Sound:  
The music in the game is all licensed music or rap music created for the game. Unlike GTA, there's no radio, so you can't pick a style and go with it, and you don't get any funny commercials. If you really don't like the song that's playing, you can get out of your car and find a different car. Still, even with all the music in the game, it tends to repeat too often. I guess I'm spoiled by my itunes collection.

The voicework in cutscenes is impressive. Several celebrities lent their voices to the game. Unfortunately during gameplay, your main character, Nick, says the same things a little too often. I guess that's the price he pays for dying and getting to come back to life forever. You sick, sick, Satan, you.

I was in one fight scene and he said the same one-liner six times in a row. I understand that can happen in the realm of randomness, but I'd prefer seemingly random to true random.

Gameplay:  
You may have noticed I put the word "true" in italics twice. That's because the game is called True Crime, and yet at no time do you do any detective work. I do like that when chasing down a perp, you can flash your badge and fire a warning shot to make them surrender, but the game clearly guides you to what you have to do next.

If you screw up a mission, the game can branch into a new story where you suck, but so far I've just been replaying missions that I lost. This is a lot better than GTA, in that I don't have to drive in real time to the start of the mission to try again, and I can just select the game to reload my mission.

Speaking of reloading, this game has load times. The kind of load times we're not accustomed to on the GameCube. You sit and you sit, and then you get a brief cut scene describing the next mission, and then you sit some more. It's boring. Can't it load the game on the fly while you're playing? It knows all the possible things you could do next, so it should be ready with all of them.

Oh yeah, and back to my problem with the name, True Crime, if you play long enough the game turns really weird. You get to fight those regenerative monsters from RE4, except they don't regenerate, and then you meet this 340-year-old Chinese man who lives underneath LA surrounded by a lava pit. He shoots giant flaming demon heads at you, then you fight his ghost concubines, and then you fight a lava dragon he keeps, not unlike Volvagia from Ocarina of Time.

What the hell were they thinking putting this in the game? I mean in Ocarina- what were they thinking when they named something "Volvagia." Say it out loud, it's fun! I wonder why parent groups weren't outraged over that one. (insert Hot Coffee joke here. Withdraw Hot Coffee joke. Insert, withdraw, insert, withdraw).

Really though, True Crime gets really weird at the end. Let's hope the sequel, True Crime: New York, stays grounded in reality. You have to vote someone off Manhattan Island every three days, just like in reality...

Now that I've finished complaining, I really like the gameplay in True Crime! The fighting system has a great number of combos and strategy so it stays interesting throughout the game. It's much more refined than the fighting in GTA. The driving is as good as GTA's driving, and there's a whole good cop/bad cop aspect to the game. Every action you take earns you good or bad ratings. Shoot someone in the leg and then put handcuffs on them? Good cop. Shoot them in the head? Bad cop. Your rating will affect how your story progresses.

If you've killed too many civilians, just frisk random people and find drugs and weapons. That will give you a good cop rating again. It's not very realistic until you remember it takes place in LA.

The game also employs a first-person slow-mo aiming style that lets you slow down time and aim where you want in first-person perspective. It's not easy at first, but you learn quickly. You can also do this while you're driving, although it's easier just to shoot in real time at the car you're chasing down.

Several times you'll also have to use stealth to sneak into a club or somewhere else where you can't be seen. Many objects are in your way and if you bump them they'll make a noise and alert the guards. It's amazing how you make the most noise the minute you're trying to be quiet...

Control:
Control in the game is a little clunky. All the buttons are used in various ways each. Maybe Nintendo's right in simplifying their games.

The game also has some lock-up problems. Three times now it's frozen on me, and once I died and it started me in a place that I couldn't get out of, so I had to restart. I think I got the Blue Screen of Death from old Windows programs once.

The good news is that everytime you do something the game autosaves, so I've never had a frustrating moment where I lost what I did. Also good, it did not autosave me in that place that I couldn't get out of. That would have been annoying.

Multiplayer:
No multiplayer in the game, but you can unlock and play as Snoop Dog. Is it Snoop Dogg with two Gs? I don't care enough to look it up. He should be in Nintendogs.

OVERALL:
I enjoyed True Crime, especially the good cop/bad cop system, the branching storylines, and arresting criminals without killing them. I'm not against killing in the game, but it's easier than doing it the right way. Chasing them down is way more fun. True Crime: New York comes out soon and is said to be improved over the first one in nearly every way.

I would suggest buying the sequel, assuming it gets good reviews, and then if you really like it, get the original.

*Prove me wrong, Nintendo!

 

The Lowdown on  True Crime: Streets of LA Aesthetics: Above Average Control: Average Gameplay: Very Good Multiplayer: Sound: Above Average Innovation: 3/6 Lasting Appeal: 5/6 Rating Explanation Overall: Above Average! "A Quality Game"