When I first heard that Crackdown was being coupled with the Halo 3 Multiplayer Beta, I assumed that Crackdown was going to be a crappy game that Microsoft really wanted to make a quick buck on. I was stunningly wrong. Crackdown joins Halo and Gears of War as top tier first party games certain to sell systems and garner some incredible sequels.
Crackdown draws comparisons to Grand Theft Auto, but the similarities are superficial. Both games take place in huge highly populated open ended environments and both games encourage you to create havoc on a grand scale. That’s about all they have in common. In Crackdown, you take control of a genetically enhanced Agent who is tasked with exterminating the city of three gangs. Each gang has a kingpin and 7 underlings who control certain aspects of organized crime. As you defeat the underlings, the kingpin is weakened in a certain way; for example when you defeat the underling who’s in charge of recruitment, the number of thugs protecting the kingpin in reduced. By the time you defeat all the underlings, the kingpin falls quite easily and it’s time to move to the next gang. Defeating gangs and kingpins is not the main draw to this game; in fact I stumbled into the gang lairs accidentally about 80% of the time. The real draw to this game is the powers. Oh the Powers!
In the beginning of the game, your agent is relatively normal. He can jump a bit higher than a regular human, but nothing astounding. However that changes rapidly as you begin orb hunting. There are 500 Agility Orbs (And 500 Hidden Orbs) to collect in the game. These are scattered all throughout the environment on the tops of buildings, billboards, radio antennas, water towers and a myriad of other places. You soon realize that the game is designed more vertically than horizontally. Every single building in the game is climbable and you’ll find that hopping from rooftop to rooftop searching for orbs is one of the most addicting aspects to any game you’ll ever play. As you collect more and more orbs, your agent begins to jump higher and run faster until you’re jumping 40 feet from a stand still and running fast enough to keep up with cars on the highway. This same leveling up mechanic extends to your skill with firearms, explosives, driving and strength. The way to level up these is by simply doing what you want. In order to level up your firearms, all you need to do is kill gang members with firearms. Same with explosives. To level up strength, just punch and kick your way through a gang or two, or throw cars and dumpsters into crowds of baddies. Soon you’ll be lifting objects weighing a couple tons and tossing them hundreds of feet.
Crackdown encourages you to do crazy things by offering the best achievements to date. Things like climbing the tallest building in the game (no easy task) will earn you an achievement boosting that Gamerscore (A.K.A. E-Dick) and boosting your agility. Jumping off that same building into the water below (also no easy task) will get you another achievement. Other achievements include keeping a body in the air for over 10 seconds with explosives, creating 100 explosions in 60 seconds, throwing an object other than a grenade over 150 feet, running over 150 gang members in a car and many more. Crackdown is the first game I’ve played which I will try to earn each achievement and feel a great sense of accomplishment.
Another fantastic aspect of Crackdown is the multi player experience. Friends can hop in and out of games seamlessly and having two agents in the same world is something special. Tossing a car back and forth between rooftops, Teen Wolf style car surfing and setting up ramps for one another to drive the agency super-cars off never seems to get old. Plus, the orbs in the game are available to both players, so there is no fighting over who gets what. Going head to head with another agent is also quite a bit of fun.
Crackdown is not a perfect game by any means. The cell shaded graphics are solid but not spectacular with the exception of the explosions which are beautiful. The audio is surprisingly sparse and you'll hear the same 20 phrases over and over from citizens. The announcer is also cringe-worthy. Defeating the gangs only takes 5 or 6 hours, and once you defeat them, there are just not many people to fight. Leveling up your character will take longer, but once your character is fully leveled up and the gangs are defeated, there’s not much to do aside from collecting orbs and chasing achievements. The driving in the game is also pretty bad. The only cars worth driving are the agency super cars (which level up as your driving skills level up) and some of the sports cars. The other cars drive like they’re stuck in quicksand. Thankfully, it’s much more fun to just jump from rooftop to rooftop to get where you’re going.
If you own a 360, do yourself a favor and at least rent this game. If you’re a Halo fan, go ahead and buy Crackdown and get your early ticket to Halo 3 then kill some time in the wonderful world of Crackdown.
8.2/10
Mahalo,
Duke