Crackdown 3 seems as though it's been in development for decades. It was announced five years ago, at E3 2014, pitched as one of Xbox One's biggest first-party exclusives. However, delay after delay followed, and now it's finally here, the most fitting description that can be applied at it is that it feels like a game that would have been breathtaking five years ago.
Set a decade after fan-favourite Crackdown 2, this entry kicks off with a terrorist attack wiping out power grids across the globe. The island city-state of New Providence re-establishes order first, attracting refugees en masse, but is actually under the sinister rule of the Terra Nova organisation. Cue a diplomacy-at-gunpoint mission to disrupt Terra Nova's hold, shatter its infrastructure, assassinate its lieutenants, and generally cause as much havoc as possible as the super-tech bearing, clone-bodied operatives of The Agency.
There's a certain charm to blasting around the city as Terry Crews; sorry, Jaxon, the Agency squad leader played by Crews, and taking down Terra Nova's big bads with a mixture of sci-fi guns and superhuman strength and agility. There are other agents to play as, each with their own unique attributes and stat specialities – some will earn more experience for melee attacks, others for explosives, and so on – but Crews' presence and satisfyingly exuberant dialogue makes it all far more enjoyable.
Despite the destruction and the potty mouth of some characters, it's all a bit 'Saturday Morning Cartoon' at heart, with nefarious evil archetypes to take down, but only after you've dealt with their unique grunts. It's fun, and doesn't take itself too seriously, but there's no avoiding the fact that it all feels a bit shallow and dated.
It feels like a game that would have been breathtaking five years ago.
Progression follows the old Assassin's Creed model of unlocking sections of a map and completing various challenges scattered around it – a model that even Assassin's Creed itself has abandoned. Crackdown 3 adds a bit of a twist to the formula, with each objective gathering intel on and drawing out Terra Nova operatives, but it's still largely a case of scouring the map and checking off each class of mission. Shut down a chemical plant? Right, off you go to find the next half dozen. Destroy a Terra Nova vehicle depot? Great, here's another ten to demolish. There are some goals that need to be completed at specific points to open up new areas of the map, but then it's back to free roam and scattered target missions.
It's also weirdly easy, higher difficulty levels just turning enemies into tougher bullet sponges. There's little to no skill involved – aiming locks on to the nearest foe, your shots drawn to them like miniature homing rockets, while grenades feel super-charged from the off. Elemental weapons, which can shock, burn, or freeze enemies, make it feel even simpler. Maybe that's the point – Crackdown has always wanted you to feel like an unstoppable badass bullet god – but coupled with the checklist progression model, it fails to hold your attention for longer sessions.
One of the reasons for Crackdown 3's delay was its ambitious plans to use the Xbox One's cloud computing capabilities for city-wide mega-destruction, allowing you to tear down entire skyscrapers. In the end, this is restricted to the Wrecking Zone mode, an online multiplayer zone with several play modes. This results in some impressive environmental tricks – you'll be able to shoot the floor out from under enemies, or shatter buildings with incredible attention to detail and physics – but mechanically, it doesn't add much. Like the main campaign, Wrecking Zone is just 'fine enough', but never really feels like more than a third-person Unreal Tournament.
If Crackdown 3 had come out even vaguely close to its 2014 announcement, it would likely be regarded as a highlight of this console generation. As it is, it feels like it's playing catch up with other games from a half-decade ago. It is cathartic, destructive fun in short bursts, but don't it's nowhere near as impressive as it thinks it is.