Crackdown 3
THE DELAYED CRIMEFIGHTER LANDS IN (MOSTLY) HEROIC STYLE DAVE MEIKLEHAM
PUBLISHER XBOX GAME STUDIOS / DEVELOPER SUMO DIGITAL / RELEASE DATE OUT NOW / COST £49.99/$69.99
still serves up wonderfully daft chaos
few other open worlds can match.Agent down
If you’ve been following Crackdown 3’s
development closely over the past
five years, you’ll have to try and make
your peace with what the final game
actually is, not what was promised.
When it was first announced,
Microsoft and the game’s original
studio Cloudgine sold a vision of a
world where every building could be
levelled with explosives, where every
surface turned to Swiss cheese at the
first sign of gunfire. As it is, only the
game’s smaller scale multiplayer mode
offers such destruction.
When it comes to the campaign, the
promise of a city that can be broken to
bits via the power of cloud computing
has been left by the wayside. What
you’re left with is a less ambitious
sandbox that manages to cram in
all manner of content and chaos
in a city that easily outstrips theSumo Digital’s
chaotic,
superpowered
sandbox has been
a long time coming.
Indeed, it’s been
digesting in the toasty bowels of
development hell for so long, five Call
Of Duty titles have launched since
this seriously sunburned agent was
first announced. As far as videogame
tardiness goes, this is up there with
Duke Nukem Forever and Aliens:
Colonial Marines when it comes to
flipping the finger at punctuality.
Initially announced in the summer
of 2014, Crackdown 3 has suffered a
torturous development cycle. Over the
years it has been passed about like
an unloved pet, with no less than six
studios all contributing at some point.
So just what can you expect from the
better-late-than-never final product?
Well, while Sumo’s sandbox is less
ambitious than the title Microsoft first
tried to sell you on, the finished game
burgs of its predecessors. Go in with
slightly lowered expectations, and
Crackdown 3’s superhero slaughter
still delights more than it disappoints.
Set ten years after the events of
the underwhelming Crackdown 2, this
threequel shifts proceedings away
from Pacific City and its tiresome
hordes of ghoulish Freaks. Set in the
shiny, semi-cel-shaded streets of
New Providence, Sumo’s open world
ditches the undead. Instead, the
focus is on taking down hordes of
thugs, drones and robots, as a sweary
Terry Crews attempts to destabilise
the evil Terra Nova corporation.
While the Brooklyn Nine-Nine actor
may be the cover star, you don’t have
to play as Crews’ Commander Jaxon.
There are 21 Agency enforcers to
unlock, and each one offers slightly
different XP buffs – some net you
added points while driving around in
the Agency Vehicle, others more for
taking out enemies with explosives.
To unlock these additional agents,ABOVE Taking to
the air with
your agent is a
simple pleasure
that never
gets old.
LEFT Terry Crews
is cool and all,
but you don’t
have to play as
him... though he
might get a bit
sad about it.The action takes place in an alternate reality to the one presented in Crackdown 2More Xbox news at gamesradar.com/oxm THE OFFICIAL XBOX MAGAZINE 065REVIEW