Crackdown

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Crackdown
Developer(s)	Realtime Worlds
Publisher(s)	Microsoft Game Studios
Designer(s)	David Jones
Engine	RenderWare Physics - Havok AI - Kynogon Video - Bink Video
Release date(s)	February 20, 2007 February 22, 2007 February 22, 2007 February 23, 2007
Genre(s)	Action adventure/Third Person Shooter
Mode(s)	Single player, Co-op
Rating(s)	ESRB: Mature CERO: Z (18 or above) BBFC: 15 OFLC: MA15+
Platform(s)	Xbox 360

Crackdown (Riot Act in Japan) is a free-form urban action video game released on February 20, 2007 for the Xbox 360 console. Developed by Realtime Worlds, Crackdown was created by David Jones, who also created the original Grand Theft Auto and Lemmings.

Crackdown features sandbox-style gameplay similar to that in the Grand Theft Auto series, featuring co-op play in the same open environment as in the single-player mode. For example, one can start a race across the rooftops with a friend in cooperative mode. Co-op play can be played online and will allow for entrance and exits by friends or other Xbox Live members. Depending on a player's settings, one can receive join requests from only friends or from everyone online.

Crackdown was released on February 20, 2007 in North America, on February 22, 2007 in Japan and Australia, and on February 23, 2007 in Europe. Anyone who purchases Crackdown in its first shipment received an automatic entry into the Halo 3 beta. The game will, however, not be sold in Germany due to the USK's decision to not rate the game.^[1]

Real Time Worlds have confirmed that Crackdown was designed from the outset to be a long running series of games much like Grand Theft Auto. Sequels for the game are very likely to be produced, especially if Crackdown performs well commercially.^[2]

Contents 1 Premise 2 Plot 3 Gameplay 4 Skills 5 Playable demo 6 Halo 3 Beta 7 Reception 8 Downloadable content 9 Soundtrack 10 Trivia 11 References 12 External links

[edit] Premise

In Crackdown, players take the role of the Agents, a series of superhuman clones developed by a syndicate of law enforcement organizations known only as the Agency. The Agents' mission is to destroy the 3 organized crime syndicates that control the futuristic metropolis of Pacific City; the Latin American Los Muertos, Eastern European Volk, and East Asian Shai-Gen.

[edit] Plot

The game follows the primary character (known only as "The Agent") as he systematically brings down the three organized gangs controlling Pacific City (the aforementioned Los Muertos, Volk and Shai-Gen). On the death of the leader of the final gang (gangs can be tackled in any order), it is revealed in a cutscene that the primary goal of The Agency was not to restore law & order to Pacific City, but to control it themselves. Security camera footage is shown of the Agency supplying weapons to the Los Muertos, ignoring a Volk munitions truck, and aiding Shai-Gen. The idea was to create utter chaos in which the Agency would bring down the gangs and earn the silent, unrelenting obedience of the populace. It is also hinted that (if it comes into being) the sequel will take place in a different city, eliminating the gangs and seizing control of the city (as with Pacific City). The cutscene ends with the "Voice of the Agency" explaining to the Agent "...Pacific City, was only the beginning."

[edit] Gameplay

The game is set in a large sandbox environment, akin to the Grand Theft Auto series and Saints Row. The player must either take out the Kingpin of the dominant gang, or take out the bosses that perform specific tasks for the gang under the Kingpin to weaken the gang's production or the forces immediately protecting the Kingpin, thus making it easier to defeat the Kingpin and increasing the odds of successfully assassinating the Kingpin. It is the player's choice to kill the bosses, or skip them entirely to defeat the kingpin.

The player is required to explore the city to locate the hideouts for each boss and Kingpin, which can be made easier by freeing supply points scattered around the city. Once a supply point is unlocked, the player can return there to travel to any other supply point, restock on weapons and ammo, or drop off newly acquired weapons to have them permanently added to the player's weapon selection. If the player should die, they can select any open supply point for respawning. While exploring, the player is likely to come across enemy resistance, with the aggressiveness based on how much damage the player has done to that gang recently, similar to the 6 star system for police used in Grand Theft Auto. If the player is too aggressive against the non-gang residents of Pacific City, they can also raise the alert level of the local law enforcement in the same manner.

