Rampaging in the solo game provides hours of fun, but multiplayer adds tons of replay value. Two people can complete the single player campaign through Xbox Live, eliminating bad guys together, splitting up, hunting for orbs or turning the guns on each other, blasting away and running people over. Setting up games takes a few moments and the game suffers from very little lag.
Crackdown also shines because the developers left the game open-ended from the beginning. Instead of having to unlock sections by completing missions, players can swim, drive and/or jump their way to wherever they want. High level gangs annihilate low level Agents (making it wise to eliminate the easier thugs before moving on), but the journey usually justifies dying, just to admire the gorgeous scenery; rolling mountains, bridges and skyscrapers. The game's cell shaded graphics look phenomenal, but the amazing draw distance will shock people. Some objects pop into view when approached, but for the most part, the land stretches for, pardon the cliche, as far as the eye can see.
Unfortunately, Crackdown annoyances start with the mission variety, or lack thereof. Finding orbs notwithstanding, repeatedly killing the same old scum bags wears thin. At least with the Grand Theft Auto games, Rockstar breaks up the monotony by tossing in escort and delivery missions. With Crackdown, players kill gang members, rinse and repeat.
Furthermore, the targeting system craps out during firefights. Instead of landing on a gang member, it often gets stuck on a car, dead body or even a police officer. This leads to plenty of cheap deaths.
Finally, the audio should have been better. The varied soundtrack provides great ambience, but some of the guns, most notably the shotgun, sound muffled and the constantly repeating dialogue (even in different languages) gets annoying.
However, and despite the vanilla missions and targeting snafu, Crackdown stands out as one of the Xbox 360's guiltiest pleasures. Countless hours will be spent uncovering orbs, leveling up, killing enemies and playing co-op. It definitely stands on its own, especially with 80 different achievements and content downloads, making it much more than the host to the much coveted Halo 3 beta. Scores of people will purchase it for that alone, but Crackdown deserves to be played. It may not be fun in a month, but for right now, it definitely satisfies.
Final Score: 8 (out of 10)
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