Review: Crackdown

Created by the man behind GTA – Crackdown is a gutsy action game with tonnes of gameplay. Would Crackdown only be known as ‘that game’ that included the Halo 3 beta?

Best described as a free-form urban action game, Crackdown is similar to Grand Theft Auto… but on steroids. It’s inevitable that this game is compared to GTA; the series that set the benchmark for this genre, Crackdown was created by Dave Jones, the original creator behind GTA.

In Crackdown, you take the role of an Agent, a member of a law enforcement organisation known only as the Agency. The Agents’ mission is to destroy the 3 organised crime syndicates that control the futuristic metropolis of Pacific City; the Latin American Los Muertos, Eastern European Volk, and East Asian Shai-Gen.

Running around the city taking down gangs is pretty tiring work – you can find power-ups to increase your agents performance in five key disciplines; agility, driving, explosives, strength and firearms. But these performance increases are nothing to be laughed at, you and your squad members essentially become superhuman clones.

Your agent starts off quite low in skills but in no time, the levels start stacking up and you’ll be jumping around the city with superhero-like feats. It’s a pretty exhilarating feeling running around from rooftop to rooftop, firing of shots mid-air to thwart the local gangs.

If you’re tired of running about, there’s plenty of vehicles to control in Crackdown as well, but no bikes. The driving power-ups are extremely helpful with the Agency cars, upon entering one of the three, you will see the car change in both terms of cosmetic appearance and power. These changes become drastic at the fourth level where each of the cars gains a unique trait, such as car mounted machine guns, or the ability to jump. At your disposal in the Agency garage are three different types of vehicles: the Supercar, SUV and a semi-truck. The driving model is extremely responsive in Crackdown – one of the best we’ve seen – and can lead to some crazy air time and driving stunts.

Summing up, the single player campaign is way too short; the multiplayer co-op is fun though – you can team up to take down crime bosses or just run around creating your own brand of mischief. Plus with new downloadable content over Xbox Live, the game is always kept fresh with new moves, weapons and cars. Crackdown does live up to the hype and it certainly won’t fade into the shadows of the well-advertised Halo 3 beta. Plenty of longevity, fun side quests and a great soundtrack – Crackdown gets two thumbs up from Cyber Shack.

Developer- Realtime Worlds

Publisher- Microsoft

Classification- MA15+

Formats- Xbox 360

URL- Crackdown