Intro
This game is a lot of fun if you played the previous games. What I mean by this is that when playing this game, I remembered what crackdown 2 was like and it pretty much is the same formula as before. But whether that is a good thing overall is up to you. I mean if you like causing mayhem like a bull in a china shop on steroids then this is your game to live out a superhero power fantasy.
Story
The story of crackdown 3 takes place in new providence. This is the new sprawling city in which there are bad guys to defeat as an agent of justice. The story starts off strong enough. I mean the intro to the game is amazing, I mean it stars Terry Crews as Sgt Jackson. Who you can play as in the game which is a bonus in my books. Anyway, it starts off with your agent ship getting destroyed and you dying. But you are regenerated back to health from the local militia in new providence. You are then introduced to the main villain of the game. This is Terra Nova. They are an evil corporation who oppress the people and use different divisions to oppress the people. Like the science division is using technology to make the people slaves and the security division quiets anyone who gets in their way. Except for you.
The story is free for you to complete how you see fit. The aim is for you to take out 2 lieutenants of the Terra Novas divisions to get to their individual leaders. My favorite has to be Ciste. He runs the science and technology division. Once you take down evil rackets that that division owns then you can attack a lieutenant which once defeated will make attacking the leader of the division a lot easier. Some of these characters add to the story but not by much to be honest.
All in all, I found the story to be extremely predictable and not that engaging to be honest. This is because the story lacks any real substance. It just feels like an after thought in my opinion. This is not to say I didn’t enjoy the story it is just I was hoping for something more engaging.
Gameplay
Now this, in my opinion is where crackdown does everything right. The game play does have its hick ups like the driving and glitchy-ness of the vehicles. However, I shall get into that in a bit. First, I shall talk about the gunplay. It is pretty good for a game like this and since this game expresses itself with the variety of weapons at your disposal you do not once feel like you are out of different ways to kill enemies. Like for example if I throw an arc grenade at an enemy they can be stunned to stuck being electrocuted. While he is being electrocuted, I could break a street light and use it as a baseball bat and hit the enemy over 100 feet in the air or into fellow enemies. The gunplay being this solid and with the enemy variety makes every encounter different. This is good for the longevity of the game as a whole to play.
The enemy variety is what surprised me. Because they all have their weaknesses and if for example, you try and use a caustic weapon on a robot they resist it and take 95% less damage than a human would. This keeps you on your toes to try and be as efficient as you can. It is super easy to be overwhelmed by all the types of enemies.
The orbs and leveling up. I still love how the orb system works because it makes you think “What is on top of that building” and “What am I close to leveling up”. You have 5 different types of orbs. MY favorite is the strength orb because you have this ability which allows you to dash and punch an enemy. This is extremely useful. The agility orbs are my second favorite. These the more you collect the better you can traverse new providence. The worst for me is the driving orbs. This leads me onto the most disappointing part of the game. Gameplay wise. I Absolutely hate driving in this game. It feels like a punishment to drive. All the cars are extremely glitchy and drive like their tires are smothered in butter while driving on ice. Like while doing a road race In the Agency vehicle, I kept flipping my car over because of the fact that when I turned slightly right it would flip or spin out. This is especially annoying when you want a gold medal in a race. I got the gold medal but it took a lot of blood sweat and tears to get there.
Music and Atmosphere
The atmosphere in the game at times in fire fights does get real tense because you are outnumbered 100/1 and the music does back this atmosphere up pretty well considering that crackdown is set in a futuristic dystopia which the electro music and techno fit perfectly. The atmosphere does slightly change when you enter different areas of New providence. Like the quarries on the eastern side of the city are rather barren and feel empty with people shouting out cries for help. However, on the opposite side of the island you have the rich industrialists who own businesses and run everything. It is a lot more lavish over there and a lot of more interesting things to look at.
Final Verdict
I really did enjoy this game. It is something of a retro game for me and nostalgia for me. That is because you don’t see simple open world games like this anymore. Every open world game now does more than this game and better too. However, this did not stop me having a lot of fun while playing the game. I mean if the game released when it was meant too back in 2016 who knows this game may be considered to be at the top of its class. But now with games like Assassins creed Odyssey, I mean Crackdown as a franchise is left in the dust quality wise. It is sad but that’s what Microsoft get for delaying their game so many times. However, I think you should still buy the game and play it because if you have Xbox Game Pass it is free which is a nice touch. Otherwise I wouldn’t have touched it.