Crackdown

"A few extra months in development wouldn't have hurt"

To be frank, this game has all the necessary elements of a system seller. However, every now and then a developer will take something that is by its very nature awesome and screw it up. Yes, this is one of those games. And, unfortunately, it seems like the problems this game has aren't anything a couple of testers and some extra development time couldn't have fixed.

STORY
The story (such as it is) revolves around a member of the Agency (an all-encompassing government police force) who is tasked with wiping out all criminal organizations that reside in Pacific City. However, he has been genetically altered to be the perfect law enforcement agent, capable of superhuman feats such as picking up cars and jumping over buildings. In truth, the story is only in place to give you a reason to wreak havoc on the city and cause as much devastation as possible. There isn't a single bit of character development, and what little you find out about the people you are killing is through short, video briefings.

GRAPHICS
To put it simply, the developer did something unusual and it worked spectacularly. Instead of going for a realistic look, they went with more of a comic-like cel shaded approach. Most objects are outlined in a barely perceptible black line and colors are bright and vivid. However, light and texturing were used to good effect, which creates an altogether unique look.

SOUND
On the musical side of things, there is an astounding number of licensed tracks (over 100). Much to my surprise and delight, there are numerous tracks from Celldweller's phenomenal debut album, but most of the songs are by people I've never even heard of. In the entire song catalogue, the few I recognize are from the aforementioned Celldweller and Stromkern. The style is fairly set as well, most of it is electronica and techno with a generous helping of Latino rap. Although the selection of genres is limited, it fits in with the atmosphere of the game.

You'll also be accompanied by the disembodied voice of your commander, who will talk non-stop, often giving you worthless advice and coming off with moronic one-liners. While it is helpful at times, it becomes old quickly because it feels like you're getting a tutorial every few seconds.

When it comes to the guns, cars and explosions, my feelings are a bit mixed. The gunfire is an almost constant sound, but there really isn't anything special about it. In fact, it's so mundane I'm having a hard time recalling much about it even as I write this. But then again, there's only so much you can do with gunfire, so it's not that pressing. On the other hand, explosions are nice and loud, and actually feel like they have power behind them. When a well-placed grenade detonates and sets off a chain reaction of fire and mayhem, it always made me feel like a complete badass.

GAMEPLAY
As I earlier stated, you entire mission is to wipe out the three gangs that control all of Pacific City. At first the system seems similar to the one found in Mercenaries, but you'll soon find out you can kill a gang's leaders in any order you please. All you have to do is find them, which is never much of a challenge, since there is no special task you have to do to flush them out. If it tickles your fancy, you can go directly after the head of each organization before taking out any of the generals. But according to the game, each general has a special task and job they are in charge of. For instance, one person might be in charge of recruiting or distributing weapons. By taking them out they'll no longer be able to do their job and the gangs effectiveness will be decreased. Personally, I never felt as if this was the case, since you'll be facing dozens of well armed criminals no matter who you kill.

While doing all this, your Agent will begin to evolve. There are a number of separate attributes to boost (Agility, Driving, Strength, Explosives, Guns) and by boosting them, you become a more dangerous Agent. To give you a quick run-down, Agility determines running speed and jump height, Driving determines car handling and appearance when you enter an Agency car, Strength determines how dangerous you are in hand to hand combat and how much weight you can lift (I'm talking cars here), Explosives determines the blast radius of rockets and grenades, and Guns determines how quick your targeting reticule locks on. As a little extra bonus, the Agent's appearance will change according to how evolved he is. He'll start out as a mere tough guy and he'll end up as a tattooed and pierced-up tribalistic goth. Yeah, it's pretty cool. It is a little disappointing that you don't get any new abilities as you go, though. I would have liked to have seen some new fighting moves or vehicles unlocked.

It's all very straightforward but there are numerous problems in the execution. The first, and probably most irritating, is the fact that I never felt like I was getting anywhere. Despite the fact that I was mowing down waves of gang members out of the gate, they just kept coming. No matter how many I killed, more would spawn just seconds after taking out each group. This problem is quadrupled when going after gang leaders. When walking into an enemy stronghold, you'll be instantly faced with dozens upon dozens of enemies to kill. It's not so bad until you realize they all just saw you and instantly open fire - At the same time. This leads to many cheap kills and when you actually manage to get a foothold and start fighting back, it doesn't take long until most of them have respawned. It took me a while to figure out it was pointless to try and kill anyone but the leader, but once I did, things got a lot easier for me. In my opinion, this relentless respawning is just a cheap and lazy way of artificially jacking up the difficulty.

What's actually very strange about the enemies is their ability to fight you. Though the game makes it seem like the Agent is some sort of unstoppable engine of destruction, the numerous enemies are all too effective at taking him down. They possess an unnatural omnipotence that allows them to effectively track you even as you jump and dodge through buildings. It is almost impossible to catch them off-guard once they've been alerted to your presence. My favorite example of this was when I was assaulting a refinery that was full of pillars to duck behind and girders to scale and climb across. When bullets first started flying, I jumped onto one of the girders and disappeared. When I emerged on the other side of the refinery, hordes of enemies were already waiting on me. As the firefight progressed, I jumped off of one building, onto another, then across the yard to another. Through this whole thing, my enemies never lost sight of me, despite the fact that I was, at times, completely covered. When I actually got one of them in my sights it took almost an entire clip to kill him.

My second problem is that there is an unbelievable lack of things to do in the city. I would like to think that the developers wouldn't create such a remarkable city and then decide not to put anything to do in it. Other than killing criminals, the only other things to do are to try your hand at the agility races (jumping across buildings around the city) and driving races. To make matters even worse, there aren't even any proper missions to do. Whereas in a game such as Grand Theft Auto you can go work for people in between bouts of mindless violence, that isn't even an option here. Basically, you're just given the entire city to roam around in and a list of people to kill and told to get to it. If you're focused, the game will be over long before you reach the ten hour mark. What I suspect happened was that with a deadline looming, they decided to just release it instead of postponing it to finish.

THE VERDICT
While there was a good start, the game just lacks the depth that would make it truly great. Like I said before, it seems like the developer was rushed to get it out. I can honestly recommend it to anyone who likes explosions and violence (and that's anyone who plays video games, isn't it?), but there isn't nearly enough content to justify an actual purchase. It's not great, but it's not bad either.

HIGHS
- Cool city
- Big explosions

LOWS
- Very little to do
- Enemies are a little too tough and smart
- Frequent enemy respawns

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 12/05/07, Updated 10/01/08

Game Release: Crackdown (US, 02/20/07)