This game is jank as all getout, typical for a mid-budget early open-world title. Movement is snappy, car driving is smooth, but the gunplay is wonky. Overall, not a bad game for it's time, with plenty of speed tech.
Game Notes
- The game is almost always run on PC, as loading screens are much quicker and there's far fewer of them. I went and compared this movie against the WR, side-by-side in a timeline editor with all the loading screens trimmed out and just retaining the gameplay. The TAS clocks in at 30:31.11 while the RTA run on PC clocks in at 35:53.29, so this TAS beats the RTA WR by 5:18.18 if we consider just the gameplay.
- You have zero control over your aiming reticule besides moving it between badguys for it to autotarget. We will sometimes have to wait a second or two for the reticule to land on a badguy before we are able to hit him without wasting ammo. Bullets are also physics objects that take time to travel.
- Melee combat is a pain in the ass. Enemies will block or get hit by attacks at random, with no rhyme or reason to their behavior. Sometimes on one frame they'll just block/dodge and the next frame they will get hit, with zero change in animation or with any cues to how they will act. We will spend time during every fight whiffing moves or moving around slightly while attempting to chain attacks (usually low kick) so we can try and get the fights over as quickly as possible. The most optimal way to get damage in every fight (except Lola as there are no solid walls) is to stun the enemy, launch the enemy with a kick combo into a wall, rinse and repeat.
- We forgo every upgrade and collectible in this run, as they waste minutes upon minutes to get, without providing a bonus that our TAS powers cant compensate for.
- Your starting Dirty Harry car is awful, with a low top speed. We will do our best to bail out early while manipulating traffic spawns to try and get one of the top speed vehicles (sports cars of various models with red bucket seats, they all seem to have the max speed) ASAP. The speed difference in cars is no joke, letting us shave minutes off our time. There are a few areas of the game where high-end cars do not spawn, where we will be stuck with the Dirty Harry car/delivery van. Chapter 4 also resets our ride, so we forego bringing a racecar to the end of Chapter 3.
- Routing in this game generally consists of driving in a straight line as long as possible in order to get across the city. The streets are generally accurate to life, which for LA means we have plenty of long straightaways for us to build up speed, while pulling TAS drifts to maintain momentum on turns or swerve through traffic.
- E1M1
Basically an autoscroller. We clear out the targets as they pop up and get to the next screen.
- E1M2
We start with our crappy car, but quickly manipulate traffic spawns on the side of the road to get a sports car (we jump out and slide the car over so that the driver of the sports car gets stuck, rather than slamming our breaks and ramming him. If we do that, the driver will back away or drive off to the side, causing us to have to chase him down for a few seconds). We then race our new car to the mission clear point.
- E1M3
A simple driving mission. We take our fast car and speed to the mission clear point using the fastest route possible in the roads.
- E1M4
The first of the fist fights. Melee combat, as explained already, is janky and requires some shenanigans to get done quickly. However, we beat the boss quickly, using the optimal strategy of chained moves and launching him into a wall, letting us finish him off in just 3 combos.
- E1M5
Another short level, we quickly run ahead of where the boss will begin attacking, shooting him as soon as he is able to take damage. We empty our pistols into his face and proceed to E2.
- E2M1
A driving segment. We take our sports car carried over from E1 and head to the mission complete point.
- E2M2
The dojo fight. Another simple one-on-one boss fight. Karate Guy has a bit more health than the first boss, so we need to put in an extra wall splat and combo to finish him off. Combos, wall splats, completion.
- E2M3
We do what it says on the mission screen and race to the bar, with 25 seconds to spare on the timer.
- E2M4
Another boss fight. This guy has just a bit more health than Karate Guy, so we have to finish him off with a proper combo ender instead of a slap.
