Aussie Ben

So what's Crackdown like?

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Initially, I dismissed Crackdown because it seemed like another one of those "hey run around and do anything it's like GTA honest" games. But I read a review of it (which used the headline "It's like the Incredible Hulk meets Grand Theft Auto", sigh), and it actually sounds a lot more appealing than the generic sounding setting makes it out to be. Oh, and I didn't know it was cel-shaded!

Has anyone played this? What do you think?

Oh, and if I end up getting a copy, someones QUITE welcome to my Halo 3 invite. Can't stand that shit.

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Eurogamer seems to like it rather much too:

Mr Publisher pays the bills, and Mr Publisher wants a GTA game. What do we make? Well, let's have bigger guns than GTA, obviously. Let's have faster cars. Let's have more swearwords. And, I dunno, protection rackets? A better lock-on camera? It's not like you can do much else in a city!

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If GTA games were an entrance exam for developers, that would be the wrong answer. The right answer would be something like Crackdown, and would involve taking people who submit that kind of answer, kicking them 50 feet into the air and juggling them with heat-seeking rockets for bonus points.

http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=72858

Time for a proper TV and a 360 I think... What with viva pinata and gears of war and crackdown being games I'd rather like to play

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There's a demo on the XBL marketplace already, if you haven't tried it. The demo was fun for the time limit, but too soulless once the novelty of being able to throw cars and jump great heights wore off. There didn't really seem that much to keep me interested for an entire game, story or action. Funnily enough, Eurogamer gave it a 9/10, but also said that it can be easily beaten in a weekend, very odd for a genre normally associated with exploration. :shifty:

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I've been experiencing a strange buzz around this game on the interweb. It may be something special, and if so, people are already afraid everyone else will overlook it. If I had a 360, I'd play the demo and know for sure. Seems like a pretty cool thing though; huge jumps and superpowers and whatnot? I love huge jumps. Too many games are too restricting in freedom of movement.

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There's a demo on the XBL marketplace already, if you haven't tried it. The demo was fun for the time limit, but too soulless once the novelty of being able to throw cars and jump great heights wore off.

Yeah. The demo is pretty good. I've been looking forward to this game since E3, where it didn't generate any buzz AT ALL, and upon playing the demo... I was disappointed. Didn't like it all that much. But then I played it again and loved it. I can't explain why.

I guess what I liked is that you can develop your character how you want for your own play style. During my second playthrough, I focused on growing my agility stats and before the demo was over I was jumping rooftop to rooftop and across the city like a lunatic. And it was fun. Digging around the rooftops and the corners looking for hidden stuff. I like that aspect of it.

ALSO: DROP-IN DROP-OUT CO-OP over Live. Which is a great feature (as Gears can attest as it made a very mediocre single player campaign enjoyable -- though, really, it was mostly because we kept making fun of the game design and the stupid dialogue while we were playing it)

From the linked review:

The game contains 105 relatively unrecognisable songs and some decent voice acting.

WTF? Is that a joke? I'm not happy with a game unless it contains 238 sounds!

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I downloaded the demo and quite enjoyed it. Full impressions contained in this here post. All I can say in addition to that is that you should probably download the demo. It's big, but worth it.

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When the demo was finished, I had amassed over a hundred of those green orbs and was just rocketing into the sky. Who cares about killing gangsters when you can be Commandeer Robbit?

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Ok, so "Crackdown" is out now and if you can manage to beat the hoards of Halo 3 beta fanboys to get a copy, DO SO. I've played this for about four hours straight today.

Spent time killing some gang members and all, but mostly just hopped around building to building, climbing skyscrapers, and building up my agility. Nothing quite like getting a rocket launcher, jumping far up into the sky above the unsuspecting enemies, and dropping a barrage of explosive death at them.

The one little problem that I find is that unlike GTA and the like, you really spend a lot of time on foot. On foot, there is no radio... so the game tends to get aurally boring. Even in car. It just plays some nondescript music tracks and that's it. So your own soundtrack is a must.

Other than that, I'm liking it so far. No story or anything of that sort. Just "here's a city, here's some bad guys. Get at 'em."

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It's a game by David Jones, the original designer of GTA. 'Nuff said really.

SiN

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I almost bought this today, but chickened out and bought Lost Planet instead. I'm feeling confident that I made the right choice.

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Hahaha, man, I just stomped on someone's head from a rooftop. It's just like Super Mario Bros.!

After that I decided to drive a gang car across the fun park's fence, and I accidently clipped the fence and landed the car on its roof in front of the ferris wheel.

