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Activision capitalizes on the absence of a new Grand Theft Auto. This is the same battle plan they employed with the last True Crime game and it brought them a lot of success. Arguably, some of that success could be tied to the solid gameplay and excellent rendition of Los Angeles. For the sequel, the developers chose a city across the country and applied the same formula of success. They managed to cram the entire city of New York into the game which is impressive enough. Luxoflux also addressed a number of issues with the game including the awkward gunplay, complex hand-to-hand fighting and lame characters.
In True Crime: New York City, you play as Marcus, a cop with creative measures to solve crime. After a thug tried to kill his father, Isaiah, and him, Marcus took revenge by killing all of them in their hideout. He is cleared, and with the help of a friend became a cop. His friend is inexplicably killed so Marcus decides to investigate what happened. Along the way, you’ll get an in-depth world of thugs. The storyline is told rather well with some actual thought given to it this time. The characters are more fleshed out with plausible reasons for their actions.
Throughout the game’s myriad of missions, you’ll usually find yourself taking down a number of thugs and finding the leader and getting information from them. This is accomplished by getting the witness to work with you in order to get their stress level down. If you do this correctly, you’ll be told where to go for the next mission. If you fail, the game gives you a side mission that you can complete in order to advance the story anyway. The story missions rarely break this mold which is a bit disappointing in light of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas but hardly a devastating fault when examining the game on its own merits. There are some side missions though like fight arenas or street racing. You can do these in a manner that makes sense and reminds you that you’re still playing a police officer, though. Aside from all of the missions, there are random crimes that go on in the city. You’ll be able to stop homeless people from creating a scene, for instance.
The actual gameplay is much more solid this time around. The aiming system has been greatly improved from the last game. It includes both a lock-on system like the GTA games but also a freelook system like the Max Payne games. The precision aiming from the last game makes a return as well. The improved lock on system carries over to the melee fighting where you can now be assured to hit the person you’re looking at. The driving in the game is good like always. The different cars handle differently but well. It takes quite some time to get from one side of the city to another, though. Thankfully, you’re able to take the Subway to get somewhere or catch a cab. Cabs are pretty readily available.
In addition to core gameplay changes, the upgrade system has been reduced in complexity. You no longer need to go through hoops to get an upgrade but rather just buy them or meet a certain ranking requirement. The upgrades include new shooting skills, driving moves and fighting styles. The last major gameplay change is the good cop / bad cop feature. The game lets you freely choose which type of cop you want to be as long as you get the tasks done.
The game’s visuals are great. The recreation of Manhattan is simply amazing since the developers were able to get every single street in the game. This is wildly impressive though the feat is made somewhat less astonishing since Luxoflux pulled off the same thing with Los Angeles two years ago and Treyarch did the same with Spider-Man 2. All of the different areas of the city are painstakingly recreated though because the game includes so much there isn’t much variety within the different areas of the game. This is a problem that also weighed down the last True Crime game. The environments are always bustling with life. Aside from the city, the character and vehicle models are up to par. The cutscenes that tell the story are generally well-executed, as well. Unfortunately, the frame rate suffers at times.
The game’s sound package is fine. You’ll find quite a number of songs in the game ranging from My Chemical Romance to the Wu-Tang Clan to Redman, with some exclusive tracks from the last one. The game lets you choose the genre you want and play those songs instead of listening to the quite diverse soundtrack. The sound effects are less impressive but still all good. The voice acting in the game does a great job of telling the story with solid dialogue to boot.
With True Crime: New York City, Luxoflux succeeded in making a game that hits all of the right bullet points. The action and depth of the game will surely please fans of the first game or those who need a GTA-genre game this year. The game doesn’t go above and beyond but with solid gameplay and a superb recreation of New York City, very few can complain. Activision has once again taken advantage of a Grand Theft Auto-less year with promising results. -- Jose Liz, PGNx Media
---- Nov 21, 2005
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