Before Sleeping Dogs, there was True Crime, a series of open-world games again sorta modelled on the success of GTA, only this time with players on the right side of the law. Kind of. Maybe a better comparison would be that it's like The Departed: The Video Game, as you take control of police detectives undercover as criminals. Which meant you had to go about your investigations (read: bombing around accurate recreations of real cities and smashing stuff up) in such a way as to not draw suspicion by the perps you were associating with, whilst also not acting in a way unbecoming of an officer of the law. They were pretty fun, too, if a bit shonky at times, mechanics and graphics-wise. The first of the series saw you in the role of Nick Kang, recently suspended from the force due to repeated incidents of excessive brutality, property damage, and refusing to follow orders. He was a loose canon in the classic mould, a cliché come to life; it was fun to play as him, but the story wasn't up to much. Way more fun was when you collected 30 Dogg Bones hidden across the game's map or else entered a cheat code that swapped out Nick for Snoop Dogg, who had his own mini-games and voiced himself in his own inimitable idiolect (lots of "izzles"). Why Snoop Dogg? Why Snoop Dogg as an officer of the law? Why swap a serious, gritty and violent detective for a rapper that run around in a purple tracksuit? Nobody knows.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
