Crackdown

The Good
When I recently got an Xbox 360, I went browsing for deals. Crackdown was a game I wouldn't have got unless it was quite cheap. All I knew about it was that it was compared to Grand Theft Auto and was initially a big deal because it let players into a Halo 3 beta. However, the chance to try out a B-tier open world game on a high-def console for $10 seemed fair enough, so I went for it. I'm so glad I did. While the freedom is GTA-esque, in many ways Crackdown is like Grand Theft Auto in reverse.

Let me apologize if I go too heavy on GTA comparisons, but as it's by far the most popular game of this type and the one I've spent most time with, it seems the obvious way to frame things.

In Crackdown you don't follow a set mission structure. In fact, you could try to complete the game's main objectives almost immediately. However, you will probably fail. Your ultimate goal is to take out the leaders of Pacific City's three main gangs, but at the beginning they'll be heavily guarded. By taking out the lesser gang generals and kingpins (in any order you please), the gang will become less powerful and the final gang leader less well protected. This actually reminds me of the way battles work in the Dynasty Warriors series, but in this case it's on a much larger scale.

In GTA you can improve certain stats, but it's a fairly gradual thing. Crackdown kicks it up a very enjoyable notch. At the beginning the Agent you control will run and jump much like any game character, but as his agility increases through several levels he'll be able to run the speed of slow cars and jump dozens of feet. He'll go from being able to throw a trash can to being able to throw a truck. Other stats that improve are gunmanship, explosives, and driving. Eventually you get to feeling like quite the superhero. When I think Crackdown, I think racing along the city bounding from rooftop to rooftop and having a blast doing so.

GTA's on-foot and shooting controls have always been a bit clunky. Luckily since Crackdown is more action-packed and with a more agile and able character, the controls keep up. I'm more of an RPG guy, but after a while I was having no problem leaping around, targeting and taking out gang members in mid-jump, or smacking them around physically if they approached while I was reloading. Speaking of things that help me as more of an RPG guy, the game has multiple difficulty levels, though they still try to make one feel manly by naming the easiest "Tough". So whereas in many action game I'll just reach a point where I'm stuck forever, I was able to get through Tough without it seeming either taxing or patronizing.

In GTA you gain new weapons for your hideouts by finding hidden packages throughout the city. In Crackdown it's much more natural. You find a new weapon, you carry it back to one of your supply points, and now it will be available from any supply point. However, that doesn't necessarily make it easy--if you want a certain fancy rare rocket launcher, you'll first have to find someone who has it, take them out, drop one of the two weapons you can hold at a time in exchange for it, and then make it back to a supply point without being killed. There are still hundreds of objects hidden throughout the city to gather, but they have to do with increasing player stats.

As Crackdown is the first X360 or PS3 game I've spent many hours with, I'm not in the best position to compare the game to its peers in a technical sense. However, I can say this is the type of upgrade I prefer to see from a new generation. It's not uncommon for developers to get a more powerful system, but just go so wild that the frame rate still has problems. Not Crackdown. The frame rate is always great. The draw distance is near infinite. Unlike last-gen GTA games, you won't just have a few types of cars on screen at once, which disappear when you get a few dozen feet away--things stay in place pretty much until you've forgotten they were there. It's rare to find a texture that gets blurry. And as a matter of preference, I really like the outlined look objects have, rather than trying for photo-realism.

It's worth noting that the game has online multiplayer and for-pay downloadable content that promise more fun, but neither of which I tried.

The Bad
I've put above many of the ways being a reverse GTA can be good, but it sometimes can mean things that worked in GTA don't here.

One is driving. It feels largely superfluous. There are street races, but the driving controls themselves don't seem fun enough to bother with them. Perhaps they'd feel better if I leveled my driving stat higher. Going fast usually means some unintentional citizen casualties, which is sort of frowned upon in this game since we're supposed to be playing the side of law and order. The music also didn't strike me as worth listening to, and there's no attempt at things like fake commercials or radio station identities to keep you interested. Luckily, since the running and jumping is so great in this game, there's almost never a need to get in a car to go where you're going. It might just be more fun to carry it there.

Another is mission variety. In a game like GTA, you have actual varying mission types. Maybe you need to get in a car and knock someone else's vehicle off the road. Maybe a gun shootout. Maybe tail someone. Maybe drive a boat to various destinations. Not always handled well, but certainly mixes things up. In Crackdown almost everything boils down to infiltrating an area full of little gang goons until you reach the big gang goon and take them out. Doing so is plenty of fun, but it gets to being largely the same thing in a new location. The freedom you have can in some ways make it seem like the game designers wasted their time, as well. One gang general in particular looked to have a heavily guarded entrance, so I swam around to the back and the general was almost completely unprotected.

