Kills for skills..............
Crackdown is about as open world as an open world game can be. You really have no real objectives or missions here other than to kill bad guys and their bosses and see how their deaths effect the overall operations of the gangs in the city. In its purest form, Crackdown doesn't seem like much. And in reality, there really isn't a lot to it. But the game is built play how we want to play it. And I believe that that is what makes it special.
The graphics won't jump out at you that much. The city itself is large and looks good, but don't expect any Gears of War quality graphics here. Instead, there is a graphic novel style (see cel shading) to the game that doesn't do anything really new but does get the job done. The models and environments are clean and done well. Good enough. But those are some pretty explosions.......
Sound doesn't play a huge role in this game. The in game music that plays while driving a car is highly forgettable compared to tracks you hear in other games of this type. However, you'll hardly spend that much time in a car unless you are doing a race or just want to get somewhere quickly. Most of your time will be spent jumping from rooftop to rooftop. And this case, all you really hear are some of your expected city noises (cars, pointless chatter) and the occasional gunfire and explosions caused by you and your enemies. So, the sound of the game won't win any awards, but you won't loose any sleep over its quality.
The actual game itself can be a hit or miss depending on who you are. Depending on how you play, the game will be really short or really long. Those who want to just rush through and kill the gang bosses will probably be dissapointed with the game. For those that actually take the time to really level up your agent and methodically bring the city to justice, then you'll find yourself on good chunk of gameplay time to mess around with. Sure, you don't have to grab every orb or do every race. But why not do it anyway? You bought the game, so milk it. Plus, with online co-op, you and a friend can bust caps together and you even have the freedom to create your own gamplay ideas while your at it. And let's not forget about obtaining achievements. We all know we need those. Crackdown is a franchise that's off to a solid start. Its a little rough as it is, but there is downloadable content planned and the possibilities there definitely pique my interest. But for what its worth, Microsoft has another hit first party title in its pocket. Halo 3 beta aside, this is definitely a game that fans of action titles should look into.
Buy: if you played the demo over and over and over.....
Rent: if you breeze through games of this type and are looking for deep story elements.