I'll give it to you straight. Techland was a relatively unknown company, until it hooked up with software publishing giant Eon Digital Entertainment. Don't be mistaken though. Although the company doesn't have much of a reputation for developing games yet, Crime Cities has already won itself an award for Best Visual Arts in 1999's Independent Games Festival, held at the Game Developer's Conference in San Jose. Keep in mind that the game was still only in alpha state at the time. Naturally, you can expect good things from the game, which is what I'm here to cover. So, with no further ado, let's get it on.
Crime Cities puts you in the position of Lieutenant Garm Tiger, an undercover earth cop in the not so far future who is framed by his fellow officers and superior, Angela Hubber in order to investigate the sudden rise of organized crime in the Pandemia System. The Pandemia System is a series of penal colonies about 16 light-years away from Earth. The three main colonies are Tavaroon, Quarzon and Blackloud. Let's go ahead and take a look.
Tavaroon used to be a mining colony, until it became unprofitable. The Federation then turned it into a low-level penal world, with city structures and authorities. Deviants and smugglers are sent here. The second world is Quarzon, which is also a penal world. Political prisoners and other mid-level prisoners are sent here. As before, it has a city structure with police and authorities. The last world is called Blackloud, which is a hi-level penal colony for terrorists, war criminals and other dangerous criminals. It also has a city structure, but with no authorities. The license to manage the colony was sold to a corporation, who was suppose to maintain an iron fist rule, but failed. Another world is Hyperion, a planet closes to the Pandemia Sun, and is very hot. The Federation has not seen fit to terraform it yet. Other worlds include a gas giant and an ice planet, but will not be any of your concern. So, let's get back to the point.
Your first objective is to rescue another undercover agent by the name of Juan Alvarez trapped on the planet Tavaroon before he is liquidated. To do this two other agents will help you. One of them is a former cyber hacker by the name of CyberDog. He'll be your guardian angel on the net. The second agent is Natasha Tyminsky. She's an environmental officer who'll provide you with information on the social and political structure of the Pandemia System. Along the way, your character will even foster "closer" ties with a girl called Jessica Blue, whom you rescued from some gang members on Tavaroon.
Now, we'll come to the meat and potatoes of a game, the gameplay. You'll be given a vehicle called a Flyer, which is basically the equivalent of a floating car. Here you will have to establish a name for yourself as a tough enforcer up for hire. After awhile, you'll be able to take on more lucrative contracts, until you gather enough information and evidence on major mob bosses. You'll then have to dispatch them and their enforcers. You will be able to get jobs at the ICNB, and receive e-mails from your contacts, plus the occasional advertisement, promoting everything from weapons to pleasure houses, although most of the time it's the later. You'll also be able to buy weapons and other accessories from the Network Of Global Merchandise Center, also known as GMC. However you'll have to dock at a service depot in order to have your new toys installed. All these wonderful services have been brought to you by GLOBNET, Pandemia's premiere Ethernet Service.
If you have ever wondered what it would be like to be Bruce Willis in the 5th Element romping through town, here's your chance. To get to various mission objectives, you'll have to dodge in between dozens of buildings and heavy traffic, including cabs, holiday makers, family cars, trucks and so on. Be warned though! If you accidentally destroy a civilian vehicle in a vicious firefight, StarPol will come after you. So, it's advisable to lure your opponents out of the city and finish them there. However, if you do get pursued by StarPol, you can purchase a new ID Card for your Flyer at your local GMC to evade pursuit. Try not to do this as new ID Cards are very expensive.
With over a 100 thrilling missions varying from search and destroy, escort and transporting to delivery and hunting down extra-terrestrials, the missions for Crime Cities are something like Tachyon: The Fringe, were you play a tough mercenary who does someone else's dirty work for a fee. Two more aspects I will cover are the controls and the all important AI. The controls have a somewhat Descent feel to them, allowing you to strafe and roll your way through a firefight. This should go a long way in attracting many Descent fans while satisfying those with a taste for less complicated controls. The AI for Crime Cities is fairly advanced. The enemy AI won't just hover around with a big sign asking you to shoot him. They want to live as badly as you do. To accomplish this, they have a few tricks up their sleeves. They'll duck, strafe and dodge in between buildings and traffic to survive. One more thing would be the difficulty setting. It can be adjusted to several settings: Very Easy, Easy, Medium, Hard and Ultra Hard. This move will help make the game a challenge to both hard-core simulation fans as well as beginners to the genre.
Have you ever wanted to team up or deathmatch with your friends in some other simulation game either than Descent? Well, here's your chance. You'll be given the option to use all vehicles in the game, with the complete arsenal of 23 weapons, compared to the single-player campaign, where you can only use up to 3 vehicles and weapons are limited to the which planet you're on. So, if you ever wanted to know how it feels to be a flying an advertisement board blowing up 15 of your friends, you'll like this. Instead of buying weapons and charging your shields at your local GMC, you have to pick them up around town. And don't worry, there will still be plenty of traffic for you to dodge around in multi-player games. Or, if you're feeling lonely, you can hold a team deathmatch with your friends against another group. Trying out both forms of deathmatch against Jin-Wei and some other friends, I must say it worked out pretty well.
You know what they say. Good graphics don't make or break a game, but it certainly helps in the immersion factor. The graphics for Crime Cities are fantastic. Even when you're dodging enemy fire through the city, take some time to marvel at the sights. The city is incredibly detailed, with signboards, flying traffic lights, buildings, lights, advertisements and even garbage dumps in the lower levels. In the world of Blackloud, the city is very similar to that of the 5th Element, with lower levels being very foggy and darker, while upper levels are congested with traffic. Also, if you've seen the Final Reality benchmark before, Tavaroon is very much like it, even with those spinning lights. Also, the detail on every vehicle in the game is fantastic, with lighting effects playing a big role here. Speaking of which, there are a few examples up for download now. The only pity about the graphics for Crime Cities are the advertisements. Most of them features manga-styled porn on them. Pleasure Houses are the same. Now, on to the girls, er... movies. Crime Cities has very short movies in between the action itself, usually showing your character moving from one planet to another. But the intro and ending movies are fairly long, so it should satisfy players after finishing the final encounter. Most of the pieces to the puzzle are fitted together in the ending cinematic, so you might want to finish the game to find out.
The sounds for Crime Cities are very realistic. Even when flying past various buildings, you can hear noises of people going about their normal daily routines, for example: Cars and trucks will sometimes horn at you, commerce is heard going on when you fly past buildings, and so on. This helps create an environment in which the player feels that he is but a small portion of the universe. Well, enough of the philosophical act already. My personal favorite weapon is the chain cannon. It may not be the most powerful weapon there is, but the feel and sound of it is nice. Next, we'll come to the in-game music for Crime Cities. The music for Crime Cities usually serve to keep the player in a constant state of tenseness, making it more exciting when you're being chased by a gang of enemies intent on your death. The music is extremely nice to listen to either way.
This is one game you don't want to miss out on. Whether you're buying it for its graphics or gameplay, it's definitely worth your while. My advice, get it the moment it hits the store shelves! If you are looking for something that is a cross between Descent and say Tachyon : The Fringe, this is the shiznit.
