Violence fills the Streets of LA in “True Crime”

by Louis Bedigian

New screens, new info, hints of a sequel and a whole lot more in GameZone Online’s interview with the makers of True Crime: The Streets of LA 

In a city where there is so much sin

How can you give redemption?

You know it’s a fight you cannot win

Will this be the exception?

People are plotting, they all deceive

There’s no one you can trust

We lost track of what they received

And failed our last drug bust

Cops cannot do their job

When judges can be bought

There’s no reason not to rob

Who cares if we get caught?

We stole a ride, we could do time

But at least we got a vixen

This is a game about true crime

Now onto the next mission! 

Later this fall, gamers will finally get the chance to embark on Luxoflux’s incredible journey into the sleazy, mixed up streets of LA.  As the game nears completion, Peter Morawiec, Co-Founder of Luxoflux and Lead Designer of True Crime, took a few moments to give GameZone Online a cornucopia of information.  In this in-depth interview, Peter removes all of the question marks surrounding this highly-anticipated title.

True Crime is being promoted as NOT being a fighting or driving game.  However, it does encompass those play mechanics, as well as several others.  In your own words please describe the gameplay to our readers.

Peter Morawiec: Most games usually fall into a particular genre – a fighter, racer, shooter, etc.  The intention for TC was to craft a game which offers a broader set of activities – specifically, allowing the player to experience all the cool cinematic action one would expect to see in a detective action film.  So, TC is not any one of those genres – it combines them to deliver a whole new type of game.  The challenge was to integrate a variety of gameplay types as seamlessly as possible, and, at the same time, give each component enough depth to ensure the experience is satisfying – definitely an ambitious and tricky goal.  

How are the merged gameplay elements balanced?  Will players find themselves driving and shooting more than they are fighting on foot?

PM: Overall, the game strikes a pretty good balance, but because of its open-ended free-roaming aspects, the ratio will swing differently for different people.  If you love cruising around town busting perps, driving will most likely take precedence.  If you are focused on completing the story, then driving represents roughly 40% of gameplay time.

If you thought it was dangerous to talk on the phone while driving,

just wait till you see what they do in this game!

 

True Crime is said to have 240 square miles of LA.  How does this translate into actual gameplay?  How does it affect the game's longevity?

PM: It’s just a huge place to explore and there are incentives to do so – one ‘secret feature’ in particular; unfortunately, I’m not at liberty to divulge it yet.  Also, since it’s a real replica of LA’s street layout, the hope is that many players will want to get to know the city and visit all the known spots – from Santa Monica beach front all the way Downtown, Hollywood Boulevard, Sunset Strip, Melrose etc.  You can use a real map as a guide if you wish.  

The preview version indicates that True Crime is a mission-based game.  Does this restrict the player at all, or do we have the option to do what we want when we want to?

 

PM: The game is structured via multi-branched sequences of 80+ story missions of different types – driving, racing, pursuit, tailing, escape, fighting, shooting, and infiltration.  It’s a pretty equal mix, but a good 20% of those missions are free-roaming driving missions, during which the player is free to cruise around town without limitations and take on a variety of street crimes at will.

Was it hard trying to make True Crime control well with so many different gameplay styles?

PM: Yes, it was a challenge.  We really wanted to have a high degree of consistency across all modes and be able to perform any action instantaneously, as opposed to having to toggle Nick to a given ‘behavior mode’ first.  This sounded nice in theory, but required lots of context-sensitive logic, which is just hard to do right in practical terms.  Many players wanted a more direct control of the character, so, in the end, we’ve added instant mode switching as well, using the D-Pad keys.  TC ships with two Preset configurations, as well as a full-featured customize mode (Preset #2 was designed for those wanting a control setup just like the ‘other’ game ;)

“I’m sorry, I don’t have your money!”

“What do you mean you don’t have it?”

“I lost it in a Soul Calibur 2 tournament.”

Are there specific targets in the game, or is the player's mission simply to rid the world of as any scumbags as possible?

 

PM: There are both – specific story mission objectives let you drive the story forward, while random Street Crimes (during free-roaming driving missions) let you go at it at will.  The story is certainly a key component of the game, featuring dozens of cool interior missions, multiple branching paths and three very different outcomes.

It was recently announced that True Crime's soundtrack will include more than 50 original songs!  Aside from their gritty lyrics, why were artists like Snoop Dogg and Westside Connection chosen for the soundtrack?  Was it their musical style that seemed fitting to the game?

