The performance issues take their toll, but True Crime has a way of getting better as you spend more time with it.
(-) nauseating frame rate chugs despite the lack-luster graphics / driving around the city is no fun / frequent bugs and glitches can either be amusing or game breaking / a total lack of polish
While the street roaming RPG where you take the role of a gangster and inhabit the city has certainly wore its welcome quite a bit, it's a welcome change to be put in the hero's boots this time rather than acting like a criminal. That is, unless you want to. You're actually given a lot of elbow room on how exactly you want to play True Crime: New York City which gives the game a bit of an edge. It gets more fulfilling as you uncover some of its secrets during game-play, however that doesn't automatically compensate for some of its technical issues. It suffers from unacceptable problems, but even with that brushing it down, True Crime New York City is still somehow worth playing, but don't think it's going to make you retire your San Andreas disc any time soon.
You play as a former gangster of the name Marcus Reed, who is working as an undercover cop in response to his father being arrested and forced to abandon his empire. This causes more trouble in the air, where one of his comrades betrays him and nearly murders him no less, but he's given a second chance thanks to the aid of NYPD detective Terry Higgins. A close friend to his late father, he tells Reed that he'll be given another chance at redemption if he can work as a cop and clean up the urban street crime in the city, lest he fails then he'll need to be given to the NYPD to be held accountable for his wrongdoings. Marcus Reeds accepts the contract, then several years later he finds himself working for the NYPD under Higgin's jurisdiction. The story isn't all that exciting, but it certainly suits the game, and the voice acting and the cut-scenes do a decent job telling the player what's going on, but movement and delivery of the dialogue can sometimes be awkward and unrealistic.
And as soon as you assume control over your character, you'll first find yourself in the police station where you can purchase new gear in the future, such as weaponry and new cars, and you'll return there are you earn promotions. You'll get through a quick training regimen, and then finally you'll take the streets of New York City. The first thing you're likely to notice about the city is how huge it is. There's lots of acres and miles of streets and buildings, little mail boxes on the streets and even trash littered in the dirtier places, and of course innocent pedestrians inhabiting. It's not the liveliest place, but the scale and depiction of this massive city is impressive in this game.
The course of the basic gameplay can be best described as a free-roaming semi-linear RPG with gun-play, and the occasional stealth sequence, as well as lots of destruction. It all takes place in New York city, and in case you're worried that you might grow weary of looking at the same surroundings, the plot actually takes you into very different buildings and situations, so even know your basic goal remains stagnant for the most part, you still get slightly different appearances which really helps the game fight off repetition.
Because it'd be easy to get lost in this place without something to guide you through, most of your progress will ride along a small GPS map on the screen which highlights the location of your objective. You have a major objective, which is essential for actually progressing through the game's story, which range from taking out criminals in firefights to doing unconventional jobs like taxi cabbing for your friends. This major objective is marked with a green arrow, and the minor objectives can take other colors like blue and green, but don't stand out nearly as much at a glance of your map. These other minor objectives you can do pop in and out at the regular basis. Now everyone knows that New York isn't parallel with Detroit as far as criminal rates go, but it seems every other moment there's a perpetrator trying to poison food at a restaurant, a DJ is assaulted for allegedly playing bad music (a bit of over-reacting to say the least), and drunken joy riders making the roads a living hell for the rest of the population. Most of these minor tasks, with the exception of the shoot-out "Chop Blocks", are typically simple to complete and will reward you with a little points. These points go to your ranking, which while that won't progress you through the story, you'll be rewarded after climbing up the ranks with access to new weaponry and transportation needs that will benefit you as you actually try and progress. The game won't take you too long to blow through if you just want to tackle the main quests, but having these side missions on offer is certainly welcome to add to the longevity here. There's lots to do in True Crime, and it's good that most of it is largely useful.
Not all of it is fun however. The Chop Blocks are basically where you enter a dangerous building with an entire gang of creeps armed with weapons, all placed in different locations, where you need to slip back and fourth from behind cover to out wit them. And because you'll awarded points for arresting people rather than killing them in the line of duty, you get next to no reward after completing this ridiculously difficult objective, making it unnecessary.