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I almost bought this today, but chickened out and bought Lost Planet instead. I'm feeling confident that I made the right choice.

For me, Lost Planet wasn't exactly the game I was hoping it to be. I've had much more fun playing the Crackdown demo, honestly. I'd buy it right now if it wasn't for the fact that I still haven't finished the last batch of 360 titles I got my hands on. Crackdown is beginning to feel like a must-have title for me though.

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My favorite part of the game was leveling up your strength until you could pick up vans and then just kicking people off the tops of buildings. Admitedly, I got bored of the combat rather quickly, and somehow, the driving isn't as easy as in GTA. Plus, the lack of real-world cars had a strange effect of disconnecting me from the driving aspect of the game. I usually love futuristic worlds in games, but I'd pick GTA over Crackdown for it's cop chases. That's probably what it is. You are the cop in Crackdown, so the freeplay is decidedly one-sided: you against them. In GTA, you could fall into favor with various gangs to mix up the gameplay, but you could ALWAYS have an awesome chase with some cops. Whats the point of stealing a car if you're allowed to. That kind of thing.

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Plus, the lack of real-world cars had a strange effect of disconnecting me from the driving aspect of the game. I usually love futuristic worlds in games, but I'd pick GTA over Crackdown for it's cop chases. That's probably what it is. [...] Whats the point of stealing a car if you're allowed to. That kind of thing.

This might be true, but there's something just supremely ludicrous about pissing off a gang and then having their hit squads come after you... driving mobile missile platforms! And then when they come, if you're powerful enough, you just kick them aside as if they were cardboard cutouts. That's something that, obviously, you don't get in GTA.

And yes, the driving aspect of this game is a little weak. But, really, the strength with Crackdown is on foot (and in the air, scaling buildings) which counter-balances GTA nicely (its weakness is on foot).

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Yeah, Crackdown's strength is definitely in its shameless over-the-top manic...er, thing. (Sorry, ran out of steam there.)

But it's great that I can just walk up to a tank (a TANK!), kick it, and send it careening off a cliff.

OVER THE OTHER SIDE OF THE SCREEN.

The whole driving stuff seems to be incredibly pointless - I'd rather see more awesome superpowers similar to crazy beefy strength and super agility. Launching yourself to the top of a building from a <i>standing jump</i> is where it's at.

You have to understand, this is the first kind of game like this I've ever played, so I might be getting more enjoyment than someone who's played a GTA before or that Spider Man or Hulk game which is like GTA only it isn't! Honest!

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Talking of GTA clones, I've been having fun recently playing, of all things, Driver: Parallel Lines. It's actually really good. I love the 1978 vibe and soundtrack during the first half, and the second half - set in 2004 - has a nice contrast with that. Excellent voice acting too.

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This might be true, but there's something just supremely ludicrous about pissing off a gang and then having their hit squads come after you... driving mobile missile platforms! And then when they come, if you're powerful enough, you just kick them aside as if they were cardboard cutouts. That's something that, obviously, you don't get in GTA.

And yes, the driving aspect of this game is a little weak. But, really, the strength with Crackdown is on foot (and in the air, scaling buildings) which counter-balances GTA nicely (its weakness is on foot).

Totally. it was fun just to kick people into poles and watch how the ragdolls reacted. Since you can level up to a point where you can essentially jump over a building, racing your fallen enemies to the pavement is also enjoyable. Its the little things in life... :grin:

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A new(ish) Driver game that is good? Surely not?

I want to play something other than the Demo of Crackdown. It looks better balanced that 'Hulk: Ultimate Destruction' which was pretty flippng good anyway.

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A new(ish) Driver game that is good? Surely not?

I know. I was stunned!

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Holy fuck. I picked it up today as I've had way too much going on lately and wanted to take an evening of nothing. Turned it on 'round 9pm, it's now about 1:30 and I just shut it down. I had no idea I'd been playing for that long. 3 star strength, 2 star (but with 92%!) firearms, 2 star agility, driving and explosives still at their base levels. Cleared out the entire first gang in what felt like 30 minutes, turned out to be about 3.5 hours. This game is too much fun.

Can't wait to try out the co-op now. n0wak, saw you online when I started it up and almost joined in, but decided I'd like to try out some SP practice before I went in for multi. Kinda regret that now, but as the game seems to be sweeping through those thumbs who have 360s, I'm sure I'll have more chances to play with forumites later.

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This game has me hooked. I took out the Volk in just two sittings. It will be interesting to see how long my interest will hold now that I'm just collecting orbs (~50 agility left to go, but ~200 hidden left to go).

But the ending! I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. :erm:

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