Albeit it's short story and other flaws, Crackdown is a fun, addicting game that shouldn't be missed.
The Bad: Some co-op games can get laggy. Awful soundtrack. Driving is a total bore. Very short game.
Everybody remembers Robocop, right? This motion picture followed a half man, half machine cop as he served justice in his own way. Taking a hint from that movie, and borrowing some GTA-esque elements, the guys at Realtime Worlds came up with Crackdown, a third-person shooter action game which is very... vertically inclined.
In Crackdown, you play as a super Agent out to rid the city streets of the vile gang members and their leaders. There isn't much of a back story here, as you are thrust into the thick of things as soon as the game starts.
The virtual city is split up into 3 islands, each controlled by a different gang. Naturally, you start off against the easiest gang, but things get a bit harder as you progress. Each gang has 7 leaders you can take down, each different from one another. A gang is decimated as soon as you kill the final boss and take care of the Final Crime.
There are some supply points scattered throughout the city, on each island. Not only do these count as spawn points, but they are also areas where you can restock on ammo and also drop off enemy weapons for future use. Once you drop off an enemy weapon, it'll be available to you throughout the game. But to get to these, you'll need to be vertically inclined, since they are all located at the top of buildings. The first ones are easily attainable, but you'll have to boost up your agility to get to the others later on in the game.
To boost that agility, you'll have to pick up the Agility Orbs scattered all around the city. There are hundreds of them to collect, and you'll have loads of fun (and frustration) in trying to get them all, especially the last batch.
Speaking of upgrading, agility isn't the only skill you'll need to upgrade on your Agent. There's also firearms, explosives, driving and body. Firearms and Explosives will upgrade as you shoot down enemies and downgrade if you heppen to shoot helpless civilians. Driving will upgrade when you complete races scattered accross the city and perform certain jumps and acrobatics with your vehicle or if you run over gang members, and it will downgrade if you run over civilians. Your Body skill will upgrade when you complete rooftop races and kill enemies by kicking, punching or melee and it will downgrade when you do the same to civilians.
There are also Hidden Orbs which are, you guessed it, hidden all over the city. When you collect these, it will slightly upgrade all of your skills. The highest level you can reach, for any skill, is 4 stars. As you gain a star, you'll see your Agent evolve physically, as will the environment around him, like the Agency cars he gets into. An Agent with all his skills maxed out is practically invincible.
Shooting in the game works really well. As with other shooters of the genre, you aim with the left trigger and shoot with the right. You also have precise aiming, where you can target a leg, an arm, the torso or the head. Some guns will be more effective for head shots, while others will be more deadly when you aim for the chest.
You'll also dispose of grenades and grenade launchers, which aren't as precise but can wipe out a bunch of enemies faster than any gun could. And, naturally, there is the coveted rocket launcher, the most exciting and fun weapon in the game and the most effective. Once you lay your hands on this baby and that your Explosives skill is pretty high, you'll be practically invincible.
The driving aspect of the game feels like it was just thrown in there for good measure. I had absolutely no fun at all driving around the city, and why would I, when I would much rather be jumping and climbing? The races are a repetitive and boring task you need to undertake if you want to upgrade that Driving skill. Most of the cars look exactly the same, except in a different color... Oh, and there are no motorcycles at all in the game. Now those would have been a good addition, especially with all the jumping going on.
There isn't much of a story in Crackdown, aside from brief gang and boss introductions. With a more robust storyline and some character development, this game could've been very good and would have stood out from all the other sandbox games of the same genre. The ending is rather bizarre and leaves the story wide open for a sequel.
The graphics, without being revolutionary, are pretty damn good. The comic-book, cel-shaded look gives the game a very artsy style. The game doesn't hang when a new part of the city is loaded, which keeps the fluidity going. It's quite a breathtaking sight when you get to the top of the Agency building and look down on the city.
The very minimal voice acting in the game is very repetitive and gets on your nerves really quick, especially that annoying, mysterious voice you keep hearing throughout the game. Most of the time, it's completely wrong anyways. For example, you'll be underground and you'll hear the voice say "Look at that view! Best one in the city!" or you'll be walking down the street and he'll go "I can see my house from here!"
The gang members will also repeat the same thing over and over again, their favorite phrase being "Prepare to die!" Let's just say that the dialogue wasn't one of the developers' top priorities for this game.
The techno and house music heard while riding in vehicles is beyond boring and comes from unknown artists, for the most part. The other orchestral arrangements aren't spectacular, but they do the job.
The area in which this game really shines is how addictive it is. Collecting orbs, shooting bad guys with your rocket launcher, jumping on buildings and from rooftop to rooftop, all of this blends in seemlesly and makes you come back for more.
Co-op gameplay is also fun, but there are a couple of glitches that prevents it from being superb. Sometimes, as soon as you get close to your partner, the game will often crash and bring you back to the title screen for no reason whatsoever. The lag can also get really bad in some instances. But there's nothing more satisfying than kicking your buddy off of a building or blowing him or her up with a rocket launcher.
You'll probably be able to complete the main story missions in about 10 hours or so, and the rest of the activities shouldn't take you too much time either, unless you're going for every achievement in the game, which should take you another 2 hours or so. The game is fairly easy on the default skill level and with a maxed out Agent, it becomes a breeze.
Despite it's very short length, relative ease, lack of story and minor bugs, Crackdown is still a good, addicting game and a ton of fun to play through. For a game that came with the Halo 3 beta key included, it still can hold it's own, with or without the Master Chief backing it up.