I'm sure you all know the story of True Crime: Streets of L.A., you take on the role of Nick Kang a Los Angeles police officer, suspended for unspecified reasons and labeled a Martin Riggs (Mel Gibsons Character in Lethal Weapon...basically a nut). But when the triads and the local Russian gangs start working together, you--and your tough, reckless take on everyday police work--are the LAPD's only hope. On your search you come across your brother, blow up a lot of stuff in L.A. (which makes L.A. an improvement) and actually learn what happened to the dad you never knew. True Crimes story is a total B movie script that is ripped from every A movie that ever came out about a bad cop. Think Lethal Weapon meets every cop movie and you get the drift on it.

Vulgar, offensive, sexist...check, check and check. It's all here to help make the story a little more believable, yet you don't actually care about the story (or at least I didn't), and I never felt compelled to really solve anything. I was just out to fight crime. And fight I did...with EVERYONE! Which is where I like True Crime the most; you see, when you do things in this game it effects your chi. Bad chi makes you a bad cop, and branded as such the locals think you are a terror and stay away from you. Some will even shoot at you when you drive by. Good Chi makes a good cop, which unlocks a totally different route in the game and gives you the real ending.

Now the problem with this is it's almost impossible to be a really good cop. The cars skate all over the road in most cases, and because the streets are littered with people you do the math. You almost always hit someone and kill them, and when you do, you get bad chi. The only way to turn that bad into good is by doing side missions which are usually small things like breaking up a lovers spat, stopping a car jacking or a mugging and random other things like that. But again, we have a problem here. You see, when you do the side missions you are supposed to arrest the suspect by grabbing them, twirling them around and slapping some cuffs on them. Oddly enough they vanish into thin air a few seconds later, which I think looks really dumb. They should have had the perp on the sidewalk on their knees until backup came and took them away... yeah I said perp... I learned that from True Crimes extensive cop lingo.

As I was saying a lot of the times when I went to cuff 'em...Nick would shove them or punch them by accident causing a fight to break out which made me wind up shooting them or kicking their asses and again gave me bad chi. You can change your stance (from fighting, to shooting, to just standing), but in the heat of an arrest you can forget to change to your normal stance before attempting to slap on the cuffs. After a while I just didn't care anymore and racked up a nice -300 in chi... yeah I basically went on a killing spree, which brings me to the fighting.

The fighting system in True Crime is basically button mashing but I've got to tell you, I love it. I love that Nick is so versatile and actually has a pretty decent set of moves, I love the fact that when you stun an opponent, you can pull off a finishing move that is really very cool and takes a nice nod to the Kung Fu action flicks I grew up on. This, along with the driving in the game, make the game worth a purchase alone.

The driving is pretty hot, and takes a bit of getting used to, but once you do there's 240 square miles of territory to ride around in; and if anyone who does not live in L.A. has ever been to L.A., it's a trip. Luxoflux did an amazing job of recreating L.A. I was very impressed with the layout and the beauty of the world I was in. If only the game didn't have so many problems with bugs.

Take for example the targeting. It's almost impossible to get Nick to target the actual target you are aiming at the first time around, usually sending bullets in every direction except where you wanted them to go. After a few (about an hour) I got it down a little more, but when I shared the game with friends they became frustrated and annoyed at how loose it all was. Once you upgrade your shooting ability things get a little better though.

Then there are the bugs like this one for example. A husband and wife are fighting in the streets; I pull up and get out of my stolen vehicle, fire a few warning shots in the air, then they get startled and make a run for it. So, I get back in the car and go after them. I stop the wife but the old man keeps running so I get back in the car chase him a bit where I actually pass him. I get out of the car and chase him on foot, as he is getting into a car that he is trying to steal I tackle him. The man gets up and just stands there, the door to the car he was stealing is open, yet I cannot get in it or close the door and worse off I can't cuff the guy. Nor can I hit him or shoot him or anything. For 15 minutes I am trying to get this guy arrested or killed...nothing. Finally I get in my car and knock his car to the side of the road, doing so drags the guy (who is about 10 ft away from the car, yet he is magnetically attached to the car) into a wall and thru a building. Now I am really screwed as I cannot progress forward in the game because of it. Two minutes later, the game locks up.

Such is the way of True Crime, this happened not once, not twice, but five times on the same mission. If I can reproduce this bug five times in a row, you've got to ask yourself who tested this game.

All in all True Crime: Streets of L.A. does deliver some fun, and I have to say it again, the fighting and the grandeur of the city make this worth a rental at the very least. Would I buy it? Maybe...but then again I am a cheap fool who would rather rent games than purchase them anyway.