Crackdown

"Crackdown: don't buy it for just the beta key!"

Crackdown. Very hyped. Not as well received. This happens with some games in our world. That doesn't mean this is a bad game. Many people somehow didn't even know what this title was until the Halo 3 Beta key was said to be packaged. You don't have to want that key to want this game. This game is solid. Anyone know David Jones? If not, look him up. You'll appreciate his work in the past and here in this title. There's alot going for this game if you give it a chance to thrill you. People will tell you it's short, easy, and even has some problems with it's gameplay. I hope my review can manage any questions you have. I'm trying to be as neutral as possible of course, while the newness of the game has set in. Trust in my judgement if you like, I've beaten the game on psychotic, and earned almost all of the achievements.

Graphics- 9/10 - The graphics are solid work. They aren't the best of the best on our system, but they are more than good (and better than most). Alot of action on screen. Great flame effects. Awesome explosions, very awesome. Tons of people on screen. Bullets look good. Bad guys and citizens look sharp and believable. You won't find repeating citizens here and other such things in sandbox titles. The cars look great. Your HUD is excellent. Whenever you highlight innocents, foes, objects, whatever, they glint a certain color briefly. It's a nice touch. Other little things like this make the game fun and good looking. And of course, our character, The Agent, looks great as he levels up and changes. There are several skins (with more downloadable always on the way).

Sound- 9/10 - The sound is almost flawless. Guns, explosions, people's voices (both citizens reactions and thugs), cars, the music is pretty much great (matter of fact, note my username and one of the songs on this game!), and the ambient noise of a city or landscape (or ocean!) are great! But the announcer tends to get repetitive, very quickly. As are some of the things gang members will say to you (or their laughing or screams). This is a rare problem, however.

Gameplay- 7.5/10 - The meat of any good game, especially a sandbox title. The controls are very intuitive and mostly spot on. You'll pick it up and master it within a day. The jumping and agility stuff is fantastic and addictive. The shooting is almost perfect. There are some minor gripes. There is a standard agency scope that comes on all guns that can use a scope. This can get boring when you want to *really* zoom in tight with a sniper rifle. Instead, your character focuses on the target more quickly and accurately than with another type of gun. Makes sense, but I still enjoy having the control of watching through a scope, and the game's generic scope is good for some guns, but not all to me. Don't let this break the deal, hardly noticeable. Sometimes when aiming, you'll highlight a dead body or object (rare on the object part) when you're aiming for a gang member that is alive and posing a threat. This happens probably around 30% of the time and also isn't a major issue. Some people have gripes about the camera system. I do not. It does take minor getting used to (scrolls slowly until you play for a bit), but it's not a major issue once you've learned all the controls. It's at it's worst for the driving missions (races are the missions). Otherwise, the gameplay is fun, addictive, and just a great sandbox experience. Great shootouts with multiple foes at once, a "do anything" approach to throwing objects (even cars!) at bad guys, sniping em, or driving over their bodies repeatedly. The driving controls are rough at first (civilian vehicles are almost all terrible to show how great your agency cars are), but you can learn them if you are determined to. The score is lower than an 8 for me because for one thing the driving is sub par, and for another the gameplay in general can eventually get repetitive. Once you've played through this short game, there isn't much left to do but get some achievements that you've yet to earn in the course of playing, and do some races. You can turn random crimes on, but it's not quite the same.

Story- 6.7/10 - Here is the lowest point. This sandbox title was obviously created to showcase the "do anything to anyone, go anywhere any time" mode, with no real plot to connect said dots. It's for action kicks and fun play with friends online or via system link. There is an opening cinema, and briefings and dossier files on each gang leader and kingpin, and then an ending. That is your story and it's bare bones at best. This isn't a bad thing for some, but for others it's a deal breaker, so here it is. Your only motivation is "You are a super cop, fighting an urban war on crime, where collateral damage is excepted to an extent. Go get the bad guys, over, and over, and over.". This is, of course, great for the gameplay, but hurts the story. You won't be bored, but you will notice a lack of good storytelling. Each gang has people that specialize in certain things (weapons, fighting hand to hand, cars, info, cash, etc etc), but even that gets repetitive to an extent as the three gang's hierarchies aren't incredibly varied.

Overall- 7/10 - I wanted very badly to give this game an 8. It is an awesome title, and very well made. Microsoft did good on this one. Unfortunately, the replay value is very low, the story isn't there, and the driving disappointed me enough to want to lower the score here. The action is amazing. The guns are great, the hand to hand fighting, while simplistic, is very satisfying. The collection of orbs around the city for stats (especially agility but also hidden ones) is just plain old school fun. It's a good time, plain, and simple. It's just hard to come back to it if you only play the single player, and don't care about achievements. The city is large, the bad guys are fun to fight, and it's great to help out online. If these things matter to you slightly, or not at all, this isn't worth a purchase to you. Unless, of course, you want the H3 Beta Key. If you like achievements, simple but satisfying sandbox action, and want to play online with a second player alot, you'll want to buy this title and enjoy! As a collector, I simply couldn't pass it up, and I was not disappointed overall, in the slightest.

~lastfirstborn

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 02/21/07