Crackdown

"Someone took the red pill..."

Being a major fan of the Grand Theft Auto games, when I heard about Crackdown, it was one of the main reasons why I wanted to own a 360. In case you don't know, Crackdown was developed by the guy who originally created the Grand Theft Auto series and the guy who developed one of the most important games ever made, Grand Theft Auto III. Crackdown was, unfortunately, delayed a lot and I had let it fall under my radar. However, when it was finally released, and I finally got to play it, I do have to say that Crackdown is an amazing game with awesome ideas, but it does have some minor problems that hold it back from being that truly revolutionary game Grand Theft Auto III was.

In Crackdown, you choose from an already created agent and as you play through the game, you will upgrade your skills and abilities, changing the appearance of your agent as you go. However, your agent's appearance isn't the only thing that is altered throughout the game because as your skills increase, new and more awesome vehicles are there for you to drive, though you don't really need to drive at all in this title. In fact, the main way of travel is by foot because you have various super abilities at your disposal, including the ability to jump extremely high and run very, very fast.

So, how do you upgrade these various skills? Your skills are in specific categories, like agility, driving, explosives, strength, and firearms. In order to power up your skills, you must gain experience orbs for that specific skill, like if you kill an enemy using a car, you will get some driving experience orbs from that enemy, while if you kill an enemy with a gun, you get experience orbs for firearms. Agility orbs can be earned through races or just lying around the environment, but other orbs can be gained through other means, like completing driving races or earning achievements. On top of that, there are 300 hidden orbs that can be found and when they are, every skill is upgraded at once. A really good thing about this upgrading feature is that you can upgrade what you want when you want and it doesn't take that long to max out your skills, meaning that you don't have to totally devote hours and hours to the game to really get some fun out of it.

Unlike in the Grand Theft Auto games, mass chaos is not a main part of the game as you are an agent created to take down gangs. However, the way you take these gangs down is up to you as the player because you can immediately go after the kingpin and kill him or you can take down each of his generals in order to make the battle with the kingpin that much easier. You can fight any kingpin in any order you want to and while that does give you more freedom, you might end up wasting time going after a kingpin that is way too hard for you to beat at the time.

I mentioned a strength skill earlier and you're probably wondering what that is exactly. Well, in Crackdown, you can literally rip a lamppost out of the sidewalk and use it as a melee weapon to take out your opponents. Cars can be picked up and tossed around if you so wish and depending on how strong you are, you can lift up nearly anything you want to.

While taking down gang members, you will be faced with heavy opposition and heavily armed baddies, meaning the action usually erupts into mindless button mashing in order to survive. These battles can drag on for pretty long and they all feel pretty much the same, meaning that you will probably get pretty bored with one of the game's main points.

Crackdown has a similar wanted level system like in the Grand Theft Auto games, but this wanted system is rare as you will only get cops, or Peacemakers, on you if you actually attack them or civilians as opposed to Grand Theft Auto where cops will come after you for doing pretty much anything. In fact, in Crackdown, the cops actually help you fight gang members, which is a pretty cool feature, even though the cops are virtually useless. When you attack civilians or Peacemakers then more Peacemakers will be sent after you to try to kill you and your skill upgrades will be slowed down. The Peacemakers usually don't have a chance in hell of killing you and the slowing down of your skill upgrading is really annoying because you feel like you're being punished too much for just screwing around in the game and having fun.

One of the biggest disappointments in Crackdown is the fact that the game doesn't include any offline multiplayer modes, instead opting for an online only experience. While this is all fine and good, the game could have been so much better if offline co-op was implemented. Still, the online multiplayer does have its moments and you will still be able to get a few hours of fun out of it.

Crackdown, while there are very few major plot points, does have a very clever twist at the end of the game that you'll probably never see coming. Since you can choose your own agent out of a selection of agents, the characters never develop into anything and the kingpins don't really have fleshed out back stories, meaning that you'll sometimes feel like you're just participating in a mindless killing spree of bad guys. While that's all fine and good, a better story would have helped the game go really far and maybe even surpass any other free-roam game on the 360 right now.

Where Crackdown truly surpasses any other game of its kind is in its graphics department. Some people may not like the cel-shading, but I absolutely find it breathtaking. All of the characters in the game look awesome and the agents are truly a sight to see. Vehicles are awesome to look at and explosions are pretty amazing as well. Crackdown has a very low amount of graphical glitches and almost no pop up at all, which is a godsend when games like the Grand Theft Auto games have a ton of pop up and poor draw distances. There is almost no lag in Crackdown, plus the only loading screens there are end up being very short and painless.

A very low amount of voice acting in Crackdown doesn't allow it to truly excel in the audio department, but all of the sound effects synch up flawlessly. The background music is intense and will get you ready for action, which is a rare thing in video games nowadays with the music usually taking a backseat to the graphics. Still, some more songs would have been nice and more voice acting would have really helped the game become the epitome of awesome.

Since you can take down the gangs in any order you want and you can directly go after the kingpins, Crackdown can end up to only last you a few hours. Chances are though that you will want to take down all of the generals in the game as well since that is a lot of fun and messing around, while it does get a little bit boring way faster than in the Grand Theft Auto games, is still an option, though a more restricted one. Upgrading your skills can be done easily, so that doesn't really help the replayability much. Online multiplayer is a fun idea, but the lack of an offline component really hurts the game's replayability as well. After you complete the game, chances are you won't want to play through it again, but there are achievements to unlock plus collecting the 300 orbs is always something you could try, though it's nearly impossible without a walkthrough to help you.

Even though Crackdown wasn't as good as I thought it would be, it is still a great game that should be played by anyone with an Xbox 360 and anyone who loves the Grand Theft Auto games. Fans of superhero movies, games, or comic books will find something to love in this title as it is essentially Grand Theft Auto with superpowers. If a sequel was made, there would need to be more of an emphasis on the storyline, a soundtrack with more variety, and an offline cooperative mode for the game to be perfect. Crackdown is a great action-packed experience with a few flaws that hold it back from true greatness.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 07/12/08

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