There's an awful lot of gunplay in True Crime, making weapon control and firing another third of the gameplay. Though you can switch targets using the right analog stick, the game aims for you, which makes wiping out your enemies as easy as pressing the fire button as quickly as possible. If you need to make a more accurate shot, the game has a precision aiming mode, but the control for this feels a little clunky. Nick Kang can also execute Max Payne-like shootdodges, and the game even drops into slow motion when you execute this move. Nick usually fights by using two pistols with unlimited ammo, but you can also pick up weapons that may be lying around for a little extra firepower. Like your driving technique, your firearm skills can be upgraded as well. You'll earn new default weapons, an invaluable faster reload, faster aiming, and a laser sight, which improves your precision mode aiming skills.

By including both elbow drops and Christopher Walken, True Crime had the potential to be the greatest game ever made...

The final of the three main types of gameplay in True Crime is also the most frequently encountered. You'll be using a lot of martial arts in the game, though usually in enclosed areas. The camera in these areas is fixed, which can be a real pain, as enemies will be able to get the jump on you while they're still offscreen. The game tries to teach you some tactics (hit high when the enemy blocks low and vice versa), but the hand-to-hand combat usually consists of wailing on the attack buttons, pausing occasionally to block, and hoping you land more shots than your foes. The environments in the game's many indoor fights are very breakable, and this fact, combined with some of the grapples and throws you'll eventually learn, makes for a cool show. For example, you can actually toss a stunned enemy into a guitar amp and watch as he gets electrocuted to death by the now-destroyed amplifier. While you'll unlock upgrades, such as new grapples, combo attacks, and the ability to execute attacks on enemies while lying on the ground, the hand-to-hand portion of the game isn't very interesting from a gameplay perspective. A little more strategy for the combat would have been a good touch because what's there gets boring fast. Not even the inclusion of wrestling-style elbow drops, which are available as an upgrade, save the combat from tedium.

You'll also find a handful of stealth missions along the way that ask you to stay out of sight, but you can still sneak up behind foes and eliminate them either with a knockout blow (for good cops) or a lethal one (for all you bad cops out there). The fact that the difference between being a good cop and a bad one is as simple as hitting one button instead of the other is a little weird and serves to make the whole system feel a little ill-conceived.

So True Crime trucks on from mission to mission at a brisk pace and tries its hardest to be a game that even the most casual game player can get through in some form or another. When you fail a mission, you're given the option to try it again, or you can simply carry on with the story. In some cases, this will cause the story to branch. For example, if you fail to get to a location on time and decide to continue down that path, you'll discover that the building has been torched in the extra time it took you to get there, and you'll lose an important lead. Eventually, all roads lead to the same basic final confrontation, and the option to retry a failed mission, combined with the general ease of the game, means that getting the best ending isn't very difficult. In fact, most of the game's difficulty comes from frustration rather than genuine challenge. For example, you'll oftentimes fumble with the control or try to position the camera in a way that lets you actually see the action.

The game certainly has its fair share of problems with gameplay and storytelling, but, in terms of its presentation, True Crime delivers quite well. The graphics are very sharp and are most impressive when you're out on the road. Los Angeles looks startlingly realistic, right down to the maze of freeway on- and off-ramps. What's more, the city streets don't look repetitive. The buildings along the streets are nicely varied, and you'll even pick out a few landmarks, like the Staples Center and the Los Angeles Convention Center. Just don't try driving up the street from the convention center in search of the Del Taco on Figueroa. It isn't there. The cars in the game are nicely detailed, and the lack of licensed ones means that you can bang up all the vehicles quite nicely. In fact, a shot to the gas tank will actually cause a car to explode in a great fireball of destruction.

The interior sequences aren't quite as impressive as the seamless city streets, but they look great on their own. The hand-to-hand sequences, though made slightly frustrating by the lack of camera control, usually take place in areas with lots of breakable objects. So fights cause a lot of destruction as well, whether they occur in bars, butcher shops, or dojos. The character models also look great. Though the lip-synching isn't fantastic, the models themselves still look believable up close. The only real problem is that you'll occasionally see characters clipping through walls or becoming separated from one another during certain animations, such as during scenes that involve the arresting and cuffing of a criminal. Nick's hands sometimes don't match up with the criminal's, which just looks sloppy. The Xbox version has a slightly cleaner look than the other two versions of the game, though the PlayStation 2 and GameCube versions certainly look fantastic in their own rights.

When it comes to creating something with a cinematic feel, a cohesive soundtrack is important. To that end, True Crime has one of the most amazing soundtracks we've heard in a game thus far. The game contains three separate sets of songs to fit cruising, fast-action, and slow-action scenarios. The game contains more than 50 tracks in all, most of them of the West Coast rap variety, which fits the game's Southern California setting quite well. Artists on the soundtrack include Westside Connection, Snoop Dogg, E-40, Ice-T, The DOC, Lil Eazy-E, Sly Boogy, RBX, Mausberg, Warren G, and Kam. There are a few nonrap tracks on there as well, including songs from Megadeth and Taproot. As the game is M-rated, the songs on the soundtrack are presented in their entirety--uncensored. Obviously, someone who hates rap music isn't going to get much out of the soundtrack, but it certainly works. The Xbox version has support for custom soundtracks as well.

...but its weak plot and sloppy gameplay really get in the way.

The sound effects are well done. The game also has a great deal of voice work in it. As previously stated, Nick Kang is constantly spouting off lame one-liners, and his cocky line delivery grows tiresome almost immediately. The rest of the voice in the game, however, is actually very good. Christopher Walken, serving as a narrator, of sorts, bookends the game's story and shows up here and there as an old-time cop who used to work with your father. He's the shining point of the audio, and it's a shame that he wasn't used more frequently. The game's stilted narrative certainly could have used the help.

In the end, True Crime is a game that simply lacks polish and, in some cases, feels unfinished. It makes decent attempts with its different styles of gameplay, but none of them are particularly well done, and the game's storyline doesn't tie them together in a satisfying way. Add to that an annoying lead character and a general lack of difficulty (that makes the game's eight chapters seem even shorter than they already are), and you've got a game that's worth renting but not much else.