Crime Cities

Mark's Comments: The year could be any year when we have shattered Einstein's theories and managed to achieve faster-than-light travel. Now that distant solar systems are just a short drive, we've revived the penal colony concept, but with a twist. Instead of sending misfits to places like Australia or Miami Beach, we send them to a distant solar system. But now we've gotten wind of a possible attack on Earth being planned by crimelords on these penal colonies. You, the player, are an undercover agent sent to these flourishing crime cities to infiltrate and thwart the plans of these unrepentant crime lords. That's the setting that begins Crime Cities, a budget-priced game from Eon Digital Entertainment and Techland.

Crime Cities can best be summed up as a "space sim lite" that takes place on the surface of a planet instead of in space. Essentially, you fly around in an air car that looks like a 57' Thunderbird in one of several "crime cities" and dogfight with criminals while you dodge traffic and skyscrapers. It's got a real George Jetson meets Blade Runner feel about it.

I played about seven of the missions, several of them two or three times each, and probably spent about eight hours with the game. By no means did I get far into it, but I just lost interest in the game.

The Missionary Position

Missions are at the heart of the gameplay in Crime Cities. You never leave the cockpit during the game. You talk to other characters through an on-board computer in your ship. You also access available missions through this computer, and every now and then you are especially urged to take a mission that advances the storyline. It's a lot like Privateer in this regard. Some missions are merely cash generators, while others bump you further along in the story.

Mission types include attack and defend missions and taxi missions — go pick up someone and take them to another part of the city. You're always a beacon for enemy action as soon as you accept a mission, so be prepared to move quickly. The missions are different on the surface, but they all devolve into dogfights with a group of enemies. It doesn't really matter if you're supposed to attack an objective, defend a warehouse, or pick up a gangster and drop him off at a whorehouse. You end up fighting a group of generated opponents. All the missions seem the same as a result. It's disappointing.

Again, like Privateer, when you complete a mission you get paid. You can use your money or just let it sit in the bank. If you want to spend it, you can recharge your shields, upgrade your ship and weapons, etc.

Filing the flight plan

Crime Cities has virtually no flight model. The only real semblance of one is that the ship will coast indefinitely if you accelerate. While this hints at some Newtonian physics, it doesn't really extend beyond coasting. There isn't any true inertia; you can turn as fast as you can whip the mouse around. This gives the game a real first-person shooter feel, and indeed it was easy to play in this manner. I didn't try it with a joystick, though the game supports that as well.

The cities are teeming with action, and it makes for some interesting flying. The urban landscape has a very Blade Runner-esque feel about them. The cities are punctuated with tall skyscrapers and smaller refitting stations and other businesses. You'll see animated billboards, bars, whorehouses, apartment buildings, and more. There's even a floating billboard that travels around the city. You'll never see any citizens, but if you look closely at some apartment windows, you can see motionless silhouettes. The game's graphics are nice enough, about at Quake II levels. When you fire on a building it will leave a scorch mark, but that's about the only damage skinning you'll see.

What really brings the cities to life is the traffic. It's everywhere, cars flying at different levels, aeriel trucks swinging wide to make turns, police, taxis, and more. The traffic is so thick that you can't really avoid it, so you'll be dogfighting and trying not to hit civilians as you swoop over, under, and around traffic. Between the traffic and the clustered buildings, you'll have some interesting flying to do. And if you accidentally damage a police car, they'll hunt you down. It's pretty much mission over if you get on the bad side of the law.

 

March 23, 2001