Crackdown

"It's a bird! It's a plane! It's a....genetically enhanced cop?"

Superman can leap tall buildings in a single bound. But who cares because he doesn't blow people up with rocket launchers! Luckily our protagonist does both in this wacky sandbox action game they call Crackdown. And what an unexpected surprise this game was.

STORY
You play as a random agent working for this world task force. See the world is in a mighty slump. Crime has reached a new high with dangerous terrorists ruling over everything and issuing their own brand of "justice". The Agency is made up of all the law enforcement the country has to offer. Well now they have developed a new secret weapon to take back the streets. Simply known as "The Agent" this human being has been genetically enhanced with unique powers that improve over time. Being the world's only hope, and a damn awesome supersoldier, the agent proceeds to clean up crime. And how? By killing every gangster in his way. My kinda plan. Don't expect much from the story because this is mostly all gameplay. There aren't really any characters you'll get to know or cool cutscenes to blow you away.

GRAPHICS
The graphics themselves are actually cel shaded, and yet the game isn't really all that cartoony. Pacific City (the setting of the game) is gigantic and nicely detailed. Whether you're walking through the amusement park or blasting your way through a skyscraper, it always looks nice. Though I must say the realism part of the game goes out the window when you consider the architecture for a lotta these places. Because the agent can jump and climb and reach obstacles that normal people couldn't, the game's locations are designed to be somewhat difficult to get through. Which makes me wonder how normal people walk around these buildings. But I digress. The game looks fine.

SOUND
As for sound it will either get on your nerves or....it will slightly irritate you. There's no way around it. Throughout the game your being talked to by your boss and he gives you helpful advice or mocks you completely. He's always talking every now and then and there's no way to shut him off. Don't like it? Tough. The things he says don't always match what's going on in the game either. Like you could be driving underground in a tunnel and then he'll just randomly say "Hey, I can see my house from here." No you can't we're in a tunnel! The game also has a soundtrack everytime you get into a car and it's seriously some of the worst collection of songs ever. You're better off uploading your own soundtrack and listening to that. And other than that, bad guys repeat the same stupid catchphrases every time you see them. The audio isn't the best in the world. But it's not awful by any means.

GAMEPLAY
Ah now we come to the beautiful gameplay. As I said before, you're playing a supersoldier. A genetically enhanced cop with abilities beyond that of a normal person. And they'll get better the more you play. The more enemies you shoot, the better at firearms you'll be. The more you attack enemies with your bare hands, the more your strength will increase. The more explosions you create the bigger they'll be later on. You get the idea. By the end of the game your character will be ridiculously fun to play. And even as you build your stats he's still fun to play. The Agent's appearance also changes with every new ability that he gets. The higher he jumps, the older he gets. Hmm, I guess genetic soldiers don't have a long life span.

The stronger you are, the bigger those muscles get. When you play this game I guarantee you're gonna be hooked on upgrading the agent. And when his stats are all filled you will feel the greatest satisfaction as he jumps from rooftop to rooftop in a single bound, blows up entire streets with his grenades and knocks trucks over with his feet alone. But how exactly is this game set up? It's a sandbox game much like Grand Theft Auto. This means you're let loose in Pacific City, and you do whatever you please. Literally. You don't have a specific objective that you HAVE to do first. You can do whatever you want at your own pace. The way to beat the game and rid the streets of crime is to hunt down and kill all of the top members of the 3 different gangs that run the city.

When you start the game these guys don't even appear on the map. You're supposed to find them all by yourself by stumbling onto their hideout. I know it sounds tedious but really as big as Pacific City is, this isn't a chore at all. Just look at the map, see the big open pieces of land and sure enough there's probably a gang hideout there. You can even find the top honcho before you find any of his grunts and kill him if you're good enough. The idea is that if you kill the sub-members, the attack on the leader will be much easier. That's true, but I managed to accidently stumble on and kill one of the leaders first. Again, the game lets you do whatever you want at whatever pace.

The game sports all kinds of sidemissions though. Of course there's the Achievements which Xbox 360 offers but there's also the races. Throughout the city are purple and green blinkers that act as race markers. You either race on foot or in a car and build up your stats by winning. And the city is also littered with various orbs that improve your agility that are worth finding too. The controls of the game are smooth, I just wished driving around in cars was a lot funner. They seem to move at a snail's pace and they turn about as fast as a windmill. I didn't spend much time in cars other than to improve my driving skills. Another fun thing is that there are supply points scattered throughout the city which are your places to stock ammo and to spawn from instantly and make traveling around quicker.

The supply point also houses any weapons you may bring there for the rest of the game. So basically if you kill a thug that used a rocket launcher, and you took that launcher back to the supply point, you got yourself a rocket launcher whenever you want. As fun as this game is it's even better with the fact that you can do all of this action and all of this fun...with a friend. Co-op mode?! Are you kidding me!? This game is sweet! The only bad thing I can say about Crackdown is that the game isn't all that long and it can be beaten in a matter of 8 or 9 hours. But I dare you to stop playing after beating it.

IN THE END...
Crackdown was a surprise hit. I never expected this game to be as fun as it was. If you like games with no limitations on what you can do, and games that feature the ability to pick up cars and throw them at people....get this game immediately. And best of all you can play this with a friend. Can't wait for the inevitable sequel.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 04/18/07