User Rating: 7 | True Crime: Streets of LA PS2
I RARELY dump $50 on a non-sports title but pre-ordered this game in July after buying into the hype. After about three lengthy sessions of gameplay I'm at the end. I thought it would be a bit more open-ended with different story lines but it's basically the "The Getaway" with some upgrades and fighting thrown in. It's possible to have two alternate endings but one of them is pretty much the same as the main one. The gunfights can be fun but easy. One involved hostages and I found myself just blasting them along with the bad guys with basically the only penalty of losing some upgrade points. Most of the upgrades are simple, particularly the street races. I beat three fast cars with a limo on one. The fighting missions are pretty basic but some can be challenging. One cool thing I liked about them is when you're slamming around a room in a fight with 4 goons the furniture breaks and whatever else is in the landscape gets moved around. It gave them a little flavor. On driving missions you can stop in at 24/4 gyms and firing ranges for newer karate moves. There are some driving upgrades but I earned one (the peel-out) and didn't really see what the purpose was. So I skipped the rest. I got two upgrades on aim assistance and didn't see how they actually helped me. Again, I made it to the end basically without any of these upgrades and can't think of a spot in the game when they would've REALLY helped me. The story itself is pretty generic. 'young cop seeks out killer of father who was also a cop'. Can't leave out the fact you have to rescue his brother once too. The bizarre part of it was the episode you have to blast through some zombies, a dragon, and three flying burning-heads-of-fire. I thought it was making a switch to the 80s movie "Big Trouble in Little China" with Kurt Russell. Overall I didn't really hate it but I found myself just wanting to get through it so I could justify purchasing "Manhunt" (which I love). I recommend just renting this if you have any doubts. You'll get your $7 dollars worth out of a rental and you could easily finish it over a weekend. If you don't rent, wait til it hits the Greatest Hits price range (that is, if it sells enough units to qualify). 
