True Crime: Streets of LA

Moby ID: 10894
PlayStation 2 Specs
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Nick Kang is a young Chinese-American detective who has been suspended from the Los Angeles Police Department due to his extreme methods of policing and his ability to cause massive amounts of damage to property. However, Wanda Parks, the Chief of the E.O.D (Elite Operations Division), requires Nick's assistance in a case that involves attacks on various venues in the Chinatown district. At first Nick is reluctant to help, preferring the vigilante life and focusing on avenging his father's death. However, he eventually agrees to conduct the investigation, on one condition: he must do it his way.

True Crime: Streets of LA is a free-roaming driving and action game similar in concept to Grand Theft Auto III. The game's structure is mission-based; most of the missions are dictated by the story and initiate following a cutscene that advances it. Failing a mission still allows the player to continue playing through the chapter and undertake subsequent missions; in some cases this will lead to branching paths and optional missions. However, in order to complete the whole chapter the player must eventually succeed in all the main missions.

Nick can hijack any car on the street (usually with little to no repercussions) and freely drive through the 240 square miles of Los Angeles. Nick is capable of firing his weapon when driving; in an open top vehicle, it is possible to aim anywhere. The player can also opt for exploring the city on foot. Nick will be frequently contacted by other police officers and informed about various street crimes. He can then fight perpetrators, arrest them, knock them unconscious, or kill them to deal with these crimes.

The gameplay during the missions is separated into third-person shooting, fighting, and (more rarely) stealth sequences. All of these usually take place in relatively small, restricted environments. The shooting sequences involve Nick dealing with waves of enemies that appear in different places. Nick must react quickly, moving, crouching, or diving (with a "bullet time" effect) to avoid enemy attacks. A limited amount of painkillers can be found in such stages.

During the fighting sequences, Nick utilizes his martial arts techniques to defeat enemies in hand-to-hand combat. Nick can punch, kick, grapple and throw enemies. The player can execute combos by pressing various combinations of buttons consecutively. It is also possible to pick up primitive melee weapons lying around, or take them from enemies. Both shooting and fighting stages have destructible environments.

Stealth missions typically involve Nick traversing a hostile area without attracting the enemies' attention; the mission is failed if an enemy hasn't been dealt with silently, or shortly after he has discovered Nick. The player has the option of killing enemies or knocking them down; the latter awards the protagonist "good cop" points. Conversely, "bad cop" points are given to Nick for killing innocents or surrendered criminals. Depending on Nick's rating in these categories, the storyline branches during later chapters, leading to different endings.

Spellings

  • 真实犯罪:洛城街头 - Chinese spelling (simplified)

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Credits (PlayStation 2 version)

409 People (328 developers, 81 thanks) · View all

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 72% (based on 60 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.2 out of 5 (based on 84 ratings with 6 reviews)

GTA with more balls!

The Good
The multiple fighting techniques are incredible. You can gun down someone, snipe them, or pull of some real-deal Jet Li arse-whoopin moves. the random optional missions you can do on the streets keep you entertained when your not doing the main story-line. Also, the goodcop/badcop scales can provide for a very custom feel, much like the high-acclaimed Star Wars: KOTOR where you can be a good jedi or be a dark-side thug....heck yes....True crime provides the freedom and action of GTA and the character adjustment of KOTOR.....plus you can play as the BADDEST gangsta to eva walk dem streets, yo! (not gonna spoil it for new-players)

The Bad
Nick is very cheesy...his lines are sometimes comic and sometimes they remind you of that friend who is the only one laughing when he tells a joke. You have to be a master of the Xbox controller to pull off some of the moves like going on 2-wheels, strong attacks, and aiming. The snipe option with your gun is hard to accomplish sometimes, but after a few tries, you'll be cappin lil' old ladys, closelining someone, and stealing a car all in a matter of seconds. So overall, the one-line comments and the controls are slightly odd but besides that, great game.

The Bottom Line
Buy this game....if you liked playing grand theft auto (im making alot of references to it, i know) then you will love this game.....and THATS the bottom line....kick-arse game

Xbox · by Jason Hamilon (2) · 2004

solid nostaglic game

The Good
the fast paced shooter, close combat and great story

The Bad
Nothing in mind, it's a old game so it's limited to what it can do at the time.

The Bottom Line
You gotta get the emulator for PS2 and play this game, brings childhood memories alive.

PlayStation 2 · by Iransniper · 2023

"Nick Kang In Pursuit Of Another Dumb-Ass Criminal"

The Good
In True Crime Streets of LA you play as Nick Kang a rough cop who was once on the force but kicked off for his harsh criminal justice and now is a member of the EOD and has to deal with a case about a drug cartel which ties with Nick’s past involving what really happened to his father.

The game has a freeform style play in which in between missions you can bust random crimes doing them well gets you career points while doing them bad like killing innocent by-standers or killing the criminal instead of arresting them takes away career points and the end of a chapter you can get a upgrade for free one of the three Fighting, Shooting, and Driving and you can also participate in street races to get new cars which are kept in a garage there are a total of 4 cars. The missions vary from fighting a opponent in one on one combat running through shooting everything that moves or sneaking into a criminal stronghold.

The visuals are better than those seen in GTA, much better than that and does many things better than GTA like gunplay and aiming and better hand to hand combat as a matter of fact the only thing I can think of GTA does better is Vice City’s 80”s music getting to the music.

There are some good tunes in there but too Rap for my taste and modern rock n roll stinks, luckily this game supports custom soundtracks and you can even designate songs to play and certain parts softer songs for softer moments like casually cruising and harder stuff for balls to the wall action.

The Bad
This game does have its fair share of problems like the controls take a time to get used to and some of the later missions are hard and annoying and sometimes the way the targeting works messes you up like for instance you’ll be shooting a bunch of guys and when you kill one the target switches but not always to the one guy you want to kill next like the closest person to you.



The Bottom Line
If you want a fun game with action packed goodness or always wanted to drive around LA for hours then this game is for you but get the Xbox version cause it has custom soundtracks and best performance.

Xbox · by Classic Nigel (108) · 2008

[ View all 6 player reviews ]

Trivia

When you go to a gas station/garage to have your car repaired, Nick sometimes says "Now the cops are not gonna find me! Uuh... wait..." This is a reference to the Grand Theft Auto series where you can have your car repaired/repainted so the cops will not recognize your car. Too bad Nick is a cop in True Crime!

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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by JPaterson.

Windows, PlayStation 2, GameCube added by Corn Popper. Macintosh added by Riamus.

Additional contributors: Unicorn Lynx, Indra was here, EboMike, tarmo888, Zeppin.

Game added November 6, 2003. Last modified March 7, 2024.