United Front Games' revival of what was once a corpse of a game (the third in the True Crime series, left out in the wilderness for the vultures to pick at) turned into one of the best open-world titles in recent memory, thanks to a whole bunch of reasons that rarely get discussed. Mainly it was the interlocking gameplay systems of brutal Batman-style combat, some arcady driving that bolted you to the road but allowed you to know exactly how to handle a high-speed car chase - and shooting that mixed Gears of War's cover system with Max Payne's slow-motion bullet time. The smaller components that made up SD's world were far more immediately enjoyable than those of GTA's, and when the city itself is peppered with a huge variety of missions, the story tells a very tense tale of an undercover cop torn between multiple alliances and the overall feel of everything is a breath of southern, Hong Kong air - it's exactly what's needed.
