 Review By: Nick Arvites |
Developer: | Real Time Worlds |
| Publisher: | Microsoft | |
| Genre: | Action | |
| ESRB: | Mature | |
| # Of Players: | 1-2 (2 online) | |
| Online Play: | Yes | |
| Accessories: | Xbox Live (online play), HDTV 720p | |
| Buy Now: |   |
Shooting, however, is handled well. Using the left trigger to focus on a target, you can either blast away or focus on a particular body part. Shooting a leg out knocks the target down, shooting an arm can disarm them, and hitting the head kills them. Unlike, say, True Crime, you aren’t required to arrest criminals. In fact, you can’t. While that essentially turns the game into a super powered cop rampaging through the streets, it actually works. Crackdown manages to channel that late-80s, early-90s beat-em-up feel to it. This is the style you’d want to use if you churned out an overdue sequel to a beat-em-up. The combat is fast and enemies generally go down quickly.
There are consequences for wrecking mayhem on the city. If you kill too many gang members, a meter appears showing a circle around that gang’s logo. If the circle fills up, they actively send out hit squads, which are quite effective. My encounters with a hit squad usually start with one running me down, me wiping out that carload, and having 4 more cars pull up, dumping out gang members who mow me down ala Sonny in the Godfather. The same system applies to the local law enforcement. If you wipe out enough civilians or police, they become hostile and will eventually send out hit squads. The system is forgiving in the sense that it cools down if you just stop killing things and hide somewhere (rooftop, alley, etc).
The only online multiplayer available is a Co-Op mode, which works fine. You can join in the middle of a friend’s game similar to Gears of War, and you both get credit for completing objectives. The game does have time trial modes as well, which upload the scores to Xbox Live. There is no deathmatch mode, and I didn’t really find myself wanting one.
The graphical look of the game is smooth. Crackdown perfectly utilizes cell-shading to provide a visually appealing world while retaining an urban look. The cell-shading seems to further accent the entire super-hero feel, and it seems much less absurd to have a cell-shaded agent leaping across highways. Explosions are rich, and the use of the Havok physics engine is excellent. Ragdoll effects on bodies look good, and objects fly from explosions.
Are there problems with Crackdown? Sure. The game is slightly shorter than I’d like. I managed to clear through it in a weekend. The agent models are good, although I would have liked to create my own (even if it was just using basic preset features). Crackdown does not include female agents though, which isn’t a major quirk but seems like something they could have just thrown in. Granted, once a female hit the max levels in this game, she’d probably look only slightly smaller and slightly less masculine than an East German Olympic Athlete during the steroid years.
My biggest complaint centers around the missions. Crackdown is simple and straightforward, and there really is no variation in what you do. Every mission uses the same “walk in, shoot everything that moves, walk out” strategy. You don’t have the same story-driven missions like you see in Grand Theft Auto. This can make the game pretty boring in long sittings, but keeping Crackdown simple actually works in some sense. It allows you to pick up the game for a short sitting and actually be able to accomplish something. This quick-hit style of gameplay works for the overall feel of Crackdown, though it will displace gamers spoiled by the depth seen in, say, the Grand Theft Auto series.
Bottom Line:
The bottom line on Crackdown is essentially: "Is this title worth playing or is it just an overpriced entry into the Halo 3 beta?"
Make no mistake, Crackdown is one of the pleasant surprises of 2007. When they first announced they were slapping the Halo 3 beta with Crackdown, I automatically assumed the game would be horrific. Crackdown manages to capture the superhero/comic book/action movie feel that games in the Superman series or The Matrix series have ultimately failed to capture. The game is done well, and the only major knock I have on it is the short length and simplicity.
Ultimately, Crackdown feels like an updated spiritual successor to the classic beat-em-up genre. If you were to update, say, Final Fight, I'd like to see it done in a similar, sandbox style. Crackdown is genuinely fun, and the quick hit style is one that I haven't seen in a long time. While it will be forgotten in the 2007 Game of the Year awards, Crackdown is easily the best title of 2007 so far.
| Pros: | Cons: | Final Score: |
|---|---|---|
|
| 8.5 |
Posted: 2007-02-26 20:47:47 PST