CRACKDOWN 3

The development of Crackdown 3 was really long and complicated, with a huge pile of aspects to be seen in the game. For example, one of the menus plays dubstep. It's been a while since dubstep has been more prominent in some product, if I don't think of the second Deadpola, where they have rather teased that genre. But of course, this is not the main area where it seems to be outdated. But since you have the final mark of the game in front of your nose, you probably guess that it does not automatically mean that the game is such a disaster that the non-wishers would want.

If I should briefly summarize the game in just a few terms, it is: destruction, explosions, and Terry Crews. When you reduce the game to the very most basic ingredients, you will remain exactly that. All this is accompanied by simple gameplay and set in a very well-functioning sandbox, which doesn't really command you, does not show you and does not lead you anywhere. In the progress of the game, you have only a few rules that will guide you here and there, but otherwise you do whatever you want. It usually means that you are destroying everything around.

But while you get it, it will take a while. Not long. Just one opening cutscene and a playable prologue. All this wants to drag you into the world of threes. Ten years after the two events, the Agents must be re-elected, as the world is in danger of becoming a terrorist organization. They are led by Jaxon Commander (Terry Crews), who is leading his team to hit New Providence, but the hit will not be as expected. The city is controlled by the Terra Nova corporation, but even though everything is idyllic and the public face of the company is based on caring for people, the truth is somewhere else. So before you, the mission is to destroy this corporation nicely from bottom to top.

If you don't like Terry, you don't have to choose him as a character. Right from the start, there are more agents available in the game, and over time you unlock others whose DNA is scattered around the city and can be collected. It is a pity that Microsoft got such a personality into the game and did not build more on it. Terry himself is really enjoying the opening cutscene, and his commander, Jaxon, is actually in the same position as his other characters with typical voice and physical expression. If you like it in his movies, you'll enjoy it. Well, just that moment. Then, in the game, the minimum is already being dubbed, and the story is only being spoken of in the form of static screens and boss details.

It would like to have more proper scenes that would even serve to shift the story, because you just gently slip along its surface and get more out of it, you have to go into the city, jump on the roofs and search for audio records reveal more about background events and characters. And let's be honest, the game can have the best story in the world, but if it's telling the world to uncover recordings scattered around the world (which you can find in different order), it just won't work as well. Moreover, Crackdown 3 doesn't have the best in the world. It's just a standard for genre ratios.

The style of the game keeps running the tracks from the previous parts. Although you go to the head of a corporation, you can't go right after it. You have to go from below. Terra Nova is made up of several sectors, each with some other boss under it, which corresponds to someone above it. So you are walking around town, doing mischief and trying to get your bosses on the nerves to get more information and pull them out of the hiding place. Only after that you can submit them. The destruction of the lower boss and its industry also weakens the boss over him, and so it goes on, just the higher ones have more below them, so you have to defeat all down to get to battle with them. This hierarchy is the only thing that limits your progress with the game, or gives it a sequence, even with your ability to go somewhere where you get a few shots and await respawn at checkpoin.

There are things that make Crackdown 3 wrong, which makes it average and also that which does very well. There are not many of them, but there is a sandbox between them. In fact, New Providence is a huge sandbox that is just waiting to be torn apart and so much chaos and destruction that even the tallest person in Terra Nova pulls the heel out of his hiding place. But it is entirely up to you what you will do. There are a lot of different activities in many ways outside the story lines. You can liberate prisoners, search for agents, recordings, make stunts in cars, run on roofs of buildings and the like. In the order you want, when you want and where you want.

Or you don't have to do any of this and just run around the city, liquidate the Terra Nova in the streets. Alternatively, you can rush on what the unit has long ago scored players - a vertical challenge. You will try to get as high as possible, jump to the tallest tower in the city, and collect green plowing to help you overcome yourself. The more complicated the place, the more points you get from the plowing and the more you improve your character. The green tillage is just for movement - you jump higher, you get additional jetpacking and you can dash in the air. Propaganda towers, one of the sidequest types, are just built as a vertical challenge. Each tower is different and gradually checks how you handle your motor skills.

But this is not the only aspect of the game that you are gradually improving. You'll also find four more of your character's abilities and improve them by using them. The more you use firearms, the better you are. The same is true for your fists. When you decide to do it on the streets manually, you will gain the experience that will add to your strength so you can use more items from the environment as weapons. If you help with enemies with explosives, you will also improve these aspects. And finally there are the driving skills you improve with stunt riding, nice maneuvers and even when you pass your enemies. By gradually improving in this area, you will make better vehicles available for you to sit in, such as a tank.

