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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VIDEO GAMES: Microsoft Lays Down Achievement Law

Microsoft releases new guidelines in an attempt to tighten up achievements.

Recently Realtime Worlds, the developer behind the upcoming Xbox 360 game Crackdown, announced that their free-roam game will ship with only 900 possible achievement points. Some gamers were upset, speculating that the additional 100 Gamerscore would only be available through a priced content download from the Xbox Live Marketplace and that they'd be milked for more cash if they wished to earn the game's complete Gamerscore.

Microsoft decided to take action and release a new set of guidelines in an attempt to bring order back their beloved achievements. Here they are:

1. All retail disc-based games must have a total of 1,000 possible Gamerscore points to be earned. Anyone who purchases the game will be able to earn all 1,000 points without any additional purchases. Although, publishers may release a portion of this gamerscore on the Xbox Live Marketplace but it must be a free download.



2. Publishers may release an additional 250 Gamerscore on top of the standard 1,000 via download from Xbox Live Marketplace. Gamers may be charged for this download, or it may be free, it's up to the game's publisher.

3. Xbox Live Arcade games are very similar but work with lower Gamerscore totals. For example, XBLA games will release with a maximum of 200 Gamerscore points. A possible 50 points can then be downloaded from the Marketplace if the publisher chooses to offer them.

I'm glad that Microsoft is tightening up their Gamerscore policy. With achievement unlocking being as popular as it is, it needed some more moderating. I also hear that they might be planning to reward gamers with higher Gamerscores, this could be a step in that direction.

Cheers.

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Crackdown Preview

Grand Theft Auto meets Robocop meets Spider-Man

Lately I've been wasting A LOT of time playing the Crackdown demo I downloaded on Xbox Live Marketplace a few days ago. The game, which is set to ship in roughly a month (Feb 20th), may look like a GTA clone at first glance, but the demo is damn addicting and it seems to be a breath of fresh air into the already cliche genre.

The thing that I'm looking forward to the most about this game is just how vertical it is. I'm sure most gamers have played GTA and gone around jacking cars, shooting thugs, and the like. Crackdown isn't much different, except it has much more emphasis on vertical exploration. The buildings are taller, some almost seem TOO TALL, and all of them are accessible (once you're character's stats have progressed and you can jump high enough). Once I reached a high enough agility, which is done by collecting orbs scattered around the city, I was scaling buildings like Spider-Man. Jumping from rooftop to rooftop and dropping down on criminals like it was going out of style.



Initially the demo starts out fairly slow as your character's attributes haven't progressed at all. You can't jump very high, your driving skills are junk-ass, and you could barely hit water shooting out of a boat (lame, I know.). Eventually though, after gaining a few levels, you feel like a supercop and the game gains a huge appeal. Jumping around on rooftops doesn't get old and soon I was wasting precious time just collecting hidden orbs and finding secrets, it's just that fun.

I'm not sure if Crackdown's storyline is going to be worth the price of admission, or if this game is going to be that much different than a GTA clone on crack, but the demo is damn fun. I'll be picking up my copy come February 20th. If it does suck, at least I get admission into the Halo 3 beta.

Cheers.

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