An exercise in coulda, woulda, shoulda that may bring quick delight but won't hold up for the long haul.
Now let me state that I enjoyed this game, I really did, but see what it could have been I almost feel that my enjoyment was cheapened in some way.
Crackdown is a good run and gun action game, that pretty much sums it up. The action is fairly continuous and in some areas fierce, but in truth it's fairly one dimensional. As I stated there is a wealth of potential that is simply wasted in this game, one largely noteable example is the advancement system, as you progress in the game you grow in five areas, strength, firepower (shooting ability), explosives, driving, and agility. At first glance it may seem that leveling is necessaary to progress in the game, with the idea being to adapt your player to your play style, but it doesn't work that way. While one might assume leveling up firepower would yeild new weapons or special shooting abilities it does not, your lock on is slighty and I emphasize slighty faster and your shots do just a bit more damage, but nothing really changes. More over many of the skills are unnecessaary to complete the game, strength may seem fun to try and upgrade, but really changes nothing, though you may gain an extra life bar in a heavy fire fight you will die just as fast and no you will never be strong enough to plow through the enemy fortress like a Hulk or Colossus. Driving may be the most pointless of the batch as the open enviorment is small enough to traverse by foot and there are no drive specific missions, save some road races which do nothing but raise your driving ablility some more.
The other thing about Crackdown that started to bug me was the lack of a mission system, though the dossier files that occasionally pop up point out who is where in the open areas, they do nothing but point the way to another area of mindless shoot outs, no possible stealth access points no alternate routes, no weakness no order to takedowns at all makes them just border pointless repition.
All in all crackdown is a good run and gun action title, as I stated, but when you have a game that looks like GTA meets Hulk Ultimate Destruction meets Spider-man 2, you just go in expecting a little more. Here's hoping the squeal can deliver where the original seemed to stumble.