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Not playing this game is a true crime

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 5 / 8
Date: November 17, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Another true crime game this time in another big city New York. I love going to Harlem and Chinatown to fight the bad buys on the streets. They killed your mentor and now it's time for revenge. This game is not for kids.

Just not very good

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 1 / 6
Date: November 21, 2005
Author: Amazon User

They improved the game a little from the last version -- there is still the lame good cop/bad cop aspect to it (which ruins the game for me). The main character runs like he's in quicksand. The handling of the cars is like driving a tank. I also hate what they did to my favorite city -- they doubled the number of lanes on each road, for example, in the West Village, they made every street a four-lane highway. I mean, it's just ridiculous --- to the developers: put away the map of NYC, and go back to LA where you think fighting dragons is "true crime". This game just blows (as further evidence, the game's been out a week and it's already being sold used on Amazon for $20 less than retail).

Horrible Game!

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 0 / 7
Date: November 25, 2005
Author: Amazon User

The reason i give this game a 2 is because first of all the control is horrible. The graphics are good, the music in the game is not so bad either. The levels dont make any sense and you have to play for like 1 hour in order for you to be able to save. In the begginig theres this whole test thing learning how to punch and drive which was just a wast of time. It has some concepts of GTA like taking the people car's although in this game he's a cop himself,so he's exactly stealing the car. By the time you get through those crowded streets on the slow cars to the robber or rapist you already lost. I give it a 2 just because of the graphics if the graphics sucked it would be a -1. So, this game is a total waist of $50,trust me, go and buy 50 cent rather than this.

Not the best, but good

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 2 / 5
Date: November 27, 2005
Author: Amazon User

The game story is really good and the graphics are good. The music is okay and the weapons and cars are nice. The problems with the cars were that the turning is hard. Plus the character that your are playing with runs slow. The missions are fun but sometimes a bit diffcult which makes the game better. This game is better since there is motorcycles. It is a good game to buy but not worth 50 bucks.

Terrible, supremely disappointing

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 19 / 40
Date: November 28, 2005
Author: Amazon User

In the wake of the revolutionary Grand Theft Auto 3, there were a horde of pretender games released that couldn't come close to GTA's audacity and style. True Crime: Streets of LA was actually one game that came close in this sense, which is why this sequel, True Crime: New York City, was so looked forward to. However, not only is this game supremely disappointing, it's almost unplayable. At first glance the game looks slick enough, but once you engage in the game's storyline and horrible dialogue along with the unbelievably choppy frame rate, you'll wonder how this ever got released. The story of the game is you play as Marcus; an undercover cop looking to clean up the streets, one way or another. No matter which route you take: good cop or bad cop, it's going to be hard to get past the fuzzy graphics, the clunky controls, the derivative gameplay, the inane collision detection, and bugs that plague True Crime: New York City throughout the game. There's hardly anything good worth noting about True Crime, other than a somewhat decent soundtrack (featuring punk favorites the Misfits as well as the godfather of ghoul rock Danzig, and naturally plenty of hip-hop, ugh...) and a surprisingly solid cast of actors supplying their voices (including Christopher Walken, Laurence Fishburne, Mickey Rourke, and Mariska Hargitay among others) who are sadly wasted with the cliche dialogue. Also, it should be noted that the game will crash randomly, a lot. It's a wonder how this game ever got past quality control, but then again, I guess everyone's got to make a quick buck these days. Do yourself a favor; stick with GTA, any GTA for that matter, even the original one for the PS1. Just whatever you do, leave this game on the shelf.

Pick Up This Game For Yourself and Give It A Try

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 4 / 6
Date: November 28, 2005
Author: Amazon User

True Crime: New York City is the follow up game to Activision's popular title True Crime: LA. The game, which is based in New York, features a hip-hop influenced soundtrack.

