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Good: Lots of stuff to do

Bad: Glitches, Driving

Most overused pedestrian phrase: "Time to make like a banana and get the fuck out of here"

On a snowy New York Christmas Day a busted yellow sports car rattles down the street and comes to a stop in front of a tenement building. Out of the car emerges Marcus Reed, covered in blood and holding a pair of Uzis. He enters the building and, after a short dialog, proceeds to kill everyone. So begins True Crime: New York City.

A story of murder, redemption and daddy issues, New York City is a sequel to last year's True Crime: Streets of L.A. Like its predecessor, NYC features a wide-open, largely true-to-life city to explore, full of traffic, pedestrians and more than its fair share of illicit activities.

After Marcus' initial shooting spree the game flashes forward five years to the present. Marcus is now a beat cop ready for his Detective training exam. This segment serves as the game's tutorial and quickly acclimates you with the central gameplay elements: melee and hand-to-hand combat, shooting and driving. After training is completed it's out into the real world and the meat of True Crime's gameplay experience.

In the True Crime universe it's okay for police to search any trunk or pedestrian they deem worthy. If they are innocent: no harm done but if illicit material is found they can be arrested and the evidence can be turned into the station, sold at pawn shops for quick, dirty money or planted on other suspects in order to make the arrest.

Like any good free-roaming videogame there's a wealth of stuff to do. While driving around the Apple random crimes will also come in over your police radio. These crimes appear on your city map as a red dot and can be anything from pursuits to hostage situations. After completing all of the missions for any of the twenty given precincts the precinct is declared "clean" and no more crimes arise in that area.

It's also possible to enter into underground street races and underground fighting tournaments. In either of these instances once you've beaten the top competitor you can either give the money over as evidence or keep the spoils for yourself.

It's also possible to buy new cars, guns, clothing, radio songs and learn new combat moves. Guns are stored in your vehicle's trunk and any purchased vehicles are kept in the Department's garage. Combat moves change your fighting style and you're limited to only four styles.

The game also features four cases that make up the bulk of the story. The cases are fairly long, making the story mode last about 12 hours. Each of the cases involves bringing down a major crime syndicate. Between theses cases and cleaning up the precincts it becomes clear that the overall goal of True Crime: New York City is the elimination of all crime in New York-period.

Unlike any good free-roaming videogame, True Crime: New York City features a myriad of glitches that greatly effect gameplay. In one mission I took cover behind a pillar. This attempt at protection was pointless because the enemy gunfire went right through the solid structure. In another instance I was in an on-foot pursuit of a suspect, gaining on him, when he magically ran right through a chain-link fence. I kept up my pursuit and found that he was running in a straight line-through everything. Walls, buildings, cars even other pedestrians. Amazing.

Other problems include character animations that don't sync up properly (imagine going through an arrest animation on the ground while the suspect stands on the sidewalk next to you), inexplicable framerate drops, stupid A.I. (running into walls; getting caught in corners) and the occasional crash during game saves.

As inexcusable as these issues are at this stage of console development they are all minor nuisances in comparison to New York City's two major annoyances: the pedestrian dialog and the driving.

I know that criticizing a game for its pedestrian dialog may seem more than a little nit-picky, but not in this case. This is a textbook example of a game trying to be so edgy that it comes off corny and annoying. Any interaction with pedestrian whether you're frisking them or just bumping into one as you walk down the street produces an explicative. Sometimes they aren't even phrases. At times women just scream "Shit" at the top of their lungs and run down the street or male characters say "watch it, asshole" for no reason. To make matters worse, there is a limited amount of character dialog for the NPCs so expect to hear every phrase a least a thousand times-in the first hour.

As for the driving, I'm not sure why but the visuals take a serious downturn (not that they looked good to begin with) whenever you get behind the wheel. Textures get grainy, the framerate dives and all of the vehicles control like garbage trucks on sheets of ice. The loose control wouldn't be so bad if it weren't for the fact that driving makes up the majority of the game whether it's in the form of racing, pursuing suspects or just getting from one place to another in the crowded city.

In the end True Crime: New York City just feels cheesy. The forced urban style, ridiculous pedestrian dialog and large amount of gameplay and control issues make the game an exercise in frustration. Forget murder and theft, the true crime here is that this glitchy, grainy mess is priced at 50 dollars.

Graphics: D+

Sound: D-

First Play: C

Last Play: F

Gameplay: D-

Overall: 60% D-