Crackdown (Xbox 360) Review

The main menu of the game will let you know if any of your friends are currently playing game that you can join, or invite those who aren't into a new game. This is a welcome change to trying to find your friends in ranked Gears of War matches.

The gotcha here is that the netcode performs horribly under even moderately laggy conditions, with constant stuttering affecting everything from your movement to the sound effects. It's particularly cruel, as these symptoms are present even if you're hosting, and it's a little odd when you think back to QuakeWorld, which was right on top of this stuff back in 1996 when 56k modems were all the rage. This wouldn't be too much of an issue if you could avoid players with a bad ping, however when you receive a request to join your game, you can only view the players Gamertag - no ping, not even their Gamercard so you can see where they're from and judge from that...and THAT wouldn't be too much of an issue if you could kick someone off your game without having to quit back to the main menu yourself. Of course, these are minor issues that I'd expect a patch for shortly, you've got enough locals on your friends list, and

Conclusion

Despite suffering widespread pre-release ridicule (the "Halo 3 Beta with free Crackdown game" joke) Crackdown has proven itself as another must-have title entirely of it's own merit, snatching the title of most enjoyable sandbox game from GTA: SA, and finally gifting the world with an enjoyable super-hero game - and lets face it, it was always going to take a developer without a movie/comic license to deliver one, given that licensed games sell no matter how badly they stink, and developers subsequently see making them not stink as a waste of time.

Another exclusive title of this caliber is a huge asset for Microsoft - it puts them far ahead of Sony, and catching up with Nintendo in terms of system sellers, and with their recent strike rate, I'd say it's not long before Microsoft finds themselves another franchise as prolific as Halo. I suspect Crackdown will still be fresh in players minds and hearts when Grand Theft Auto 4 hits on October 16 - giving Rockstar plenty to live up to, and much like Gears of War, Crackdown is absolutely ripe for a sequel, which I'm already looking forward to - regardless of not being done with this one yet.

Score: 92/100