Too busy to devote 12+ hours a day to your gaming habit? Here's a review that's sensitive to your needs: Short and focused on just the things that a busy gamer like you really needs to know.
Busy Gamer Review-
Crackdown
Reviewed On: Xbox 360
In a Nutshell: It's a third-person shooter like no other. You are a cybernetic government agent bent on cleaning up a futuristic city overrun by three rival gangs. You can go straight for the biggest bosses from the beginning, but you'll more than likely lack the stats to pull it off. That's right, it's a shooter RPG where you level up your agility, firearms, explosives, driving and hand-to-hand combat skills by using them and collecting special power-up orbs scattered around the cityscape. You'll start by jumping single-stories and eventually 30 feet or more into the air, making rooftop travel both practical and intensely enjoyable. Unlike Grand Theft Auto and its many clones, there are no real missions to speak of - just random street violence, timed races, stunt challenges, achievements and, oh yeah, gang capos and bosses to wipe out at your earliest convenience. The game calculates your chance at success when you approach one of these baddies' strongholds, so if the odds aren't with you: a) simply dive in and try anyway or b) mess around to level up enough to improve your shot. There are no wrong answers, just opportunities. If you die, you respawn. You lose your progress with that boss and any gang weapons you haven't stowed at a supply point - but not much else.
Learning Curve: Easy. You can jump in and play pretty quickly, but mastery will take some time. A disembodied voice in your character's headset will coax you toward the next mission and nearby objectives, or you can simply mess around and explore the game at your own pace.
The Save Game: You can quit and save your progress anywhere, with two caveats: 1) You lose any progress you've made toward taking down a boss or capo, so if you're two seconds from wiping out the head of the Volk's munitions trade when your five-year-old wanders into the room, you're going to need to leave it on pause or start your raid over later. 2) The game is incredibly hard to put down, so you may find that a few minutes of rooftop orb collecting turns into a few hours of intensely satisfying mayhem. The whole game can be beat in about 10 hours if that's all you want to do, but you'll probably spend much than that building up your stats and just having fun with car stunts, rocket launchers, races and exploration.
Family Factor: Not for young ones, though teens may be OK with some adult supervision. Violence against civilians is frowned upon and even punished in the extreme, so mostly you're just wiping out low-level scum bags without any regard to their civil rights or due process. If you're OK with that, you'll have a blast - literally and figuratively.
Buy, Rent or Skip? A solid rental, though you may want to buy it either for the Halo 3 beta (if you can still find a copy that includes it) or if you love true sandbox games. This is a good one to tinker with for weeks or even months, and it can even be played cooperatively with another gamer - just not on the same console.
On a Personal Note: I downloaded the demo and tried it for a few minutes (all I could spare at the time), but wasn't impressed enough to keep going. After hearing all of the buzz about leveling up and developing superhuman jumping skills (not to mention the Halo 3 beta), I was intrigued enough to pick up the full game. And I'm glad I did. This is hands-down the best third-person shooter I've played (I normally prefer the first-person variety) with the coolest city exploration. Jumping from rooftop to rooftop, tossing remotely triggered limpet mines at clumps of distant foes, using the Firefly rocket launcher to propel enemies into the air for 15-20 seconds (one of the cooler achievements), jacking gang member cars and then running them down to boost my driving prowess, these are a few of my favorite things. And I can do them for hours without getting bored. A great stress reliever, it's like solitaire with guns.
