Repost from MTG: Justice, the Crackdown Way

One more nugget of gaming prose that I put together some time ago for my old blog. In this case, it was my attempt to write a video game review in a structured way. Just browsing through, I find it a bit too similar to many of the reviews you see throughout the enthusiast press. However, in the spirit of allowing me to look back and try to improve my writing style, I put it up here for consumption...

Since my last post, I've been spending hours in Pacific City, ridding the world of evildoers in Crackdown. In an earlier post, I talked about the demo and how much I enjoyed playing it, which spurred on my purchase of the title the day after it was released. Just as a guess, I've probably spent 20-25 hours on the game since then, just reveling in the game mechanics, blowing up gang members, wreaking havoc on unsuspecting civilian motorists...You know, just a normal day for a genetically enhanced freak of nature given free reign in a city overrun with crime, a boatload of weapons, explosives, cars and a license to kill. Without further ado, here's my review of Crackdown.

Story: Probably the weakest point of the game. You are a genetically-enhanced prototype, created by the Agency, to bring down the gangs of Pacific City. Your goal is to kill each of the six lieutenants, and then the kingpin, of three gangs, each controlling a distinct section of the city (for a total of 21 'bosses'). By killing the lieutenants, you weaken a specific aspect of the gang, such as recruiting, weaponry, explosives, vehicles and driving, etc. Your chances of killing the kingpin of each gang goes up as you kill the lieutenants, because the kingpin and his bodyguards are not as strong, have worse weapons at their disposal, etc. as you knock off the bosses who control those aspects of the gang. Theoretically you could kill the kingpin first, but it would be extremely difficult. After you destroy all the bosses for a particular gang, that gang disappears. The section of the city they once controlled no longer has gang members in it, and you are free to roam without fear of attack (useful for searching for agility and mystery orbs, which I'll touch on later).

Once you defeat all of the lieutenants and kingpins of all the gangs, you're finished. There are no side-quests, no mysteries to solve, nothing of the sort. While all the killing holds its own perverse satisfaction and feeling of accomplishment, it would be nice to have the ability to foil a robbery in progress if you happened to stumble upon it, or maybe you would get a mission to go eliminate a safehouse that stores gang drugs or weapons. Something of that nature might help to flesh out a very shallow storyline. I will say that the final lines spoken by your Agent contact after defeating the final kingpin were very intriguing, and clearly lay the groundwork for something in the future, but you really have to hear them to understand the impact, as it relates to the game and what story does exist. It's worth the time to hear them, in my opinion, and gives me hope for the next installment (which you can bet your bottom dollar there will be one) in this franchise.

Gameplay and Controls: You wreak havoc on the gangs of Pacific city from a third-person perspective, with the left analog stick controlling your movement, and the right analog stick controlling your view. The right trigger fires your weapon, and the left triggers targets the enemy (while holding the left trigger, you can move the right analog stick to target different points on the gang member/vehicle, such as legs, torso, arms, head, tires, gas tank, or body). You jump with the A button, execute a melee attack (mostly kicks, since you have a weapon in your hand) by pressing B, switch weapons with X, reload your current weapon with the left bumper, and throw grenades with the right bumper. You can pick up objects (if you are strong enough) by pressing and holding the B button when near the object. This can be really amusing later on in the game, when you can become strong enough to pick up buses and other vehicles.

One of the true joys of this game is the aspect of jumping and climbing. You start out with the ability to jump higher than a normal human at the beginning of the game (and let's face it, the game would be boring if you couldn't), and you can enhance that as the game progresses. Your character is also good at climbing, being able to grab onto window ledges, edges of landings, balconies, etc. and using these to further your ascent up the building in question. When you fall in the game, as you will very often, if you have the time to steer your character to one of these edges, he will catch them and stop your descent. Once you reach the top of the building, you will find some rooftops filled with gang members, or you'll find green orbs that enhance your agility. You can leap from rooftop to rooftop, and cover the entire city (almost) without ever having to set foot on the pavement below.

There exists within the game a decent array of weapons, ranging from pistols, rifles, automatic weapons, sniper rifles, grenade and rocket launchers, and hand tossed grenades. As is to be expected, the stronger enemies carry the stronger weapons, so you won't see all the weapon types in the Los Muertos area (generally considered the beginning area of the game). There is an interesting system in place to gain access to the weapons you acquire during the game. As you come across new weapons, by relieving enemies of them, you have access to that weapon immediately. If you want to have access to that weapon at later times as well, you are required to take this weapon to a Supply Point, areas scattered throughout the city where you can regain health and reload your ammo, and select what weapons you want to carry out there into the fray. Once you take a previously uncaptured weapon to a Supply Point, you can then access that weapon from any Supply Point. This mechanic creates a mini-collection quest for players (like myself) who like to have everything. I had a great time finding a new weapon and then being able to experment with it to find out its strengths and weaknesses. In the end, for my primary weapon I settled on the HMG machine gun, as it had an 80-shot clip, with the ability to carry 800 rounds at a time, as well as being relatively powerful and accurate. For my explosive weapon (you're allowed to carry two weapons and one type of grenade at any one time, so I decided to carry a firearm and explosive, to maximize efficiency), the clear choice was the Firefly rocket launcher, mainly based on its heat-seeking ability, but it also had the advantage of a 5-round clip and 15 round total carrying capacity. Feel free to mix and match, to find your optimum combination.

