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| | Title:
Crackdown
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System:
Xbox 360
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Genre:
Action
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Publisher:
Microsoft
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Developer:
Real Time Worlds
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Release:
Fall 2006
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Online:
No
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ESRB:
Rating Pending (RP)
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Founder of DMA studios and lead designer of the original GTA series, David Jones, is taking a stab at the free-roaming genre once more in Microsoft’s Crackdown. The developers, Real Time Worlds, are designing the game for the Xbox 360 with some fairly big aims in mind. Some of those aims include a streamlined, mega-huge urban environment, on-line play, and super-human abilities that’ll make the boys and girls from City of Heroes cry.
Streamlined and steamrolling the competition
Streamlining is a word used far too often nowadays, and with good reason. Many games are abandoning that hateful thing known as “loading screens”. I’m a bit too old-fashioned to think of it as a good thing to see those ten second–or ten minute–long waiting periods between level loads gone for good. I grew up in an age where you would have to wait a full five-minutes for a single level of Ken’s Labyrinth to load (yes, five whole minutes just to throw jelly around.) With games being a much bigger force in the direction of today’s economy, the gaming industry must provide products not only in a timely fashion, but equally with on-demand productivity. Moreover, that brings us to the very murderer of continuous loading screens, streamlining. Gamers no longer want to wait, and game designers are making sure they don’t have to. Such a feature couldn’t have emerged at a better time, especially with a game like Crackdown.
One of the biggest complaints about GTA, Max Payne, (and not to mention my own gripe with Knights of the Old Republic), was the stop and go loading that interrupted the gameplay or ruined the game’s momentum. Now, streamlining isn’t entirely new; THAW, Driver 4, and many other games have all refocused the loading segments into streamlined loading as you play. However, none of those games are quite as outrageous, huge, or flamboyantly, over-the-top like Crackdown.
Not only will you have vehicles of all kinds at your disposal (from sport cars to semi-trucks), but weapons, other people, and all sorts of environmental objects can be used in ways that are totally wicked. The enemy AI is also a factor that plays into the whole streamlining process. Other games have it where you run so far and the enemies stop chasing you due to the limits of their path in the appointed memory allocation. However, in this game the enemies will actually take things a step further. Nevertheless, I’ll touch over the special AI system later in the preview.
Superhuman on a mission
The story in the game is somewhat simple (if not under-done) simply for the purpose of letting players do more of what they want. Players take on the role of an enhanced agent, tasked only with cleaning up the streets of crime by any means necessary. Like any crime-fighting story, though, there are always the head-honchos calling the shots. The big three bosses players must take on will be varied in their tactics, and unique in their methods. The main three syndicates include: the Asian crime syndication, the Cai-Shen Corp. and their well-trained hitmen; the Russian gun specialist group, The Volk; and the Spanish syndication, La Muerta, a crime organization that specializes in vehicular properties.
One of the other neat aspects about taking down the crime bosses is that you can hit them where it hurts. No, not their gonads...well, maybe you can hit them there, but that’s not the point. Players have the option of cutting off the resources of their enemies. You can diminish their supply of weapons, or cut down their accessibility to vehicles. Players are given the freedoms to do whatever is necessary to get rid of the criminals in the city.
The other cool part about taking down the crime is that players choose the look of their agent, and can increase their attributes throughout the game. However, all the attribute adjustments are done manually through the use of certain skills. Some of the skills that you can upgrade include: strength, movement, running, driving technique, and gun handling. Each of these attributes will take time to develop thoroughly; the level-up system is based on how much of each skill you use and how well you use it. If you’re a gamer who loves beating things into a pulp, you might soon find your abilities upgraded to the point where you’ll be hurling trucks at people. Your running abilities could also be increased to the point where you can blur through the streets to chase down crooks. How about training your jumping skills to the point where you can leap several stories high? You can even enhance your driving skills to the point where you can enter any vehicle and it’ll transform into the wrecking-machine to match your current level. Magically, though, once you get out of the vehicle it transforms back into the basic hunk of metal with tires, that it once was.
