Crackdown 3 has been 9 years in the making and finally after much delay (it was originally due 2016) is finally here. I was absorbed in the first one because it’s concept of mass destruction as a super human was so unique and different and while I didn’t play the second, from word of mouth I can tell you it was certainly not the hit the original was. In saying that, was Crackdown 3 worth the wait, or was it over hyped despite the lack of actual pre-promotion it received leading up to launch?

Set ten years after Crackdown 2, an unknown terrorist cell has knocked out the world’s power ending the reign of peace and quiet and sending society into chaos. In come the exclusive force of protectors called ‘The Agency’ who has tracked the attack back to the neon, futuristic, wonderland of a city; New Providence and to an evil organisation called Terra Nova. After a botched attempt at taking control back of the city, The Agency must call in their elite agents, one even voiced by Terry Crews, to track down and destroy each faction and their leaders to eventually more your way up the hierarchy and take down the kingpin of all this destruction. Terry Crews. If that is using a celebrity as a draw card, I don’t know what is. Maybe, just maybe this isn’t a good sign.

My initial thoughts on the campaign (which also comes in Co-Op of 2 players) was this is very much like ‘Agents of Mayhem’ a game I didn’t mind but got old for me, real quick. Selecting one of many agents, you must go on missions scattered across this huge open world, collecting intel before a mini boss appears on the map to be defeated. There are many different types of missions that will unlock a variety of henchmen bosses. For example, tackling all the chemical plants will make Katala Vargas, emerge if her bio suit, toxic sludge guns at a ready. All of these are pretty much clear out the enemies, then climb, hack or release refugees. A lot.

Gameplay means you can drive, run or parkour your way across the city, cleaning up the different classes of Terra Nova scum along the way. Scattered across the city are multiple safe houses, that supply you with ammo and gun load-outs. Guns, tacticals and cars are acquired as you find them throughout the world and imprinted to your character, who can now equip them from safe houses or looting enemies’ bodies after you have auto aimed the crap out of them, something this game relies too heavily on.

Leveling up is still the same, with coloured orbs symbolizing the five stat areas and collecting them will add different skills to that tree of stats. Want to be a better shooter then use guns a lot in combat, want to develop your agility then bounce and climb the world like Faith from Mirror’s Edge, want to be strong enough to carry the bigger items, punch your way through the hordes. Even racing or doing stunts in vehicles or exploding items will add new skills to that area of your character.

I’m very torn about how I feel about this game. I enjoy it because it plays just like the original Crackdown, so much so its mind numbing and found myself playing for longer than I expected. On the flip of a coin though, that isn’t necessarily a good thing, as it is awfully repetitive and shows no real innovation or progression in gaming.

Much of the game play is clearing waves of enemies from and area or shooting a weak point on a machine. Even then once I had the Homing Launcher unlocked it was pretty much game over because I just used that to obliterate anyone thing that came along, not even wasting my time with the many vast arrays of guns. The only real enjoyment I had was the series of mini boss fights and thank god there is actually quite a few of those, and they require you to use your brain for a short amount of time. At the end of the day, it just feels very one dimensional now, games have moved on from rinsing out areas and repeating the process.

Graphically, the game is here nor there. I loved the cartoony, cell shaded look of the originals and while this game is pretty true to that, it feels like they have reigned back from it. In for a penny in for a pound, it just looks a bit disjointed now, as if they wanted it to be realistic but also true to the original. And while I adore the cyberpunk look of the city, neon holograms and all; it just feels lifeless with all the NPC’s not doing anything remotely interesting. Also, the fact the world isn’t even close to being as destructible as it had been originally implied to me is a total disappointment, especially after the cyber superhero you eventually power up to be.

With the campaign done and dusted, Crackdown 3 has also tried its hand at the piece of pie we all know and love; a multiplayer. ‘The Wrecking Zone’ is where you can play their two versions of online multiplayer modes. Firstly, we have ‘Agent Hunter’, pretty much their version of a slayer/ kill confirmed match.

Set in an arena, this 5 v 5, screams too much of a Halo rip off, air jump pads and all. Their second game mode ‘Territories’ I enjoyed a lot more, with this requiring you to lock down a hardpoint zones to score points. All done before, but a bit more strategic that a typical deathmatch with tags to collect. Because there are only two modes even this became tiresome after a short amount of time. My second problem is the lack of Xbox parties support at this current time and can only hope it will be added eventually, because not being able to play with your friends is a big blow. Everyone wants their own bunch of friends to blame a loss on; everyone knows that. Multiplayer is also were you find their weak excuse of a customization of an agent, which is just a wheel of premade characters.

Crackdown 3 while having its few fleeting moments, just sadly seems to be a game living in its oldest brother’s shadow and despite coming back to play over and over again it was to finally push through the repetitive grind to get to the boss battles. Not even the tacked-on multiplayer can save this one as I predict that even that will be a wasteland soon enough. I do keep coming back to play, but that is for the nostalgia and because of my completionist itch which frankly is just sad. It could have been a fresh of breath air but after all the delays, its old, unimaginative and stale. It is free to Xbox Game Pass subscribers however, so that’s a plus.

Written by: Stacey