"Los Angeles, some call it the city of Angels. I guess those people have never been here because when I move around the streets, I don't see any. Angels fear to tread where on every street corner there are pushers, pimps, hustlers, entire neighbourhoods scared to go outside for fear of being caught in the crossfire of some gang war and of course, me. My name is Nick Kang and I work for the EOD, an elite force of cops working with the Bureau to bring down organised crime. This city is rotting away from the inside, and I plan to do something about it. Sure, things won't change overnight, and things certainly won't get better just because of me, but every piece of trash I put behind bars lets me sleep a little easier. Maybe I don't play by the rules all the time, but if I did things wouldn't get done, and getting things done is what I do best."

Enough of this B-Movie monologue already! True Crime: Streets of LA sees you taking the role of Nick Kang, a recently suspended LAPD detective who has been recruited by the EOD to work on a case involving the Chinese Mafia. As is customary these days, things are not so simple and many of LA's underground are involved in a (kind of) twisted journey through the seedy underbelly of Los Angeles. As Nick Kang you get to drive, shoot, fight hand to hand, and wisecrack your way around an accurately modelled rendition of Los Angeles in order to solve the crime, save the day and stop the bad guys. All this is wrapped up in a very style package. Even as a Cop/EOD agent you get to appropriate vehicles from Los Angeles citizenry should it take your fancy and because you are a cop you can get away with shooting or bludgeoning the helpless inhabitants with no consequences. Or so it would seem.

The most interesting thing about TC:SoLA is the Good Cop / Bad Cop mechanic which makes up for the lack of actually being the criminal element in such games. Completing missions without any civilian casualties, making arrests instead of kills and helping grannies cross the street sees your Good Cop rating rise. Running riot around the city offing civilians and criminals regardless will see the scales tip in the favour of the Bad Cop. Go far enough into the red and the character of Nick Kang changes, not only do his witty retorts change from the typical buddy style quips Governor Arnie would be proud to churn out to something slightly more sinister. He also changes his outfit a few times depending how tightly the Dark Side of the (Police) Force has him in its grasp. Now outfit changes are no big deal these days, and indeed if this was the extent of the changes I would not be wasting time talking about them for so long, but the changes actually effect the story both in its direction and its execution.

The story has a very definite arc while playing the good cop, but depending on when the player decides to turn bad - allows a couple of branches which change the direction of the story completely and doing helps the game's longevity by giving the player three complete stories to play which can be decided upon on the fly.