Crackdown
February 27,2007 - Microsoft is set to have a rather good year with the Xbox 360 in 2007. There are plenty of great titles scheduled for the system, and the first of these is Crackdown. Crackdown is developed by Realtime Worlds and created by David Jones, who created the original Grand Theft Auto. It’s easy to try to compare Crackdown to GTA, and the two games do have a few similarities. First they’re both open world games, and they both include shooting and driving. That’s where the similarities end, and Crackdown starts to do things differently.

Crackdown doesn’t try to tell much of a story. In the near future, you play as a nameless genetically enhanced “Agent” working for an organization known simply as “The Agency”. Your job is to wipe out the three gangs that have taken over Pacific City. There are the drug smuggling Los Muertos, the Volk’s militia, and the genetically enhanced Shai-Gen. As you explore the city, you’ll come across the strongholds of the gang generals. You’re given a bit of information about that particular general, but other than that, the game doesn’t do much to try to advance a story. It simply points out your objectives and then lets you go after them.

You start off as a base level Agent. As you take out gang members, you’ll gain experience depending on how you eliminated those gang members. When you gain enough experience, you’ll raise your skill levels. There are five skills in all and each of them, with the exception of Agility, can be raised by simply using them to take out the gangs. Raising Agility will have you exploring the city in search of Agility Orbs. Collecting enough of those will earn you a level. This system might sound a bit odd, but it works very well. Hunting for Agility Orbs will become a regular activity, and one that doesn’t become tedious because the city you will be exploring is so vast and well constructed. Your Agent will become more powerful as you build your skills, which gives you the ability to pick up heavier objects, make larger explosions, shoot more accurately, drive vehicles better, and most importantly, jump higher.

Other than hunting down the various gang generals and kingpins, there are two basic side-mission types. There is the rooftop race, where you must go from checkpoint to checkpoint on foot, and the vehicle races, which has you essentially doing the same thing in a car. While they aren’t particularly interesting, they will give you skill bonuses for completing them, so it may be worth some of your time to complete a few. That is really Crackdown’s only fault; other than the side missions, there isn’t all that much to do. Thankfully the game offers online cooperative play, so that you and a friend can take on the gangs together. You can also compete against your friend in the side missions if you want to. Having the ability to have someone come in and give you a hand if you’re in a tough spot is a great addition, and more games should certainly have that option.

Crackdown has a very nice presentation style. The visuals have a sort of cell-shaded look to them, but they’re also fully textured. The look of the game resembles that of a modern graphic novel—fitting with the game’s sci-fi setting. The city you’ll be exploring is populated by civilians; they seem to be everywhere, at every hour of the day and night. It’s a nice touch, though one has to wonder what some of these people are doing walking around so late. The biggest problem with the game is the camera can sometimes put itself in a place where you won’t be able to see your character. This doesn’t happen too often, but it's annoying when it does. Another small problem comes from the game’s frame rate. It doesn’t always stay silky smooth. When there are a lot of objects moving around, the game’s frame rate tends to dip a little bit.

Crackdown carries its solid presentation over to the audio as well. The various weapon and explosion effects all sound as you’d expect them. The voices that the civilians and gang members use are also well done, though they do tend to repeat themselves often. Crackdown has a good and rather varied soundtrack, comprised of electronic, rap, rock, and other styles of music. For the most part, you’ll only hear this music as if it were coming from a building or car, since there’s no music while you’re walking around on foot. When you get into a car, then you’ll hear the game’s tunes, much like in GTA.

Crackdown is a solid game in just about every respect. Cleaning up the streets is a lot of fun, whether you’re playing solo or with a friend. Those that like sandbox style games will no doubt like Crackdown. What's more, if you don’t like or haven't played this kind of game, Crackdown might surprise you.

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