Similar to Dick Tracy sidescroller and top down mash
Crime Does Not Pay is a sidescroller, but, in order to get to your missions, you will also traverse, by car, a top down city. This portion, while made a little harder by the need to shoot at baddies stacked on top of buildings or, by the vehicles that see no problem in tacking you, is however, very unsatisfying. At times, just as in Dick Tracey, you get enemies that simply cannot be shot, due to their positions, but they can see you and shoot you, without issues. On top of this, the sidescroller missions are at the best bland, when not simply a nuisance. You have to recover objects, to pursue your investigation, but, all the sidescroller level all look the same, have platforming elements that are hard to see due to texture blends, and also, due to the fact that, while in a level some element might be used to climb on, in the very next one, that property is no longer there. Therefore, Crime Does Not Pay is only for the most passionate about sidescrollers, that can put up with abysmal quality control and design. For the rest of us, King of Chicago is a way better choice, or, why not, a Grand Theft Auto game of the same era.
