Crackdown (Xbox 360)

Reviewer: Erich Hiner

Title: Crackdown
Platform: Xbox 360
Price: $29.99 and up
ESRB Rating: M for Mature
Developer: Realtime Worlds
Publisher: Microsoft Game Studios

Age Range: 17+

BUY?: NO
While Crackdown includes exciting abilities and enjoyable gameplay, the shallowness of the game’s design keeps it from being a must-buy title. The over-the-top jumping and gunplay are thrilling at first but lose their luster after several hours. Driving is a chore with vehicles only becoming of interest towards the end of the game. Because the player’s superhuman abilities peak very early, there is nothing more to work towards after the player has maximized his or her skill set. Crackdown is decent but fails to use its unique game mechanics to their full extent. Curious gamers should check it out with a rental.

Summary:
Street gangs have run amok in Pacific City. With law enforcement hopelessly overextended, the newly formed Agency turns to its genetically enhanced super soldiers to turn the tide in the war on crime. The player will develop their skills as they chip away at the gangs’ infrastructures. By taking down gang bosses, the player will weaken the defenses of the each gang’s kingpin in order to release Pacific City from the grip of organized crime once and for all.

Total Hours of Play:
Most players will finish Crackdown in less than 15 hours. This may vary depending on how much time one spends upgrading skills that are not entirely necessary to winning the game. By focusing entirely on improving their strength and firearms capabilities, a player may defeat the final boss in less than 12.

Difficulty: EASY- MEDIUM
Crackdown is made easy by the pitiful enemy intelligence programming and the ability of the player to simply run past most of the enemies. Early bosses will be problematic due to the fact the player will not have a well-developed skill set when taking them on. When the player maximizes his or her skills, even the most menacing gang stronghold can be dealt with in a matter of minutes. Some later bosses prove difficult because of their inexhaustible armies of overpowered henchmen.

Family Factor:
Crackdown is cartoony in appearance but contains a great deal of adult content. Criminals can be dealt with in a number of brutal ways. While there is very little blood and no gore to speak of, bodies of fallen criminals plummet from buildings like limp dolls and are thrown violently by nearby explosions. The characters in the game also shout obscenities when combat ensues. Crackdown looks and plays like an interactive, adult-themed comic book. It should only be purchased for adults and older teens.

Review:
Crackdown has succeeded in taking the popular open-world formula of the Grand Theft Auto series and has successfully added several larger-than-life character abilities to create what is perhaps one of the best superhero games to date. The entirety of Pacific City is open for exploration from the beginning of the game. Only the player’s skills and ingenuity stand between the player and bringing order to the streets. However, the core gameplay is riddled with unforgivable flaws. Crackdown’s brevity, sloppiness and lack of content will turn off many prospective players.

Crackdown’s stylized graphics is one of its most unique features. The art style appears at first to be hand-drawn. Every character and object is bordered by a heavy black line, which adds an interesting comic-like feel to the game. Pacific City is beautifully rendered and surprisingly intricate. In addition, the draw distance (the distance the player can see from a high vantage point without the landscape becoming blurry) is quite impressive. It should also be mentioned that the game never has to pause to load sections of the landscape as the player travels. Considering the size of the environment, this is an admirable feat.

Crackdown’s sound is nothing out of the ordinary. The weapons and explosions all sound alike. The greatest disappointment here is the sheer lack of music. Music only plays when the player enters a vehicle, an act which will be rare for most players. Even when driving, the musical selections all share a droning, falsified techno feel. To make matters worse, every musical track is accompanied by an irritating on-screen popup that displays the artist, album, and record label of the song being played. This annoyance cannot be turned off and takes away from the already below-average musical selections.

Fortunately, Crackdown’s gameplay is mostly fun and interesting. The abilities are excellently rendered and are a blast to use. Throwing buses at bad guys never really gets old and jumping from rooftop to rooftop is one of the most amusing and efficient ways to traverse the cityscape. Explosions are exhilarating and absurdly powerful. Everything facet of the game is ridiculously over-done, lending the game a welcome action-movie flavor. Sadly, even the best concepts in Crackdown are needlessly hampered by the sloppy design.

While firearms function reasonably well, the targeting system that Crackdown uses is eerily reminiscent of the troubled control scheme used by Grand Theft Auto III. Targeting enemies is frustrating and difficult. During firefights, my character would seldom zoom in on the target I wanted. I often found myself firing on fellow police officers, civilians, or dead criminals because the targeting system chose to lock onto a friendly (or deceased) character as opposed to a hostile. I also found that the superhuman abilities, while thrilling at first, reached their full potential in just a few short hours. With my character at full strength, it made more sense to avoid enemies than to engage them. The skills are too easy to upgrade and peak too quickly. I felt no incentive to approach tasks in ways that would improve my skill set because my character was already at his best. Crackdown fails to reward players beyond the first few hours of play.

Crackdown’s greatest flaw is in its emptiness. Pacific City is sprawling and remarkably accessible but lacks variety. Outside taking down gang bosses there is little else to do. The city contains multiple races that help the player to boost their skills. However, these brief time trials are pointless once the player has reached their height. Another of Crackdown’s greatest pitfalls is its lack of core gameplay. The game itself maxes out at a scant 15 hours. When the player takes down a gang’s kingpin, the entire gang permanently disappears from the streets. Once gangs disappear, there is no longer anything to do in entire segments of the city. Once the last kingpin is taken care of, there is nothing left to do in the game aside from a few mediocre time trials and an abysmal cooperative mode that is only available via Xbox LIVE.

Overall, Crackdown is a game that delivers exactly what it promises. Explosions are plentiful, enemies are abundant, and the mutant-like skills of the game’s protagonists are beyond comparison. Crackdown does well in developing its unique superhero abilities but fails to round out the rest of its gameplay.

Related Games:
The Grand Theft Auto series (multiple platforms), Mercenaries (Xbox, PS2), Lost Planet: Extreme Condition (Xbox 360, PS3, PC), Saints Row (Xbox 360)