was tired of gangsta, which almost ended his life. He trained with the family friend, and five years later, he is now a Cop ready for his first job. As he trains, the family-friend cop is killed in an explosion. He was upto a big case, a case so big it invovled the entire Manhatten, and as of of right now, Manhatten is full of all types of crimes everywhere.
Graphics :
This is the strength, the main feature of the game - Graphics! The city looks breathtaking, like never seen before in a videogame. The face detail and expression are spot on.
A 8.9/10 on this one. The FMV scenes are real time sequences. Meaning Marcus in the FMV's will be wearing the same clothes and will be carrying the same gun, even driving the same car we just played him with before the FMV sequence started! Its very well done.
In the ps2 version though, Framerate drops terribly in some heavily corwded areas. This is problem is not in the much powerful Gamecube and Xbox versions.
Gameplay :
This is what makes a game, its gameplay.
the fighting system is very, very well done. You have over 10 types of styles to learn from. Which you do from Dojo's. The style types include Drunken Boxing, Karate, heavy etc. Weapons can be used, even the gun can be used as a mellee weapon. The opponent can be locked in, if not the lock is automatic on the direction you see. Its a pleasure to take down criminals. You can trap him and arrest him, knock him out with one straight hit, or just teach him a lesson taking him down with slides, punches and kicks. The moves are plenty to choose from, in the case of ps2, the fighting makes use of all the action button (Square, Circle, triangle and Cross) with R1 as lock on button, You can dodge, and lock on with R1. One can even toss opponents on things behind him, almost everything in the background is interactive with the fight.
Driving - Well, it has very mixed opinion. It is very difficult to get a hold of in the first place in my opinion. It doesn't work like other games. Some 2 hours into it and you'll get used to it.
I think they got the Traffic System spot on. The car damage is very real life like and it is what forces you to stop at Red Light and obey traffic rules, believe me you'll be doing it to avoid damage. I don't even drive on the wrong side of the road. If i do, i'll make sure its a car with sirens so people make way themselves. Driving isn't bad if you want it to be like the way it is in cities, but if you thinking you can go for an NFS roadtrip - This game isn't for you.
You have the option to mod your cars. Nitrous is there, in every car once you buy an upgrade. It makes even the ambulance give a strong boost! The Bikes however are rare, but is what the best thing to drive in this game. However, it'll go up in flames in one strong hit with an oncoming car!! But like i said before, bikes, is very different cars in this game, and some will find it very fun to drive.
Gameplay is divided between main story missions and other mini missions. And there are a LOT of mini missions! Even more than GTA San Andreas i think! They wanted to fix it in this game. Players have a lot to do, when they're not on missions. I've spent an entire week not attempting a single mission.
Since you're a cop, you'll get crime alerts every minute or so. (like rape, hostage situation, drug facory to be busted, bank robbery in progress, couple of old whimps fighting with their walking sticks, customers kicking the hell out of restaurant owner because he served meat....you can solve them in a good cop and a bad cop way. Bad Cop is pretty understood, no talking, just go in there, aim, shoot, dead = bad cop. Good cop required taking down the criminals, and arresting them.
You can even ticket drivers for speed. If you ticket a one going under 20 mps, you'll get a bad cop, but if you see a one going on head at full speed, you can pull him over and ticket him.
You can also check pedestrians for illegal stuff. Pretty neat, and if the ped is clean, and owns a car, make sure you check his car trunk for illegal stuff again!
This is very cool. In case you didn't know, the New York Police were very unhappy on how this game went through so much detail that players could abuse it like killing peds, racing illegal undergrounce races, accsuing innocent peds of crime etc so Activision and to change the police name from NYPD to PDNY!
Shops! Well, it kicks GTA out of its place here. It features over a 100 stores! Ranging from clothes, barber, food, Dojo, music store, weapons, and even illegal Pawn shops where you can sell evidence found from criminals after arresting for money (resulting in bad cop)
Almost every door is enterable, Restaurants, pubs. You can go in there in late nights to bust some dope holders. In total, it features over 700 enterable places. The map is almost a blueprint of the real Manhatten, well, they've put it to good use.