However, these levels are not just here. They reflect on your chances of meeting individual missions. This is actually a recommendation on what your chances are in fighting. If you want, you can choose to fight even if your chances are around 50%, but you must be prepared for the fight to be harder, so you have to deal with it. You can have two primary weapons at hand, one special and one gadget. There's a heap to choose from, and you'll especially enjoy the weapons, always having the right combo at different distances and with a different effect in case you encounter enemies who are immune to something. You pull another weapon and mow it further. you will find here also specialties such as black hole emitter.

But let's go to the area where it sings. There is no direct action that is decent. The problem is that the action is the only thing here. Moreover, it does not change much during the game. You can find a truly huge weapon heap here, but they all make huge explosions and only make heaps of dead pixels from enemies. And that's how it goes around. Here you go to the world to do something else, jumble somewhere, but there you will eventually come across enemies and again it is just a bum and a bite everywhere. In addition, the logic of design is a problem here. You are playing somewhere for 15 minutes to get the orb, to approach the confrontation with the boss, and there you'll find an enemy on the tucked up ledge. For many, it may not be a mistake, but it can also hit others in the eye.

And while the gameplay variability during normal gaming is rather a weakness of the game, in the boss fights the authors have done pretty well. Boss is here 9, everybody has something else on you and even though it's always about putting so many bullets, shots, rockets and anything else you can, the battles are really fun. In addition, you will take full advantage of how straightforward the game pushes you into action by completing your own shields and your life by eliminating enemies. The advantage is that you do not curl somewhere in the corner and do not expect to recover your life. You jump and fly around the enemies while aiming your weapons straight between your eyes to quickly complete what you just lost.

Ordinary and quite short campaign (I took 9 hours and most of the activities except cars I had 100%) can be diversified by inviting an online partner for local cooperation, which was always a big plus for Crackdown and that is true now . But in the team, perhaps every game is better, because you are not only playing, but together. But here it gets a very explosive character, when the trigger across the city unleash together.

A frequently discussed topic on Crackdown 3 was also online multiplayer, which is the main reason why development has taken so long. At the same time, it is a new territory for Microsoft and many other steps, as it runs on a cloud-powered physical engine. This lags behind what we have seen long ago, but it is still a fairly decent experience and no matter how high the buildings are, you can demolish the walls, floors of the ceilings and pave the way for the deserved frags. So when playing, you have to assume that every cover can be temporary. On the other hand, if you know that the enemy is right above you, there is nothing easier than taking the ground under your feet and reaching it after the fall.

Multiplayer is actually a separate title and we will see if and how Microsoft will progressively modify, change, and extend it. Indeed, he needs it. While the 5 to 5 base premise is fun, it can quickly get bored of the fact that there are only two modes and some game options are still missing. The first mode is Agent Hunter and it is a frag, so the team that has the most notches on the stock. With the change, it's not enough to just kill the enemy, but take his badge for 10 seconds. And since you see the badges of your killed teammates, it will allow you to tact yourself by waiting until the enemy vultures plunge into the badge of your comrade. And while a primary weapon fits in one-on-one combat, it is good to draw a secondary weapon with multiple enemies (and destruction of buildings). The selection here is rich and is complemented by special ability.

The second mode in the Wrecking Zone multiplayer is Territories, in which teams struggle to capture sites on the map. Keeping a location provides you with points, with two locations always on the map, each with only a few points until it runs out. Then it moves somewhere else on the map. The action is more concentrated and while you can use large vertical and horizontal map dimensions with Agent Hunter, it's about fighting in a small area. What is gratifying so far, I have encountered a minimum of problems in multiplayer. On the other hand, there is not much that could go wrong.

Much has already been said about the technical condition, which is also an area where to see that the game has been in development for a long time. The characters are still relatively nice, especially thanks to styling, but the rest are outdated, dull and when you are out of town, you "enjoy" looking at the really ugly textures of ordinary surfaces, such as slums. Dubbing is great, music is good, car sounds are bad in them, but glitches are mainly freezing, as well as moments in which when the really big explosions drop the film below 30fps.

Crackdown 3 is, in spite of all this, a miracle. Not technical. It is a miracle that even after so many problems and such a long development, it has finally been possible to bring a fairly fun action game that fans can enjoy. I would even say that the game is better than it deserves to be. But the unit was here 12 years ago, and the three did not move anywhere. Rather, it is a relatively flat old school action that remakes the 20 year old game. Something like the return of Rise of The Triad, which was also just about shooting, blasting, and dynamic movement. Rather, the older ones of you who have grown up when something like that is going to enjoy the game. Just go forward with your finger on the trigger and don't expect anything more. The younger ones will be grubbing and cursing the game, but the truth is that there are some qualities and you can have fun. You just have to realize what you are going to do and not have big expectations from anything else. The same is true for multiplayer, which in some way gives the impression of both Quake 3 and Unreal Tournament - running, flying, jumping and flashing enemies. There is nothing more here.