Much like other sandbox styled games, the player mainly use guns and explosives to fight the opposing forces, as well as a vehicle to get around the city's landscape. Unique to Crackdown is a series of character based skills that can be upgraded to increase specific traits that can be used in combat, driving, or on foot agility. Crackdown's skills make few concessions to realism: player abilities are similar to those of comic book superheroes or cartoon characters. This concept is further highlighted by the comic book-like cell shading technique used in the game's graphics. These skills are increased by gaining experience orbs. Experience orbs are released from defeated enemies, with the type appearing being primarily based on how the player dispatched the foe. Stronger enemies release more experience orbs. In addition, agility orbs are scattered about the rooftops of Pacific City. There are also hidden orbs that enhance all player abilities. The player can also compete in "rooftop races" or car races to gain agility and driving skill orbs, respectively. Each skill has five levels (from 0 to 4 stars), with a numeric gauge on the display to indicate how close the player is to the next level. If the player should die, or injure civilians or the local authorities, they will lose a small amount of their orbs in the progression to the next level.

Crackdown features a two-player cooperative play mode that, to some extent, allows drop-in play. Both players may explore the city freely, with the other player's position noted in the HUD map. Players can fight along side each other, and also inflict friendly-fire damage. The state of the city is determined by the host player's progress (including which bosses and kingpins remain). Both players are credited with the defeat of a boss or kingpin in the game (which will affect the state of the guest's progress), but are required to obtain supply points and gain experience of their own accord. Co-op players can race against each other in both rooftop and road races, if both should choose to participate.

[edit] Skills

• Agility: Of the five skills this is the only one that isn't specifically obtained by killing enemies. It is increased mainly by finding some of the agility orbs placed around the map in the game. Agility can also be attained by sniping enemies from buildings from great heights, and completing rooftop races in less than the target time. This skill is also notable for being one of the few skills to change the character's physical appearance, in this case changing the avatar's facial and armor appearance. Increasing this skill's level greatly increases the running speed and jumping height for the player. The first upgrade will allow the user to jump 10 ft into the air. The second upgrade will allow you to jump 20 feet. The third upgrade will allow you to jump 25 ft. The last upgrade gives you running speed that is slightly faster than A.I. controlled cars and the maximum jumping height is around 30 feet.
• Driving: This skill increases the player's control over all of the vehicles in the game. Driving skill is increased by running down gang members in a vehicle, completing vehicle races in under the target time, and performing stunts. In the later levels it can also allow for limited control over a vehicle while it's in the air, by making it roll or do vertical flips. One of the notable focuses in this skill is the character's influence on three select agency cars, which change the vehicle in both terms of cosmetic appearance and power. These changes become drastic at the fourth level where each of the cars gains a unique trait, such as car mounted machine guns, the ability to jump, climb up walls and a large nitro boost that destroys most oncoming cars on contact.
• Explosives: Training this skill increases the impact radius of all explosives in the game (grenades and rocket/grenade launchers), starting from small explosions to large (15 foot radius) blasts. Along with the larger impact radius comes increased force, and damage inflicted by the explosions.
• Strength: Like the agility skill, increasing your strength skill also changes the character's appearance. The character's muscle mass and height increases drastically in all of the characters as this skill is trained. Increasing this skill changes how much a character can lift and how far a specific object can be thrown. In the later levels of this skill it is possible to kill an enemy with one kick (depending on difficulty level), kick a car several dozen feet through the air and lift a weight of over 10 tons. Another noteworthy advantage of training the strength skill is the increase of health - with each level gained, another level of health is obtained, adding four extra health bars at level four for a total of five full health bars.
• Firearms: The firearms skill focuses on damage given by all non-explosive firearms. It also aids in precise targeting speed, decreasing the time needed to completely target an enemy. With specific guns this skill can increase the ability to see and shoot enemies from longer lengths from a first-person perspective.