Interrogation System - Sometimes, you can interrogate crime lords and shopkeepers for infromation and money, Marcus holds them hostage and some mood/confidence meter shows up. You then get plenty of options to choose from and making the right choices will get you the desired result from the hostage. Though this feature has been overused.
Mini missions also include taking down underground Racing and Wrestling society. You first need to get yourself "inside" the society. that means you race illegal races, you fight wrestlers for money until you reach rank 2 and face the champ. After defeating the champ, you show your badge and take down the community.
There's a ranking system in the game. As an officer, you have a rank. A 1st rank is the highest post for a cop, with most privileges like being able to buy a Hummer police version and bigger salary. Reaching rank 1 is easy if you perform enough good cop points.
Also, the map is divided into several areas. Each area at first is red, meaning crime is high and needs your attention. Once you clean up that area it stays green. But if you perform bad cop points and ignore crime alerts, it'll go back to red. So if you don't solve the crimes regularly, you'll see the city destroy itself.
With all that said, i can say the game keeps you hooked. You probably would want to ignore the main missions and solve crimes, race and fight all the time. You know San Andreas doesn't feature that. Sure there are a lot of missions, but what do you actually do driving around? TC: Nyc always has something or the other to do, even if you're just going on a drive, a crime could happen any moment and requires your immediate actions. Though, solving street crimes can become boring after prolonged hours of playing but then you got tons of other things to do.
Sound :
The track collection isn't as impressive as Gta. Gta featured a full time Radio, this only features only tracks of various genres. Even electronic club (but not trance, only club) hip-hop, Rock, Metal, Pop. You can even buy more tracks in music stores throughout the city.
Voice acting is the best as it features HollyWood talent. Though minor details like all cars sound mostly the same, weapons don't sound real aren't that noticeable, but noticeable. Besides, you got pedestrians loathing so many uneeded comments, you'll find San Andreas way quiter!
There are a lot of indians in the game. A lot of hindi and abuses. One time i caught, this indian walks up to me and catches fire as well, he start running everywhere frantically, then dies after saying his last word 'Ch**tiay'
Bang an on-coming car with an india on it, you'll heara long 'Bh*nch**@!'
Besides hindi, there's japanesem chines and maybe some more asian languages.
Negative Drawbacks : There's always a game with these, no game is perfect. And this is no exception.
Glitches - Yes, this game has them. You will often journy to heavens, and beneath the roads suddenly after arresting an criminal. Or sometimes you will find this special ghost car than can go through buildings. And sometimes it'll just simply crash old style. There's tons of various types of gltiches to be found. It is as if devs put them in on purpose as easter eggs or something. Many people, myself including, say that this doesn't actually spoil the experience of the game though. But it'll be heart-braking if you spend 4 hrs playing it and suddenly it crash's..so saving often is a must in this.
Repetitive missions - All the main missions in the game have the same thing. Bust in a drug house, kill the soldiers, pin the crime lord, interrogate him for the next clue. though this is not the same with mini missions.
Not a good variety of Cars - What's up with the Car roster? There's not many cars to be found in the game, which is surprising. Althogh there are many cars which you can buy from shops and Police station, on road generally you'll probably end up seeing only 5-7 different cars throughout the city. Sometimes if you're lucky, you'll see a good fast race car speed past you, and if that happens you'll suddenly see that particular car then appearing everywhere all of a sudden and that's wierd.
Doesn't follow up from the last game's story - This game features and all new stroy and has nothing to do with the previous game. Though that may not be a negative factor.
Versus Grand Theft Auto? :
Gta when compared to this feel a little immature. You can go on a killing spree in GTA SA without any worries, in NYC, you can't, you get bad cop points for each one you kill and that isn't a good thing for the overall progress in the game.
