Friggin' hell, this is a weird one. It's not often that games throw you for a complete loop, but True Crime has succeeded with considerable style. If you read the mag regularly, you'll already have an idea of what this crime actioner is all about. You may even have a soundbite description already prepped for it on the lines of 'Activision does GTA'. And, for the most part, it's a tag that nails both True Crime's appeal and shortcomings perfectly. But that's before it abruptly picks up sticks, buys a one-way ticket to Doolally land and leaves you wondering if you really just saw what you thought you saw. Before we get to the arch weirdness, there's a heap of GTA comparisons to get through, and only a couple of pages in which to lay them out...

On, and The Getaway. Did we mention The Getaway? True Crime has only one real link to Sony's cockernee caper, and that comes in the shape of an exhaustively mapped real city as its playground. We say 'exhaustively' but, to be fair, unless you've spent some serious time in Los Angeles yourself, this is something you'll have to take on trust. Still, whether you've got an intimate knowledge of the corner of Almeda and 4th St or not, there is a positively huge and varied chunk of virtual La-La Land to explore, from Pacific Pallisades to Downtown. And you're not likely to confuse it with Grimsby, so high fives all round for developer Luxoflux.

Storywise, True Crime shamelessly and amusingly goes for broke and tries to embrace just about every cop movie cliché known. You play Nick Kang, maverick cop. He's the kind of loose cannon who never plays by the rules, but dammit, he gets results. When it comes to solving crime, it's his way or the highway. Despite being on probation, he's reinstated and seconded to the Elite Operations Division to follow a trail of badness, starting with the Triads and leading to the Russian Mafia and who knows where else. There's also the small matter of Nick's father, a cop who went missing under suspicious circumstances in the '70s. And how is that relevant? Come on people! Of course it's relevant. Didn't you see Striking Distance?

And so to the gameplay meat in True Crime's entertainment sandwich. Whereas Rockstar's GTA series is like a cool uncle who gives you toys and a huge amount of freedom to explore/cause mischief/generally fart about, True Crime is more like an ambitious parent telling its child that there's an appropriate time for everything and that includes goofing about. The game is divided into episodes and these in turn are subdivided into five basic mission types. When it's a driving mission, you drive. Shooting mission? You shoot. Ditto with the stealth and beat-'em-up levels. In fact, it's only the bonus cruise missions that give you any real sense of freedom in the game. During these sections you can explore the city, jacking vehicles, popping into shooting ranges, dojos and garages to enhance your skills, and solve street crimes announced on the police band by the LAPD dispatcher. These range from muggings to beauty queen kidnappings and illegal street races. True, they all tend to be solved in the same way, i.e. shooting and/or fighting, but you at least in charge of your timetable for a while.

That said, despite their compartmentalised layout, the storyline missions are a blast. In particular, another round of high fives is due for the ludicrously OTT finishing moves in the beat-'em-up bouts and the frenetic, 'last man standing' shootouts. However, given that there is only a quintet of basic mission types, an unfortunate sense of gameplay deja vu starts to creep in by the third or fourth episode. It's not a game wrecker, but neither is it the kind of thing you should be noticing in a supposedly triple-A title.

Sadly, that's not the only drive-by strafing True Crime's pristine bodywork. Maybe it's an inevitable trade off when you've created an entire virtual LA, but the game is peppered with unfortunate moments of slowdown, pop-up, camera confusion and continuity compromising glitches. For example, when we finish one driving mission in a Lamborghini clone and pause for a cut-scene, we don't want to return to the game sitting in a Buick! Aside from the technical issues, there are also some dubious plot moments that are supposed to be cool or controversial but come off as merely unsettling. A prime example of which is a fistfight between Nick and five lapdancers. But that's not nearly as disturbing as hearing Christopher Walken being forced to say the line, "It's the Nick-meister Kang-a-lang-a-dingdong". Somebody call Age Concern. Surely that's abuse.

Yet despite (or maybe even because of) this ultra cheesy, rough-around-the-edges approach, True Crime eventually enters a curious and unique space in the gaming universe. When it's fun (and it definitely can be!) it's a blast. But even when it's shonky or the content is misjudged, it's so oblivious to its shortcomings that you end up hooked by the sheer 'B-movie quality' of it all.

Oh, and we almost forgot the incredible narrative weirdness that strikes about three quarters of the way through the game and leaves you questioning the sanity of everyone involved. To be honest, we reckon it's something best experienced on a personal level so, aside from mentioning the fire-breathing dragon, we'll say no more about it here. Best game of the year? Not a chance, mate. However the cuckoo award for gaming oddity is definitely in the bag...

Graphics 70%
Both deeply impressive and shonky as hell.

Sound 80%
Hip-hop soundtrack and star-studded vocals.

Gameplay 70%
The whole is definitely superior to individual parts.

Lifespan 60%
Despite a branching storyline, the story is not huge.

Overall 70%
Swings between gleeful brilliance and car-crash awfulness. True Crime is good, but by no means great.