Breaking Down Crackdown - The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly
The Good
- Ever imagine being able to jump from rooftop to rooftop, jumping so high sometimes that you worry about how hard the landing will be? Well this game allows you to do that, and in an urban setting filled with different sized buildings.
- Aside from being able to jump high, you can also improve your strength to a point where you can kick a car like it was a tin can. You can eventually work your character's strength levels to a point where you can pick up a big rig and toss it easily into other cars or you can pick up a sedan and hold it overhead while you hop from rooftop to rooftop.
- The explosions in the game are well done. You can really feel the power of them with the rumble and the animation. (Hey Sony, rumble is NOT a thing of the past, btw)
- The graphics are very impressive. It's a combination of 2D and 3D worlds, in a way. The outlines of the characters and buildings are highlighted in a way that makes it seem like a comic book, but the reality factor is still high in terms of the physics (nevermind the superhuman abilities).
- The Co-op multi-player is an awesome additive. It's one thing that I liked a lot about Gears of War and I'm hoping to see as an option in future games as well.
The Bad
- There's not much structure to the storyline of the game. All you get it a digital dossier of some sort that pops up when you're in the area of a "boss". Just a lot of random activity in the game overall.
- There's not much reward for finding the secret orbs in the game. If you collect all however many hundred of them, you get ... ready? ... 50 gamerscore points! Woo hoo! *rolls eyes*
- The driving in the game is rather hard to control even with the driving upgrades. To the driving aspect's credit, though, I think being able to run so fast and jump from rooftop to rooftop makes up for that.
- Enemies appear randomly out of thin air sometimes as well as vehicles. Incredibly busy sidewalks, horribly empty roads. It's odd, because if you jump on what looks like a busy freeway cars will often disappear from that freeway when you jump on it.
The Ugly
- Going back and doing the time trials, I realized that it can take you under 30 seconds to beat the "bosses" in certain areas that are surrounded by henchmen or what not. It would have been cool to have had rooftop chases with an enemy that had similar skills, but they just stand there and get killed ... easily.
They did a good job on this game overall. It surprised me for sure and brought one of the more enjoyable experiences I've had with the 360 so far. May be a renter, but I've had mine out from Gamefly for over a month, so .... Plus! You can beta test Halo 3 if you get a specially marked package of Crackdown, so I think it might be worth a buy then.
Cheers