Concrete jungles and moon jumpers
What’s amazing abilities without an equally amazing playground to use them in? Real Time Worlds have designed a monstrous city environment that takes sandbox missions to new heights. Literally players will have a scalable city atmosphere that allows, with its physics engine, to cling to window sills, or vertically transcend platform styled buildings. The game’s environment works so that players will get interactivity from its depth, height, and width. So the city will be fun and interactive both on-foot and in a vehicle.
One of the things that were taken into concept for the construction of the city was the unique design of the buildings made for the optional traveling method of roof-jumping. With the loose physics system, players can scale to the top of a building with just a couple of well-placed jumps...a hop off a dumpster followed by a leap from the fire-escape and bam! You’re on the roof. The free-style physics system and level-up feature add entirely new elements to the playing-style; it would almost be like playing a super-hero game similar to The Incredible Hulk or Spider-Man.
A City of villains
Considering the size and density of the free-roaming, city environment, the developers needed a bit of help in constructing an intelligent AI system that complimented the game’s massive playground. So the designers acquired the AI platform Kynaspe–a successor of the Kynogon platform–to lend support with their AI pathway functions and structures. The AI support software enabled the developers to make some amazing progress in the development of a smart, competent AI system made to match the wits of the player.
The enemy AI is being comprehensively designed to make good use of the environmental obstacles in the same way that a player might. If push comes to shove, the villains can take a vehicle and try to get away. They’ll also use standard obstructions within the environment for cover and strategic attacks. Enemies will even “remember” events beyond the player leaving the screen, and will continue to act accordingly. On paper the enemies sound intelligent enough; it’ll be interesting to see how that aspect of the game plays out, though.
Weapons of mass destruction
Firearms aren’t the only means of causing mass destruction in Crackdown. That’s not to say that the firearms aren’t deadly, because they are. Apart from the stock and standard: sniper rifles, pistols, silenced weapons, automatic assault weapons, shotguns, rocket launchers, sub-machine guns, dual-weapon wielding, and your trusty fists, you’ll also get a huge variety of other weapons.
The very environment within the game is a toolbox for destruction: pipes, boxes, tires, doors, and more. Some obstacles can be deconstructed and used as separate items. For instance, players can rip off a car door and use it as a shield; or flip a car over and shoot the gas tank to create an explosion. Yet if you don’t always want to blow things up; crash things into other obstacles; or throw people and items into objects, you can always use your abilities to apprehend foes with skill. Players can shoot out the tires of an escaping enemy and then make a good running jump to land in front of the car–in order to snatch up the crook after ripping off the door.
Vehicles are also a dangerous tool in this game. Running things over isn’t the only way you can use a vehicle as a weapon. You can stock-pile a bunch of vehicles and set off a massive explosion. Another cool feature is being able to hop out of moving vehicles to create some neat effects, especially if another player is there to lend a rocket or two. For instance, one player could drive a vehicle off the top of a building while another player locks-on and launches a rocket right into the car. The results might be the car turning into a smoldering heap of flames that conveniently lands right in the middle of some bad guys. Be careful though, the Agent-assigned vehicle(s) you start with doesn’t look easy to replace.
Co-op carnage
In a different approach to the free-roaming GTA style gameplay, Real Time Worlds has included a cooperative on-line mode for Crackdown. In fact, the developers are designing the game from the ground-up with the co-op mode as a standard. Players can work together by beating bad guys into the ground, storming rooms with assault weapons, or picking criminals off the streets from several blocks away using sniper rifles. The only thing that’ll make this feature even better, is support for up to sixteen players at a time. But, Real Time Worlds and Microsoft have a good deal of time to iron out all the details before its Fall release in 2006.
Overall, the game mixes some insanely cool elements that cross from one genre into the other seamlessly. It’ll be interesting to see how all of this ties in together when it’s finally finished. For more info on Crackdown be sure to stay tuned in with Xboxcore.com
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Cloud890
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