[edit] Playable demo

A demo was released via Xbox Live Marketplace on January 23, 2007. It was originally dated for January 18, 2007, however it was delayed due to Microsoft's certification process.^[3] This demo includes both single player and co-op play. Silver account members received the demo one week later.

The demo lasts for, at most, 1 hour, with a timer starting when either the player trains a skill to the second level, or has been playing for a half hour. At that point a 30 minute timer will start. All of the in game skills can be trained up to the highest level at an accelerated rate. Four bosses of Los Muertos are possible to take down, but are not required to fight through the length of the demo. The demo allows for online co-op playing, but does not allow for jump-in co-op like in Gears of War.

The Crackdown demo quickly broke download records for Microsoft's Xbox Live Marketplace by becoming the most downloaded demo over a 24 hour period and a seven day (week-long) period.^[4] In the week after its release, the Crackdown demo was the second most played Xbox Live game after Gears of War.^[5] The demo went on to become the most downloaded and most played overall. [1]

[edit] Halo 3 Beta

Every pre-ordered and specially marked copy of Crackdown includes an invitation to beta test the highly-anticipated Microsoft game Halo 3. The Crackdown game disc will be required to download and launch the Halo 3 beta through the in-game menus.^[6]

[edit] Reception

In addition to breaking download records on Xbox Live Marketplace, Crackdown received positive reviews from such media outlets as Official Xbox Magazine U.K., Electronic Gaming Monthly, IGN, TeamXbox GamePro, and Famitsu.

Review scores:

• Eurogamer 9.0/10
• TeamXbox 9.0/10
• GameTrailers 7.5/10 ^[7]
• Famitsu 34/40 (Reviewed as Riot Act)
• GameSpot 7.8/10
• IGN 8.0/10
• GamePro 4.5/5
• Edge 8/10
• Official Xbox Magazine UK 9.0/10
• Official Xbox Magazine 7.0/10
• Electronic Gaming Monthly 8.3/10 (3 reviewers)
• Game Informer 8.5/10
• X-Play 5/5

The average score is 83% on Metacritic based on 66 reviews.

Commercially, as of February 12, 2007, Crackdown ranked 8th on Amazon.com's video game products sales chart, while at Play-Asia.com's Xbox 360 product sales chart, it was ranked at number 4. Crackdown was listed as a bestseller among online stores, including EBGames.com and GameStop.com.^[8]

[edit] Downloadable content

As of February 19, 2007 a free downloadable pack has been made available for the game. The pack includes four new male agents to play as in the game.^[9]

As of March 7, 2007 a video of Crackdown gameplay footage was released onto Marketplace.

On March 7, 2007 producer Phil Wilson revealed that one of the planned features in the upcoming DLC for Crackdown is a "reset gangs" option that will allow people to play through the game with the bosses and gangs again. It will replace the current random crimes toggle option. There will also be some competitive game modes.[2]

[edit] Soundtrack

See: Crackdown Soundtrack.

[edit] Trivia

• According to an interview by TeamXbox, one of the Agency SUV's special abilities, driving up vertical surfaces, was a result of a glitch. It was brought to the developer's attention by a game tester, but was ultimately decided to be included in the final product.^[10]
• Michael McConnohie does the voice of the Agency Director.^[11]
• Training Videos, accessed from the pause menu, show the player having as many as six additional health bars. These videos were most likely recorded with an earlier version of the game. This is given further credience due to aspects of the in-game HUD being cosmeticly different than are seen in the final version.
• If you stand out of your car in any of the three tunnels connecting to the islands and listen carefully, you can hear the bosses of that island speak.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Official website
• Official forum
• Hidden Orb Locations Map
• Crackdown at the Open Directory Project (suggest site)