Players take on the role of Marcus Reed, a street thug turned street cop for the PDNY (the real NYPD didn't take kindly to the game, hence the disclaimer that appears to quickly printed out and inserted on the inside flap of the case). The game starts out during Christmas 2000 in New York with a bloodied Marcus rolling up to someone's house inexplicably wearing a wife-beater in the midst of a blizzard. He proceeds to kill damn near everyone in the building before being stopped by Terry Higgins, his imprisoned father's best friend and a father figure for him. With Terry's persuasion (and the promise that he won't clean up after Marcus ever again), Marcus becomes a cop.