True Crime: New York City
- November 29, 2005 14:40 PM PST
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Like a fifth-floor walk-up on the Lower East Side, True Crime has more than it's fair share of bugs.
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No Sleep Till Brooklyn
Or at least that was the plan. The intentions seem lofty, with a top-drawer selection of voice actors, and high-concept promises of malleable city neighborhoods that change according to your actions. But just as name-brand actors can't turn ham-fisted expletive-laden writing and tired mob caricatures into Broadway theater, and superfluous graphical flourishes put frame rate slow-downs under a spotlight, so do the many disappointing foundation flaws of True Crime's sophomore effort keep it from adequacy, let alone greatness.
The central, touted freedom to dispense your own brand of justice turns out to be pretty feeble. Being a good cop is harder than being a bad cop, as you'd expect, but then all being a bad cop ever gets you is moolah for upgrades, and lost ranks in the department. Worse, the city itself, known for diversity and personality, is here reduced to just a notch above tepid homogeneity. So much for variety of experience.
Going Downtown
Even with the unfortunate narrowing of focus, and a surprisingly short story, True Crime: New York City could've been a rough do-gooder alternative to Grand Theft Auto. Instead, it hopelessly mires itself in technical problems: frame rates drop and stutter precipitously and unpredictably; characters move through, and get stuck in, solid objects; there's often tangible lag between moving the joystick and seeing the result; collision detection and vehicle physics are spotty at best; and heck, the game even freezes entirely on occasion.
Whether you're a good or bad cop at heart, these issues just don't add up to an enjoyable experience.
