Crackdown Review (X360)

Crackdown, or Riot Act as it is called in Japan, mixes GTA-style “sandbox” gameplay with special abilities you’d usually only find in a Marvel superhero to create a game that actually stands out among the increasing number of GTA wannabes. It looks gorgeous, plays amazing well, and is one of the most addictive and satisfying games around. Crackdown is highly recommended.

The gameplay is where Crackdown really makes its mark and stands out from the crowd of GTA clones. Sure, you can drive around and shoot stuff and do whatever you want, but Crackdown ups the ante by adding superhuman strength and agility to the mix. Imagine the world of GTA mixed with Hulk: Ultimate Destruction and you have a pretty good idea of what Crackdown is like. You can run fast and jump hundreds of feet and you also have the strength the climb up the side of a building, pick up cars and other in-game objects, and just generally wreak havoc as you please. Think of a mission in GTA: You get in a car and drive there. In Crackdown you just climb up the nearest building and hop from rooftop to rooftop until you get there. And once you do get there, you have a nice arsenal of weapons to take out the enemy. Shotguns, sniper rifles, assault rifles, rocket launchers, and several different types of grenades mean you should never be outgunned going into a fight. The targeting system is very easy to use, as you just have to hold the left trigger to lock on and then fire away. It keeps the gameplay fast and relatively easy since you don’t usually have to worry about precise aiming. The only disappointment in the gameplay is the driving aspect. The cars don’t handle too terribly well, and it is a heck of a lot more fun to just take to the skies and climb around on the buildings.

Crackdown succeeds in a number of different ways. First off, the glue that holds everything together is the smart experience and leveling up system. As you do things such as kill enemies with guns, or explosives, or by punching and kicking them, or driving over them, you earn experience points that are applied to that particular ability. As you level up, your explosives do more damage, you become better with guns, and the cars you can get from the Agency garage become more and more advanced. You also level up your agility by collecting green orbs hidden throughout the city, and the higher your agility level, the faster you run and further you can jump. A nice touch is that your level advancement is penalized if you kill too many civilians, so rather than doing the GTA thing and just killing everything and everyone, you have to be more careful in Crackdown. All of this keeps you coming back for more because you’ll want to see what your character will be able to do next. When you get fully powered up, it really is a completely different game from when you started.

Crackdown just does so many things well and works for so many different reasons. I have to admit that I am getting tired of the GTA clones, and didn’t enjoy Saints Row as much as some people. You can only drive around and be a bad guy and do the same stuff over and over again so many times. Crackdown tweaks that formula and adds a very satisfying experience system that makes the experience drastically different the longer you play. I also really, really like the vertical exploration aspect of the game, and climbing on buildings and figuring out how to get as high as possible is quite a challenge but it is very satisfying. Each building you try to climb is like a new puzzle, and jumping around, hanging on ledges, and making one death defying leap after another is really quite fun. When you beat the game, you have the option to turn the gangs on or off, which makes it easier to do some of the achievements when you don’t have people shooting rockets at you. You can also turn them back on if you‘re looking for a shootout.<p> Review continued on Page 2...