When I found out the genius behind GTA was developing a new sandbox style game my interest level shot up. I had heard of Crackdown and figured I would check it out, but knowing that the man who created the sandbox standard for games was the brains behind the operation really got me interested. After trying the demo (again let this be a lesson to developers everywhere) I went out and reserved a copy and retarded my excitement as much as I could until it released.
Now Crackdown's strong point is not its story. It's more like a background or prologue and then you take it from there. Basically you are a genetically engineered super cop charged with taking down 7 crime bosses over a very expansive city. There is no story from prologue to conclusion which was a little peculiar but surprisingly that does not diminish the quality of the game.
I was surprised by how much I enjoyed Crackdown. I don't know if I have ever been as addicted to leveling up my character as I was in Crackdown due to the immediate difference you see in the character's performance. The RPG-like elements of Crackdown are probably my favorite aspect of the game. Every time you either pick up orbs or get kills in one of the 5 categories (driving, weapons, melee, agility and explosives), your character improves his skills. This ultimately will lead to your character increasing his abilities in that category. After your character gains enough orbs/experience, his skill set will increase which means he will be able to jump higher, drive faster, his weapons will become more accurate, etc. When these abilities max out and your character is at his peak, you are a roided-out version of your former self and literally able to leap buildings in a single bound. When your character has reached the pinnacle of his abilities is where the game really shines. Crackdown does a great job of making you feel like the super cop you are but still offering the player a challenge. Each crime boss is a challenge and the weapons that the enemies use in the later stages can still offer a challenge to even the most skilled super cop. I also found the orb-collecting aspect of the game to be very entertaining. All over the city there are different types of orbs that you can collect to help upgrade your skills and surprisingly they were both fun and addictive to find.
Although Crackdown does what it does very well the game can also feel flat at times. As much fun as it is jumping from one building and landing on a building across the street while firing a rocket at the ground and destroying 3 cars and 8 enemies in the process, the feeling can get a little repetitive. With no side missions (or missions for that matter) other than foot time trial races and driver time trial races, Crackdown suffers from very little to do outside of taking out bad guys. Some sort of side missions would be more than welcome to break up the constant shooting of the same old enemies in the same spots every time you come around the block. Also, Crackdown can sometimes feel unbalanced with large groups of enemies constantly respawning during boss battles that you will find yourself sprinting away from combat more often than not. I do feel that no enemies respawning would make boss fights too easy but the sheer onslaught of constantly respawning enemies can become trying at times. Finally, occasionaly the player will experience some hit detection issues. From time to time I would be shooting an enemy in the head and notice that there was no damage being received and occasionally an enemy would survive a direct hit with a rocket and other times they would die instantly.
For as very basic as it is I was surprised by how much I enjoyed Crackdown. Just exploring the world is very rarely so fun and that is only the beginning of what Crackdown has to offer. After finishing Crackdown I would definitely recommend it to anyone who is a fan of sandbox-style games.
Darren writes: "Despite much moaning and groaning, Xbox has had some smashing console exclusive games during its four generation lifespan. Crackdown was one such game, released in the early years of the Xbox 360"
Still one of my all time favorite games. It hurt to see what happened to Crackdown 3 😔
Gamerheadquarters; "With the jump in power from the Xbox Series X all Xbox 360 and Original Xbox titles that are backwards compatible should be enhanced as soon as they’re available."
They’ve been working the past few years and have become proficient in that department so I definitely think they are capable of such a feat. Their BC through emulation that can natively upscale blows my mind and gives them an advantage over competitors using multiple hardware settings which requires higher clock speeds and produces more heat.
I caught Chaos Theory on sale and was actually blown away by how it scaled on the One X.
I imagine that they'll carry over the functionality of the X regarding playing previous gen games to the series X.
They better have good support for backwards compatibly.... Since they have no 1st pay games LMAO 😂
“compatibly”, “1st pat games”: Are those supposed to be “compatibility” and “first party games”? Doesn’t really come across as an adult. No disrespect, legit question: is English not your first language?
And xbox one games, there are many underperformed 3rd party games that needs frames boost.
Crackdown is a series of sandbox-style action adventure video games published by Xbox Game Studios. Retro Respawn looks at the first title.
loved it