Certainly has the upper hand in graphics. Story, both have an equally good one.
Driving - I favour NYC here, the traffic and road system is much much better than GTA SA.
Overall - GTA SA might pull it off because it is a much lengthier game. There is a lot to do like hacking in airports and docks, the mod garages are way better, and even if you finish the game and storyline there's still a lot of stuff to do. TC : NYC, till the main missions last too have a lot of side missions you could do, but once they're over, and once the credits roll up. There's nothing there exept solving crimes.
Ending the review : This game is worth a try. If you loved or hated games like GTA, this game must at least be tried. It gets an 7.8/10 from me. Very fun while it'll last, a little addictive, and gives you a general look of the real Manhatten, NY. Glitches may or may not spoil the experience.
Trailers - GameSpy: True Crime: New York City Trailer, Videos and Movies
------------------------------------------------------
lol, well, i finished the game day before yesterday so though why not review it. Also there is a rumoured PSP version floating everywhere. We might get it.
have more Q's about the game? PM me.
params7.
Technical Info -
Publisher: Activision
Developer: Luxoflux
Genre: Modern Action Adventure
Release Date: Nov 15, 2005
Players: 1 Player
Also On: PC | XBOX | GC
-----------------------------------
Activision and Luxoflux first made True Crime : Streets of L.A. It featured road maps identical to those of the real Los Angeles, but the visuals didn't. Every street and block looked the same. When it was compared with GTA (Vice City at the time) it had many things right and many things were screwed as well.
It had a better fight mechanic, much better graphics, a bigger, larger area.
But now its time for its sequel, it actually has no connection with the storyline though but at least has the same name!
Anyway's, on with the review! -
What is this game about ?
If you love free-roaming games like GTA, Getaway, Mafia etc, or if you plan to stay in Manhatten - This game is pretty worthy of at least a try! Some of you may have been spoilt by the gamespot's review, but for some reason they just gave this too low, IGN has reviewed this better.
About the game - It features a real life location - Manhatten, New York City. The map in the game is a blueprint of the real Manhatten map! Developers themselves said this. The city looks very real-life-like. Gta San An lookes to cartoonish in front of this.
Its one of the good offerings of this game. The city, looks very real in the game, almost as if you're playing through a movie.
Story :
Marcus Reed is a gangsta turned cop. His father is an underground lord, and right now in prison (though a very luxurious prison i must say, Laptop with internet, wine, sofa, royal curtains, i would definitely would want to spend a day in there, lol)
Now since his father was into this business, it didn't take time for little Marcus to follow in his father's footsteps. However, they both get screwed by other crimelords and gangs. They kidnapped Mr.Reed and Marcus thinks he's dead. He busts in the other gangs resting house and raises all hell (you play that) He kills everyone.
He was later saved by a family friend who happened to be a cop and cleared all charges on Marcus when he was actually offering himself to the cop after he wrecked the place. He was told his father is well and alive, but in custody. Marcus started a new life, he was tired of gangsta, which almost ended his life. He trained with the family friend, and five years later, he is now a Cop ready for his first job. As he trains, the family-friend cop is killed in an explosion. He was upto a big case, a case so big it invovled the entire Manhatten, and as of of right now, Manhatten is full of all types of crimes everywhere.
Graphics :
This is the strength, the main feature of the game - Graphics! The city looks breathtaking, like never seen before in a videogame. The face detail and expression are spot on.
A 8.9/10 on this one. The FMV scenes are real time sequences. Meaning Marcus in the FMV's will be wearing the same clothes and will be carrying the same gun, even driving the same car we just played him with before the FMV sequence started! Its very well done.
In the ps2 version though, Framerate drops terribly in some heavily corwded areas. This is problem is not in the much powerful Gamecube and Xbox versions.
