Crackdown is an addiction. One you'll be happy to have.
Beginning as an agent of The Agency, you are simply tasked with cleaning up the streets and returning the city to its original state before gang corruption and explosive violence apparently rocked it sometime earlier. You aren't able to create a character, or even customize your own chosen agent, yet the game doesn't need the feature to succeed; and as I believe, you're able to use the Keys to the City download, which allows usage of all cheats without progression saving, to customize your character a bit in game. All in all the skill building and great abilities given to the agents are enough to keep you interested.
Vehicles are alright, nothing special to say the least. They seem to hover, or float, across the city as you drive them at ridiculous speeds.. running over numerous innocents along the way of course. The Agency's specific vehicles given to you at the start of every load in that zone get jacked as the story progresses and your agent's skill ascension continues; the SUV becomes a beastly near-monster truck, while the SuperCar becomes a sweet Corvette-style cruiser. The ideas are fantastic and everything balances out fairly well.
Gameplay is amazing.. there's hardly anything you can't do. The one downfall is destruction, buildings don't normally collapse when RPGs are fired directly into them, and walls don't fall to reveal any indoor stuctures. This game has been around for a while now however, and despite that fact, it shows great age when compared to many games on the 360 nowadays. Shooting, driving, fighting, and climbing are all great features that will make you happy just to see what you can accomplish. When you end your first climb to the top of the substantial Agency Tower, you'll know what I'm talking about. The game is almost a puzzler, where you need to figure out different methods and routes to get to places and reach objectives. You'll have great fun getting there when you do have to find something however, and nothing in this game is short of spectacular when played real-time.
Graphics are great, the view from atop much of the architecture is truly stunning, and the physics are true to an over-the-top action shooting game in every way. Colors are eye-catching while animations are mind-blowing. Explosions are fantastic and give you a sandbox sense of destruction when you pile 20 cars on top of each other and set charges all over them.. watch from a distance.
Overall, the mutliplayer is great.. even though it's only co-op. A great 5 vs. 5 would have been great fun, but take what you can get and enjoy the unlimited possibilities of Crackdown. You just might find you enjoy a game where anything goes, all the time. =)