In the game you star as Marcus Reed. As the game begins Marcus is seen wearing a white shirt and he is bloodied. He enters a building and confronts a man and his crew. The mini-movie is brief and you are then thrust into game play. Your first mission is easy. You must track down your nemesis and kill him. Your health is monitored by the silhouette of a body on the screen. There is no time element to this first mission. To accomplish this goal you will have to shoot your way through the crowded house and battle his crew. After killing all of the men in the upstairs bedroom you will have to jump through the window. After jumping through the window you will then have to climb over the balcony and jump to the ground. When you land on the ground you will be in close proximity to a man standing in front of a fire lit garbage can. He is a homeless man and not a threat so you don't have to shoot hit. To continue game play you will have to crouch down and slide under a hole in the fence. Upon standing up you will have to turn the corner and continue the gun battle. There is a car near by that you can use as cover as you fire at the enemy's. There is also a car in the dark alley that you can blow up for fun.

After clearing that area you will have to turn left into another building and you will be attacked by gunfire. The gunfire is relatively intense, but you can easily clear the area.

After completing this first mission you will be greeted by a man who has strong ties to your father and your mission in the game. After a brief conversation the game transitions and the words on the screen read, "Five years later." Now Marcus is seen wearing a blue police uniform. His next mission requires him to complete several mini-missions in order to make detective.

The graphics and player movement seem much improved than the previous True Crime game. The storyline is interesting and the movies incorporated into the gameplay are engaging.

The Soundtrack
The games soundtrack is pretty awesome. The soundtrack includes songs from Jay-Z, Cam'Ron, De La Soul, DMX, Busta Rhymes, Run DMC, Gangstar, Big Pun and other hip-hop stars.

Credited Voice Actors
A lot of the fun with these new games is learning what celebrity has leant their voice to the game. True Crime: New York City includes voice talent from Laurence Fishburne, Mariska Hartigay (from Law & Order SUV), Esai Morales, Traci Lords, and actor Avery Kidd Waddell lends his voice to the main character Marcus.

In comparison to a Rock Star Game
Gamers often compare the True Crime games to the Grand Theft Auto games released by Rock Star Games. This game will remind you some of Grand Theft Auto 3 because once again you are playing in "Liberty City." The developers of the True Crime: New York City game did a great job of recreating the New York scenery. The graphics are very good and the player movement is similar to that of CJ in Grand Theft Auto San Andreas in the fact that Marcus can climb, squat and perform a number of moves. The cars drive fast and you can blow up cars with gunfire. It's a pretty good game. The shooting element seems a bit awkward at times. It's hard to explain but as a player you don't really get the feel that you are 100% controlling the shooting. The screen seemed dark in some missions, this may be something that could have been adjusted by tinkering with the game set up or television screen preference.

Overall, it's a really fun game and can provide hours of enjoyment.

Great game, but too many bugs

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 5 / 9
Date: November 28, 2005
Author: Amazon User

First of all, I loved this game. I'm not an avid gamer, and this game wasn't too hard for me. I would otherwise have given it four stars if it weren't for the number of bugs this game has, but more on that later.

TRUE CRIME: NEW YORK CITY follows in the popularity of the GTA series, but setting it in New York City. You can travel anywhere in the borough of Manhattan, which is a huge map. I live in NYC and I'm mostly pleased with the fidelity they have given to the city. There are times when I've been so busy admiring the scenery that I've crashed into people.

The story of the game follows Marcus Reed, a reformed (possibly?) gang member who has joined the police force at the behest of his mentor. After his mentor was killed, he decides to follow the track of crimes and see who is behind it. This leads him to a series of meetings with some colorful characters.

If you're not interested in the story, there are other things you can do, such as cleaning up the city, racing around Manhattan, participate in fighting arenas, etc. You can also be a bad cop and exhort vendors and such.

Graphically, the game is beautiful. The physics seems a bit weird, but you should get the hang of it. You have a cool selection of weapons and cars to choose from. I also liked the way they drew the characters, making them look quite real.

OK, about the bugs. They suck. I've checked with others who have Xbox and GameCube editions, and it's the same. I HAVE NEVER ENCOUNTERED A GAME WITH SO MANY BUGS. That requires emphasizing, as I hope the folks at Activision would hear about this and never put out a game as buggy as this one. The customer support forum is not helpful. They just ask you to reset the console. Well, duh.

