Crackdown Review

On the surface, Crackdown may seem like another fish in a sea of clones of the quintessential open world, sandbox series, Grand Theft Auto. The core gameplay is similar to that of Grand Theft Auto in that there are cars to hijack, a decent selection of weapon a large open environment….and the similarities end there. Crackdown’s differences are what set it apart from the crowd. For instance, instead of assuming the role of a criminal, you play the role of a genetically enhanced super cop, whose sole job is to make sure those on the wrong side of the law are brought to justice. But you won’t be making arrests or pulling people over for speeding. In this city, breaking the law is only punishable by death. Now that’s what I call “justice”.

From the very beginning of the game, you are given the freedom to go anywhere and do anything you want. Unlike the GTA series, which usually limits you to a certain district of the otherwise open world in the beginning, here, there are no restrictions. This concept of truly being able to go anywhere and do anything from the outset is certainly refreshing and a welcome addition. As it stands, this is probably the most open sandbox game out there and having this essentially limitless freedom is a very good thing.

One of the more interesting aspects is your ever evolving super agent. You begin the game with abilities that surpass those of a normal human being due to your genetic enhancements. Your five core skills are at their lowest point, and you’ll want to upgrade them, quickly. You can jump about ten feet in the air vertically and while this may seem impressive, compared to what’s in store, it isn’t. Your skills are developed by utilizing them. Kick enough criminals to death and eventually, you’ll level up and be able to throw heavy objects, such as cars. Blow criminals sky high with rocket launchers and grenades enough and your explosive skills will increase, causing your explosive ordinance to increase in power and blast radius to increase, and so on for each of your five core skills.

Perhaps the most important skill to develop is your agility skill. Only then will you really appreciate the care and detail that went into designing the city. The verticality of the city can only be experienced with a high agility level, so you’ll want to take time to seek out the 500 agility orbs scattered throughout the city to level up your agility skills.

Once you level up your agility skill, you’ll find that hopping from building to building is a quick and enjoyable way to crisscross the city, which is good, seeing as the vehicle handling is a bit iffy, even when you level up your driving skills to the maximum. Before then, you feel a bit disconnected from the car, and overall vehicle handling is slippery. Developing the skill does have its plusses aside from increased vehicle handling as well. You gain the ability to control some cars movements in the air, to perhaps level off after a hard jump and Agency vehicles transform and increase in performance relative to your driving skill level culminating to the maximum skill level, in which agency vehicles gain vehicle specific abilities, such as mounted machineguns on the Agency Supercar and a jump mechanism on the Agency SUV.

Pacific City is divided into three districts, each under control of a different street gang. The Los Muertos, Volk and Shai Gen gangs all have to be eliminated and can be tackled in any order you choose although it should be noted that the Volk and Shai Gen gangs are respectively more difficult to handle than the Los Muertos, so it’s recommended that they are the first gang you pursue. All of the gangs put up a good enough fight, and there are times when you’ll find yourself in over your head. In the event that your agent happens to die, you will instantly take control of a carbon copy of your agent and resume playing at one of the agency supply points you’ve liberated.

As you make your way through the streets, you will receive updates to your gang dossier from the Agency, giving you your assignment. This assignment never changes. You’ll receive the name and location of a gang general and you’re assigned to take them out. There is no specific pecking order as far as which gang generals you pursue so players can bypass the gang generals altogether and immediately pursue the kingpin if they wish. Killing each of the gang generals does weaken the resistance of the kingpin’s personal guard and makes them easier to take down so in that, there is a decent benefit. As far as mission variety, this is it. Missions never stray from the basic “go here, kill that guy” framework established early on in the game. This is a bit disappointing when compared to other sandbox games that have much more varied mission objectives. After killing yet another gang general for the umpteenth time, you’ll be pining for more. There is no set method you must follow to eliminate each general, allowing more of that oh so important freedom (seems to be a recurring theme here) to seep in. There are side missions in the form of checkpoint vehicle and rooftop races to test your driving and agility skills, respectively, that serve as a serviceable diversion when you finish the main campaign.

Another gripe I have is that there is a lack of a real challenge worthy of your enhanced abilities. After all, shouldn’t a super cop have super villains to contend with? Throughout the game, the only opposition you’ll encounter is endless waves of heavily armed thugs with varying layers of body armor. It’s a bit disappointing that there is so little variety in the enemies, compounding with the general lack of mission variety.

Those looking for a gripping storyline to uncover as they progress through the game should look elsewhere as Crackdown doesn’t have much of a plot that unfolds as you kill off the gang generals. There is a story within the game, but it’s not something to get really excited over. The story is presented in a brief cutscene prior to the beginning of the game and serves mainly to inform you of the series of events that transpired to lead up to the point the game begins. After completing the campaign, one final cutscene is presented which wraps up the story, unveiling an unexpected twist.

Single player campaign aside, the game truly shines when you’re bounding through the city with a friend. The co op system works similarly to the system implemented in Gears of War in which a second player can join your single player campaign at any time. One major drawback is that it isn’t as seamless as it should be. You can set the game up to allow others to join your game (random folks or friends only) and once they attempt to connect, you’ll be prompted that they are trying to join. This pulls you out of the game you’re currently playing and allows the second player to join, meaning, if you’re in the middle of a mission or anything else, you’ll have to quit, starting fresh. When the second player joins your game, they join your version of the city and vice versa when joining another player’s game. This can be a problem if you have already taken out all 21 gang generals and cleaned up the city because you and the second player won’t have much to do.

Playing through the campaign with a friend is great fun though, whether you’re taking out the gang generals one by one or tooling around the city causing random havoc, there’s plenty of fun to be had. Both players are given free reign over the entire city and are free to do whatever they choose, even if that means attacking one another. There is a lot to be seen and done in the city and given your super agent’s abilities and the plethora of weapons and items at your disposal, it really flexes your creativity and allows you to create your own fun.

Crackdown has a very unique visual style that blends realism and cel shading to great effect, creating a sort of virtual graphic novel. As a result, the graphics are crisp, well detailed and do their job quite well. In a game filled with explosions, it’s only fitting that they look fantastic. These are some of the better looking explosion effects in any game on the Xbox 360.

The audio presentation is pretty decent. The soundtrack consists of more than 100 songs that play through the in car radio meaning that you probably won’t hear many of them unless you really like driving. Once you leave the car, the music will continue to play with a nice positional audio effect relative to your proximity to the car. The “announcer”, your Agency contact, chimes in every now and then, offering tips, useful information and the occasional non sequitur. In the first few hours of play, these quips can be helpful, even funny, in a campy sort of way. Unfortunately, like most jokes, most are only funny the first time you hear them. After that, they begin to wear thin as he begins to nag you about killing too many civilians (even though they have a bad habit of being in the way…a lot…) or says something completely irrelevant to the situation at hand. A big example of this is the remarks he makes after you’ve ascended the Agency tower. Even when you’re halfway across the city, or indoors, he’ll randomly comment on your feat, which tends to be a bit annoying.

In the end, underneath its flaws, there is a great game to be found. Despite my complaints, I found the game to be highly enjoyable playing alone, and even more so playing with a friend. The co op mode is probably one of the best in recent memory and offers hours of fun as you wreak havoc around the city with a fellow super agent. It just seems like there was a bit of wasted potential in the lack of mission and enemy variety. There’s no use griping over what could have been though, when the game is as good as it is. If you’re an Xbox 360 owner and you’re hurting for a good sandbox game or want something you can play with a friend, don’t hesitate to pick this one up.



Graphics - 8
Gameplay - 8
Sound - 7
Value - 7
Tilt - 9

Overall Score - 8.1