Xbox 360

I've been playing the Crackdown preview build since a few weeks now, and since I can't do any videos or screenshots (even if the game is already really polished) I had decided not to mention it here and get lots and lots of emails/private messages about sending a video just because you guys have been here a long time or something like that. Well it turns out I like the game so much I've been posting impressions regularly on another forum, and I thought that in the end it would make a decent preview for you guys. So enjoy this different kind of content, and please do not ask me for videos or images.


12-23-2006, 04:01 PM
Ok I've spend some quality time with the preview build, and I'm very happy with what I've just played. Gameplay is fine (fire with right trigger, you are free to lock on or not by using the left trigger), jumping around and going on top of the building is as fun as I was hoping it would be. My agent is just level 2 in agility and firearms so I can't go all crazy with the jumping, but it's still very amusing to just hop to the top and watch the awesome draw distance. Yes, it's as good as these screenshots.
I've had a some slowdowns, but it's a one month old build now and it was already very smooth most of the time. They mostly occured when something crazy was happening like a chain explosion making a dozen bodies and cars fly around.

12-25-2006, 04:55 PM
I hooked up the debug at 2PM because I wanted to check something in the game, and ended up playing for almost 3 hours, mostly goofing around the rooftops. I can't believe how much fun just jumping around and scaling building can be. I wanted to increase my agility so I went looking for some agility orbs. They are green "blobs" that get you some agility points. So with some you get very few of them, but with others quite a lot. Once you reach 100, you level up. I'm still just in the southern half of the first island (though I can go anywhere else if I want, but I won't have respawn points nearby) but I found 86 (500 in the whole world) of them already. They are easy to notice for the most from the ground, but it can sometimes be a bit tricky to get to them. For example you may have to go up a nearby building, then jump to another, go to a higher point then jump down to that orb. Lots of fun :)
There are also hidden orbs, blue ones that are very well hidden, usually somewhere you won't notice it unless you actually hear it. They make a distinct sound you notice from about 20/30 meters, so once you hear it it's time to look around. These ones give nice boosts to all abilities. 300 of them in the world, found only 9 so far. There are also races, either by car (didn't play much of these) or rooftop races where you have to go through a number of checkpoints on rooftops in a certain time to get a big skill bonus. I loved this, it takes a few tries just to get the way you have to time the jumps but it's fun, fun, fun :)
For a preview this build is already very solid. I've had very little slowdowns, and for such a huge world the pop-in is almost inexistant. And even from a very high point you still get to see what's going on on the ground. The black points in these screenshots are actually all animated and just look like they behave there.

I'm very very impressed by how much fun I'm having so far. I'm no fan of sandbox games, but the gameplay in Crackdown is so nice that I just want to play more.

12-25-2006, 11:17 PM
Played a bit more, killed my 4th bad guy and I guess I could already give a try to killing the first kingpin. But instead I keep goofing with the orbs. Found 171 of the agility ones, and 23 of the hidden blue ones. My agility level is now 3 stars, driving 1 star, strength too. Car morphing looks great, and with my first driving star the driving is much less float than before.
One annoying thing with the driving is that running over someone by accident will still make you a "bad guy" for the peacekeepers and it's almost impossible to complete a race without running over lots and lots of people. So by the end of the race you have to go hide somewhere until things calm down. It's not really that bad, but maybe disabling this during races would have been a better idea, I don't really know.
Some upper rooftop races are pretty crazy, like the one where you have to scale the Ferris wheel up and down in like less than one minute. I really love this type of challenges :)
I'm keeping myself from going to the 2 other islands so I still get the surprise, even though I can see some of their architecture from a distance already.

12-26-2006, 10:12 PM
Played "for 5 minutes tonight" and ended up playing for 1 hour and a half. Again. This time I killed another general in a rather epic fight at a car racing track, and then I tried again to scale the biggest building in the game, the agency tower, and this time I actually managed to do it :)
I couldn't get on top of the last little metal spear because it requires 4 stars in agility, but I was still at the top of the highest tower. Got me an achievement, and the view was worth all the frights. Believe me, it really feels like you are high in the sky. Awesome view, I actually waited for a full ingame day so I could get to see all the hues on the whole city. And yes, you see everything of all the islands, even moving cars and all. The technology in this game is very impressive.
Whatever happens now in the next islands, I can already safely say that Dave Jones and his team nailed the whole exploration part perfectly. Now maybe the lack of a proper story will dock a few points of the final score, I guess it will depend on what the reviewer actually expects when he starts playing.