Gameplay :
This is what makes a game, its gameplay.
the fighting system is very, very well done. You have over 10 types of styles to learn from. Which you do from Dojo's. The style types include Drunken Boxing, Karate, heavy etc. Weapons can be used, even the gun can be used as a mellee weapon. The opponent can be locked in, if not the lock is automatic on the direction you see. Its a pleasure to take down criminals. You can trap him and arrest him, knock him out with one straight hit, or just teach him a lesson taking him down with slides, punches and kicks. The moves are plenty to choose from, in the case of ps2, the fighting makes use of all the action button (Square, Circle, triangle and Cross) with R1 as lock on button, You can dodge, and lock on with R1. One can even toss opponents on things behind him, almost everything in the background is interactive with the fight.
Driving - Well, it has very mixed opinion. It is very difficult to get a hold of in the first place in my opinion. It doesn't work like other games. Some 2 hours into it and you'll get used to it.
I think they got the Traffic System spot on. The car damage is very real life like and it is what forces you to stop at Red Light and obey traffic rules, believe me you'll be doing it to avoid damage. I don't even drive on the wrong side of the road. If i do, i'll make sure its a car with sirens so people make way themselves. Driving isn't bad if you want it to be like the way it is in cities, but if you thinking you can go for an NFS roadtrip - This game isn't for you.
You have the option to mod your cars. Nitrous is there, in every car once you buy an upgrade. It makes even the ambulance give a strong boost! The Bikes however are rare, but is what the best thing to drive in this game. However, it'll go up in flames in one strong hit with an oncoming car!! But like i said before, bikes, is very different cars in this game, and some will find it very fun to drive.
Gameplay is divided between main story missions and other mini missions. And there are a LOT of mini missions! Even more than GTA San Andreas i think! They wanted to fix it in this game. Players have a lot to do, when they're not on missions. I've spent an entire week not attempting a single mission.
Since you're a cop, you'll get crime alerts every minute or so. (like rape, hostage situation, drug facory to be busted, bank robbery in progress, couple of old whimps fighting with their walking sticks, customers kicking the hell out of restaurant owner because he served meat....you can solve them in a good cop and a bad cop way. Bad Cop is pretty understood, no talking, just go in there, aim, shoot, dead = bad cop. Good cop required taking down the criminals, and arresting them.
You can even ticket drivers for speed. If you ticket a one going under 20 mps, you'll get a bad cop, but if you see a one going on head at full speed, you can pull him over and ticket him.
You can also check pedestrians for illegal stuff. Pretty neat, and if the ped is clean, and owns a car, make sure you check his car trunk for illegal stuff again!
This is very cool. In case you didn't know, the New York Police were very unhappy on how this game went through so much detail that players could abuse it like killing peds, racing illegal undergrounce races, accsuing innocent peds of crime etc so Activision and to change the police name from NYPD to PDNY!
Shops! Well, it kicks GTA out of its place here. It features over a 100 stores! Ranging from clothes, barber, food, Dojo, music store, weapons, and even illegal Pawn shops where you can sell evidence found from criminals after arresting for money (resulting in bad cop)
Almost every door is enterable, Restaurants, pubs. You can go in there in late nights to bust some dope holders. In total, it features over 700 enterable places. The map is almost a blueprint of the real Manhatten, well, they've put it to good use.
Interrogation System - Sometimes, you can interrogate crime lords and shopkeepers for infromation and money, Marcus holds them hostage and some mood/confidence meter shows up. You then get plenty of options to choose from and making the right choices will get you the desired result from the hostage. Though this feature has been overused.
Mini missions also include taking down underground Racing and Wrestling society. You first need to get yourself "inside" the society. that means you race illegal races, you fight wrestlers for money until you reach rank 2 and face the champ. After defeating the champ, you show your badge and take down the community.
There's a ranking system in the game. As an officer, you have a rank. A 1st rank is the highest post for a cop, with most privileges like being able to buy a Hummer police version and bigger salary. Reaching rank 1 is easy if you perform enough good cop points.