I can't truly comment on the driving aspect of the game, having spent little time with the vehicles. Every once in a while, during a particularly evil streak of reigning hellfire down upon the gangs of Pacific City, I would hop into one of their rides and try to mow them down. Because my driving is so weak, compared to the rest of my abilities, the task of running down moving gang members was basically fruitless, as they were intelligent enough to avoid me most of the time. Since the game allows you to continue to roam the area after all the gangs have been eliminated, I will go back and experiment more with the feature, to get a more accurate understanding of its potential.

Character Advancement: The portion of the game that seems to be drawing the masses into the game experience, the character advancement is a rudimentary implementation of RPG-type elements into a third person shooter. The last statement makes it sound as if this is a negative, but to the contrary, it very much adds to the game, and creates rewards for using your different abilities. If you shoot down a gang member with a gun, you get firearms experience. If you blow up gang members with a grenade or rocket, you get explosives experience. If you beat a gang member senseless with your bare hands or a thrown item (trash can, staging, cinder block, car, etc.), you gain strength experience. If you eliminate gang members by running them over with a vehicle, you get driving experience. If you make it your mission to gather the agility orbs scattered throughout the city on rooftops, you gain agility experience.

There are also rooftop races and driving races scattered about the city (12 of each) that, upon successful completion, add to the pertinent experience pool. The rooftop races consist of traveling to a waypoints that pop up throughout the area in a certain time frame. Unfortunately, I can't comment at this time on the driving races, more for the simple fact that I found jumping and running through the city was more convenient than trying to drive. I promise try these in the future, to give all of the game features its just due.

Overall, this advancement system really does create a risk/reward experience that adds a lot to the game, because there's nothing more gratifying to blow up a rooftop full of baddies, and then watching the explosive experience flow into you. It's instant feedback for players, and creates goals separate from the main storyline. The dynamic seemed to keep me captivated in the game, working toward higher and higher levels of experience, to see what the effects would be on my explosives, jumping, etc. and most likely kept me playing far longer than if there were no advancement system in place.

Graphics: The graphics were pretty good in Crackdown, mixing some cel-shading aspects with attempts at realistic environmental aspects. Your character, the gang members, and civilians all look as if they had jumped out of a comic book frame, in a good way. It's a unique take on, and adds a cartoony feel, which to be honest took the edge off the massive amounts of violence doled out, both by myself and by the gangs (at times). The environment is well-done, and really does give the feel of a city on the edge of despair. One of the things I found very impressive is that the clipping plane seemed infinite, as I could see tall buildings from great distances, and they actually had substance, as I could launch a rocket at the Agency tower from the furthest point in the city, and watch as it impacted, some 10 seconds after the initial launch. There's a lot of variety in the locations within the city, from nightclubs to office buildings to oil refineries, and all are rendered (from the outside) with excellent detail.

Sound: The sound was very well done, with the exception of the fact that there was no background music. In most games, there is at least some music playing, but unless you're driving around in a vehicle, there's only the ambient game sounds to occupy your ears. With that being said, the ambient sound effects were great. When you walked at street level, there was a din of a busy city, from overheard conversations, to vehicle noise, to the occasional sound of distant gunfire (hey, it happens even in real cities). The citizens of Pacific City will wish you luck, run in fear, and even curse at you, if you happen to accidentally fall on them from above or something. The gang members are constantly chattering about how they're going to kill you, and often have some comment while they die ("I can't...feel my...feet", or "It's so...cold"). The vehicle sounds, from engines, squealing tires, to the screeching of twisted metal when they crash, are outstanding.

Fun Factor: Even though the game's story is very shallow, this does not take away from the fun of the game itself. Running around the city, skirmishing with the small groups of gang members you run across, searching for agility and mystery orbs, assaulting the boss locations, character development....I could go on and on about the things I've seen in the game (I caused a massive pile up on one of the city's main highways, simply by crossing the highway on foot, and watched in astonishment as car after car rammed into the pile, even running over hapless victims who had managed to climb out of the wreckage), but it's up to each player to sculpt their game experience. The game's developer, Realtime Worlds, made a conscious effort to create a true 'sandbox' game experience, and this does not disappoint. In my opinion, this game will be what the player makes of it, because you can very quickly work your way through the gangs, and be finished in probably an afternoon of play. If you take the time to play around with the game mechanics, explore the city, and just wreak havoc with the gangs whenever and where-ever possible, you can extend the game experience far longer.

Final Judgment: On a scale of 1-10, with 5 being an average game and 10 being the best of the best, I would have to give this game a score of 8. The lack of depth to the story really knocks the score down for me, because I found the game mechanics, character advancement, controls, visual effects, and overall feel to be great. If only the game were deeper and had more side quests, it would be worthy of a 9 or higher. Due to the lack of depth, this may not be a purchase title (although the inclusion of access to the Halo 3 beta later this spring will make it so for many people), I will definitely say this is a title that you owe it to yourself to rent.

Thanks for reading my first structured game review. Hopefully you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. In the future, look for more reviews of this type, as well as some less-structured impressions I have for games that I don't deem it worthy to fully play through. Once again, thanks for reading and keep gaming!

Well, it was a good try, anyway. Now I'm hopefully on to bigger and better things.