12-28-2006, 09:51 AM
I played some more yesterday night to show the game to a friend and killed the last general for the first island. I didn't try to kill the kingpin yet, but instead went to explore the second island a bit. It looked like a very industrial area with big buildings kinda more difficult to scale than on the first island. I arrived by chance right at the location of a general and got mowed down by guys with grenade launchers :D

12-29-2006, 08:39 AM
Finally killed the first Kingpin yesterday night. Since I had killed all his generals the fight was quite easy as he was far less well protected than he should have been. I also finally played with the sniper rifle and sniped my way through the first layer of henchmen by either killing them directly or using the exploding barels not far from them :) I was a bit disappointed that the gang was still in action in action on the island even after their boss was killed. I was hoping that the island would be totally freed of them. Not that just the roaming baddies are a real problem to deal with (they are definitely not), but it just feels like doing all I did was a tad pointless. Not that big a deal thankfully. I explored a bit more of the northern island, the buildings seemed much more difficult to scale, but I'll be up to the challenge! I guess I'll stop my updates on the game there though, there aren't many things to spoil in the game besides the locales, so I won't mention where the generals and kingpins can be in the other islands. I'll work on my driving skills now, I'm still at my first star in driving, and already have 3 stars in gunfight and agility.

12-29-2006, 09:20 PM
My precious debug 360 just died its 3 red lights death. No more Crackdown for me :(

01-04-2007, 10:18 PM
Got a new debug today, so I wanted to try it a bit. Of course as I expected I ended up playing Crackdown for one hour and a half. This time I wanted to check out the southern island since I never went there before. Frankly I was half expecting to be disappointed after the awesome first island, but the "level" design is still as good as before. I think there are even more suicidal jumps to do than before. Only for some reason some blue orbs were quite visible instead of being hidden. I've been having some fun with the sniper rifle, just jumping from one building to another, locking on a target and firing, killing him instantly. Fun times :D
Did I mention before how precise the whole jumping thing is? This would have killed the game if they hadn't nailed it, but nailed it they did. I almost never miss my target when I jump, even if it is a 50*50cm board somewhere. The littlest bump of the analog stick moves you exactly where you want to. There is also this timing between 2 jumps you have to really keep if you want to win the most difficult rooftop races.

deftangel - Hot stuff!
deftangel
Commented on 2007-01-04 22:57:43
Glad you are enjoying it Blim, I had a lot fun with our build too. Even without the Halo 3 Beta key, I was sold already.

Did you get to try any co-op?
In reply to
BlimBlim - Tyrannosaurus
BlimBlim
Commented on 2007-01-04 23:01:29
Not yet, but soon!
In reply to
roxwell - PuS3Y
roxwell
Commented on 2007-01-04 23:04:30
Sounds great.

Could be a sleeper after all!?
In reply to
Jato
Jato
Commented on 2007-01-04 23:08:45
Cheers for the preview..!

Are there any indoor locations in this game..?
In reply to
Slabs
Slabs
Commented on 2007-01-04 23:21:49
Can't wait, sounds like SO much fun.

The ability to kill the main bosses right away is cool aswell, I hope they have leaderboards for speed runs for people who can do it without levelling up.
In reply to
Skinback
Skinback
Commented on 2007-01-04 23:27:56
The game sounds uber.

Any chance of some videos or will we be waiting untill the final build?
In reply to
roxwell - PuS3Y
roxwell
Commented on 2007-01-04 23:29:35 In reply to Skinback
Please read the post. :(
In reply to
CARB
CARB
Commented on 2007-01-04 23:31:27
blim you the man, this site rocks..looks like peoples expectations of this game are going to be exceeded
In reply to
LEBATO - IS WRONG
LEBATO
Commented on 2007-01-04 23:42:50
That sounds awesome..........good preview.

