If you were to download the demo for Realtime Worlds' latest game, you
would have to venture into Xbox Live's Shooter category. In reality,
this game really is a whole lot more than shooting.
Taking the Grand Theft Auto 3 formula and taking the term "sandbox" to
a whole new level comes Crackdown. A game in which you'll enter Pacific
City, which is split into three regions each with its very own
bloodthirsty gang. Your mission...kill the gangs. Throw in a mysterious
agency who tells you who to assassinate and thats your plot.
Obviously, not a great amount of storytelling goes on here and theres
certainly alot of missed opportunities for at least some intrigue, for
instance who are the agency? Instead Crackdown is like a next gen
tetris, no story, but a whole lot of fun.
The game also lacks side missions to add a little replay value, but
with that being said there are 21 bosses in the game to kill, but the
"go there, kill that" nature of these bosses is actually what you would
expect of side missions in other games.
You have four skills; driving, strength, shooting and explosives that
will increase in a RPG-like "level" up manner simply as you use them.
Then you have agility, agility orbs which you must locate are dotted
around Pacific City, run into them and up goes your agility. You'll
want to do this as with agility maxed out you'll be jumping around
rooftops and running at great speeds. Agility orbs are cleverly used in
this game to get you on the rooftops, they give you a reason to explore
the impressive city. Although you will very rarely get to go inside any
buildings, understandable since it would have made for an enormous game
size, but a few more indoor scenes would be nice.
The multiplayer is a little hit and miss. Its certainly not seamless
with some joining/leaving issues but can be great fun leaping around
buildings with a buddy. Although beware, you can kill each other in the
game so playing with random people you don't know on XBL isn't
recommended, theres nothing more frustrating than to be right near the
end of completing a mission and then have you're "friend" blow you into
1000 pieces with a rocket launcher.
If you are looking at buying a superhero game this summer, look past
the onslaught of poorly developed movie games and get Crackdown. Theres
nothing more fun than jumping off Agency Tower at night, blowing up
twenty gangsters with one grenade or doing all kindsa flips in a SUV.
Even without the Halo 3 beta which obviously increase sales, you should at least rent this game. Not to be missed.
