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Players assume the role of Marcus Reed, a disgruntled street thug who finds himself working for the NYPD’s Organized Crime Division after the collapse of his father’s criminal empire and subsequent embitterment from ‘supposed’ friends during the handover of power to Marcus. In order to escape resultant prosecution from the authorities, Marcus joins the ranks of NYPD’s finest and, after serving a successful trial period on the streets, he’s drafted into the OCD to work alongside ‘Terry’, a long-time friend of Reed’s father. However, Terry is soon killed in the field and, subsequently, Marcus is approached by the CIA, who fully uncover Terry’s ongoing investigations, and assign Marcus with the task of finishing his work while also cleaning the crime from New York’s streets.
Most notably, in terms of aesthetic and plotline, True Crime: New York City is considerably more gritty and tangible than the Streets of LA original. Whereas Streets of LA felt somewhat cobbled together and portrayed a defined sense of tongue-in-cheek—as well as knee-in-face—True Crime: NYC offers a much more serious and layered story as well as a driven and intriguing cast of characters. To give some gravitas to that statement, players need look no further than cinematic deity Christopher Walken, who turns in a great performance as Gabriel Whitting, the CIA agent with whom Marcus is in contact.
Gameplay mission structure in True Crime: NYC is much more regimented compared to the branching formula utilized in Streets of LA. Missions pertaining to the game’s central storyline are all fairly run of the mill, and include assignments such as delivering set characters from one place to another, taking down gangs of thugs, and even interrogating suspects. Yet, it’s the game’s side missions and random instances of crime that offer up more of a genuine attraction to the player. Informants cough up nuggets of directive information concerning crimes and then routine player task completion sees sizeable cash rewards. There are also street-racing events and seedy fight clubs to further entertain away from the narrative, though both can descend into the realms of repetition before too long. Separate from the game’s plotline, cleaning the streets of crime is certainly prime candidate for ‘most attractive facet’ in True Crime: NYC and, interestingly, crime itself has a direct bearing on the overall appearance of the game. Whereas progressive crime prevention and thug quashing quickly garners career points, paychecks, and valuable NYPD promotion for Marcus, it also improves the look and feel of the city. Should players choose to let isolated crimes go unpunished then areas of the city quickly decay in standards where its inhabitants are concerned. Also, the ‘good cop/bad cop’ performance element from Streets of LA returns and sees unwarranted civilian deaths and general corruption on the part of the player (planting evidence, etc.) affect Marcus Reed’s reputation within the force—to the extent that the NYPD will take him down should things reach critical mass. Amassed negative action from Reed also passes down into city life itself, and promotes the outbreak of further street crime.
Game sound is acceptable in terms of big city ambience, and the vast array of weaponry available to Marcus offers up decent enough aural representation—and certainly achieves a meaty status while dual wielding. The music soundtrack is also varied enough in taste to transcend Streets of LA’s predominantly west coast rap structure. However, it’s the voice talent in True Crime: NYC that ‘almost’ succeeds in hiding the somewhat uninspired gameplay. Christopher Walken, Mickey Rouke, and Laurence Fishburne all provide masses of class and experience and certainly bolster the game’s presentation well beyond certain ‘other’ genre examples.
While at this juncture nothing in True Crime: New York City amounts to ruinous execution, the simple truth of the matter is that beyond its slick presentation, impressive voice cast, and improved atmosphere, the game is riddled with gameplay bullet holes. Indeed, players will suffer a bug-addled in-game experience that absolutely destroys any possible chance of the title realizing its potential. For example (and this is a long list), traffic, pedestrian, and thug A.I. are ‘criminally’ bad, with enemies standing without care while being turned into ventilated gouda, civilians abruptly disappearing from city streets, and cars popping in seemingly from another dimension. All of which means the insane amount of development work invested in the illusion of a completely playable New York is instantly ruined. Furthermore, there are glaring framerate issues throughout the game, but perhaps most damaging while driving at speed, to the point where players will find themselves crashing into objects not even drawn in yet. And, if that weren’t enough to put off curious consumers (and it likely is), there are also several instances of cutscene failure, terribly overcooked collision detection, destructive mission deviation by NPCs, game disc errors, camera issues, and aiming glitches. How quickly a promising product can implode—and it all smacks of bad management.
And how quickly an assessment review assuming the neutral role of Switzerland can take up willing arms and lay a blitzkrieg of destruction on a truly disappointing release. Let it be said here that True Crime: New York City had all the makings of a decent free-roaming, character-driven adventure. Resplendent with the meaty fist fighting and frantic gunplay laid down by Streets of LA, the sequel’s environmental and narrative structures were crying out for the successful integration of the ONE mechanic that makes or breaks ANY videogame in today’s market: gameplay. The fact that a host of disgracefully basic errors ruin any chance True Crime: New York City had of becoming what it should have been should serve as a lesson for publishers Activision: seeing a product through to its proper conclusion—even if that means delays—translates better in the long term than consumers reaching elsewhere, and remembering your name, because the final product is so much of a letdown. As consumers, purists and fanatics, we will almost always settle for slightly underplayed graphics, subdued sound, and no-name actors. Gameplay is everything!
