Articles
By Diresim
Published: Mar. 18, 2007 3:03 PM
As far as open world games go, there have been few that have been as fun as Rockstar Games' pioneering Grand Theft Auto franchise or Volition's Saints Row. That hasn't stopped Real Time Worlds from throwing their own hat in the ring, though, with their release of Crackdown this week. Early on, it appears a poor man’s free roaming clone, but you soon realise it’s a different beast altogether. Developed by one of the minds behind the original Grand Theft Auto, Dave Jones, Crackdown is cell shaded, has less emphasis on story than the afore mentioned games, and ships with an original science fiction feel that allows it to transcend the genre in a number of ways. It takes the basic elements of traditional free roaming games and adds a more arcade-like feel, some platformer elements and a superhero twist.
Players control a voiceless character thrust into a bustling and vibrant city and allow them to do pretty much whatever they please. Although Crackdown comes with the spine of a story to propel the action, there is very little emphasis placed on it. Your main character is a cyber enhanced cop, a new recruit in the governing police force of Pacific City, dubbed the Agency. You are tasked with cleaning up the city’s streets of three main gangs. Each gang is run by a kingpin, who is protected by a number of lesser goons. Killing off the henchmen is your first priority, as that will weaken the main boss before you take him on.
The bosses, of which there are 21 in all, are all hidden out in secret locations around the island, which gives the developers the opportunity to show off all the epic locations they've dreamt up. From island resorts to cliff-side castles, to offshore oil rigs, all of these locations are great fun to explore, and give the world a real beauty that the realistic but drab environments of other open world games could only dream of.
Unfortunately these bosses don’t put up much of a challenge. Although the game in general is certainly difficult on the hardest difficulty, and the AI routines aren’t simple enough to frustrate, death is usually the result of being severely outnumbered or the other guy having a bigger gun than you. The boss battles are no different, which is a shame.
Although the main quest is entertaining, it’s no tour de force of story-telling and variation is not it’s strong suit. The string of missions, which take only some ten to fifteen hours to complete, really just serve as a means to upgrade your character. Luckily, character progression is done so well, you’re not going to care.
Having the advantage of cyber enhancements is an idea first used with aplomb by Ion Storm in their massive PC hit, Deus Ex, but Real Time Worlds takes things a step further. Although early on your character is just an ordinary cop, throughout your journey you can level up your stats in five different areas. Agility, driving, explosives, strength and weaponry. Each area has five tiers, and as you advance you become quite the badass. Build up your agility and you’ll be able to run at superhuman speeds and jump huge distances. Build up your driving skills and cars will actually morph as you sit in them to become souped up, killer rides (can anyone say “rear mounted turrets?”). Level up your explosives ability and you’ll increase the strength and splash damage of your rockets and grenades. Strength increases allow you to pick up objects, such as cars or trucks, hurtling them at your enemies as you see fit, Hulk style. Finally, weapon upgrades allow you to fire with more accuracy, quicken your ability to reload, and do more damage.
Although most of your abilities are upgraded by use of that particular attribute, your agility stat is increased mainly by picking up agility orbs that are scattered throughout the landscape. There are 500 of these little beauties placed in both easy to reach and more difficult locations, and trying to hunt them all down becomes ridiculously satisfying. There are also 300 hidden orbs which are nestled in the most unlikely areas, and although challenging to track down, will upgrade a number of your abilities all at the same time.
Orb hunting, while it sounds relatively simple, is the best part of Crackdown. You see, the game world is not just set on a horizontal plane, like most games of it’s type. Rather, the world is expanded through exceptional level design to be as much about what’s above ground than what’s not. Once your character is skilled enough, you can hop, skip and jump around the landscape to your heart’s content. Just about everything can be hung from or climbed upon, and the city’s rooftops become your own virtual playground. Being able to jump twenty feet is about as close to flying as you’ll get, and when skyscrapers are involved, things get pretty full on. Taking the boring moments from other open world games and doing away with them, this ability makes even the most mundane activities fun.
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