There are also moments where a superlative woman coaxes you to go street racing, which doesn't make much since because you're working as an undercover cop, and more problems emerge as you start your engines. The frame rate chugs regularly, which is odd given that the game isn't that great looking, and it can making it practically nauseating when you're trying to drive through the chugging. It also doesn't help matters that you only seem to be capable of turning on one degree rather than a radius, making it especially hard to back up and drive the other direction if you need to. The racing events in particular are best avoided because not only do you have to deal with the frustrating vehicle handling, there's also no sure fire way to identify how strong a vehicle is compared to your components, and you literally have to purchase a vehicle for the sole purpose of competing in the races, which won't even progress you through the game that much. Also the AI drivers are usually more interested in spinning you out than anything else, when you're already having to evade the others on the road, makes these events not worth the time of day. And even if you avoid them, you still have to drive from point A to B a lot to move forward, so its a shame that some further nuance in the driving model would have improved everything in the long run.
The game tries to give you leeway on how you play, based on a good cop / bad cop system where your actions are supposed to influence what happens somewhat. For example, the polite thing to do when you believe someone's smuggling drugs is to give them a quick frisk then call it a day. But you could also be a jerk and literally plant evidence if you would rather, though in the end you won't get monetary earnings if you take that risk, and it's also bad for your reputation. Even quicker, you could always flash your badge and let people know you're a policeman, and a yellow bar will appear when there's a criminal, which by then your only option is to beat the living tar out of them until you can cuff them. However, there's little real consequence if you decide to exploit this. You could progress just as easily in this crime infested city by just punching random people on the street and listening to their less-than-flattering reaction, and even hit police officers is you so choose who will stop trying to bust you should you show them your badge. This obviously wasn't the way the game was intended to be played, but it can still by mindless, albeit pointless, fun to cheat the system and be the self-appointed worst cop in New York City.
That kind of behavior wouldn't seem out of place in this world either, because the people that live hear carry with them the deepest of the gutter of urban stereotypes. Very rarely will you not hear a slide of profanity, full f-bombs, and it quickly loses its novelty early on and starts to feel a bit ridiculous. The voice recording for Marcus Reed was well done, but it seems the stranger's voices were more just slapped into the game at the quickest possible moment. And even through the parades of frame rate crawls, the city you explore is busy though not particularly impressive. Many textures look as if they were ripped from Microsoft Paintbrush, and textures also tend to pop in and out. At least the draw distance is good though. But the game still struggles beneath the weight of a ton of performance problems that could have easily been avoided with a little more time on development. One minute you'll be walking on the street, then next you might inexplicably fall knee deep as if you're walking through a pond, then spawn back up. People can also be seen sitting in chairs or a couch, getting up and quickly teleporting upside down, at various other locations, then sit back down. Some of these glitches can be funny, but others can render your play impossible. At some point you might enter a building, but the next screen never comes on, leaving you with an empty black screen to feel through unless you can find your way out. And adding insult to injury, more than occasionally the game will lock up altogether, so you'd better save your progress often. Between the numerous technical shortcomings and absurd behaviors, there's a total loss of polish in a game that could have otherwise had a decent presentation. You get a phone call after you've completed a job telling you just where to go, and an entire recreation of New York city at your disposal, it's just a shame that the actual game never really got the attention required to call it a finished product.
Amusingly enough, True Crime: New York City overcomes just enough of its issues to rise above mediocrity, but just barely. You can play this thing, work around the numerous glitches and bugs to be found, and remember to save often should the thing freeze. It's got no chance however against the games that it bluntly apes, namely the GTA series. It hits that certain sweet spot in areas which it can be called so bad that its good, and it actually works in its favor here. But your enjoyment won't come solely out of laughing at the game as it breaks itself with its awkward animation and jerky textures. There's plenty of criminals to bust here, and if that's your thing, then there's worse ways you could spend your time.