Game Review: Crackdown

Game: Crackdown
Console: Xbox 360
Developer: Realtime Worlds
Release Date: 20th February 2007

As I recently acquired an Xbox 360, I thought that my first review should be an exclusive for the console, and something that's been almost universally recommended to me by other 360 owners. Crackdown is a free-roaming sandbox style game which tasks players with cleaning up the three gang-infested island regions of Pacific City. To do this, high ranking members of each gang must be discovered and eliminated to increase the chance of success in taking out the kingpins.

Taking on the role of a genetically enhanced agent of justice, players work alongside "The Agency" in tackling the gang infestation. Once players are close to the location of a gang boss, they'll receive an agency briefing on the exact whereabouts, skills and job role of the boss in question and can decide whether attempting to eliminate them is a good idea. Also dotted around the map are "supply points" to be discovered and used as respawn points.

As a genetically enhanced agent of justice, there are 5 key skills which can be improved. The first is agility; improved via finding agility orbs scattered around the rooftops of the city, completing rooftop races in a fast enough time and making kills from height. This skill proves to be important from the outset, as scaling buildings and jumping up to 30 feet in the air make fighting gangs far easier. Driving skill can be improved by running over and killing gang members, and completing checkpoint races, but I didn't find cars to be a particularly effective method of getting around in the game and ignored them if possible, in favour of jumping everywhere.

Explosives skill is improved by killing enemies with explosives and gives greater power and range to rocket launchers and grenades used by players. The strength skill is improved by killing gang members with your bare hands (or feet), and can be very useful as a means of quickly taking out opponents, once your agent is strong enough to kill gang members in one hit. Near the end of the game, I'd often kill kingpins by kicking them to death, rather than gunning them down because it seemed to be far more effective. The final upgradable skill is firearms, which is improved via making weapon kills and helps with accuracy and damage done with guns.

Bosses and Kingpins are usually hidden in some of the more unique buildings that the map has to offer; an oil rig, building site, and the tallest building on the map are just some of the more memorable locations. Players must work their way to the boss's location through much resistance from gang members and eliminate the boss, without losing their health. Luckily player health and armour regenerates when they're not being attacked and in the event of being killed, players can respawn at the nearest supply point to give it another go, almost immediately.

Pacific City itself has some interesting buildings and scenery across its three islands; most offices and tower blocks can easily be scaled by a player with enough agility skill, and swimming to boss locations for a better vantage point is a common tactic. As the game cycles through night and day, the amount of gang members on the street changes, but apart from this there's not a lot of variation in events. I'd have liked to have seen a few more touches like these to give the population of Pacific City personality as a whole.

The game's overall plot relies heavily on the simple fact that players are helping the agency take down gangs by taking out their key figures and kingpins. No external plot events occur; the game's story is comprised of players eliminating the gang members. Similarly there's no character development or interest in the player character or even the bosses and kingpins really, as we're only told basic information about them.

Although Crackdown controls fairly well after a little while playing the game, the driving and shooting mechanics aren't as polished as they could be. I found it difficult to complete road races due to the poor handling of most vehicles (even with upgraded vehicle skill). I also had difficulty with the aiming system early on in the game which seems to pick targets randomly, as well as being frustrated when bombarded with enemy rockets later in the game which resulted in my character being thrown from rooftops like a ragdoll.

The AI which features in the game often feels below par; there were several occasions where I'd be standing next to a gang member without them even noticing, yet enemies several buildings away could get a clear shot on me. Another example of poor AI is evident when above any roadway watching traffic; within a few seconds there's typically a huge vehicular pileup for seemingly no reason. My final complaint of the AI are allied agents, who will target the player after any minor mistake that results in injury to an agent or an innocent. As it's fairly easy to drive into either, players must deal with being hunted by The Agency as well as gang members fairly often. These problems give the game a less polished feel overall and can lessen the immersion.

There are a variety of weapons featured in the game which can be swapped out once acquired and taken to a supply point. While the game didn't make this particularly clear, upgrading your weapons is a great help in being able to do more difficult hits on gang bosses. It's surprising that there's not a hint to tell players this, as throughout the game the agency's boss constantly provides informative, but often irrelevant hints. After around an hour players will have heard every hint available, but they continue indefinitely and can't be turned off without taking away all speech from the agency boss.

Graphically Crackdown features elements of both realistic and cartoon styles; character models have shading and outlines which look distinctly animated when compared to some of the building and landscape details. On the whole the game's style and world as a whole contribute to its character and mood. Alongside this is the music from the in-game radio which features a carefully chosen selection of many lesser known acts with a dark electronic/dance style, giving the cities a real sense of being overrun by crime and gangs.

Overall while I have many minor complaints about Crackdown; including the constant hints, interruption to gameplay from Agency Briefings, the driving and shooting mechanics and its very simple and predictable plot and ending, it's still a game which is a lot of fun to play and complete. For me the sense of free roaming was somewhat held back by a lack of things to do other than rooftop races, road races and killing gang members, all of which are core elements of the game. Despite this, I'd recommend Crackdown as an enjoyable sandbox game with RPG style levelling up elements and a great sense of fun.

Rating: 77/100
Grade: B