Most of the problem has to do with the game freezing in the middle of gameplay. You just have to save a lot because if you don't, you lose all your progress. It's still a pain because you have to begin at the start of the mission, but since the missions aren't overly long, that's not that bad, but still annoying. Other things have to do with poor gameplay design. For example, in one of the street races, every time you lose you have to go back to a police booth to get your car because the one you just raced is too battered and there isn't a garage in sight to fix it.

It's a shame that this game had so many bugs because it was truly one of the most addictive games I've ever played. Rumor has it that they're making True Crime: New York City 2. A word of advice to Activision: FIX THE DANG BUGS!

The Truth About True Crimes: New York City...

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 7 / 9
Date: November 29, 2005
Author: Amazon User

The only true crime here is the shoddy work done on this title. True Crimes: Streets of LA was like many Grand Theft Auto rip offs. Big city, plenty of running around to do. Except instead of working for the mob or whatever, you're actually a cop. It may not have been the best game, but it was a start. Some of the mechanics weren't bad. Some were actually fairly well done. I guess one could only expect a sequel. In hopes that True Crimes: New York City would be better, I seem to have had my hopes up.

You play as Marcus Reed, a gangster who has just become a cop so he can clean up the streets of New York. And as Marcus you'll take on the assignments given to you by the police department. They're all pretty straightforward. Each mission is divided into parts. Each part consists of you gunning down all the thugs, and finding the bad guy. Rinse and repeat. The missions, like Streets of LA, are very simple and don't really call for any real strategy at all. And the bad guys are as stereotypical as the main character himself.

The game is pretty simple, and should you only do the missions, you'll complete it in fairly short time. The same thing plagued the first True Crimes game, and I was hoping there would be an improvement here. Unfortunately, that doesn't seem to be the case.

If you don't want to do the main mission though, there are alternatives. Much like GTA there are side missions you can do. You can street race, go off and stop other crimes, and you can frisk people for contraband, including drugs, obscene pictures, weapon parts, stolen license plates... and the list goes on. You can either turn these things into the station for Career Points, which help your rank.

There are five ranks in True Crimes 2, and they're all based on whether or not you're a good cop or a bad cop. Unfortunately, there's nothing special about the ranking system until you become an extremely bad cop, and that will overall lower your ranking.

Being a good cop simply means you've taken the proper precautions such as frisking your suspects, clipping them in cuffs and not killing anyone needlessly. Bad cops are obtained the exact opposite way. It's a lot easier to be a bad cop than a good cop, but it is still one of the points of True Crimes that sticks out as being plesant. You just won't notice until you're an extremely bad cop, or an extremely good cop.

The gameplay is simple. You shoot or strike down your enemies to death. You can lock on to them, but for some reason Marcus isn't always accurate in doing so. You can also pick up weapons your enemies drop but there isn't much variety in them, and in the end you'll most likely find yourself picking them up because you're low on ammo in one weapon, so you need more.

Melee combat isn't bad. You'll probably only do it because it looks cool, but it's almost suicide in some cases. You can pick up objects and lug them at your enemies and whatnot. You can also snap their necks if you're good enough, or throw them up against the wall. There's a lot of variety there. Hey, you can even do it to random pedestrians, but it isn't much fun (especially when they, for whatever reason, don't die).

The vehicles you drive around in are pretty realistic, based off of real cars, but you can't help but look at how messed up some of these mechanics are. A slight tap on another car will send it flying into traffic, without a doubt. It doesn't matter what the car is, it sends it out there! You'll also run into a moment or two of floating cars, and that's another of many bugs this game has.

There are more bugs than one can imagine. For example, you may just randomly fall through the ground into eternal darkness. You'll eventually die, but you'll wish you hadn't stepped on the crack when you do. Some of the scripted moments for whatever reason just stop, cars changing colors... the list goes on and on and on.

Surely the graphics will save this game right? Naw, and if you think they do, something is seriously wrong with you. This isn't up to the standards of this generation at all. The character models are blockier than a cube of ice, and the framerate is terrible. Every five seconds or so the game will freeze and then resume. This very apparent when you're roaming the streets of New York. In the indoor areas it's less frequent, but you'll lose several boss fights because of that. The game freezes for that brief moment, but the action does not. Not only that, but sometimes the sound will cut out.

