Crackdown: Full Game Hands-On Preview

We've put in hours with this massive and original Xbox 360 game for this new preview.

Page: 1  2 

Page 2

Most of that job involves shooting down bad guys, something made more interesting by the extensive arsenal. You earn the right to use weapons by collecting them off downed baddies and then returning them to one of the police armouries that dot the city. Once there, a magical supply of ammunition means that every weapon you pick up off your enemies is yours for the remainder of the game. Take out the gang's weapons expert too early, though, and you miss out on the big guns.

Crackdown comes with a standard two-weapons-and-a-grenade allowance, letting you bring along one main weapon, one back-up weapon, and one explosive variant. From the off they are impressive. The machine guns have a satisfying blast to them and the grenade launchers and flamethrowers beg you to unleash bedlam on as grand a scale as possible. The reloading animations do seem belaboured; this is especially noticeable when you're using one of the throatier automatics, which can empty a clip in seconds.

The game employs a left-trigger enemy lock-on that works most of the time, but because it also locks on to cars and corpses it's not always easy to merely squeeze the trigger and find yourself aiming at the right person. The camera is user-controller, allowed you to play Crackdown just like a regular third-person shooter. It does have a tendency to flip out from time to time, something the developers are doubtless addressing for the final version. For the most part the distance from your character seems right, but it can be a problem when you're trying to move rapidly up tall buildings and you change your perspective quickly.

Everything in the game is presented in a stylized, faux cel-shading style that works wells with the cartoonish abilities. The game looks like a comic book because it plays like a comic book, and the art style has the side effect of allowing the developers extra cycles to spend on the draw distance, which seems to stretch for miles.

But as attractive as the city and its residents are, the best part about Crackdown so far is the leaping. Don't be fooled by the demo that recently went up on the Xbox Live Marketplace. I found that levelling up my abilities in the build I played was significantly harder, consistent with Microsoft's comments that it had eased the levelling requirements for the demo. Still, the visceral thrill that comes with soaring through the cityscape is something that doesn't quickly get old. Every time you level up you look at the city differently, regarding it less as an obstacle and more as a play park.

The Live demo is the only place I have so far been able to access the online modes too. Microsoft deemed the December build instable, but from the limited taster in the public demo it seems to be an inconsequential add-on for the most part. The public demo demands that you team up with a friend before starting a game but the final version promises support for joining a game on the fly. I can only hope that the bugs affecting online consistency in the public demo are addressed in the retail version due in February.

Page: 1  2