Review Courtesy of Reno

Overall-8/10
I had heard about this game for a while now and I sort of dismissed it as just another action game. When I started hearing people describe this game as a Grand Theft Auto 3 clone I started to think that maybe I should try this game out, since I had always loved to play GTA3. I finally decide to rent this game and I was not at all disappointed.

Story-6/10
The story in this game is pretty good but not great. You are some guy named Nick Kang and you are part of an elite forces group called EOD. Your job is to keep order in the crime ridden streets of LA. You are assigned to bust some gang that is causing a lot of trouble. But honestly, the story isn't important at all. Your not playing this game for a good story, your playing it to kick criminal butt. You will enjoy watching the cut scenes but they are rather hard to piece together and you will only get bits and pieces of the story at a time. Overall, pretty good story, but who cares? With a game this fun to play you shouldn't.

Graphics-7/10
Honestly, this was the worst part about the game. The graphics aren't THAT bad but I think that they could have been much better than they were. While some things looked absolutely gorgeous other things didn't. They were sort of flat and not as clean as they could have been. It seems like they didn't even bother upgrading the graphics from the PS2 version. And considering this game takes place in a real life city you would expect that the graphics would be as top notch as possible but they aren't in this case. Still, they do the job as the city of LA looks very nice and I'm sure that if I went to the areas that the game shows I would recognize it in an instant.

Gameplay-9/10
Wow, the gameplay in this game is superb. Everything is just so easy to do and the combos, while not very easy to pull off at first will become easier to do. This game is also like three games in one. There is a driving aspect to the game, a fighting aspect and a 3rd person shooter aspect. All the three types of gameplay are very good. The driving in this game is just as good as a racer and each car has different handling, speed, accelerating and turning capabilities. You will definitely find yourself liking a car not just for it's looks but also for the way it handles. The fighting aspect to this game is also really good. You can pull of the basic punch and kicks and also perform a combo on a dazed opponent. This aspect to the game plays just like a 3-D beat em' up should. You will not find any flaws in the fighting engine and it is very enjoyable to kick some criminal booty. The third aspect, which is a 3rd person shooter aspect, is also very good thanks to the locking on curser. This makes the shooting very fun since all you have to do is take your gun out and you'll automatically lock on and then all you have to do is shoot and survive. Honestly, the 3rd person shooter aspect to this game plays just as good, if not better, than games where the WHOLE game is a 3rd person shooter! And finally, I absolutely love how this game integrates each aspect into one game. You can be driving along and you'll suddenly hear the dispatcher telling you about a crime happening. You can then jump out of the car and start shooting or punching without any hardships. Truly a joy to play.

Controls-8/10
The controls in this game are alright. Not great, but manageable. The combos are a bit hard to pull off and usually I just mash buttons in the hopes of getting a combo. Also, arresting people, flashing your badge and firing a warning shot, can be a bit difficult since you have to memorize a two button combination for each. Otherwise, every single aspect of the game is easy to control and the controls for each of the three types of game types have controls you would find in a game that features only one of the game types. On the whole, the controls won't hinder you that much, if at all but be prepared to look at the manual a few times during play time in the beginning.

Animation and Art-9/10
The animation and art in this game is really, really good. The city of Los Angeles looks just as it should and you can easily differentiate between the good and bad parts of the city with ease. The people in this game act like real people should and when you walk close to someone you will bang into them just like in real life! It's also fun to watch cars get smashed and there a lot of times in the game where many objects are destroyable and it is a joy to see them get broken as opposed to them just moving around like in other games. The cars in this game are nice to look at and this game features many cars. Each car in this game seems to have been painstakingly made since there is so much detail on all of them. You will also be able to differentiate between cars while you are moving very easily. You will not get bored looking at the cars in this game since there are so many and they all look so nice. Honestly, the art and animation in this game is some of the best I have seen in a long time and it really adds to the enjoyment of the playing experience.

Originality-9/10
I give this a 9/10 and nothing less because this game is NOT a GTA3 clone like so many believe. Sure, there are many similarities like the free roaming aspect and the multitude of cars and the violence you can unleash but Activision didn't just milk off the success of GTA3. The people who made this game took what Rockstar did and upgraded it by a ton. I have never seen a game that can integrate three completely different genres in one game and give you a complete and satisfying experience of each one. All the aspects are deep and you can upgrade your driving, shooting and fighting skills. The area of ground you can cover is humongous and you can even see a multitude of statistics that tell you things like how many people you arrested and killed and how many miles you have driven and your average speed as well as keep track of upgrades and unlocked vehicles for you. But out of all these things I think the most original thing is the fact that you can bust so many different crimes. It is so much fun to hear the dispatcher tell you that there is a crime and when you get to the crime scene you can either kill the criminals or arrest them and most of the time the criminals will put up a good fight by running away or jacking a car. But you should be careful because you have a cop rating and by killing people and not arresting them your meter will go down. Unless of course, you want it to go down then you can forget what I just said. That's the beauty of this game. You can kill as much as you want without getting a game over. This game is one of the most original games I have played in a long while.

The All Around Idoit
Reno :P