'Crackdown' - Game review
9 out of 10
People have criticised Crackdown for being too short. They say it only takes 6 hours or so to "complete" the game. Those people are muppets.
What they mean is it takes about that amount of time to kill all the gang bosses if you focus on doing that at the exclusion of all the other parts of the game. However, there's so much more to the game than just this.
Gary Penn from Denki used to write in Edge about how games should be "toysets", with each toy being fun in its own right. Nowhere is the realisation of this vision more evident than in Crackdown. He and long-time collaborator Dave Jones have worked with the Realtime Worlds team to produce a truly entertaining box of toys.
It's true that one of the toys, the gang-boss-fighting toy, doesn't take long to see the end of. But there is also a free running platform game toy, a driving game toy, a stunt car toy and many others. All of the toys are a lot of fun to play with.
The game is probably the current pinnacle of the sandbox genre. Largely directionless, the main motivation for play are the achievements. They encourage you to explore the world fully and to play with all the toys. It wouldn't work if each toy wasn't fun but it is. It works beautifully. I don't know how many hours I've played it now but it must be a lot and I'm still having fun finding new things. Even the bugs are fun.
If I had to criticise, I'd say the driving doesn't really become fun until you've put some time into upgrading your driving skill. Also, the multiplayer seems a bit of an afterthought, relying mostly on you making your own games if you're going to play it for more than an hour or so.
Overall though, this is a wonderful example of how to provide a playground for players. As a truly 3D, toy-filled open world, it is peerless.
People have criticised Crackdown for being too short. They say it only takes 6 hours or so to "complete" the game. Those people are muppets.
What they mean is it takes about that amount of time to kill all the gang bosses if you focus on doing that at the exclusion of all the other parts of the game. However, there's so much more to the game than just this.
Gary Penn from Denki used to write in Edge about how games should be "toysets", with each toy being fun in its own right. Nowhere is the realisation of this vision more evident than in Crackdown. He and long-time collaborator Dave Jones have worked with the Realtime Worlds team to produce a truly entertaining box of toys.
It's true that one of the toys, the gang-boss-fighting toy, doesn't take long to see the end of. But there is also a free running platform game toy, a driving game toy, a stunt car toy and many others. All of the toys are a lot of fun to play with.
The game is probably the current pinnacle of the sandbox genre. Largely directionless, the main motivation for play are the achievements. They encourage you to explore the world fully and to play with all the toys. It wouldn't work if each toy wasn't fun but it is. It works beautifully. I don't know how many hours I've played it now but it must be a lot and I'm still having fun finding new things. Even the bugs are fun.
If I had to criticise, I'd say the driving doesn't really become fun until you've put some time into upgrading your driving skill. Also, the multiplayer seems a bit of an afterthought, relying mostly on you making your own games if you're going to play it for more than an hour or so.
Overall though, this is a wonderful example of how to provide a playground for players. As a truly 3D, toy-filled open world, it is peerless.
Monday, March 19, 2007
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