True Crime: Streets of LA

John Gillooly hopes this game isn't as crappy as the city it's set in.

Movies, music and gaming keep getting closer, but rarely are they melded as well as they are in True Crime: Streets of LA. With genuine movie stars like Christopher Walken and Gary Oldman providing voice talent, and a swag of west coast rappers laying down the music, True Crime is one of the slickest games to hit consoles in recent years.

It is a nice mix of tried and true gameplay mixed with some innovative concepts to arrive at an end product that is familiar to a degree but does enough differently to stand out. There are three main components of True Crime: GTA-esque running and driving, Virtua fighterish hand to hand combat and Max Paynefull shooting. All of this takes place over a series of missions set in an accurate rendition of Los Angeles.

You play renegade cop Nick Kang, plunged into a conspiracy involving Chinese and Russian gangsters. As you work your way through the story you find yourself regularly jumping between the different game styles.

The campaign is unique in that it provides a branching storyline and the ability to continue after failing a mission (which itself affects the story). This does extend the single player experience, and there is enough to do just cruising around LA to keep the game interesting (like finding the 30 hidden ‘bones’ that unlock the play as Snoop Dogg mode). When cruising you can also solve random crimes to earn experience that can be traded for new skills.

True Crime partially succeeds in its mission. The branching storyline is cool, but you can go back and replay failed missions too easily, which diminishes the replayability of the main campaign. Failing missions also confuses the in-game cut scenes and you end up feeling like a chunk of the story has been excised.

The different game modes are done well, and the fighting sequences are particularly fun, but there is nothing that drags the game into the realms of greatness. When it comes to wasting some time and enjoying yourself while doing it, True Crime is highly successful, but it falls short of delivering anything revolutionary. Thankfully it does reinforce our suspicions that cruising around LA from the comfort of your living room is much more enjoyable than actually visiting the stinking place.