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Crackdown
Duration/Variety: 7
Gameplay: 9
Story/Pacing: 0
Visual Quality: 8
Sound Quality: 8
Impression: 8
6.8
If you never thought it would happen, here it is- the first game that looks better in-game than in screenshots.
When I first heard news of Crackdown, I thought it was going to be an average game at best (like all GTA clones), and when I saw the first screenshots, I honestly could not figure out why anyone would settle for such poor visuals, especially on the XBOX360, where we have seen the Gears Of War abomination.
I was being my cynical self when I heard that the Halo 3 beta would be bundled with it - "Here it is, another crappy game marketed in tandem with a popular game". I am positive that a lot of people in the industry lost a lot of respect for Crackdown even before it came out, simply because of the fact that it "needed" the help of such a behemoth like Halo.
Then I played it.
It was strange at first, like it was trying to do everything at once: the driving, which I assumed to be one of the main things to do in the game, was completely busted. I was about to drop it and proclaim that games like Crackdown are what is destroying the industry - when I discovered the agility gem. After 15 minutes hunting for agility gems, and acquiring my second agility skill star, I was forever hooked on this game.
Crackdown is the most fun game on the XBOX360 to date. There is not a single game that is more fun. And it's not fun because it's "like" GTA, it is fun because it is so much different that GTA. I personally think that all the comparisons to GTA in previews have hurt this game, because they are dragging it down to a level where it doesn't belong. Wandering around the city in GTA was always a temporary distraction before going back to the story progression - in Crackdown wandering around the city is the meat of the game - it is what you cannot wait to get back to after finishing a "story progression" mission.
This is the biggest virtue and at the same time the biggest flaw of this game. You see, I was always a believer in the formula that if you get the meat of the gameplay right, you really don't need character motivation, story arcs, strong characters. As with a lot of other things, I was wrong to think that. While Crackdown is really FUN, it is also really, REALLY empty, and requires no emotional investment from the player whatsoever. On paper, it probably sounded great - you can pick this game up, play it for 5-10 minutes, have fun and stop.
But ultimately, games need to be richer than that, at least the ones that will have staying power. They have to provide the gravy along with the meat and the potatoes - Crackdown is too much like an exciting action film that you forget the second the credits roll.
The final word is that it apparently is not enough to just get the gameplay right. A good game without a good story, memorable characters, principal conflict is just as bad as a game with a great story, but really poor gameplay (well, maybe not JUST as bad, but lets face it, nothing can be as bad as a game with poor gameplay).
I still pick up and play Crackdown off and on. I like jumping around. I will find ALL agility orbs, and all hidden orbs (without help from the internet). But it's going to feel like playing an XBLArcade game- you know, you play it, it's fun - but it's not a real REAL game, is it?
When I first heard news of Crackdown, I thought it was going to be an average game at best (like all GTA clones), and when I saw the first screenshots, I honestly could not figure out why anyone would settle for such poor visuals, especially on the XBOX360, where we have seen the Gears Of War abomination.
I was being my cynical self when I heard that the Halo 3 beta would be bundled with it - "Here it is, another crappy game marketed in tandem with a popular game". I am positive that a lot of people in the industry lost a lot of respect for Crackdown even before it came out, simply because of the fact that it "needed" the help of such a behemoth like Halo.
Then I played it.
It was strange at first, like it was trying to do everything at once: the driving, which I assumed to be one of the main things to do in the game, was completely busted. I was about to drop it and proclaim that games like Crackdown are what is destroying the industry - when I discovered the agility gem. After 15 minutes hunting for agility gems, and acquiring my second agility skill star, I was forever hooked on this game.
Crackdown is the most fun game on the XBOX360 to date. There is not a single game that is more fun. And it's not fun because it's "like" GTA, it is fun because it is so much different that GTA. I personally think that all the comparisons to GTA in previews have hurt this game, because they are dragging it down to a level where it doesn't belong. Wandering around the city in GTA was always a temporary distraction before going back to the story progression - in Crackdown wandering around the city is the meat of the game - it is what you cannot wait to get back to after finishing a "story progression" mission.
This is the biggest virtue and at the same time the biggest flaw of this game. You see, I was always a believer in the formula that if you get the meat of the gameplay right, you really don't need character motivation, story arcs, strong characters. As with a lot of other things, I was wrong to think that. While Crackdown is really FUN, it is also really, REALLY empty, and requires no emotional investment from the player whatsoever. On paper, it probably sounded great - you can pick this game up, play it for 5-10 minutes, have fun and stop.
But ultimately, games need to be richer than that, at least the ones that will have staying power. They have to provide the gravy along with the meat and the potatoes - Crackdown is too much like an exciting action film that you forget the second the credits roll.
The final word is that it apparently is not enough to just get the gameplay right. A good game without a good story, memorable characters, principal conflict is just as bad as a game with a great story, but really poor gameplay (well, maybe not JUST as bad, but lets face it, nothing can be as bad as a game with poor gameplay).
I still pick up and play Crackdown off and on. I like jumping around. I will find ALL agility orbs, and all hidden orbs (without help from the internet). But it's going to feel like playing an XBLArcade game- you know, you play it, it's fun - but it's not a real REAL game, is it?