Had an unusual experience at this year’s E3 (like that’s a rare occurrence). At the Activision booth, I had the chance to try out a new game developed by Luxoflux, the creators ofVigilante 8. The game was an action-adventure-roleplaying hybrid that cast you as the kind of hard-boiled detective that isn’t afraid to bend the rules. The game gave you an overall mission—bring down the Chinese triads and Russian mobs while finding out who murdered your father—and the chance to explore 240 square miles of a major metropolis by car or on foot. The game was a blast and rocketed to the top of my own personal must-buy list.
Two boots to the head are better than one.
The day done, I went outside for a smoke (don’t smoke, kids, it’s just part of the story), thinking I’d left the game behind. Strangely enough, it appeared I was still in it. The game wasTrue Crime™: Streets of L.A.™, set in the very same city as the Electronic Entertainment Exposition—Los Angeles. And, Luxoflux had recreated the city I was looking at with a new eye in obsessive detail.
Big. Really Big True Crime: Streets of L.A., as has been reported ad infinitum, is the “GTA killer” that Activision and Luxoflux announced in early 2002—an open-ended game that gives you the freedom to explore the world around you, fighting crime, kicking booties, or just plain walkin’ as you work your way through a roleplaying-style action game. But to call True Crime: Streets of L.A. a “GTA killer” is to give too much credit to the latter and miss what makes the former unique. First, there’s the city wherein you occasionally carry a badge. Luxoflux, it’s been reported, used everything from satellite photos to county records to ensure the Los Angeles Nick Kang lives in is as close as possible to the one I first saw in the game. L.A. natives will be at an advantage when it comes time to navigate through the city, as they race to beat the clock and one of the game’s literally hundreds of primary and secondary objectives.
If you lived in L.A., you’d be home now.
Driving Hard and Hard Driving The only things missing from the L.A. of True Crime are a few side streets here and there, but otherwise, the city grid is darn near flawless. A helpful GPS map will help non-Angelenos on the straight and narrow, but even those with only a passing familiarity with the real streets of L.A. will see things that make you say, “Hey, I drove by that on the way to the bar!” Well, maybe not exactly that, but you get the point.
So, a game this huge has to be plagued with frequent load screens that break up the action, you say? Bah! Shows what you know. Luxoflux has also taken full advantage of the Xbox hard drive and extra processing power to make True Crime: Streets of L.A.a truly seamless experience. Heck, even the venerable The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind and current gamer favorite Star Wars®: Knights of the Old Republic™ had tons of load screens, but notTrue Crime. Nick can simply dash out onto the street, into a car (his own or one he borrows from a helpful citizen), and drive off in one seamless cut.
L.A.’s disease is crime. You’re the cure.
Sounds of L.A. According to reports current at press time, you can also utilize the Xbox hard drive to put your own soundtrack into the game, though how this works is not exactly clear from the early build I was able to play. The rest of the audioscape is top notch and perfectly evokes the Hong Kong action movies and Hollywood blockbusters that inspired it. The radio calls are sharp and clear, but don’t detract from the music or any other elements.
True Crime: Streets of L.A. may be a multi-platform game, but there is no doubt that the best way to experience this cinematic actioner is on Xbox. Accept no substitutes.
