Crackdown 3

2024-11-28
An attempt at modernizing Crackdown 1 which ends up as a bit of a hollow facsimile. The thing about Crackdown 1 was each of the different stats for your agent had their own arcade-y fun in the open world. With the obvious crown jewel of agility and the hunt for orbs as you bounded up taller and taller buildings. Here they seem to lose sight of what made Crackdown so good. The hunt for orbs is broken up across the world in a terrifically unsatisfying way. Instead of manically, autistically platforming for hours here you find much smaller, less engaging platforming areas split up across the map. Fighting and combat which was a braindead-yet-fun affair is more mechanically serious with tons of weapons and aiming annnnd it's a lot less fun as a result. There's so much more open world bullshit. Like collecting agents--bro, you got Terry Crews why would I want to play anyone else??

So why on gods green earth am I giving it 3 stars? It turns out even if it is a watered down Crackdown 1 it still hits the spot after not touching the formula in like 20 years.

2023-07-15
Crackdown 1 on the 360 is one of my favorite unexpected experiences ever. I must have played that demo for untold hours and then finally sprung and got the full game. I was a little scared that playing the full game I would find that what I enjoyed-- the platforming trying to climb the tallest buildings in the game as I leveled up my agility stat-- was shallow or that the rest of the game wouldn't be as fun. And those fears it turns out were unfounded. I loved maxing out all the stats and just causing havoc in that, now, old-school open world. So what about 3? Well, I'm glad to say it's more of the same.

While it's lost its novelty, the climbing of the skyscrapers and maxing out the agility stat still rules. Though I'll say the layout of the city seems less fun for climbing. The hard to climb buildings are too far spaced out in this new Bigger, Opener World. The combat feels a bit better but is still largely just kind of floaty mid tier chaos. Though melee combat is still fun because who doesn't love punching people 10-20 feet through the air. Driving weirdly feels far worse. Whether that's because driving in games has advanced a ton since I played Crackdown 1 or because this one is just clunky, I couldn't tell you but ultimately I really avoided being in a vehicle. Thankfully this is aided by the agility stat affecting your speed so sprinting around the city on foot is a breeze.

Other things have changed. It's in 4k which is gorgeous but locked to 30 fps which feels languid. Terry Crews is basically the mascot and optional main character and I of course used him the entire game (despite the game trying to sell me on collecting and using all the other Not Famous Hilarious Actor agents). There are bosses which last too long including the final boss which I actually borderline hated (bummer of a note to end on). There's unlockable weapons with cool abilities which I actually enjoyed. And yeah the structure of the game is a lot more open-world-y with lots of dumb little activities to do I could have done without.

But all in all it's a trash but awesome game that you're in for like 8 hours to finish and I really wish they'd make more.