True Crime: New York City is a 2005 action-adventure video game developed by Luxoflux for PlayStation 2. It was ported to GameCube and Xbox by Exakt Entertainment, to Microsoft Windows by Aspyr, and to mobile by Hands-On Mobile. It was published on all systems by Activision. The PlayStation 2, Xbox and GameCube versions were released in November 2005, the PC version in March 2006, and the mobile version in March 2007. It is the second and final entry in the True Crime franchise, after the 2003 game, True Crime: Streets of LA.
The game tells the story of Marcus Reed, a former New York City gang member turned police officer. During his first night on the job after receiving a promotion to detective in the Organized Crime Unit, Reed witnesses the death of his mentor. Helped by an FBI agent who is investigating a mole in the OCU, Reed embarks to find out who killed his friend and bring down the mole. The game features a recreation of the borough of Manhattan, with most street names, major landmarks and highways reproduced with GPS accuracy.
New York City received mixed reviews from critics. Originally intended as the first of a two-part series set in New York and featuring Marcus Reed, Activision scrapped the direct sequel and put plans for future True Crime games on hold. In 2007, they hired United Front Games to develop an open world game set in Hong Kong. By 2009, this game had become True Crime: Hong Kong. However, in 2011, the game was canceled. The publishing rights were picked up by Square Enix several months later, and True Crime: Hong Kong was ultimately released as Sleeping Dogs, which has no connection to the True Crime series. In 2014, Activision dropped the True Crime trademark completely.
Gameplay
True Crime is an open world action-adventure game played from a third-person perspective, in which the player controls Detective Marcus Reed of the PDNY. There are four "major cases" in the game: the Magdalena Cartel, the Palermo Mob, the Presidents Club, and the Shadow Tong. When the game begins, only the Magdalena Cartel case is available, but once that case has been closed, the player is free to take on the remaining three cases in any order they wish.
The game falls into the subgenre of Grand Theft Auto clones as the core gameplay and game mechanics are very similar to 2001's Grand Theft Auto III, 2002's Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, and 2004's Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. The player can travel across the city freely, commandeer vehicles, do whatever they want in terms of attacking and/or killing civilians, progress through the storyline at their own leisure, and engage in minigames and sidequests. The three sidequests are a street racing circuit, an underground fight club tournament, and securing confidential informants.
A major difference from previous open world action-adventure video games, including the game's predecessor, True Crime: Streets of LA, is that many buildings throughout the city, beyond those related to the story, are accessible to the player. These include pharmacies where the player can purchase medicine, delis and hot dog stands where they can purchase food, clothing stores where they can purchase new outfits, car dealers where they can purchase new cars, dojos where they can purchase new fighting techniques, record stores where they can purchase new songs for the soundtrack, gun stores where they can purchase new weaponry and ammunition, and other random buildings like hotels, nightclubs, restaurants, and apartments. In most business interiors, the player can extort the owner for extra cash or plant evidence to make a false arrest.
Another new addition to the True Crime franchise is the ability for the player to traverse the city not just on foot or by car, but by using public transport. The New York City Subway is available for use, and the player can also hail yellow taxis at any time, requesting transport to anywhere on the map. Both modes of transportation require a minimal fee.
The game involves three main types of missions, each with their own unique gameplay: shooting, fighting and driving.
In shooting missions, the game auto-targets the closest opponent. If the player wishes to switch target to another opponent, they must do so manually. When the player is in shooting mode, they can enter "Precision Targeting" at any time. At this point, the game switches to first-person, zooms in on the target, and goes into slow motion momentarily. While in Precision Targeting, if the reticle turns blue, the player can hit the enemy with a neutralizing, non-lethal shot. If the player fires when the reticle is red, the enemy will be killed instantly. Players can also take cover during shootouts, firing from behind cover when the opportunity presents itself. Players are also free to pick up any weapons dropped by enemies. Once the ammo of these weapons is depleted, however, Reed will drop the weapon and revert to his standard issue .38 ACP handgun, which, although it needs to be reloaded, never runs out of ammo.
In hand-to-hand combat, the player has three main attacks: light attack, heavy attack, and grapple. When the player grapples an opponent, they are free to throw them, or hit them with a number of light and/or heavy attacks. At certain points during combat, the enemy will be stunned, and a meter will appear on-screen prompting the player to press either the heavy attack or light attack button as much as possible within a set time. The more times the player presses the button, the more devastating the resulting special attack. The player can also toggle between different fighting styles, and switch to using a melee weapon at any time.
Driving missions can involve either trying to catch another car, or escape from another car. At all times, when the player is in a car, their car's condition is shown on-screen. If the car's health meter empties, the car is close to destruction. As with Streets of LA, during normal driving missions, the player can solve random crimes given by the radio dispatcher, although, unlike in the first game, these crimes can now take place inside buildings as well as on the streets. Additionally, the map is divided up into twenty different neighborhoods. When Reed solves a random crime in a particular area, the crime rate in that area drops. After he has solved a set number of crimes in one area, that area is considered "clean," and crime rates will not increase (although random crimes will still occur within the area). If Reed continues to ignore random crimes in a given area before it is clean, the crime rate in that area will increase, leading to stores closing, dirtier streets, boarded up buildings, and more aggressive civilians. As a result, more random crimes will need to be resolved to clean the area up.