I'm getting very excited about this game now :D, I can't wait to try the demo.
In reply to
Myro
Myro
Commented on 2007-01-04 23:43:25
Where did you get a debug unit(i know you've had it for over a year but i always forget to ask that question) and crack down?

I'm slowly starting to like the game. This game has a lot of buildings to scale before it reaches Purchase Building, 5th floor: Myro's Money though.
In reply to
Heliogabalus
Heliogabalus
Commented on 2007-01-04 23:53:02
Blimblim, does the game actually have a solid narrative? Are there cut-scenes? Or do basically just run around shooting bad guys non stop? I love open-ended games as much as the next person, but I like a little story and structure too.

In reply to
mike68
mike68
Commented on 2007-01-05 00:03:15
sounds great!
In reply to
fatefodder
fatefodder
Commented on 2007-01-05 00:11:22
I'm getting more interested in that upcoming demo...
In reply to
Optimusv2
Optimusv2
Commented on 2007-01-05 00:14:32
Do they even attempt to give you mission objectives similar to GTA? Or is it just run around and go crazy.

Are there ever times where you are required to go somewhere and meet up with a guy of some sort? Or is everything always focused on headquarters?
In reply to
alimokrane
alimokrane
Commented on 2007-01-05 01:02:31
Sounds sweet. I wasnt sure about the game but based on your impressions it looks like loads of fun. Thanks Blim.
In reply to
Drunkenshaolin
Drunkenshaolin
Commented on 2007-01-05 01:20:44
good stuff
In reply to
omegaheat
omegaheat
Commented on 2007-01-05 01:34:11
Blim, if you're not a fan of sandbox games and yet you seem to be having so much fun with this game; I think I might give this game a try after all.
In reply to
fragglefart
fragglefart
Commented on 2007-01-05 02:03:19
Thanks for the write up Blim, sounds great fun so far. Co-op should be awesome.
In reply to
AcidSnow
AcidSnow
Commented on 2007-01-05 02:10:14
CAN WE GET SOME "videos & screen shots" ?!?!?!

lol, j/k :D
The game looks good, and I hope its unique!
In reply to
godhandiscen
godhandiscen
Commented on 2007-01-05 03:33:22 In reply to BlimBlim
You tell them Blim.... "Crackdown is just a $60 Halo 3 Beta Key..." my ass! I know this game will rule, but still thanks for the preview.
In reply to
rjcc
rjcc
Commented on 2007-01-05 04:32:05
I told you guys it would be awesome all along.
In reply to
Dagger17s
Dagger17s
Commented on 2007-01-05 04:34:22
I know I probably shouldn;'t be asking questions, and the fact that you were able to entertain yourself so long on the first island proves its big enough. Yet I still must wonder, about how big is the land on crackdown as compared to other games.
In reply to
LEBATO - IS WRONG
LEBATO
Commented on 2007-01-05 05:04:21 In reply to Dagger17s
Posted by Dagger17s
I know I probably shouldn;'t be asking questions, and the fact that you were able to entertain yourself so long on the first island proves its big enough. Yet I still must wonder, about how big is the land on crackdown as compared to other games.
WHO CARES YOU CAN GO UP!!!!!!!

EDIT: Blim, please answer. Are there any form of airplanes? Something that you can fly with?
In reply to
BlimBlim - Tyrannosaurus
BlimBlim
Commented on 2007-01-05 06:52:44 In reply to LEBATO
Posted by Heliogabalus
Blimblim, does the game actually have a solid narrative? Are there cut-scenes? Or do basically just run around shooting bad guys non stop? I love open-ended games as much as the next person, but I like a little story and structure too.
There are no cut-scenes, and basically there is no story. You have to kill 3 crime lords, and their generals if you want. You get a briefing about each of them, and that's it. It fits the "total freedom" sandbox.
Posted by LEBATO
EDIT: Blim, please answer. Are there any form of airplanes? Something that you can fly with?
No airplanes, but at the 4th agility level it's almost as if you could fly ;)
In reply to
CogOfWar
CogOfWar
Commented on 2007-01-05 09:56:58
Sounds great can't wait for this one!
In reply to
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