- E2M5
We shoot our gun after running a few steps to just the right distance so that we trigger the Triad Thug to turn around and engage us in combat, instead of running away. Using this method, we can run straight to him and shoot him to death, saving our sports car for the next mission. (The usual RTA strategy is to steal the car to your left and drive forward and splat him or chase him on foot manually without shooting until very close)
- E2M6
We skip the dialog and drive to Jimmy's. We cut through some parking lots and take some tight drifts to conserve time on the way to the mission complete point.
- E2M7
The first stealth mission. The stealth mechanics are completely broken, with the braindead guards having narrow cones of vision and limited distance of perception. We sneak about, moving around in just the right manner to avoid detection from guards, knocking out the minimum number of guards instead of dealing with each of them on their own.
- E2M8
We clear out the first set of badguys, taking an SMG in the short downtime it takes for our reticule to position itself on the enemies above us. We run to the horde wave room and kill the enemies on the ground as quickly as possible, then take out the guys on the rampart as soon as they spawn in above us.
- E2M9
We dispatch the sniper assassin before he can even start his first attack cycle, entering into Shoulder Mode and perfectly timing our shots to drop the sniper. We actually manipulate the sniper's movements by micro-maneuvering our LStick, so that we force him to run directly into the next incoming round. We have to wait a decreasing amount of time inbetween each shot, as the sniper is invincible while performing his hitstun animation (the animation speeds up after each hit in a combo).
- E3M1
Our sports car thankfully carried over to the next episode. We drive to Chong's taking the quickest path possible, making tight drifts and generally being a reckless driver. (hitting prop items on the curbs don't slow you down)
- E3M2
An autoscroller. We sit back and stalk the car till we complete the mission. It is possible to complete this mission in 10~ seconds by simply blasting away the stalked car at the start, but we will have to do "street crimes" as recompense at the end of the episode, which would add minutes to the time.
- E3M3
We immediately cut through an alley fence, which breaks the AI chasing us. We complete the mission as soon as they are far enough away, moving to the next mission.
- E3M4
Another driving mission. We do not spend any time manipulating car spawns, as sports cars do not spawn in this section of the city, plus in the next driving mission, we will lose our car we had this mission. So, we just head directly to the mission complete point.
- E3M5
Another sneaking mission without anything of note besides the context of being in a weird Russian Mafia BDSM Health Spa. We head through as quickly as possible, knocking out the bad guys as early as possible (the sauna guys so early the doors they exited from glitch). To the next mission we go.
- E3M6
The shower fight pits us against 3 aging overweight Russian gangsters in bathtowels. We alternate between them, keeping our position in check so they can get put into the walls. We KO the last one in front of the toilet so we can immediately start the final fight against a guy who was presumably utilizing the latrine, then head to the next mission after dispatching him.
- E3M7
This mission is a straight-up horde wave fight. We kill the bad guys as they spawn in on auto-timers, picking up their guns as we go along for quicker kills. We position ourself with dual AKs at the end of the wave, perfectly in line to fire on the boss, killing him in a second,
- E4M1
Another driving mission. As soon as we spawn, we whip our car around and head onto the freeway, manipulating a sports car spawn for us. We bail out alongside the sports car so that the driver cannot pull away from us as we attempt to jack it, then speed down the freeway as quickly as we can to get to the mission complete marker.
- E4M2
Catfight! We beat up a bunch of strippers, all of whom have slightly varying levels of below average health. They spawn in one at a time unfortunately, so we cannot alternate between them for faster kills. After them comes the sleezy fat adult-entertainment producer (who sounds like a gremlin). We pummel the Ron Jeremy impersonator into the bar counter, completing the mission.
- E4M3
A short driving segment. We race our sports car to the mission complete point down the road to start the Lola mission chain.
- E4M4
A straightforward driving mission, we just need to take the below-average speed Conoline van to the mission completion marker. However, the timing on this mission is extremely tight, especially in RTA runs where it's difficult to maneuver at top speed around spawning traffic. Thankfully, since this is TAS we are able manage to make it there with plenty of seconds left for us on the clock.
