Leaping lizards! Boing your way to each region
There are many differences between other sandbox titles and Crackdown. First off, we have character development which is split into five categories: explosives, athletics, driving, strength, and shooting. As you become more proficient in these skills your character becomes more powerful allowing you to do wacky things, such as picking cars up and using them as weapons or jumping from one skyscraper to the next. The more you practice in a specific skill the better and more powerful you become at it and the rewards for levelling up are well worth the effort.
Our favourite special ability and certainly the easiest to level up in is the agility skill. Littered around the environment are agility orbs which, until you’ve increased your agility skill when you’ll simply be able to leap to the top of the big wheel to grab an orb, you’ll only be able to reach if you use your brain: for example, early on we spotted an orb on the third floor roof of a building, but the stairway only allowed us to reach the first floor. So, I grabbed onto a ledge on the side of the building and manoeuvred my way around the outskirts of the building until there was a spot where I could climb onto the second floor. I spent a good 10 minutes trying to work out how I could reach next floor and eventually worked out that I had to jump over to the adjacent building, climb up on the third floor ledge by standing on a dust-bin and then make a death defying jump back across to the position where the ammo point was nestled.
Click for larger imageAs my agility increased, through finding these orbs or taking part in agility races which can be found throughout the city, these puzzling scenarios became easier because I could jump further and higher allowing me to access these out of reach places. Throughout playing Crackdown I’ve enjoyed leaping around the city exploring every area far more than progressing through the main mission. The main reason for this is due to the repetitive missions which inevitably involve travelling to a set point on the map in order to take out dozens of gang members before exterminating the main boss. The missions do become progressively difficult meaning that you won’t simply be able to plough through them without levelling up your strength, firearms or explosives, but generally I got little excitement from the campaign and the lacklustre storyline.
Click for larger imageThe shoot-outs in Crackdown are visually impressive, but can be frustrating. As you travel around Pacific city you are constantly being shot at from somewhere. Practically every corner has a fight breaking out between the cops and gangs and more often than not you’ll get drawn into the fight when you didn’t really want to be. My main gripe is that targeting is fairly poor. In Crackdown, you have the option of free-aim and auto-aim mode. If you choose to use the free-aim mode you’ll need to have a high degree of skill due to the volume of gang members on the street, so auto-aim mode should really be an aid for those gamers who lack the excellent hand to eye coordination that is needed. Unfortunately, auto-aim just doesn’t work very well and often targets the wrong person or even a vehicle rather than the gang member you were aiming at. The whole mechanic feels very shaky, but can be forgiven due to the excellent special abilities and upgrades that you receive as you progress, where the likes of a single rocket can help you take out half a dozen enemies with ease.