Midway's Fear and Respect redefines innovation

Whoever said originality was dead? Certainly not Midway, because it has announced today that it’s developing and publishing a brand new ‘innovative action/adventure game’. Breaking the established moulds cast by insipid and uninspired game concepts, the long established US publisher is really putting its neck on the line. Midway’s Truth and Respect will give players the opportunity to be a gangster in South Central Los Angeles.

If that’s not innovation enough, then check this, yo, “Truth and Respect is a cutting-edge third person action game”. Yes, you heard, it’s going to be a third person crime adventure set in Los Angeles. But no, it doesn’t stop there. The player will have to choose the path of good or evil, affecting how the respect meter reacts to certain actions. It might sound a little bit like Activision’s True Crime: Streets of L.A., but it’s not, it’s innovative.

Although other innovative titles like the gargantuan and all-defeating Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, 25 To Life and Midway’s own NARC are all in the pipeline, we are assured that’s its arrival on PS2 and Xbox at the latter end of next year will be worth the wait. To its credit, Midway has enlisted the talents of director John Singleton (of Boyz N The Hood fame), which should lend it a certain stylistic authenticity. Whether or not that will be enough to raise this game above the crowds is another matter entirely.