True Crime, the multiconsole action game featuring good cop/bad cop Nick Kang, has made its way to the mobile arena. Although it attempts to piggyback the popularity of the console series, the only true crime here is that this game costs money.
The game's story mimics the console version very closely. The main players, such as your partner Rosie, as well as Jimmy Fu and Big Chong are present, at least in name only, while you proceed from one objective to the next with absolute rigidity. Although True Crime, the former, prided itself on the variety of the available game elements, this version is much more tightly focused. Unfortunately, it's not as clearly focused, since the few things it does aren't done very well. The two main aspects of the game are completing objectives either in a car or on foot, all in the same city streets environment, so it usually boils down to getting Nick Kang to a certain location safely or making sure someone does not leave a certain location in one piece. All of the objectives proceed in order, with none of the console version's freedom of exploration.
The story would be sufficient if it were supported by fun gameplay, but the game is plagued with unbearable controls. Whether you use the number keys or directional pad to maneuver, you'll find that it takes too much work to get moving and stay moving, be it on foot or in the car. In the car, some speed can be picked up if you're driving in the correct direction, but any turning might cause the car to spin and face the wrong way, which seems to slow it down entirely. Understandably, a car driving backward would drive more slowly than one driving forward, but in a game of this small magnitude, just getting from point A to point B in a car should be more forgiving.
Movement isn't the only thing awkward about the game, as combat is just as difficult to execute. Each enemy takes a few hits and flops around sluggishly while you deliver them. So there isn't any real satisfaction to be gained from completing objectives, which often consist of following a green pixel to your next location and knocking over the guys with red and yellow triangles over their heads when you get there. Like the console game, this version has a karma meter that reflects your activity, namely whether you kill more bad guys than random pedestrians, and it gives you a different ending based on whether or not you do that. This is a nice touch, but it would have been better were there a reason to play through the whole game once, let alone twice.
The graphics are minimal and at times downright poor. The pickups are highlighted by yellow squares, and although it makes the ammo and health pretty easy to find, it looks sloppy in the context of the city. You see blood when you hit your enemies, which is useful to determine whether or not your bullets (or yellow pixels) are coming in contact with them. The sound is obviously not as good as the console version, which had quite a few licensed songs. However, the theme song in this mobile game is contextually appropriate given that it isn't by Snoop Dogg.
There isn't really a justifiable reason to play True Crime on mobile. The controls are awkward and the objectives aren't that fun. Fans are advised to stick with the relatively superior console versions of the game.
