How can you go back? After having so much fun with a game that starts you at the top as the most Badass person in the ci
Now, you have to understand; I am a massive Grand Theft Auto nut. I have played endless hours cleansing the streets of the Ballas, knifing random cops, and kicking prostitutes curbside just to watch them bleed. So when I heard that there was a game that would force me to play on the side of the good guys, with cel shaded graphics and some ripped off Incredible Hulk abilities, I laughed so hard that it hurt. I joked around with friends, made fun of the Mr.T esque protagonist, and promised Carl Johnson in a bizarre late night ceremony that he would never leave my disc drive.
Well sorry CJ, old buddy; I lied to you.
I picked up Crackdown with hopes that it might be halfway decent and maybe keep me occupied until the Halo 3 beta started. The lukewarm reviews that had been coming out for it really were not inspiring any faith (7.8 I’m looking at you), and the whole “cop” concept just plain bored me. My opinions changed about 60 seconds after I started playing. As my Agency super car raced down the Keep’s exit tunnel at 130+ Mph speeds, I felt the hard place in my heart for this game begin to loosen up. And then, 20 minutes later, as I ruthlessly beat gangsters and platformed up the sides of skyscrapers to collect agility orbs, the back of my mind began to say: Hey you can’t do this in GTA! And by the time I had played an hour, and was jumping from building to building like a monkey on crack, and hurling dumpsters into Mexican punks, only one phrase was running through my head: This game is f***ing awesome! Simply put, Crackdown beat all of my expectations to a bloody pulp and then threw a burning Semi Truck on them. This game takes the sandbox genre and kicks right in the family jewels with a steel toed boot, including the much hailed (deservedly) GTA series.
I am dead serious; I don’t think I can play GTA again. This game asks the question: How can you go back? After having so much fun with a game that starts you at the top as the most Badass person in the city, how could you go back to being an underdog working your way up? After leaping from building to building and soaring over walls, how could you go back to just running around and driving? After throwing trucks at gangsters and brutally kicking them fifty yards away, how could you go back to just popping fools with a nine? The answer for me is simple: I can’t go back. I won’t go back. After being freed from the chains that held me, why would I bind myself once more?
This game has everything I want in an open world game: Awesome destruction, unbelievable graphics, wicked vehicles, crazy weapons, insane powers, fun and innovative multiplayer, the list goes on and on. Don’t listen to the Naysayers; if you guys really want deep and meaningful dialogue go read Atlas Shrugged; this is a video game. And to me this is one of the first games to actually be a game in a long time. It gets back to what video games used to be all about: FUN. Do you like fun? Are you tired of the torturous affairs of pretentious dialogue and emotion that many developers have put their focus on? Yeah, me too. You can have fun with this game in a matter of seconds. How long did it really take you in GTA: SA?
The bottom line is this: Crackdown delivers. It takes everything that makes gaming fun and packs into one disc. Like the first part of its name, this game is one addicting experience. The only complaints I can lodge against this otherwise perfect title is that I think the soundtrack needed some tweaking and the big bosses should have been made tougher in order to extend the games length, which is already very substantial.
And please note: these are minor issues and did nothing to stop this game from being the most fun I’ve had in a long time.
If you have a 360, go buy Crackdown. If you don’t have a 360 buy one. If you don’t have the money then steal from your Grandma. Just do what ever you have to, and get this game! As for my old buddy CJ? I’m done with him; we don’t even call each other anymore.
I have a new friend, and my friend's name is Crackdown.