True Crime: Streets of LA

Moby ID: 10894
PlayStation 2 Specs
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Description official descriptions

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)

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.

Windows · by POMAH (66433) · 2008

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

[ 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.

PlayStation 2, GameCube, Windows 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.