Players assume the role of Nick Kang, a former LAPD police officer whose brutality saw him thrown off the force. Nick has joined the Elite Operations Division, a rent-a-cop operation of sorts. Kang has been recruited to take down the Chinese Triad and Russian Cartel who are waging war on the streets of Los Angeles, while trying to find out who murdered his father.
True Crime features a branching storyline with over 100 main missions, as well as random missions that occur while you're out on the streets. When you fail a mission, you don't merely go back and repeat the mission over and over until you complete it - if you fail a mission, it will affect the branch in some way, allowing for maximum replayability. There are three main parts to True Crime's gameplay - driving, fighting and shooting. Nick can commandeer any vehicle in the game, learn various advanced driving techniques and target and shoot anyone outside the car. True Crime features an in-depth hand to hand combat system - Nick can go to various martial arts dojos in LA, and learn new hand to hand combat moves. Nick can use any two guns at a time and can do nice moves, such as slow motion dives and precision firing which will give him the edge in a fight.
250 miles of Los Angeles has been recreated from GPS data for True Crime. LA is a living breathing city, much like Liberty City and Vice City were in the GTA games. You can visit all sorts of famous LA landmarks in the game, as well as famous areas such as Santa Monica, Hollywood and Beverley Hills. True Crime also features detailed indoor areas throughout the game. Nick is impressively animated at this point in time, especially in regards to his fighting moves. We are a little concerned about the flow of the driving sections - while the frame rate is excellent, things just don't look "right" - hopefully it will all be fixed for the final version.
Looks good in stills, but movement is a tad erratic
Luxoflux have pulled out all the stops when it comes to the audio presentation of True Crime. The list of voice actors features various famous Hollywood actors including Christopher Walken, Gary Oldman and Ron Perlman. Famous rapper Snoop Dogg is on to assemble the game's soundtrack, though there will be music types other than rap in the game, and Xbox users will be able to utilise their custom soundtracks. Music will change with the situation in the game as well as being on the radio (or at least that's what we think).
At this stage, True Crime: Streets of LA is looking to be a very solid title. While it has the potential to exceed the gameplay experiences of the Grand Theft Auto series, it's really up to developer Luxoflux to make sure they deliver the best game possible. True Crime: Streets of LA is due to ship November 14th for Playstation 2, Xbox and Gamecube.
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