True Crime: New York City Preview

True Crime: Streets of L.A. no matter how you look at it was an attempt to grab at the Grand Theft Auto fanbase. The only difference between that game and the GTA games is the status of the main character(s). Nick Kang of True Crime is a cop working for the LAPD and his main objective was to find out who murdered his father and why. Now you could choose if you went about your actions to determine whether you were a “good or bad cop”, but essentially True Crime was a GTA-esque game with a more sensitive approach. You could “steal” cars, but since law enforcement officers are legally allowed to do so if that is needed, it couldn’t be considered the felony that GTA actually is.

True Crime: New York City seeks to bring about similar elements that its predecessor did, but it seems like Luxoflux is making a noteworthy effort to make it much better and different in atmosphere. You take on the role of Marcus Reed, a young black man who just so happens to work for the NYPD. His father, Isiah Reed, happens to be a local kingpin. However, when Marcus was a much younger boy, he is arrested. This event causes Marcus to be directed under the care of family friend in Terry Higgins. Terry happens to be a law enforcement officer working for the NYPD, and this is how Marcus ends up joining up himself. Rather ironic isn’t it? Unfortunately shortly after Marcus joins the force, Terry is murdered, and this is where Marcus’ “quest” ensues! Not knowing how this happened or why, Marcus embarks on a journey against five major cartels throughout NYC in order to solve this mystery!

Now with the new story of TC:NYC comes the return of many of the core gameplay mechanics of the first True Crime. However, it seems like Luxoflux is offering a more unique experience in which they are hoping will improve upon the predecessor. The third person view and control mechanics have indeed made their return to please current fans of the franchise, but combat has now been expanded! This has been mostly focused with actual hand-to-hand mechanics, which have now been upped in quantity to offer pure brawling, kung fu, Thai boxing, wushu and karate! But no worry, battles with your precious guns will be more diverse now as well since the number of available weapons has been increased to 58 from the original 35! This breaks down to about 23 melee weapons and the rest being actual guns. Oh, and the dual weapon wielding is still very much making a return as well.

Thankfully, a story element that wasn’t exactly impressive in the original True Crime isn’t making a return in this game. That happened to be the “plot branching”. Whether you succeeded or not in certain missions, the original True Crime still allowed you to progress through the game’s main story. TC:NYC has instead chosen to take a different route. Rather than allowing you to simply slip past certain chapters of the game based on success or failure; TC:NYC will take you through the story and simply bring you up to speed on information you may have missed in previous missions as you progress.

Now with New York City, something just HAS to come to mind right? Well if you haven’t though of it yet, allow me to assist…cars and traffic! That’s right, NYC in this game features 25 square miles of very accurate GPS design and the traffic will be made to emulate that just as well! But when you would find the need to “jack” someone’s car or use one of your own to get from point A to point B, you will now have the option of using your own custom siren. Then just as the first True Crime did, the game will provide you with a map since many people who play the game probably won’t be exactly familiar with NYC’s layout.