Crackdown – 360 – Review

Well, here we are – a next
generation Grand Theft Auto-style game that was actually developed by the
creator of GTA, David Jones. The legacy of GTA blew up when GTA III was released
for PS2 by offering gamers an almost limitless number of gameplay possibilities.
Crackdown for the Xbox 360 keeps the near limitless gameplay possibilities but
ditches the whole gangster/mafia theme of GTA. Instead of being the bad guy,
Crackdown has you snuffing out the three gangs of Pacific City. You’re not the
bad guy anymore but you won’t miss it because your Enforcer should have more
than enough machismo to keep you entertained.

The three gangs, the Los Muertos,
the Volks and the Shai Gens, have taken over the three islands of Pacific City.
You play the role of an Enforcer for The Agency; a government group trying to
eliminate the gangs from Pacific City. But you’re not just a regular guy pitted
up against the hopeless odds of cleaning up Pacific City. Instead you are a
super-enhanced soldier that actually has the helps of the cops. I would describe
this as GTA with a superhero as the main character.

The core premise of the game
revolves around you taking out the multiple bosses of the various gangs. Each
gang is broken up into several different levels with each level being assigned
to a particular boss of the gang. The game loads a breakdown/itinerary of each
boss scattered throughout the various areas in Pacific City. These itineraries
include the name of the boss, what the boss is in charge of for the gang and a
tactical readout of that boss’ hideout. The tactical readout offers several
different tactics for getting inside of the hideout. When you get near a hideout
the game even provides a percentage of how successful you will be in taking out
the boss and his minions.

Just like GTA, how you tackle these
missions is entirely up to you. If you want to go gung ho and run into the heart
of the hideout then you can. Or you can try to find a secluded entrance to the
complex and take out the bad guys with a sniper rifle. Usually the stealth
approach will only work for a little while before someone discovers you and bad
guys are chasing after you in packs.

The gang’s members never seem to
miss and can always hit you from hundreds of feet away. I didn’t like that in
GTA and I still don’t like it in Crackdown. The boss compounds are littered with
hundreds of gang members so taking out a boss can sometimes be a chore. Besides
their uncanny sharp shooting skills the AI of the gang members and bosses is
limited. They will usually chase after you with guns firing and would rarely
seek cover. Even the bosses would rather stand still and let you unload into
them instead of running away or seeking shelter.

You might be reading to this point
wondering “Well this game doesn’t seem that impressive” but I’ve only touched on
one part of the game. Don’t get me wrong the boss encounters are the “main” part
of the game but there is so much more to do in Crackdown. The game doesn’t limit
you to fighting the bosses in any particular order. If you want to try and take
out the leader of the entire gang first, you can. If want to skip Los Muertos
and try the Volks first, you can. The somewhat restrictive nature seen in some
of the GTA missions don’t apply to most of Crackdown. You don’t have to escort
someone from point A to point B, only to repeat the mission if the escort
character dies. Your mission to take out a gang boss is over only if you die.
The only real mission of the game is to take out a gang boss, what you do in the
rest of the game is almost entirely up to you.

Now before I move on I should
comment that this isn’t a game with limitless freedom to do whatever you want.
That would be almost impossible for a single game to offer since programmers can
never anticipate the limitless possibilities that gamers can come up game.
Crackdown provides you freedom in how you fight the gangs, how you develop your
agent and how you explore Pacific City. But this “freedom” is where Crackdown
really shines.

Your agent starts off with limited
abilities that you get to develop during the game. You have driving, explosive,
athletic, fighting and shooting abilities for your agent to develop. Actually
spending time developing these skills is a vital part of the game that no one
should overlook. You will find athletic medals scattered all over Pacific City.
Once you have collected enough medals your agility skills will increase letting
your agent jump higher and farther. Big deal, right? Actually it has a huge
impact on the game. Your agent starts off as just another character but if you
spend time developing these skills the agent will soon transform into a freaking
super agent. I’m talking jumping from rooftop to rooftop, picking up cars,
driving up a building – actions that are incredibly gratifying.

So how do these abilities connect
with the “freedom” of Crackdown? Well it’s your choice which ability you want to
develop and how much time you spend developing the ability. When I first started
playing the game I tried to grab as many green agility/athletic medals as I
could find. Once I went up a level I soon discovered I had more fun jumping from
building to building looking for more agility medals than going after the gang
members. To me I felt like I was creating a superhero, like the Incredible Hulk,
who was being let loose inside of GTA. That’s when I started to pay attention to
the abilities and what else was around in Pacific City.

