There's a classic trade-off that's unique to video games versus any other medium of entertainment: You can give people a deep and interesting story, or you can give them unlimited freedom to do their own thing. But you can't give them both.
Crackdown is all about the freedom. It's a big, shiny, digital toy, wrapped up and thrust into your hands. If you were the kind of kid who could while away entire afternoons concocting imaginary adventures with your Star Wars action figures, you'll love it to death.
But if you need to be told what to do and where to do it -- if you preferred playing Monopoly over dreaming up scenarios for your wee plastic Luke Skywalkers -- Crackdown might leave you feeling a little dissatisfied. Maybe even -- dare we say it -- bored.
Crackdown falls into the category of "urban sandbox" games, a sub-genre that began with Grand Theft Auto III (which shares several key developers with Crackdown). But instead of living the 'ho-slapping thug life, you take on the role of a genetically enhanced super-cop working for the Agency, a police force patrolling the crime-ridden metropolis of Pacific City.
The overall thrust of the game is to eliminate three gang kingpins, each located in a different part of the city and each with six lieutenants holed up in their own separate heavily guarded headquarters.
How you go about this and the order in which you tackle the gangs is entirely up to you, although the difficulty ramps up as you progress from the gang-bangers of Los Muertos to the Russian mafia-inspired Volk to the high-tech and well-trained legions of the sinister Shai-Gen Corporation.
Still, you can go straight for the baddest baddie of all (and likely die a swift death) if that's what you want. Or you can ignore the gangs entirely and spend your time building up your agent's five skills, watching him become stronger, better with weapons and explosives, a more skilled driver and able to leap between skyscraper rooftops like a less green 'n' angry version of the Hulk.
And that's where Crackdown really shines. Bounding from building to building, picking up buses and hurling them at criminals, blowing up half a dozen cars with a single shot from a rocket launcher, pulling off vehicle stunts that would make Evel Knievel wet his star-spangled jumpsuit ... you'd be hard-pressed to find a game that allows you to feel more like a super-hero, even though Crackdown isn't based on a comic book.
The downside is the game doesn't ask you to do a whole lot outside of the gang cleanup and a handful of car races, stunt challenges and parkour-inspired foot races across rooftops. If you wanted to, you could while away an hour shooting out the tires of speeding vehicles and watching them crash, or piling gang bodies into a dumpster and throwing it into the ocean, or dozens of other impromptu, self-made activities.
But it feels like the developers of Crackdown could have included a lot more. Pacific City is huge, with wildly diverse architecture and dozens of cool places to explore. And yet a lot of it serves no real purpose in the game, making it feel strangely empty.
Even the game's co-op mode lacks a certain sense of structure. You and another player can team up via Xbox Live to battle gang bosses, compete in races or just beat the crap out of each other (and I have to admit that kicking your crimefighting partner off the top of a skyscraper when he least expects it is laugh-til-your-stomach-hurts hilarious).
But for the most part, you're left to your own devices. Whether that's good or bad will depend on what kind of gamer you are.
For all their promises of letting you be in control of your digital alter ego's destiny, a lot video games still try to gently steer players into a specific set of experiences, or have them follow a pre-scripted plot to its logical climax. Save the princess. Blow up the alien homeworld. Live happily ever after.
Crackdown goes to the opposite extreme, asking you to bring your own imagination and creativity to the game. There's lots of buckets and shovels in this sandbox, but what you make with them is entirely up to you. Have fun.
BOTTOM LINE: Crackdown's wide-open metropolis gives you all kinds of freedom to explore, fight and destroy, but the game lacks the kind of storyline and structure that fans of Grand Theft Auto-style games might be expecting. Be prepared to use your imagination.
Tilley's Cheat Sheet
STREET JUSTICE: The driving skill can be one of the trickier ones to max out. To pump up your proficiency, do street races in the middle of the night when civilian vehicle and pedestrian traffic is minimal. During daylight hours, boost your vehicular manslaughter tally by grabbing the Agency SUV and finding an area thick with baddies (the Volk refinery is a good choice.) The SUV's quick braking and tight turning radius will help you clip those cretins that try to sprint out of your way. That'll teach them to jaywalk.
A NASTY LIMPET: The limpet grenade is for more than just booby-trapping foot race checkpoints in co-op mode. Slap a few on a car, speed towards a herd of baddies and bail out before you reach them. The car's momentum will carry it into the crowd, which is your cue to detonate the grenades and watch the fireworks.
ALL YOUR BASE JUMPS BELONG TO US: To get the High Flyer achievement, you'll have to earn a four-star agility rating and carefully climb the Agency headquarters skyscraper in the middle of the city, ending up on top of the tallest of three spires. Once up there, snag the Base Jumper achievement by looking for the small, oddly shaped pond on the ground and jumping into it. It's a looong way down, and you have to survive the fall to earn the achievement. So don't miss.
WHAM! Rating: |
8 out of 10 |
ESRB Rating: |
M (Mature 17+) |
Official Web Site: |
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