As far as the music goes, it really isn't too bad. You can rank your songs so that the ones you want to play actually play, and if there's a song you completely hate, you can rank it a zero and it'll never play.

The voice acting isn't bad. Christopher Walken lends his voice, but sometimes the celebrity voice actors feel like a waste. Especially with the poorly written script. Now, I can be a good sport about cusswords, but not when they're used as senselessly as this. They come as sounding like little middle school kids saying these words just to "be cool" rather than to be serious or tough.

Truthfully, I think this is a game that isn't worth getting. Way too many bugs, the game is short, the dialogue is bad, is there really any reason to want to get ths game? Even the graphics lack. This isn't worth your time. Even if you like True Crimes: Streets of LA this just isn't worth your time.

The Good:
+The sound, for what it's worth, isn't bad.

The Bad:
-Choppy graphics
-Terrible framerate
-Bad dialogue
-Way too stereotypical
-Way too many bugs to enjoy

Just avoid it. Not worth your time.

Not too shabby if you have realistic expectations

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 5 / 6
Date: November 30, 2005
Author: Amazon User

When the first True Crime came out, it was the first real competition for the GTA series, and it was pretty good. Technically, this is a slight downgrade though. By trying to recreate the New York city feel, it becomes too bogged down and too slow.

Basically, it's like all the city immersive games out there. Nothing really new. Again, like the first True Crime, the streets are real, but the buildings and scenery are just generic. Speaking of generic, you start off with a horrible cliched storyline. The same one sided characters and cheesy dialogue that has plagued every game that has anything to do with crime. So, I tried to get into it, but after ten minutes of pure unadulterated boredom, I just stopped caring and skipped all the FMVs.

The gameplay itself is decent. Nothing great, but very playable. If you don't want to get involved or frustrated (like what is required for GTA: San Andreas), this game is perfect. Driving is annoying, but after you discover the Subway and Taxis, you can move throughout the city with very little driving at all. This leads to the missions. The missions themselves are indoor third person shooting missions. Nothing complicated here. L2 to auto-aim, and shoot. They tried to add stealth, but it's absolutely pointless to try. That's about it for the major missions.

There are some minor flaws, like one example would be if you don't have the proper weapon (happened to me twice), you can't leave the mission to get that weapon. You have to reload and sometimes repeat a couple of missions to get to where you need to be. Also, selecting and picking up guns is not quite correct. For example, you'll pick up a carbine, but when the ammo is done, it will sometimes bring you to the stun gun. Valuable seconds are wasted switching to your .38 (which is the only weapon with unlimited ammo).

There are side missions that you can do (the major missions only yield 25% completion rate), they've eliminated the need for extraneous and useless combos, and even though some missions seem to drag on, it's nothing like the half hour borefests for the "Dragon" missions in True Crime: Streets of LA.

Finally, people say there are tons of bugs. I haven't see any except for the slow frame rate. Heck, GTA: Vice City and Prince of Persia: Warriors Within had a lot of bugs that were easily identifiable. If there are major bugs in this game, I didn't see them.

The game looks a little dated, and there is really nothing new except for the Subway and Cabs, but it's fun, never frustrating, and a good solid rental.

Pros:
Actual streets of New York.
Not frustrating at all.
Taxis and Subways rule!
Don't have to learn combos.

Cons:
Cliched story.
Dullest beginning ever.
Driving is a chore.
Framerate problems.
Some missions get really dull.

Frustration Level: Low

Difficulty Level: Low

Hours to Complete: 10 hours (major missions only)

What Grand Theft Auto Fans Want

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 15 / 20
Date: December 01, 2005
Author: Amazon User

So many of the game reviews are picky. One of the biggest complaints about this game has been that it is the same old thing. Just like Grand Theft Auto. WHen was being like one of what is considered one of the best games ever been a bad thing? That said, if you don't like violence or profanity, avoid this game at all costs. It has both in spades. The game is very similar to the whole GTA vibe. Lots of free roaming action, lots of violence to innocent people, lots of what people loved from GTA. YOu can get more details from other reviews. The truth is if you are a churchgoer, avoid this game, it will do nothing to improve your spirituality. If you love GTA you love this game.

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