Crackdown

i'm a mature gamer who bought a dozen or so games along with a new xbox just to see how the technology had evolved. (all the digital animation in recent films had piqued my interest.) having just opened grand theft auto 4 and assassin's creed, my first impression of this game was not favorable. but i've come to appreciate its unique and considerable charms. it is basically the urban sandbox, multi island, gansta life conceit of gta4, plus the rooftop play, "assassination mission plus side missions" concept of assassin's creed, but with a distinctively "comix" style of graphical design that is stylized to be less realistic, less textured, less graphically gory than either gta 4 or ac but more colorful, lively, and "artistic" than either. your avatar is not a thug but a maniacal police agent fighting evil and cleaning the streets, so you're not put in the position of looking at everything through gangster eyes, which is nice. however the most enjoyable innovation is a gruff voiceover guide who occasionally comments on your play ("are you crazy?" "i sure love the smell of agent in the morning!" "you sure like to push your luck!") along with gameplay and strategy tips; more than once his comments on my play made me laugh out loud. the avatar has physical and tactical skills that improve with use, notably the ability to leap and climb tall buildings if enough "agility" points are collected (these resemble the flags scattered around in assassin's creed) and the strength to lift and throw almost any detached object, from dead bodies to cement mixers, as weapons. but otherwise you have three options of play: roam the city to collect markers or perform racing stunts to improve agility; take on random firefights with street thugs to improve strength and skill, or kill off the senior members of three different crime gangs. these "missions" can be done in any order; each requires penetrating the gangster's lair after killing his almost endlessly spawning guards (though most do have a back entrance or rooftop way around defenders). this involves quite a lot of wearing down of the opposition, but each time you're killed and "regenerate", the enemy forces remain weakened, so you don't have to start the same exact mission, over and over, as happens in most games. the game physics are compelling, especially the explosions and flying objects, and the avatar has plenty of agility without cumbersome button combinations or programming limits. overall: a great game to look at, lots of fun to play, a very nice blend of humor and excitement, and no glitches in the xbox version that i could find.

I bought this game when it came out, and I literally couldn't stop playing it. I ended up selling my XBOX 360 becasuse I was convinced I had a real problem. Then 6 months later I bought a replacement XBOX 360. A week later I bought Crackdown again, but kept it under control.

Great game. Giant open-world platformer, kind of like everything good about Spiderman 2 and GTA III rolled into one. The powerups and achievements are doled out in such perfect operant conditioning that (for me at least) you can't turn it off.

Overall, a very good game. Even though I got it because of the Halo 3 Beta (long expired), I very much enjoyed playing Crackdown; although it did take me a while to beat.

Great game, I love the online Co-Op personaly. Its a basic shoot um up, clear the city of gang members with a sci-fi twist that your a super cop. You can run fast, jump high, and your one force to be reckoned with. Fun game its kind of short if you play it alot. I got into it and even after you finish it you can go online and have fun with others geting achievments and dukeing it out!

Crackdown IS a fun open-world sandbox game that is truely open. Unlike GTA or all it's clones,.. there are NO missions or cinema to unfold a linear story full of frustrating missions. You are a supercop unleashed on a HUGE city to take down and destroy a huge crime syndicate of gangs however you want to. Guns,.. throwing objects (even cars) acting like a superhero,.. you can do it all. You can level up your abilities and vehicles,.. and have fun just running/jumping all through the city getting orbs(that upgrade abilities) kind of like the hidden packages in GTA or even the coins in a Mario game.

It has recieved plenty of deserved praise. I agree with most of it.

BUT there is a downside. And the downside is that it has so much missing gameplay that could've made it a "GTA-killer" as opposed to just a nice distraction untill the next big game comes out.

First of all, the police officer aspect is very under developed. ALL you do is shoot and blow up gang members that shoot at you. There is no other crime except for gangs shooting at YOU and YOU alone. You're not protecting the citizens from anything. It would've been great if it had more police duty. Muggings,.. armed robbery,...giving tickets to speeders,.. stings and busts. Actually arresting people sometimes. Hunting criminals with outstanding warrants. Responding to dispatch calls.. All optional of course,.... something else to do besides the constant nonstop shooting of gangsters.

Now the other gripe I have with Crackdown: Lock-on aiming. This makes the MAIN aspect of the gameplay boring. Just lock on and hold down the fire key and that's it. Without the cheap lock on ,... the bullet accuracy is worthless. We don't need lock on aiming anymore. Just play Saints Row, Mercenaries, or GTA San Andreas to see how open-world 3rd person games can have the same superior aiming controls as opposed to lock on.
Also,.. the hand to hand combat is nothing more that a single kick. While you can pick up everything and throw it,.. it's useless and inneffective. You can't even do melee attacks with anything you pick up like in HULK: Ultimate Destruction. Even running over the gang members with vehicles is inneffective since they dodge your car 98% of the time. After trying all this,.. you'll end up just shooting everybody with the lock on aiming all the time and get bored.
After you defeat the gangboss in each island of the city,.. that island becomes devoid of any gang members,.. and since there is NO OTHER crime it just turns into a big boring city.

So for the first week you'll love it,.. but once you notice all the limits of gameplay you'll become bored. (it depends though,.. you may not care and just like it for what it is. It just depends on how much you crave a true living--open world with lots of gameplay variety.)

If only the developers had looked at the best features of other open world games like "Mercenaries", "Hulk: Ultimate Destruction", and even "True Crime LA" (for the police duty) and put them all together would Crackdown be all that it could be.

I would say that Saints Row and Mercenaries are both superior to Crackdown.