 

PM: Given the type of game and its location, we’ve always felt that hip-hop/rap should play a key role in the soundtrack, but it wasn’t necessarily our plan to be this skewed towards one type of music.  However, this particular West Coast compilation made a lot of sense for the game and presented a good co-marketing opportunity.  After all, we are the underdog about to take on some serious competition, so it’s an exposure thing.  Even for someone who doesn’t usually listen to rap, I can honestly say that there are lots of very groovy tracks in the game (if you don’t mind the language ;)

Who is producing the game's soundtrack?  Are there different producers for each song?

 

PM: Different producers for each song, I believe.  Christian Salyer (audio composer on TC) proposed the Vybe Squad deal to us initially, and Chris Archer negotiated it on Activision’s end.

Is the whole soundtrack comprised of rap music, or will we also see tracks representing other musical genres?

PM: There are a few non-rap songs in the game, also licensed.  Bands like Systematic, Taproot, even Megadeth.

From what I've played of the game, it's pretty obvious that True Crime has some brilliant dialogue.  Who came up with the story for True Crime, and who penned the script?

 

PM: The script was roughed in internally, then handed off to local writers Marc Geoff and Richie Porter.  As the game evolved, the script underwent a good number of revisions -- Yael Swerdlow did most of the revision work.

Laura Craft: The Streets of LA Raider

True Crime has a stellar lineup of voice actors.  Were these actors chosen ahead of time and then offered the part, or did some of them audition for it?

 

PM: I wish.  Videogame guys don’t get to audition people like Christopher Walken or Gary Oldman.  It’s still more like “Holy s***, we got Gary Oldman!”  Basically, we’ve put together a ‘wish list’ of actors, while the producers worked out a budget.  Subsequently, a voice director (Margaret Tang of Womb Music) went out there and did a great job managing to sign up most of the actors.  Interestingly, Christopher Walken came in quite late in the project, so we scrambled to adapt the George character for him and wrote some last-minute dialogue – not the best way to do it, but we’re glad it happened.  Of course, Margaret also did auditions for many of the secondary roles.

True Crime being a game about the streets of LA, it's no surprise that the game is going to have adult content.  How adult will the content be?  Beyond splattered blood and the dark music, how far does the game go?  Do the characters speak like typical criminals?  Is there any nudity?

PM: TC has been designed for mature audiences only and is clearly rated ‘M’.  I’m proud of the fact that Nick isn’t gratuitously vulgar and the game isn’t overly gory, but there’s definitely some blood, nudity and kink in the game.  After all, this is LA we’re talking about – we’ve got dominatrix vixens, gimps, donkeys, you name it – it’s all entertainment and you would be insane to take it seriously.  But in any case, kids stay out!   

Sony has had reservations about adult content before (see BMX XXX).  How do they feel about the content that's being planned for True Crime?

PM: We are about to submit any day now, so [we’re] keeping our fingers crossed.  But it’s not like we are trying to sneak anything past them.  I haven’t seen the BMX title, but it sounded to me like the sexual content was the main ‘selling point,’ not the actual BMX gameplay.  TC is nothing like that – the nudity is only in a few select spots and it’s always treated in a campy/humorous context.
 

Double-barrel action, baby!

Speaking of development, is the True Crime we see now the same True Crime that the developers envisioned a few years ago?  How much has changed since the development process began?

PM: Yes and no.  The original core concepts are definitely alive and well -– playing a badass Asian-American cop, cast in a streaming LA metropolis, branching storyline, solving crimes, driving, shooting, fighting etc.  At the same time, the scope and of the game has grown significantly.  Fortunately, Activision’s VPs were willing to extend the schedule and fund a bigger game, so, in the end, the consumer wins.

What was the most challenging part of creating a game that is vast and filled with variety?

 

PM: Ensuring that it all works together fairly seamlessly and retains its own identity and a sense of consistency as a whole.  There were plenty of technological hurdles as well.  There is so much stuff in the game, just making sure you get all the loose ends covered was tough enough.  TC was the largest game all of us have ever worked on and it was a great learning experience.  We’ve gone through some pretty rough times during the development phase, but the team is extremely talented and they all pulled through wonderfully.  Now we have a solid engine and lots of great improvement ideas.  So, if you like TC, just wait ‘till you see TC2!

True Crime 2?  The first one isn’t even out yet!  Now we have even MORE to anticipate! :)

Thank you Peter for a wonderful interview.

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