The True Crime series always had it tough. It didn't bomb, but it had a pretty tough act to follow in the Grand Theft Auto series, and it just never really grabbed a lot of traction amongst gamers. As such, it comes as little surprise to hear from developer United Front Games and publisher Activision at the GDC press showing that the next game in the series is being treated as a reboot of the brand.

Coming for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC in the third quarter of 2010, True Crime takes gamers out of the familiar territory of the continental USA and out into the streets of Hong Kong. You play as Wei Shen, an undercover cop who is living dangerously as he's trying to infiltrate a Triad gang.

Hong Kong, of course, has a rich history of entertainment behind it - most notably in the cinematic world. Stephen van der Mescht, Executive Producer at United Front Games, indicated that Hong Kong action flicks were a strong influence on the new True Crime. That said, you won't see the John Woo style crazy sideways-dive-while-shooting-akimbo-pistols move - it was felt this was a bit too much of a cliche. Movies like Internal Affairs (remade by Hollywood into The Departed) and Triad Election played a part.



A big goal for True Crime was to create a complete, believable, and above all authentic open world, and it certainly sounds like they've spared no expense in doing so. The developers have been over to Honkers several times, going to all parts of the city to get the vibe of the place, taking thousands upon thousands of photos, and talking to locals – including an ex-member of the Triads and an ex-head of the Hong Kong organised crime department.

While a big part of the original True Crime games was to create a ruthlessly realistic recreation of the cities, this has been axed for the new title. The city environment will have many recognisable features and buildings (though carefully stripped of the real building names, to avoid possible legal slaw), and the island is the same basic shape, though it is not accurate to street level and some areas have been changed around a little bit. For example, the North Point area is a bit more reminiscent of Kowloon to give it that gritty oriental feel. United Front decided that gameplay was more important than a faithful recreation, and as such all the differences are there to improve the quality of the game.

We were treated to an approximately 15 minute long demonstration of the game, showing off what I would describe as as single mission unit (the cinematic briefing/introduction, the movement through the open world to the mission objective area, actually doing the mission, and the after-effects of the mission). This gave us a good look at some of the core game mechanics and the overall flow, which as you can probably tell from the preceding sentence, is still strongly reminiscent of the GTA way of doing things.

United Front Games have, of course, gone to lengths to differentiate this title from GTA and the previous True Crime games. A big part of that is the flow of the movement in the game – heavily inspired by the smooth-flowing action in a Hong Kong movie. This was evident in almost every aspect of the game that we saw – one great example was running at an enemy character that is standing behind a table. Instead of having to run around the table or do some cheap jump, you automatically use the table as a prop in the game to vault off in a seamless, flowing flying kick.



There are moments like this scattered throughout the game – a lot of effort has gone into ensuring that as many motions as possible can be tightly linked and integrated, creating this flowing effect of gameplay. Another example cited (which we didn't see) was the player being able to jump off the back of a motorcycle, and while still in the air, yank out your pistol and target things before you hit the ground (including the bike). I assume you need pretty decent reflexes and hand-eye coordination to do this, but it opens up a huge variety of different ways to do things.

When some of these special actions are taking place, the game slips into a brief moment of slow-motion, which highlights these particular things – this gives you a great cinematic view of the action at certain times, and again the root for this is pretty obvious. While it looks really good though, we saw a stack of these in a single fight scene, and I wonder if after the thirtieth slow-mo of slamming someone's face into a table you just want it to speed up so you can get on with the game.

Speaking of face slamming – there's a stack of really great hand-to-hand combat moves. A more complete melee system was one feature the True Crime series always had over GTA. While we didn't get a chance to play it ourselves to see how it plays, it certainly looks cool, with a stack of great special take-downs, including holding a guy's head in the fridge so you can slam it with the door repeatedly, throwing a guy over your shoulder into a big garbage bin (of course, the lid slams shut).

The focus on movement flow means a lot of attention has been paid to the on-foot movement system. While it's still intended for to get around the city using cars and bikes, there are a lot of running and chasing scenes. One of the 'mini-mechanics' described by Stephen includes a timing-sensitive controlling system when you're running through a crowd – you'll need to have the right timing on the controls to duck and weave your way through a crowded street at full speed.



The driving model was briefly mentioned as being more on the arcadey side, as opposed to simulation style. Motorbikes are getting a lot of focus, so there's a lot of different types of donorcycles in the game and a bunch of cool moves you can do with them – including jumping off a speeding bike onto the roof of a car, then vaulting yourself down into the vehicle – all while it continues screaming down the street. Very cool.

There's a new 'face' system – face as in 'losing face' or 'saving face'. This is basically a system of respect that pervades throughout the entire game – as you gain face, you'll gain access to new parts of the game, including a system of side missions, as well as some of the usual stuff like new cars. We didn't really see this in operation and it sounds like it is integrated into the game at a fairly low level – you'll need to pay attention to your face to complete the game.

As you can see from the screenshots, visually the game is stacking up nicely. There wasn't really any point that I was completely blown away; most of the in-game areas that we saw were the more closed-in city environments, but I suspect there'll be some really cool views of the city once you get up to Victoria Peak.

Overall, shaping up to look like a pretty solid game. The gameplay, while familiar, looks and sounds like it has enough new interesting stuff going for it with the Hong Kong cinematic style, and the smooth flowing motion should make for an enjoyable playing experience, especially once you master the ins and outs of all the various cool moves you can do (though of course I'll reserve final judgment until we get a hands on test!). There's no multiplayer, so all the focus is going into making this a kick-ass single player experience. It's clear that a lot of work has gone into it already; it just needs a layer of shiny polish and it'll be one to look out for.