01-29-2008, 05:32 PM
Also known as: The game that came free with the Halo 3 beta test.
You may not have heard of David Jones (perhaps it's the generic name?), which is a shame as he's probably one of the most important people in the British gaming industry, as the man behind Lemmings, Grand Theft Auto and now Crackdown. Crackdown is... Grand Theft Auto again, except this time you're the cop, and genetically engineered to kill criminals. Crackdown is a lot like its infamous forefather in many ways, with the same sandbox-with-guns type of gameplay, but it wouldn't be fair to just dismiss it immediately as another GTA clone. The key difference is that "genetically engineering to kill criminals" part. Your character, known only as the Agent, gains experience from killing criminals and collecting shiny orbs. The Agent has five stats- driving, strength, weapons, explosives and agility. You increase the first four by doing them well, e.g. punching lots of bad guys increases your strength, allowing you to pick up heavier objects (e.g. cars!) to throw at criminals. But on the flip side, those stats can be decreased if you harm civilians. Meanwhile, agility is increased by finding so called "agility orbs", of which there are 500 in the game, typically found on rooftops and other high places. Also to be found are 300 hidden orbs, which slightly increase all of your stats. If you pick up an enemy weapon and bring it back to a save point, that type of weapon will become available for future use. Guiding you through the game, explaining how things work, and making wisecracks when you make mistakes is an unseen commander, the "Voice of the Agency".
Crackdown is refreshingly non-linear, more so than any of the GTA games, as the entire city is open to you from the start. No unlocking new areas for completing missions. No invisible walls / knee-high barriers to stop you going somewhere before you're ready. Not even a training mission. You're simply dropped into the city, told that there are 21 criminals who must die, and from there you can do whatever you feel like. Sure, the Voice suggests it would be best to take out the Los Muertos first (they're the weakest gang), but you're not obliged to do what he says. The city is divided into three sections, each ruled over by a different stereotypical gang- Los Muertos (Mexicans), the Volk (Russians), and Shai-Gen (East Asian corporation). Each gang is commanded by seven kingpins who each have a separate base of operations. The kingpins are divdided into three tiers, and while it is possible to go straight after the head of the gang straight away, taking out their subordinates first will make it easier when killing the boss.
Aside from the basic cars which you can steal off the street, the Agency provides you with a number of different vheicles. If you fully level up your driving stat these particular vehicles gain a special ability. For example, the jeep that gains the ability to drive up walls! And yet, unlike most other GTA-clones, you'll probably want to be on foot more often than not. There's two reasons for this: 1) The other cars on the road move painfully slow, and driving on the pavements will most likely end up leaving a few civilians dead, losing you stat points and invoking the ire of your fellow police officers. 2) It's actually more fun on foot. Jumping between skyscrapers (and off skyscrapers) is amazingly cool, meaning that collecting the orbs (which are usually found on rooftops) to make you better at it is strangely more addictive than you would think.
Cel-shading is certainly not the most popular graphical style in video gaming (see the unnecessarily hostile reaction to Wind Waker), but here it gives the game a style which makes it look like a moving comic book, which suits it brilliantly. Head to the top of any tall building and the view is astounding, unclouded by annoying fogging effects that plague so many other games of this type. The licensed soundtrack, while not particularly bad, is adequate at best. At least the sound effects are satisfactory (such as the sound of the Agent's bones breaking when he falls from a large height). Meanwhile the Voice, who could so easily be Captain Obvious, will be probably get on your nerves after about five minutes as he states yet again about how you should kill criminals or how he can see his house from whatever rooftop you're on.
Also available are races, coming in both driving and on-foot varieties. Those with Xbox Live Gold memberships can play co-operatively or go head-to-head in races with someone online, but there's sadly no split screen mode though. Agility and hidden orbs are not shared between gamers' worlds while online, so both players are able to collect them independently. The game does have a few imaginative Achievements, such as "jump from the top of the Agency HQ".
Crackdown's biggest weakness is its length and replayability. You can easily kill all 21 kingpins in a matter of hours, which falls quite short of the standard expected of sandbox games, but at least the harder difficulty levels provide more of a challenge. Another problem is the level of repetitiveness, with missions rarely getting more complicated than "kill the kingpin" or "kill the mob" and there's a few extras and diversions, such as the very neat "Keys to the City" mode, where you can activate all sorts of cheats and have fun, but ultimately the game should have been a lot longer and varied. However, it's loads of fun, and if you can find it cheap enough, it's definitely worth getting.
Graphics: 9/10
Sound: 6/10
Gameplay: 9/10
Lifespan: 4/10
Rating: 8/10
