Review: Crackdown

I'm not quite finished with the game yet, but I think I can safely say this game is going in my "top 20" list of games. I bought it as a time waster until Metroid Prime comes out on the Nintendo Wii next Wednesday, but little did I know that not only will I finish the story mode in a weeks time, but that I would love every minute of it.

I called this game "the super-human, futuristic, elite cop version of Grand Theft Auto". I want to append to that some more words: fun, funny and entertaining.

There really isn't any comparison in the two games. They play to different parts of the audience: the want-to-do-bad-things group and the want-to-have-fun group. I've lived in both camps. I enjoy the later in multiple folds.

Even my wife, seeing me jump 50-100ft in the air in a single bound to chase after glowing orbs, got excited. She grabbed the controller and dove right in. Running at 25mph. Kicking thugs backwards 40ft. Climbing intricate buildings by ledges and scaffolding a mile high. The controls are simple. The idea is simple.

There's no complicated missions to replay over and over again to get them right. There are no bad fighting or driving mechanics or physics engines. There are no mandatory story lines. There are no secondary story lines. You do what you want to achieve what you want.

But what gets me about the game is that it's more than it's campaign mode. It's a virtual playground for wanna-be superheros. It's a platformer that delivers with no fuss. It was probably worth at the release date price, $60. It's even more worth it at the used $35 price.