The game features a 25-square-mile (65 km2) recreation of the borough of Manhattan, with most street names, major landmarks and highways reproduced with GPS accuracy.

Originally intended as the first of a two-part series set in New York and featuring Marcus Reed, Activision scrapped the direct sequel and put plans for future True Crime games on hold.

True Crime is an open world action-adventure game played from a third-person perspective, in which the player controls Detective Marcus Reed of the PDNY.

[17] Money in the game can be earned legitimately by collecting wages, or illegitimately by selling evidence at pawn shops and/or extorting business owners.

Reed's application to join the Organized Crime Unit, led by Chief Victor Navarro (Esai Morales), is accepted, and he is partnered with Higgins.

Higgins had made contact with socialite and philanthropist Teresa Castillo (Socorro Santiago), who he believed may be able to help him get inside the cartel.

Reed then investigates the Presidents Club, an African-American street gang run by five men using pseudonyms of former U.S. Presidents—Lincoln (Phil Morris), Hamilton (Richard Yearwood), Jackson (unvoiced) and Grant (Greg Eagles), led by Benjamin (Cornell Womack), who takes ironic pride in the fact that his namesake was never President—who control the supply of "Pop", a combination of cocaine and ecstasy.

Whitting has only one way for Reed to make contact with Leeland; his step-sister Vivian (Jennifer Chu) recently ran away, and Shen has been unable to find her.

Reed survives and, based on the information Lin has given him, he raids a docked Chinese ship the Triads use for their human trafficking operation.

The game, under the provisional title True Crime 2, was unofficially scheduled for a third quarter release, and was expected to be unveiled at the upcoming E3 event.

[20] Doornink stated "In the third quarter, we plan to release our strongest and most diverse lineup ever--specifically, brand-new games for Tony Hawk, Call of Duty, X-Men, True Crime, Quake, and Shrek.

[23] On June 22, 2005, True Crime's official website revealed the game would take place in New York City, with an image of the Manhattan skyline appearing as the site's wallpaper.

We also talked about some of the more dubious behaviors that have taken place in police work -- cops going bad and taking bribes, extorting, going rotten -- these types of events are also in the game.

[10] They also explained the precinct component of the game; if the player ignores random crimes in particular areas, shops will begin to close down, the city streets will become dirtier and buildings will be boarded up.

[16] The following week, the main voice cast was announced, including Laurence Fishburne, Mickey Rourke, Christopher Walken, Mariska Hargitay, Esai Morales, and Traci Lords.

The soundtrack's headliner was Redman, who was recording an original song for the game, and would also be an unlocakble character with his own minigame, much as Snoop Dogg had in Streets of LA.

His bold lyrics and hard-edged funk beats capture the vibes of the city, from Washington Heights to Harlem and all the way down to Battery Park."

Activision also announced that although the game had only one original song, it would feature over eighty licensed tracks from artists such as Jay Z, Fat Joe, A Tribe Called Quest, The Ramones, The Velvet Underground, My Chemical Romance, The Bravery, and Bob Dylan.

[31][32] On September 26, 2005, NYPD Commissioner Raymond Kelly and Patrolmen's Benevolent Association President Patrick Lynch called for a boycott of the game, citing its depiction of law-breaking police officers as damaging and offensive.

Clarke responded by commenting that police unions "should stop worrying about video games and spend more time getting cops more than a $25,000 starting salary.

He concluded "it's a solid title through and through, but you won't find a whole lot of water cooler moments in there [...] If you're tired of the whole GTA thing and want more substance, this may not be the game for you.

"[45] Eurogamer's Jim Rossignol scored the PlayStation 2 version 6 out of 10, writing "True Crime trips over its own inflated Nikes with just a few too many moments of lamentable emptiness."

He also compared the game unfavorably to Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas; "while artistically more accomplished, New York City lacks the personality of the big daddy.

"[38] GameSpy's Sterling McGarvey scored the PlayStation 2 version 2.5 out of 5, writing Luxoflux have "turned a slightly above-par GTA clone into a sub-par franchise."

[54] At the 2005 Spike Video Game Awards, True Crime was nominated for four awards; "Cyber Vixen of the Year" (Traci Lords as Cassandra Hartz), "Best Supporting Male Performance" (Christopher Walken as Gabrial Whitting), and two "Best Supporting Female" nominations (Traci Lords as Cassandra Hartz and Mariska Hargitay as Deena Dixon).

[59] A year into development, Activision proposed that Black Lotus be incorporated into the True Crime franchise, due to the similarities in their designs and plots; all three games were set in open worlds with narratives centered on an undercover cop in a criminal organization.

"[61] In February 2011, however, Activision cancelled True Crime: Hong Kong, claiming that due to "quality issues," further investment would not make the game competitive in the open world genre.

[62] United Front executive producer Stephen Van Der Mescht expressed disappointment with Activision's decision, stating the game was "playable from start to finish and virtually complete in terms of content.

"[63] In June, Activision CEO Eric Hirshberg explained that an escalating budget and development delays were the main contributing factors in the game's cancellation.

Hirshberg stated that the increase in budget and subsequent delays meant the game would have to be "a pretty incredible success in order to be worth the investment that it was taking to get it done."