I started noticing object scattered
all over Pacific City that could be picked up, such as benches, trash can and
other small objects. But then I started noticing larger objects, such as cars,
indicated to me they could be picked up as well. However, I had to spend more
time building up my strength in order to pick up the larger objects. Soon I was
hurling large items at gang members during the heat of battle. After a while I
started to notice that my explosive ability was still at a zero. So I made it a
point to hurl as many grenades as possible, and use a grenade launcher as my
main weapon. What started off as small explosions soon blossomed into large,
spectacular shows of carnage.

The freedom to develop your
character is nothing new to gaming but seeing these improvements in a GTA style
of game turned out to be a blast. I couldn’t stop trying to jump from the
highest part of the game, trigger a huge chain reaction explosion, or explore
every small corner of Pacific City. I would car jack someone (yes you can still
do that in Crackdown) and drive to all three islands just checking out the
detail of the buildings in the city. From huge skyscrapers, small stores to
hundreds of pedestrians moving about Pacific City felt like a city with endless
possibilities for me to discover. Nothing seemed to be off limits since there
was always a way to reach everything you could see in the game.

The game even did a great job of
keeping the items you move in the game where you leave them. If you want to
trigger an explosion at a gate but the explosive barrels were several streets
over, you could move them without fear of the game “forgetting” about them. This
is huge feature that I’m sure is happening due to the game being on a
next-generation console. Now one feature that you won’t be able to do, at least
without penalty, is to take out civilians. The cops will only chase after you if
any civilians are hurt by your brand of peace keeping. The in-game narrator will
even warn several times that civilians are not to be harmed. If any are harmed
then you will start to lose ability points. So if you’re careless you can lose
those precious abilities as fast as you earned them.

There are a couple issues that
should be addressed so let’s go over them. The first is the camera angle. The
camera angle is usually in a third-person view (but controllable with the second
analog stick) but will switch to a first-person view when you’re close to walls.
This can create some viewing problems when trying to perform certain jumps or if
you go inside certain structures in the game. Second camera angle problem is the
game doesn’t include a reset button to press to correct the camera angle.
Another issue is the length of the game. If you run through all of the bosses
quickly what else is there to do in the game? Downloadable content is planned
but just how soon will it make it out to the Xbox Live Marketplace?

If you’ve been burned out on the
whole GTA experience, like I was, then you really should take an opportunity to
play this game. Crackdown really takes the sandbox gameplay experience and turns
it up to 11. The game shines in letting you take your agent from meager rookie
to rooftop jumping superhero in a painless and easy manner. You’re not pressured
into building up your character just because you can’t access certain parts of
the game. If you’re skilled enough you can usually find an easier way to take
out a gang boss without having a jacked up super agent. Crackdown isn’t a gaming
revolution but it’s a game I’m sure most of you will get countless hours of
enjoyment. For me I get great satisfaction from jumping from the top of a
building down to a street and leaving cracked pavement behind me.

Gameplay: 8.5
The controls during most of the game are tight and responsive, from gun combat
to driving, jumping and picking up items. There were a few quirks where the game
would try to engage hand-to-hand combat if I was too close to a railing when
firing a gun.

Graphics: 8.7
The graphics have a similar look to GTA but with a cartoon-style cell outline to
the characters. The game has hundreds of buildings spread out across the three
islands of Pacific City. To really appreciate the gorgeousness of the graphics
you need to see a view from atop one of skyscrapers. You get to see all of
Pacific City and it’s hard not to be impressed. Besides the camera angle
problems I mentioned earlier the game would never hiccup or stutter during
gameplay.

Sound: 8.3
There are a variety of licensed songs that can be listened to while driving,
with the songs based upon which island in Pacific City you are on. Honestly I
have never heard of most of the bands or artists included but they all hit the
theme of each local gang. The in-game narration had some great lines with some
tremendous voice acting.

Concept: 8.4
Sure it’s a GTA style game but what would you expect from the creator of GTA?
Increasing your abilities is a nice feature that makes the game a blast to play
as the abilities increase. Just think of Crackdown as GTA with superheroes and
the concept should become clear.

Multiplayer: 8.7
Another great feature of the game is the multiplayer Co-Op mode. At anytime in
the game someone can join your game through Xbox Live to help you with your
peace keeping efforts in Pacific City. Or send an invite to anyone on your
friends list or host your own Co-Op game.

Difficulty: Medium/Hard
The game supports three levels for those that need to ramp up the difficulty.

Overall: 8.5
Crackdown is a great game that offers a fun and engaging GTA style experience.
It wasn’t for a couple of camera angle problems the game would have been a true
standout when compared to GTA. Increasing the abilities of your agent is a
worthwhile experience that still shouldn’t be missed. I can’t imagine anyone not
having a least some fun with this game. Running around a huge city, jumping from
rooftop to rooftop and causing some huge explosions all while hunting down the
bad guys is always fun!