The Immersive, Open World of True Crime: Streets of LA

Luxoflux was among the first videogame developers out the gate to create an open-world action game to legitimately rival Grand Theft Auto. True Crime: Streets of LA was ambitious in every way, particularly in the way it offers players the ability to free-roam in a real-world setting. The branching storyline provides a departure from Grand Theft Auto, which mostly keeps reality at bay with increasingly unrealistic levels of crime and destruction. Players take control of detective Nicholas Kang, who works for the Elite Operations Division (EOD), a specialized unit of the LAPD. This is one area where True Crime: Streets of LA sets itself apart as well. Instead of donning the role of a criminal, players are given the cuffs, the ability to be a police officer fighting crime.

Kang (along with his partner, detective Rosie Velasco) ends up deep in it with the Chinese Triad after a sequence of bombings occur in Chinatown. The game affords players with the same freedoms of Grand Theft Auto—including copious amounts of shootouts, missions that play out classic scenes from a history of true crime stories. Though Streets of LA was initially dismissed as a Grand Theft Auto clone around the time of its release, it was a commercial success, selling upwards of three million copies.

After True Crime: Streets of LA’s success, Luxoflux went to work on the sequel, True Crime: New York City. As is often the case, not all sequels end up as successful as the first foray. Where Streets of LA’s ambition and shift from crime-to-cop protagonist offered players something new and fresh in a burgeoning sea of GTA clones, True Crime: New York City arrived on store shelves to a resoundingly mediocre response.

Like Streets of LA, players take on the role of a cop—this time a former gang-member-turned-cop named Marcus Reed. After receiving a promotion, Reed’s mentor is shot right in front of him, which, of course, results in Reed seeking vengeance—using all possible resources to seek out the killer.

Luxoflux advertised the fact that they had accurately recreated 25-square miles of Manhattan within the game—including street names and major landmarks. At the time of release (2005), this was ambitious. An open-world game where its real-world setting is accurate enough that residents might be able to scour the digital version and find things recognizable had a curious appeal.

Sadly, New York City was a failure both critically and commercially, causing a premature end to the True Crime game franchise. When the game came out and bombed, Luxoflux was already at work on a third True Crime game to be set in Hong Kong. Unwilling to continue a franchise name that now had the stink of failure, Activision shelved the game.

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Though cancelled, the incomplete game that would have been True Crime: Hong Kong continued to languish in development hell. The game was purchased by Square Enix, who enlisted developer United Front Games to continue development under a new name, Sleeping Dogs. Similar to first the two True Crime games, Sleeping Dogs transports players into the shoes of a cop—this time an undercover police officer and martial arts expert named Wei Shen living in Hong Kong. He’s been tasked with infiltrating the highly networked, difficult-to-locate Sun On Yee Triad. Unlike the other True Crime games, Sleeping Dogs utilizes an intricate hand-to-hand combat system that is fluid and full of parkour tactics like Prince of Persia or Assassins Creed. Similar to other open-world games, players roam the city fulfilling missions and developing Wei Shen’s abilities.

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Sleeping Dogs might have been the reset and revitalization the series needed, because when it finally was released in 2012, the game fared well critically—and was praised for its atmosphere and the accuracy of its portrayal of Hong Kong. Given that this was how True Crime: Streets of LA was received—praised for its world-building and cop protagonist—perhaps if Activision had stuck with True Crime: Hong Kong, it could have seen release ahead of competing games. It is possible to speculate that offering new game mechanics (like the RPG-like ability system and parkour elements) would have been a first in the open-world genre.