Also, the map is divided into several areas. Each area at first is red, meaning crime is high and needs your attention. Once you clean up that area it stays green. But if you perform bad cop points and ignore crime alerts, it'll go back to red. So if you don't solve the crimes regularly, you'll see the city destroy itself.
With all that said, i can say the game keeps you hooked. You probably would want to ignore the main missions and solve crimes, race and fight all the time. You know San Andreas doesn't feature that. Sure there are a lot of missions, but what do you actually do driving around? TC: Nyc always has something or the other to do, even if you're just going on a drive, a crime could happen any moment and requires your immediate actions. Though, solving street crimes can become boring after prolonged hours of playing but then you got tons of other things to do.
Sound :
The track collection isn't as impressive as Gta. Gta featured a full time Radio, this only features only tracks of various genres. Even electronic club (but not trance, only club) hip-hop, Rock, Metal, Pop. You can even buy more tracks in music stores throughout the city.
Voice acting is the best as it features HollyWood talent. Though minor details like all cars sound mostly the same, weapons don't sound real aren't that noticeable, but noticeable. Besides, you got pedestrians loathing so many uneeded comments, you'll find San Andreas way quiter!
There are a lot of indians in the game. A lot of hindi and abuses. One time i caught, this indian walks up to me and catches fire as well, he start running everywhere frantically, then dies after saying his last word 'Ch**tiay'
Bang an on-coming car with an india on it, you'll heara long 'Bh*nch**@!'
Besides hindi, there's japanesem chines and maybe some more asian languages.
Negative Drawbacks : There's always a game with these, no game is perfect. And this is no exception.
Glitches - Yes, this game has them. You will often journy to heavens, and beneath the roads suddenly after arresting an criminal. Or sometimes you will find this special ghost car than can go through buildings. And sometimes it'll just simply crash old style. There's tons of various types of gltiches to be found. It is as if devs put them in on purpose as easter eggs or something. Many people, myself including, say that this doesn't actually spoil the experience of the game though. But it'll be heart-braking if you spend 4 hrs playing it and suddenly it crash's..so saving often is a must in this.
Repetitive missions - All the main missions in the game have the same thing. Bust in a drug house, kill the soldiers, pin the crime lord, interrogate him for the next clue. though this is not the same with mini missions.
Not a good variety of Cars - What's up with the Car roster? There's not many cars to be found in the game, which is surprising. Althogh there are many cars which you can buy from shops and Police station, on road generally you'll probably end up seeing only 5-7 different cars throughout the city. Sometimes if you're lucky, you'll see a good fast race car speed past you, and if that happens you'll suddenly see that particular car then appearing everywhere all of a sudden and that's wierd.
Doesn't follow up from the last game's story - This game features and all new stroy and has nothing to do with the previous game. Though that may not be a negative factor.
Versus Grand Theft Auto? :
Gta when compared to this feel a little immature. You can go on a killing spree in GTA SA without any worries, in NYC, you can't, you get bad cop points for each one you kill and that isn't a good thing for the overall progress in the game.
Certainly has the upper hand in graphics. Story, both have an equally good one.
Driving - I favour NYC here, the traffic and road system is much much better than GTA SA.
Overall - GTA SA might pull it off because it is a much lengthier game. There is a lot to do like hacking in airports and docks, the mod garages are way better, and even if you finish the game and storyline there's still a lot of stuff to do. TC : NYC, till the main missions last too have a lot of side missions you could do, but once they're over, and once the credits roll up. There's nothing there exept solving crimes.
Ending the review : This game is worth a try. If you loved or hated games like GTA, this game must at least be tried. It gets an 7.8/10 from me. Very fun while it'll last, a little addictive, and gives you a general look of the real Manhatten, NY. Glitches may or may not spoil the experience.
Trailers - GameSpy: True Crime: New York City Trailer, Videos and Movies
------------------------------------------------------
lol, well, i finished the game day before yesterday so though why not review it. Also there is a rumoured PSP version floating everywhere. We might get it.
have more Q's about the game? PM me.
params7.
