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Just because I beat Crackdown well over a week ago doesn't mean there still aren't vitally important objectives to attain. For example, I haven't driven the agency SUV up Wang's tower yet. There's probably a good reason why I'd want to do this, but all I know is I've got a vehicle that sticks to walls and a really tall building that's almost impossible to climb. The random wandering goons walking the streets of Pacific City can wait while I make one more attempt at driving up to the lofty heights of the second-tallest building in the game.
The thing about sandbox games is that, despite the objectives and missions thrown your way, the best challenges are the ones you come up with yourself. Crackdown is built around this from the start, with only a handful of missions, a few races both on foot and in car, and an entire city's worth of trouble to get into. No two ways around it, that doesn't sound like much, but Crackdown is pure concentrated awesome from the moment it starts.
Crackdown is pure concentrated awesome from the moment it starts.
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The plot is paper-thin, laid out in a series of very short cut-scenes designed to get out of the way of the action as quickly as possible. Pacific City is built on a small cluster of islands, and three gangs have divided the metropolis up into territories that they rule with with merciless anarchy. The downtown area is owned by Los Muertos, the industrial section is ruled by the Volk, and the Shai Gen snagged the business district.
Each gang has six well-protected bosses in charge of aspects like explosives, recruitment, finances, etc, and there are multiple routes to each one. Blasting through the front door is possible, of course, but so is sneaking around the back, climbing the outside of the building, or driving an agency vehicle over as many goons as you can cram under the wheels. No matter how it's done, taking out the sub-bosses will weaken the main leader enough that he can be brought down, freeing the district from mob rule at last.
There's a preferred order to take the clans down in, because the agent starts out comparatively weak. Sure, he can jump high, shoot straight, and blow things up reasonably well, but the more of this he does the better he'll get. There are five skills (strength, agility, driving, explosives, guns) with four levels of proficiency each, and gaining a level not only brings an instantly noticeable increase in that skill but also has a slight effect on the agent's appearance. The young agent at the beginning will soon be a grizzled vet of a thousand firefights, and by game's end he'll look the part.
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