True Crime New York City is an above average game that combines action, racing and fighting, while tying in to the story of a bad boy turned cop on a mission to help clean up the dangerous streets of New York.
The gamer assumes the life of Marcus Reed, a street thug-turned street cop. After passing a test and becoming a plain-clothes detective, Reed meanders a re-creation of Manhattan.
Inhabitants of the great city will recognise the virtual city as an exact replica of the real one - the only difference is the names of shops are changed. It is also reported that the game is not affiliated with the NYPD, due to its graphic nature.
The first thing players will notice are the graphics - from the buildings, surroundings, and general environment, it is very realistic.
Even the different cars are easy to recognise and they get damaged in different ways, but someone got a little lazy, as one soon notices that many of the same cars are lined up at traffic lights.
Most of the buildings look alike inside, so investigating indoor crime scenes becomes a bit monotonous.
Reed takes the game in his own direction. For instance, he can decide whether he wants to be a good or bad cop. By shooting more perps than he arrests, he becomes a bad cop.
Similarly, Reed is bad if he sells the drugs he confiscates, rather than handing them in. However, being a good cop gets him promoted more quickly and he earns more money in the short term.
One thing I found quite irritating was that Reed seems to run more slowly that the perps and he is always in danger of being left behind. Furthermore, he does not "handle" well and squats when he is instructed to run.
On the upside, the soundtrack is a treasure, with are more than 50 tracks and features greats such as Billy Idol, Run DMC, LL Cool J, Redman and Jay-Z. It plays in cars or between scenes and tracks can be skipped, so gamers are not forced to listen to a songs they don`t like. Not that it matters when in hot pursuit of dangerous criminals.
The money Reed earns from being a "good cop" can be used to purchase cars and weapons at the police station, and modify purchased vehicles, get haircuts and buy medical kits to heal his battered and bruised body after a hard day`s work.
Reed can also go to gun and car shops to get items that he can`t purchase at the police station.
Essentially, True Crime gets the thumbs-up, but it has a bug that sometimes crashes the entire game.
The bugs can also interrupt a good pace in the game. They range from crashing the entire game (as Reed finishes street races) to having him run through walls, getting stuck inside buildings.
All the bugs will have one rushing to reset the consol and start from the last save, which is annoying if it happens at the end of a particularly hard mission.
True Crime offers many hours of play time and an above average amount of entertainment, however top-notch gamers will be thrown by the bug problems.
I rate it a 7/10.
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