Unlike Streets of LA, where the player could purchase upgrades at the cost of reward points and upon completion of a challenge, upgrades in New York City simply cost money, with no points system and no challenge in place. Upgrades become available for purchase as the player moves up through five grades of promotion. Money in the game can be earned legitimately by collecting wages, or illegitimately by selling evidence at pawn shops and/or extorting business owners.
The player also has a "Good Cop/Bad Cop" meter. If the player arrests criminals, solves crimes, shoots enemies with neutralizing shots, and knocks out opponents instead of killing them, they will get Good Cop points. If, however, they kill civilians and unarmed criminals, shoot armed criminals in the head, fail to identify themselves as a police officer before opening fire, extort businesses, or sell evidence to pawn stores, they will get Bad Cop points. The player's status as a Good Cop or a Bad Cop will affect the game's ending. If the player performs actions that lead to Bad Cop points, it will also fill a rogue meter and when it gets too high, the player is considered to have "gone rogue," and other police officers will begin to attack Reed.
Plot
On Christmas 2000, gangster Marcus Reed (Avery Waddell), heir to an empire run by his imprisoned father Isaiah "The King" Reed (Laurence Fishburne), avenges a betrayal by wiping out traitors at a safehouse. His godfather, PDNY detective Terry Higgins (Mickey Rourke), covers for him on the condition that Marcus turn his life around.
By 2005, Marcus is a PDNY beat cop under Lt. Deena Dixon (Mariska Hargitay) and is promoted to the Organized Crime Unit (OCU), led by Chief Victor Navarro (Esai Morales). On Marcus’ first day as an OCU detective, Higgins is killed in a warehouse explosion. Suspended back to Dixon’s Street Crimes Unit, Marcus is secretly recruited by FBI Agent Gabriel Whitting (Christopher Walken), who suspects there is a mole in OCU. Higgins’ death, Whitting claims, was linked to this mole, who is in contact with four major Manhattan crime syndicates.
Marcus first infiltrates the Magdalena Cartel, responsible for much of the city’s cocaine trade. Socialite Teresa Castillo (Socorro Santiago), whom Higgins had cultivated as an informant, turns out to be Magdalena Rojas, the true cartel boss. Marcus arrests her, learning only that the mole is a high-ranking OCU officer.
Next, Marcus investigates the Palermo Mob. After dismantling their organ trafficking operation, he confronts Don Vincent Tuzzi (Fred Berman), who reveals he only spoke to the mole—whom he calls “El Jefe”—over the phone and notes a Spanish accent.
Marcus’ third target is the Presidents Club, an African-American gang controlling the drug “Pop.” Led by Lionel “Benjamin” Jones (Cornell Womack), the gang’s hierarchy includes Lincoln (Phil Morris), Hamilton (Richard Yearwood), Jackson, and Grant (Greg Eagles). Marcus saves Kobi (Jeanne Mori), a local Yakuza leader, from an attack ordered by Jackson, and ultimately kills Jackson. Jones later murders Kobi before Marcus apprehends him, revealing only that “El Jefe” is the OCU contact.
The final gang is the Shadow Tong, a Triad faction led by Leeland Shen (Jerry Ying). Marcus returns Shen’s runaway step-sister Vivian (Jennifer Chu) to gain his trust, but Shen uncovers Marcus’ cover and orders his execution. Marcus survives, dismantles their human trafficking operation, and learns of a bribe pickup arranged by the mole.
With evidence pointing to Navarro, Marcus and Whitting intercept the bribe at Grand Central Station. Navarro claims he is being framed, and the game’s ending diverges based on Marcus’ morality rating:
In the good ending*, Whitting arrests Navarro. On his way home, Marcus is confronted by a very-much-alive Higgins, who faked his death to frame Navarro. Higgins tries to bribe Marcus, but Marcus refuses, chasing Higgins through the subway and killing him in a train crash. Marcus later meets Dixon and Whitting, who vows to help Isaiah get a hearing with the DA.
In the bad ending*, Navarro kills Whitting and flees. Marcus kills Navarro in a subway brawl, only to find Higgins waiting for him. Realizing Higgins’ deception, Marcus executes him, then sits alone in the subway station, unsure what to do with Higgins’ bribe money.
Development The game was first announced on July 21, 2004, when Activision CEO Ron Doornink announced plans for "sequels to True Crime, Call of Duty, Spider-Man, Tony Hawk, Shrek, and Quake." However, nothing more was heard about the game for almost a year, until May 2005, when Activision revealed that the game was so big, developers Luxoflux had drafted in staff from another Activision owned developer, Z-Axis. The game, under the provisional title True Crime 2, was unofficially scheduled for a third quarter release, and was expected to be unveiled at the upcoming E3 event. Doornink stated "In the third quarter, we plan to release our strongest and most diverse lineup ever—specifically, brand-new games for Tony Hawk, Call of Duty, X-Men, True Crime, Quake, and Shrek. Each of these franchises is targeted at a different consumer."