🕹️ New release: Lunar Lander Beyond

True Crime: Streets of LA

Moby ID: 10894

Windows version

The GTA and Brandon Lee's fame is blended in solid action about fight of Chinese-like officer with mafia, demons, and "red threat".

The Good
1) The most atmospheric item in the game is a soundtrack. Such number of selected tracks (around 100) as hip-hop as hard metal gives as relaxing as hard-core gaming experience;
2) The inclusion of kung-fu moves revives the tradition of great action movies with Bruce Lee and his son Brandon Lee, which became a prototype for main protagonist of the game for me.
3) Similarity with GTA franchise, but something is missed.
4) The presence of memorable characters as good as evil ones. Some of them reminds several real L.A. actors or tries to represent them.
5) Solid action presented in the game does not allow to stop playing. And different paths as well as alternate sequences should be played for fun.
6) Ability to increase the shooting, fighting, and driving skills adds role-playing elements. Nick becomes more experienced with your actions.
7) The bonus scenes. The final one with dancing guys also. I've missed the characters after the finish of the game.

The Bad
1) The most disappointing item is acting of non English-speaking persons. Why developers do not hire the native Russian actors (too much in Los Angeles or San Francisco for the time period of game development)? For me as for Russian speaking person it was sometimes very difficult to understand even words spoken by Russian mafia in the game. Accents sometimes are absolutely not correct. Also, I may guess that Chinese or Korean was somewhere close in performing. But who knows.
2) The second disappointing part is the native groups of gangsters. They are limited in the game by former or present communist countries such as Russia, China, and Northern Korea, finally. The "red threat" was over already, and this theme seems untrustworthy. Where the Afro-American or Latin friends of Carl Johnson of GTA: San Andreas (remember, it is streets of L.A.!!!)?
3) The driving implementation is somewhat tight, but it is ok for overall game.
4) The monsters attacking Nick are also not connected to overall plot. Why he killed them? Why they want to kill him? Are they connected to Korean somehow? :-) But their presence in the game does not fail the game for me.
5) The game may be finished in less than 2 days (8 hours for overall gameplaying including casual arrests or skill increasing).
6) No real love story between Nick and his female Latin partner are exist. But maybe I couldn't see it. No sex scene is present, it is definitely. :-)

The Bottom Line
Using GTA fame, the game as adds fighting kung-fu moves as misses some free-roaming and gangster style. Fight of honest Chinese-like police officer on the streets of L.A. with Chinese and Russian mafia as well as with Northern Korean terrorists untwist the old-fashioned 'red threat' theme adding the paranormal elements such as zombies and Chinese demons, living under the L.A.'s ground for some reason. Solid action within the game does not allow to stop playing and allows to finish the game in less than 2 days, saving all the investigation stages to replay them later.

by POMAH (66430) on June 24, 2008

Back to Reviews