If there's one thing I really appreciate in GTA that's not here, it's just... messing around, maybe getting chased. In Crackdown, you can't really just pick on a civilian; you either do nothing or strike them, which in the latter case means killing them since you're such a superman. The law officials don't look kindly on that, but neither will they chase you around. I know it's not fair to expect this of every open world game, but as someone who gets a big kick out of doing that when it's there, it's worth mentioning to you readers that it's not. So when you've cleared out the gangs and everything is peaceful... well, it can be a little TOO peaceful. Though you can always use the menu to reset the gang members to try for them again.

The Bottom Line
This game was a real blast to play, and at the prices it goes for now if you've cared enough to check out my review of it this far you'd probably enjoy trying it out.

It's worth noting that I think the star rating attached to this review is I think a little low. Most of the categories I gave lower scores to are things that I didn't think were very important in the game, and so didn't detract from things to just be there rather than special. My pick for "Personal Slant" was the full 5.

The Good
In Crackdown you are a genetically engineered cop with the task of breaking down three criminal gangs controlling Pacific City. Genetic engineering has given you superhuman abilities: the ability to jump incredible lengths and land safely, inhuman running speed, incredible strength that allows you to pick up cars and throw them at your enemies and so on. You will also improve your five core skills (agility, driving, shooting, strength, explosives) by using these skills or by other means, such as collecting orbs. There are 500 agility orbs (which, as the name implies, increase your agility) and 300 hidden orbs which give a small boost to each skill. But there are many other ways of improving these skills, as well, most important being killing gang members and by finishing certain tasks and achievements. These skills have a profound effect on game play. Agility, for instance, increases your jump height which allows you to reach even higher locations.

The logical way of getting rid of these gangs is to start by killing the lower level bosses first because this weakens the bigger bosses. By killing the guy responsible for the gang's weapons, for instance, means that their bodyguards are less heavily armed. Killing the guy doing the recruiting decreases the numbers and so on. But there's nothing stopping you from starting from the top if you want, it's just a lot harder. Once all the bosses are dead you still need to destroy a stronghold and after that the gang is no more and the streets of that part of the city are safe again. Repeat this three times and you have finished the game!

You can also pretty much choose your preferred method of entry: you can crash through the front, sneak in from the back or maybe jump across rooftops. In any case you will meet quite a few enemies, this guy is no 47 (from the Hitman series). Machine guns, rocket launchers and grenades along with fists and feet are the chosen tools of his profession. Most guns have to be confiscated from the gangs first and brought to a supply point before they are available. And these supply points also have to be freed first before they can be used. Or you can also do hand-to-hand combat either with your hands and feet or with items found lying around. After a while these can, as previously stated, include even cars and other heavy stuff.

In between razing the gangs the player can also collect those orbs, do rooftop or car races, try car acrobatics or stunt jumps, hijack gang vehicles and so on. Most orbs are in pretty easy places, but some of the races can be quite tricky to finish in time to get the achievement.

What really sets Crackdown apart from other FPS's is that this game is truly 3D - you will be scaling the height of Pacific City unlike you have ever done. The height difference is dizzying and you can really feel when jumping from one building to another in your stomach. This is the best simulation of parkour I have ever seen, nothing even gets close. And it's surprisingly interesting. You find yourself jumping across rooftops just because it's fun. Imagine being at the top of a 200 feet building and jumping across the street to another, 100 feet high building, only just making the distance. And this is not just a gimmick, you can use this ability to help you defeat the gangs, too. There are lots of places which the enemy can't reach, these are perfect to heal yourself or just simply ambush the enemy. Just beware of those pesky grenades. There is just something in the fact that you are not tied to certain approaches, just come up with your own! After this game any game where you have to go from point A to point B to point C looks unimaginative. And the controls really help moving around, the agent automatically grabs ledges and the controls are responsive. It's easy to jump, turn and fire a few rockets mid air and land on small platform.

Co-op is also supposed to be great fun, although I haven't tried it yet.

The Bad
Controls are almost perfect, but only almost. Sometimes you are left wondering why you couldn't grab a ledge, and there is no simple way of looking up, which would be very useful in this game. The camera also can get funny in small spaces, sometimes the camera is behind the wall, sometimes so close to the character you can't see him, which makes aiming your jumps a bit hard. Cars are also a bit tricky to drive, at least at lower skill levels (I have only reached a one-star rating at this). Most cars seem to slide all over the place and brakes feel weak. In the end I seem to mow down half the civilian population if I try a race.

