BLUE MAG

Originally Published in The Davis Enterprise

(Xbox 360; $59.99; Rated M for Blood/Gore/Intense Violence/Sexual Themes/Language/Use of Drugs; crackdownoncrime.com)

I love to stand corrected.

When I first saw “Crackdown,” Microsoft’s answer to “Grand Theft Auto” designed by the guy who designed “Grand Theft Auto,” I thought: wow, another “Grand Theft Auto rip-off.” The cel-shaded look wasn’t impressive, the explosions didn’t excite me, and the shoot-anyone/do-anything style of play is so recycled that I was planning on hating it as much as I hated “Saint’s Row.”

Then it was announced that the initial shipment of “Crackdown” would include access to the “Halo 3″ multiplayer beta. A Golden Ticket of this magnitude gave birth to many jokes centered around “Buy Halo 3 Multiplayer Beta, get free copy of Crackdown.” Naturally, Microsoft was including the “Halo 3″ beta as genius marketing tactic to move a game which they knew to be sub-par.

Then “Crackdown” was released. And Brother: I have never been so happy to be so wrong.

The first thing that “Crackdown” does right is by taking the “GTA” formula away from the criminals. Players control a genetically-modified police officer employed by “The Agency”- a world-police force- to clean up the gang-filled streets of Pacific City. Each island in Pacific City is controlled by one of three gangs: Los Muertos, The Volk, or the Shai-Gen Corporation. Attacking the crime-bosses of each gang lower the resources and defenses of the gang’s Kingpinr- increasing Agent’s probability of success. Players can go after the Kingpin from the onset, but will be met with near-impossible odds. Likewise, players can take on any gang at any time, however the skills needed to take out more powerful gangs, like Shai-Gen, are earned through eliminating weaker gangs like Los Muertos.

There’s still the ability to take out innocent civilians, and the Agency police force that fights along side of Agents will turn on players who cause too much collateral damage. Though ultimate morality is still at the discretion of players, the fact that the game centers on good vs. evil is a welcome change from the amoral protagonists we’ve come to expect in the Sandbox-Action-Crime genre from games like “GTA,” “Saint’s Row,” and “The Godfather.”

Players can level-up their agents in Firearm, Explosive, Driving, Strength, and Agility Skills. Whenever an Agent kills a gang-member, Agents will absorb glowing orbs based on the skills used to kill that gang-member; those orbs incrementally increase the Agent’s skill in that area. So, if players lob a grenade into a group of gangsters, run over gangsters with an SUV, or smash a car over gangster’s heads: skills in Explosives, Driving, Strength, or any combination therein, will be earned. Increased skills lead to bigger blast radius, better vehicle handling, quicker aiming, etc.

The greatest skill, and the one that puts the “Crack” in “Crackdown,” is Agility- and it’s the most fun aspect of the game.

Agility is earned by climbing to the tops of the hundreds of buildings and skyscrapers in Pacific City to find glowing, green Agility Orbs. More orbs mean the ability to leap further distances and survive falls from taller heights. It also means that hours can be spent bounding around the city like a radioactive kangaroo- leaping from rooftop to rooftop, and feeling like the superhero that the designers of “Crackdown” hoped players would feel. Increasing Agility skills provide a lengthy and addictive diversion from an otherwise short game. There’s no narrative here, and the ability to take out gangs is a weekend affair for even the most casual gamer; but unlocking the Achievement for finding all 500 Agility orbs and 300 Secret orbs makes for hours of diversion while taking out gangs and Kingpins.

And when busting heads becomes too lonely for the solo adventurist, “Crackdown” allows for a friend to mix it up with you via online co-op. Be Tango and Cash cleaning up the streets together, or just spend hours trying to blow each other up or racing against each other. The co-op action, unfortunately, happens only over Xbox Live, and not when playing with “real” friends sitting next to you. Still, co-op is a great addition, and is an option that’s quickly becoming a necessity on Xbox 360- given how well it works in “Gears of War” and now “Crackdown.”

Oh yea, and at some point we’ll be able to play “Halo 3″ with this thing. Talk about a cherry on top of a $5 milkshake!

This is a great… ahem… springboard to an inevitable franchise. Add rooftop-leaping, rocket-firing supervillians and additional super powers into a future sequel  and you can color me a Crack-addict for many years to come.