- E4M5
A short mission, we just need to lose the police car tailing us. The simplest way to do this is to fill it with lead from our revolver. While in the car, we never need to reload, and can fire a shot on every other frame, letting us put the cops out of commission in mere seconds. We speed off and complete the mission. (Sadly we cannot stay to listen to Megadeth)
- E4M6
The most annoying fight in the game and an RTA run killer. Lola is faster than any other opponent, blocks more than any other opponent, does more damage than any other opponent and has a somersault flip attack that can put you in a permanent stunlock TOD loop. We also cannot knock her into any walls to deal extra damage after combos, as small invisible boundaries border every wall in the arena, pushing us away. However, we are able to manipulate her moveset somewhat, abusing the fact that her somersault windup leaves her open to a combo starter. We take her out as quickly as we can, then it's on to the next mission.
- E4M7
Another sniper mission, this one the same as before. We manipulate the sniper so he runs into our bullets already flying in the air, hitting him as soon as his animations finish.
- E5M1
The final stretch. We immediately turn ourselves around and head back on to the freeway, manipulating our last sports car spawn. We once again crash in front of a car, this time landing right on the hood and stealing it as soon as we stand so the driver cannot drive away. We speed down the freeway as fast as possible in our sports car to the mission completion point, finishing the last driving mission of the game.
- E5M2
Okay I lied, THIS is the last driving mission. But this is where "poor ending" comes into play. We can either chase down the bad guys as intended, completing the mission and going to E5M3, or, we can get killed/lose the bad guys and fail the mission, taking us to E5M4^. So, as we are going for the "poor ending", we take our car and speed away from our intended targets, b-lining down the airport runway, failing the mission as fast as we can.
- E5M4^
Once again, this mission has 2 branching paths for different endings. We are aiming to fail this mission as quickly as possible, this time by blowing ourselves up. On the PC version, there's actually a rocket launcher laying on the ground behind a car to your left that you can simply fire into a wall, but here, we need to get hit by enemies bullets or cause self damage by blowing up cars/fire. So, as soon as we spawn, we (+some enemy fire) shoot the police car directly in front of us, blowing it up while catching a few bullets from the enemies shooting at us. We then get up and run into the fire, killing us and bringing us to E5M5^^.
- E5M5^^
Now inside, we have a simple gauntlet of enemies to shoot our way through as we head down the halls and up staircases. We pick up guns as needed to get faster kills, setting up for killing off a wave of bad guys at the very end, all but the "Boss" having 2x health, and the "Boss" having 5x. However, our autoshotgun/AK combo proves too lethal and puts them away in seconds. We finish the mission and it's on to the final fight.
- E5M7
The final fight to end the game, we brawl against some general from the DPRK who wants to nuke Los Angeles in revenge for Pyongyang in 1952 or something. However, he puts up less of a fight than a 30s something Russian woman. We easily beat him up and complete the game, with our last input being to skip saving our file.
And that's it! True Crime: Streets of LA! I hope everyone enjoys the movie.
nymx: Claiming for judging.
nymx: I'm sorry. I probably should have figured Dolphin out before taking this on. I'm irritated that I can't get it running. I'm dropping this for someone else to take.
eien86: Claiming for judging.
eien86: I was able to reproduce the movie and can confirm it reaches the end of the game.
There are, however, serious concerns about this movie's optimality, discussed in previous posts. I have my own concerns too, especially with regards to the driving parts. I can mention a few timestamps: 2:29, 2:52, etc where the player drops from the car and takes a long time to raise.
Technique seems to grow better as the game progresses, but I recall watching another drop and raise towards the end of the movie. Driving itself is not very impressive either, with some sidewalk climbs, slight scratches with other cars, and post crashes, all of which makes me suspect some speed was lost. Fighting and running around seems ok enough not to raise any concerns.
So I quickly endeavored to see if I can quickly improve the movie at the first car steal point, and indeed I was:
It does not help that the movie itself is named 'TRUEDONEPOOR.dtm". This needs from a full re-do, trying to polish these rough edges.
Rejecting due to optimality