What really started bugging me in the end, however, was the ridiculous amount of enemies, especially in the last territory. There are so many of them you just get numb after a while. Dozens and dozens of them attacking you. Running through the streets you are shot all the time, no point in shooting back because you'd never get to where you were going. And trying to jump across the rooftops is even worse because you WILL get hit by rockets. By the time I had three or four bosses left, I was getting bored and had to grind the last ones. This task was not made any more interesting by the fact the last boss was at the top of a very tall skyscraper and the entire way up was defended by gunmen who re-spawned if you died or left the building. I made it to the very top three times just to die and then on the fourth time I killed the last kingpin almost by mistake. This was the time I was happy the game isn't as long as the GTA series, as finishing Crackdown took maybe 20 hours in total, although I hadn't maxed out all my skills.

I also have a small gripe about the music track. You can only listen to it when driving but that's just as well because frankly it's quite bad, at least to my taste.

The Bottom Line
Crackdown is close to being a classic. Little more game play (interesting side quests, rather than just races), slightly better controls and this would be a truly great game. Now it's only a very good one. If you have a friend, then this game will give plenty to play - you can first finish this solo and then co-op and even compete the races and time trials. Even collecting the agility orbs is great fun, even though I usually don't like to do stuff like that (collecting stars in GTA:Vice City was a total bore).

Think GTA with an added dimension but with less side quests and being on the right side of law. There is a sequel coming and even though I got bored at the end I'm going to buy it.

The Good
I'm surprised to say I'm quite taken with Crackdown, a game which sounded in premise like a lot of other games I dislike. After talking with a friend of mine who, like me never saw what the fascination was with Grand Theft Auto III, I downloaded the demo and was nearly instantly hooked. I will do my best to put my finger on precisely what it is that wins me over in Crackdown that GTA never managed.

Firstly, the obvious one - the graphics are really stellar. Use of color is varied and vibrant (especially for a game of this type), animations are excellent, textures are possibly over-slick and slightly unrealistic, but it's still a great looking game. Secondly, the powering up of your character really helps to keep the game interesting to me. Acquiring orbs and the ability to run faster, jump to insane heights and the like sort of includes a super-hero element that GTA never had. Thirdly, while both games are "open" and allow you to do whatever you want whenever you want, Crackdown just feels more purpose-driven and less pointlessly exploratory somehow. Admittedly, all of the missions that are piped in really boil down to "Now kill this guy" or "Now kill this gal", and they're not very interesting in and of themselves, but it does keep the game moving at a good pace somehow.

And one final thing that's hard to truly pin down - I really liked how believable the world is in Crackdown in little ways, and how dynamic the events are. As a car of gangsters pulls up, I start shooting at it. The car stops, and two or three baddies get out and we have at it with some gunplay. Possibly, a car or two of police officers shows up to help out. Possibly, a car or two of gangsters arrive to heighten the battle. Often, it becomes a scene of real carnage and destruction, all at random. You often come across scenes of battle between gang members and police, and can pass it by or stop and join in. Throw a grenade into the fray for fun, or run right in and start using some melee attacks, or drive on by if you choose. It's all very intriguing, very free and yet not aimless or pointless.

The Bad
I did think that nearly all of the music in Crackdown stunk. I realize that the music may possibly be appropriate for the area you're in, but I just personally can't stand 99% of the tracks they've selected. They're all in the metal / rap fusion category which I often like, but just not in these cases. I wish the game gave you more choices for music style, but it's easy to get over as I spent a lot of the game on foot when there's not much music anyways.

The Bottom Line
In all, I'm surprised by how much I like Crackdown. It doesn't seem on any level to be my kind of game, and yet I find myself playing it a lot. It's easy and fun to hop into, shoot some baddies for a while, climb some buildings and leap from rooftop to rooftop, clear out an area of town from crime, get in a fancy car and smash it up, level up the character and take out more baddies.

The Good
The free form game, or "sandbox" game, is an interesting idea for a game, the ability to explore an open area and experiment with your surroundings but is not always implemented as well as a gamer such as myself would like such is the case with the GTA franchise, which I never understood the mass appeal for I played it and even though there was some fun to be had I felt that something was missing some sense of what I was doing, more room to experiment with the game’s “civilization”. Having the ability to do things inside the world to make it feel more real like climb the tallest building and jump off and land in the water, or do what I call “pulling a Navy Seals” in which you ride the back of a truck, or hide the hood of a car and jump off and land in a nearby water mass all these things can be accomplished in Crackdown!

