Xbox 360: Crackdown

[Wynn]

First impressions: Pretty fun game. At first glance it is similar to GTA3 where you can run around freely and jack cars and run over people and blow shit up. It's also got some fun superhero style gameplay, kinda like a weaker version of Super Jump in City of Heroes, and other games where you can pick up objects (even bodies of people you kill) and throw them. And Halo's shield regeneration. And Gears of War's left-trigger-to-aim-better concept, but enhanced for teh ease -- your left trigger locks onto a target, and you can use a thumb stick to selectively aim at his head, leg, arm, or body. The same aiming applies to vehicles too, so you can shoot out their tires.

I only played for an hour or two, but it seems pretty bad ass. I took out the first named guy in one of the gangs and picked up his fat corpse and threw it off the building. I jumped around from rooftop to rooftop collecting agility orbs for a skill up and completed one of the foot races. I also shot up one of the gangs enough that they sent out hit squads to take me out.

It's a little hard to read some of the text on my non-HD screen, and it's hard to tell the weapons apart especially when they are on the ground. It's also hard to pick the right target. I will sometimes lock onto a vehicle rather than the gang member standing beside it.

[Monster]

I played the demo a few days ago and got kinda bored with it by the time the time limit ran out. I was going to give it another go but I've been too busy playing WoW. I never noticed that you could shoot tires and arms and stuff.

[Wynn]

The RPG aspect is kinda fun too. Basically every time you kill someone you get skill points based on how you killed them. For example, if you shoot them, you gain firearms skill, but if you run up and use your ninja kicking skills you gain strength. After enough skill your rating increases, which gives you stronger abilities. As your agility increases, you run faster and jump higher. As your firearms increase, you lock on faster. As your strength increases, you can pick up heavier objects and throw them farther. Stuff like that. You also gain skills by finding hidden powerups and completing challenges.

One more thing - there is online Co-op. I haven't tried it yet but I think it would be fun to team up and assault a gang stronghold.

[Monster]

When I played the demo, all I pretty much did was beat people to death because it was faster than using a gun (after upping my strength stat).

And even though I was kinda bored with the demo, I'm sure online co-op would kick much ass. Do you actually own the game?

[Wynn]

Yes, I own it. Beating people up is fun but it has some risk when charging into a pack of people shooting at you. On the streets it doesn't matter much, but when you assault a general or kingpin, you can't rely on melee kills. Also sometimes you'll have annoying people on top of buildings shooting at you and it's quickest to shoot em down. There's also zoom on some of the long range weapons, but I haevn't actually remembered to try that yet.

Last night a friend tried to join my game, and the game no longer accepted any controller input. All I could see was the Yes/No question asking if I wanted to let him join, but I couldn't do anything with it. That's when I shut it down and went to bed. I was doing something in the dashboard menu when the request came in, so that might have confused it.

[Wynn]

Oh, I should also say I didn't bother starting on the easy difficulty. I'm playing the middle difficulty, which I've learned makes every game more enjoyable from the start.

[Monster]

I never play games on easy. Is easy the default?

[Wynn]

The easiest setting is the default.

[Monster]

That's weird. Usually the middle setting (or normal dificulty) is default. Maybe I played the demo on easy then, not sure. It was pretty easy.

Let me know if you manage to get a co-op game going.

[Wynn]

The first gang island seemend fairly easy, but next is a little more challenging. I did get a coop going briefly with a friend of mine, but he kinda sucked so I didn't really see him much. It is nice that you are both free to go anywhere separately if you want.

[Wynn]

I picked up the 800 pt downloadable content for Crackdown. It adds some fun features like road races and some co-op challenges. There's a free downloadable that adds impounding vehicles similar to GTA.

Road races are kind of funny. There are 6 different tracks and each has like 5 or 6 different cars you can choose to race with. All of the AI racers have the same car as you. You get the car and a pistol. So, you can treat it as a standard race and win by driving better. Or you can treat it more diabolically and assume that there are no rules. Instead of driving, you can just find a narrow stretch of road and hop out of the car. Drop some concrete barriers and/or rocks in the road. If done correctly, the AI may not get through at all, or at the very least they will be slowed down. Using your trusty pistol you can now blow out the tires of the cars, or ideally shoot out the gas tanks. Yep, killing the opposition or otherwise disabling their cars is a valid tactic. I've found it not only more enjoyable to do this, but also easier to win. After you kill all the other drivers, you can casually drive the course and finish 1st out of 1.

There's other stuff it added too, like more vehicles and a harpoon gun, and of course a handful of additional achievements.

[Monster]

Sounds pretty cool.