Crackdown Review

RealTime World's dip into the free-roam genre is a substantial one but the experience is over too quickly for Crackdown to be labelled a top notch game.

Many are going to label Crackdown as a clone of the hit series Grand Theft Auto. Many will say the game doesn't have a plot, that it's repetitive, or doesn't have the longevity to compete with other titles on the market. Some may even say it's just the free perk that comes with the Halo 3 Beta. Whatever your opinion on Crackdown, I found it to be one fun and addicting ride, even if it was a short one.

In Crackdown you play a superhuman clone agent who must rid the gigantic area of Pacific City from gang control. As you progress through the game your character becomes more and more powerful and by the time you reach your peak you can lift over 10 tons, jump roughly 40 feet, shoot and drive like a pro, and blow the hell out of anything in your path with explosives. Levelling up your character is actually quite an appealing task as you must collect orbs scattered around the city as well as perform stunts and do both car and rooftop races.



When you feel that your agent is strong enough to hold his own in a fight you have the option of going head-to-head with any of the three gangs terrorizing Pacific City. In order to take down each gang you must eliminate the six gang bosses in each squad and then assassinate the kingpin of each gang. That's 21 boss missions for those keeping score at home and while that does seem like quite a challenge it's one that's fairly repetitive and over too quickly.

See, the premise for each of these missions is simple: find boss, take down boss' guards, kill boss, rinse and repeat. It's the same for every mission and it gets old fairly quickly. Now, it may be easy to go about this if there was a strong plot moving the action along but there is nothing to that effect. All you get is a little blurb about the gangs controlling the city and a ending cinematic that comes completely out of nowhere once you've beaten the game.

The lack of innovative missions and a plot doesn't hurt this game too much though. Hours can be spent enjoying the massive game world at your disposal, both from street level and on the rooftops above. See, once your agent can jump the maximum of 40 feet there are no limits to where you can go. Basically, if you see it you can climb it, including the towering Agency Tower located between the three islands which make up Pacific City. Most of Crackdown's fun can be found here. Exploring the city and essentially creating your own missions.



Another notable thing found in Crackdown are the explosions. As your agent levels up the radius of his explosions becomes more and more significant to the point where you can destroy an entire city block with one blast. This can get quite interesting if you decide to create exciting explosions of your own, piling up cars and trucks and blowing them to smithereens. The explosions in this game look and play amazingly.

Crackdown has its ups and downs but I felt it was too short of a game to stay in my Xbox 360 for too long. While I do enjoy the online co-op as well as the creativity and open-ended style a game like this brings to the table, I felt that there could have been more substance to keep the title afloat. Well, it did come with the Halo 3 Beta, that will hopefully use up the extra time I wasn't able to enjoy with this title.

What did you think of Crackdown? Is it just a lame GTA clone or is RealTime Worlds onto something with their superhuman free-roam game? Post a comment.

Cheers.

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