Crackdown, is a free form action adventure title made by Real Worlds, a new development company with Dave Jones. The creator of GTA and Lemmings. Has branched out and made a game like GTA but, much better the game's plot is very loose and simple. You play as a modified agent with superhuman powers for an organization simply called The Agency. And you are tasked with stopping 3 massive criminal organizations who are running amok in Pacific City. Los Muertos, The Volk, and Shei-Gen each gang has low ranking Generals that answer to the kingpin which sort of reminds me of 2005's "Mercenaries", you can try to take down the kingpin right away or get the underlings, crippling the gang and making the final confrontation much easier. And that you can take down the gangs in any order, but you will find it simpler to go in order. Furthermore, you can upgrade your characters abilities which consist of agility, explosive skill, driving, strength, and shooting you can collect agility orbs scattered throughout the city. And you can do checkpoint races, race in your car, run criminals over make sure they are criminals because you lose points for hitting civilians. Shooting bad guys, or melee hitting them you can get so strong you can lift 2 tons!

The missions are very loose all you do is find the crime boss, and go though the area and kill him. Then move on to the next one and unlike in a game like, "Mercenaries" in which there is very little to do aside from missions. In this game playing with the environment can be more fun than the missions sometimes!

I enjoyed the music of this game although it is very little the only music is when you drive around in your car the music is mostly electronica, dance, and hip hop some of the music is international like Hispanic rap.

The graphic style is interesting the character models look like something out of a comic book and the backgrounds like the buildings are traditional polygon graphics and it makes the game look interesting.

The controls and the superpowers are implemented well.

There are also nice additions such as, when driving in your car you switch to the next and previous song, turn the music volume up which is something I wish they had implemented into "True Crime: New York City", which suffered from low song volume.

And there are special cars in the agency garage that can transform as your car skills improve one of the changes looks like the Bat mobile!

The Bad
The problems with this game are basically the fact that certain missions are way harder than other ones. Like how the final kingpin is easier than the earlier gang leaders.

And also the ending has a very ridiculous plot twist which I will admit was not what I was expecting, but still not good.

The A.I. is horrible, the inhabitants never act realistically. It can often even be funny watching how dumb they are.

The Bottom Line
Overall this game is a very rewarding and fun experience that, any Xbox 360 owner should at least take a look at specially if they like the free form game genre.

The Good
Pretty much everything! graphics were pretty cool, gameplay was awesome, I played this game for three weeks straight before I started gettin bored, then.....they added more to it from XBOX Live. running around rooftops with a sniper rifle was my personal favorite.

The Bad
one thing that got old fast was the green orbs, there are way too many to find to gettem all, it was sorta annoying like the pokemon saying, "gotta catchem all" cause the a lotta of them and the mystery orbs too!

The Bottom Line
Crackdown, Smackdown, Beatdown, any of these names would have worked for this game. You get to show lil thug wanna-bes what happens when they cross the line, then when you get bored of that, do the same to civilians, then (lol) when you get bored of that show the cops whos boss.

The Good
Initially, it looks like there's a lot to like about Crackdown: the impressive graphics with no loading times or glitches, the sheer size of the environment which can be enjoyed even from far above the streets, the joy of being able to jump on rooftops to collect stuff that makes you jump even higher or throw cars around... could be a lot of fun, and it is fun in the beginning. The premise that you can play along a friend in the same city, but not necessarily together, sounds even more exciting.

The game's sound (not music, that's a different story) is nice and crisp with a very charismatic sounding announcer. Loud explosions as well, which are always a plus.

Oh, and there's an invitation to the Halo3 beta in the box. Wait, I don't care for Halo3. Scratch that.

The Bad
From a game by a legend like Dave Jones, one would expect a bit more than Crackdown delivers. Yes, the visuals are pretty, but the basic premise falls flat quickly after novelty wears off. Agreed, it's fun to jump around in a huge city, upgrading your character to jump even higher, but that's about it already. The rest of the action consists of rather unimaginative shooting action without much of a goal. Side missions like you'd expect in a game like this are rare and don't feel rewarding at all.

While the city is huge, it's also devoid of much interactivity. A lot of people and cars move around, but that's it. No shops, next to no missions, no dialogues, nothing.

The game's music is rarely heard anyway, so why bother with licensing it? And even with the licensed music, it fails to impress, since the music's style is very diverse and often doesn't fit the game at all. The announcer also repeats himself a lot and doesn't always talk about stuff you'd expect from the given situation.

The game feels like they developed a "jump-around-a-city- simulator" first and then decided to add some "content" since there wasn't much else to do. Sadly, there isn't much else to do now either. It's a tech demo, nothing more.

The Bottom Line
There are three options:

a) if you are a Halo fan, you'll want Crackdown for the beta invitation
b) in case you like fancy graphics and rather shallow gameplay, you'll want Crackdown for it's fancy graphics and rather shallow gameplay
c) in any other case, Crackdown will likely collect dust on the shelf

In my case, c) was the letter of choice and now Crackdown collects dust on a shelf, which is too bad considering I dislike Halo3 as well.