Description of this game in one word: Mediocre.
Okay, so most people expect a Grand Theft Auto copy when they think of True Crime: Streets of LA as well as this version, as well. In many regards, it is set up to be a similar game. But in all honesty, it just can't compare. But then again, what game can compare to Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, one of the best games ever made. And the Saint's Row franchise is the second best sandbox shooter out there. So, does that make True Crime: New York City the third best? I don't know, but if Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas is a 10 out of 10 and Saint's Row is about an 8.5 out of 10, then I'd have to say this game is maybe a 6. That's slightly, barely above average. In really, this game is just that. Average. Obviously, there's much better third person shooter/driver games out there, but I've also played much, much worse (like Crackdown).
You play as thug-turned-detective Marcus Reed, trying to take down the major criminals of Manhattan island, as well as avenge the death of a fallen ally. You have a cast of colorful (but somewhat formulaic) characters to help you along your way. You can upgrade your stats and abilities via Detective ranks, starting out at 5 and going up to Rank 1, the highest detective rank (you can get in this game, anyway). Each rank boost unlocks new vechicles, weapons, and skills. Unfortunately, health is not one of the things that gets boosted. Manhattan island is completely street accurate, making it a HUGE video game city to explore, possibly the largest single city in any sandbox video game ever. Along Manhattan are various shops you can go to for various things. It's also unfortunate, though, that most all of them are not indicated on your map and aside from the gun shop, the ones that are are unimportant.
As you explore Manhattan isle, you'll always get various police reports of crimes going on everywhere in the city. Aside from the main storyline missions, your job will be to clean up all 20 districts of the city, one crime at a time. Crimes generally start out small, based on how bad crime is in the district, and goes up as you improve the area. You'll start with Level 1 crimes like stopping bums from fighting and observing domestic fights and work your way up to Level 3 crimes, like stopping bank heists, taking down counterfeit money labs, and wiping out entire street gangsm at war. The amount of crime going on at any given time depends on how bad crime is in any district. If you're in East Harlem, for example, crimes will be happening all the time. But if you're in a safer area, like Midtown, however, crimes will be far less frequent. Each crime earns you Career Points that will affect your ranking boost, as well as your salary. Also given, is the oppurtunity to be a good cop, doing things by the book and ethically. Or a bad cop, playing by your own rules, and being ruthless, as well as lawless. Either method is your own choice. Also in the game are street races and fight clubs, scattered throughout, as well. They are part of cleaning up the city, as well. And you can buy different cars and fight techinques to help you on your way.
So, with that said, here are all the good and bad points of True Crime: New York City.
PROS:
- The somewhat large number and diversity of crimes helps against repetition. Although some repetition is bound to occur.
- Good enough balance between storyline missions, car races, bare-knuckle fight tournaments, and free-roaming crimes to take care of. There's always something to do.
- The story is fairly good, making you want to play through the game to it's end, at least once.
- The Street Races are actually quite fun (when the other cars aren't bumping into you, that is)!
- The only video game to have a fully, street-accurate representation of Manhattan, New York City.
- The Subway system (which actually has a different underground subway station for EVERY location) is a great way to get around the massive island of Manhattan, and most times, is much more effective than driving. Plus, it's cheaper than real life! In other games, it wouldn't be necessisary, but here, you need it.
- A pretty decent number of weapons available, with various damage levels, firing speeds, and accuracy.
- Pinpoint Targeting allows you to go for lethal shots or neutralizing shots, that stop a criminal in his or her tracks without killing them. However, you'll have to be at, at least Rank Level 3 to really take advantage of this.
- "Bullet Time" fine aiming that slows time down to allow you to get in your precision shots.
- The cars are pretty diverse and have fairly diverse stats.
- This game actually has what too many sandbox titles skip on; First Person car driving! I especially like that as I really prefer to drive in the First Person view.
- Good enough music soundtrack. Many Hip Hop and Rock songs from A-List talent, like Nas, Jay-Z, and My Chemical Romance, to name a few. Also, Blue Oyster Cult's "Don't Fear The Reaper"!
CONS:
- The multi-button controls are very confusing, at times.
- Confusing double confirmation setup for selecting or buying things
- The car physics are, for a game approaching a realistic type of feel, embarassingly unrealistic
- It's way too easy to get to Detective Rank One and no increased difficulity between Ranks achievements
- Button mistake/glitch in the Station Change and Car Horn (both being the Right D-Pad, instead of the horn being Down D-Pad) in motor vehicles
- Sometimes, certain weapons are required for missions that you won't know about and can't get during the mission time
- Sometimes, it's required to be non-lethal in crimes, but you aren't told when
- Some Crime Alerts are much more important than others and can't be ignored, but you aren't told which are more important than others
- No regenerating health in this game, in which it would be truly helpful!
- The Map is off scale, which makes the pinpointed shops really out-of-scale with their location, making something that looks close by on the map actually being multiple blocks away
- There's no actual clock in the game (at all), especially bad considering stores actually close at night!
- Every single shop in the city has something different in them, which makes finding what you need in a city this big, a MAJOR hassle!
- You can NEVER find the important things you need because most shops, including food/health stores, are not indicated on your menu screen map!
- The traffic is really screwed up and almost always goes one-way, even in five-lane streets! (Meaning either dodging oncoming traffic, or being blocked by slow-moving vehicles in front of you!)
- The weather system is off (it rains WAY too much! I thought this was New York, not Seattle!)
- The clothing feature is pretty useless (The clothes all suck!)
- Small and Major Crimes still occur in "Cleaned up" neighborhoods
- It's way too easy to be a Bad Cop and much too hard to be a Good Cop
- No real "Landmarks" to actually explore!
- The weapon weilding and inventory system is pretty confusing
- Weapon selection is set up very pretty poorly
- You can't keep any weapons you get off of dead bodies
- Most vehicles are very, very fragile and constantly need to be fixed at an Auto Shop
- The cars have no names!
- Shooting the enemy's tailpipe of their car can result in your Instant Death!
- Horrible graphics
- Much of the street-accurate Manhattan is just filler
- A Random(?!?) In-Vehicle Music Player
CONCLUSION
In summary, True Crime: New York City is a fair GTA clone, but it's not really a serious competitor for the Rockstar title, at all. While they do make a good attempt at a quality game, the whole thing itself falls short of worth owning. Maybe a rental, and worth checking out if you're a fan of Sandbox shooter/driver games like me, but I can't really say it's worth owning. Unless you can get it for under ten dollars. It is, I'll say, at least better than the Scarface video game they released on the PS2. That game is much worse. True Crime: NYC is worth a nice check out for it's story if you've played everything else, but with so many problems and glitches in it, (the glitches I really didn't go into in much detail, but there are quite a few) I can't really say it's worth anything over Three Stars. Or a 6.5 out of 10. A nice story, good game elements, and a clear showing that some work actually went into this title, but at the end of the day, it still falls short of success, and has trouble being worthy to hang with the GTAs and Saint's Rows of the sandbox gaming franchise.Get more detail about True Crime: New York City.
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