Crackdown: Better than Expected
The game was released yesterday, and I picked it up on the way home from work. This isn’t a full-fledged review, but a sort of ‘first impressions’ of the game.
Yes, I got the game for the Halo 3 beta. Yes, I traded in Gears of War for it, and would do it again for the prospect of playing Halo 3 early. Yes, I fully expected to not really enjoy the game and expected that I would trade the game in as soon as the beta was over.
Fortunately, I was surprised at how much fun Crackdown actually is (in the limited amout of time I spent playing it last night.)
All-in-all Crackdown seems to stand on its own two feet as a game, and well worth the trade-in. The controls are smooth and intuitive, the leveling system is fun and rewarding, and the missions are challenging and enjoyable. Driving isn’t easy, but the more skill you get in it, the more responsive the vehicles are. The fighting is fast-paced and the enemies seem to come at you from all angles. It is hard to find cover when your health is running low, but when you get enough Agility points, running away is easy enough.
I believe GameInformer gave Crackdown an 8.5, and I think that’s just about what I would give it. There are times when the graphics are a little jumpy, and I think the game may lose some of its appeal once all of the skills are topped off and there isn’t as much leveling going on. I only played for about 3 hours and was on level 3 of 4 in Strenght and Firearms and level 2 of 4 in Agility. Maybe more things go on as you continue…We’ll have to wait and see.
I look forward to playing some Co-op mode this weekend. I think that is where the game will shine. I can already see how the open environment lends itself to team-based tactics and how on a higher difficulty level, you couldn’t get though the sea of bad-guys to get at one of the bosses.
I’ll do a full review when I get further into the game.
Filed under: Games and Gamers
