More On: Crackdown

 

Hi, my name’s Phil Wilson and I am the producer for Crackdown at Realtime Worlds in Dundee, Scotland.  The role of the producer is incredibly varied, interesting and enjoyable…yet largely unglamorous; the general remit, though, is to steer a great game into port via some inevitably uncharted and stormy seas.   I’ve been in the industry for 11 years now, beginning as a level designer then moving into a design lead position before, in late ’99, taking on responsibility for the whole dev team…and never looking back.  Though the role hasn’t changed on the face of it, the challenges have increased exponentially as development budgets, team sizes and ambitions have exceeded even recent dreams!  So the draw has been both challenge and reward, and thankfully Crackdown has now delivered in full!

“Crackdown” will take complete advantage of cooperative gameplay. How could it not? In a world this destructible, players simply can’t imagine the possibilities for wide scale, team-driven chaos. Gamers will indeed be able to tackle the single-player campaign in co-op mode in order to double-up on the damage, offering new strategies and possibilities that couldn’t be accomplished by a single player. The beautiful thing about Crackdown’s cooperative gameplay is that you and your friend aren’t forced to play in a small area. From the get go you’ll have the whole world open to you. You can be on one end of the game world while your friend is on the other end. Conversely you could be riding in the same car. Or even better, you’re driving the car while your friend is riding on top while firing his grenade launcher.

While Crackdown doesn’t feature any competitive multiplayer modes, we have seen many of a cooperative session move into a hilarious, albeit unsanctioned, me versus you battle. I mean you do have a weapon in your hand and so does your mate…

 

When Dave Jones explained the concept and sheer scale of Crackdown to the team it became abundantly clear that we needed to make the game’s styling as over the top as the action he wanted. Everything he talked about was turned up to 11 so a world of drab grey and brown tenement buildings didn’t seem to be the best way to stage this. It was obvious to us from the start that the best reference point for this type of game already existed in comics and graphic novels which, despite having a variety of visual styles, all have the same fundamentals in common… they aim to depict a mixture of great drama and intense action in every page and often with an exaggerated palette that accentuates it all, which has turned into an extremely unique and compelling look for Crackdown.

 

You’ll have dozens of vehicles at your disposal. Of course any motor vehicle that comes whizzing by is yours for the taking. Often you’ll need to take the vehicle out of the hands of a civilian or a criminal, but since you are an agent of justice it’s all in the pursuit of peace after all. ;)

As far as the vehicles go, they range from beat up old sedans to buses to dump trucks to supercars. Finding the right vehicle for any given activity isn’t all the difficult. The Agency (your employer) also provides you with access to three Agency vehicles. The Supercar, the SUV and the Semi-Truck. These vehicles performance and appearance actually change with your Agent’s driving abilities. For example, if you are high level driver, the Supercar will do upwards of 200mph and you can shoot anything in your path with the hood mounted machine guns. In the case of the Agency SUV, roll over nearly any obstacle in your path and at it’s highest level you can actually ‘hop’, due to its spring mounted suspension, over objects, walls, crowds, etc. Finally, the Agency Semi-Truck is a 10-ton wrecking machine. If you’re in the way of this thing, you’re day just got really bad…especially if I just hit turbo.

As you play through the game you’ll be able to increase your Agent’s abilities across five core attributes – Firearms, Agility, Strength, Driving and Explosives. Each time you level up in one of these attributes you’ll see changes in your Agent. These changes will affect your physical appearance but they also affect your abilities in the fields. For example, a high level explosive expert can create explosions of great magnitude. The same goes for a high level agility Agent. You might initially only be able to jump up one floor, but as you ramp up your skills you can jump three or four stories…or even jump great chasms across city blocks.  

 

Crackdown and Riot Act will offer all the same Agents for play. The marketing team in Japan has simply chosen to feature the Asian agent in their marketing communications.

The missions themselves are organic in that they change dependent on what gang bosses you’ve taken out previous to any new mission. So for example, if I remove the weapons officer for a gang, you’ll see that any future boss fights (for the same respective gang) the gang members will have reverted to less powerful numbers. The same thing happens if I remove their recruiter before taking on another gang boss; in that you’ll see their numbers dissipate. You can try to tackle the kingpin straightway, as all 21 gang boss missions are open to you from the beginning, but you’ll likely get smoked until you take out some or all of his underlings. The locations of these missions also very greatly – from tackling a gang boss stationed on an oil rig to taking out a gang boss hiding away in the bowels of chop shop. As far a variety, how you accomplish the mission is up to you. That’s certainly one of our differentiators. You don’t have to go from point A to point B or escort this or snipe this person and then that person to finish the mission. Instead it’s up to you (and perhaps your co-op Agent) to decide how best to tackle any given mission. You might swim in, you might come in thru a back door or you might come in the front door, Rambo style. It’s up to you, but your Agent’s earned abilities may (or may not) complement your chosen method.

Your play style will customize the character. If you are a character who is keen to use his strength, you will see your character begin to put on some serious mass. If you focus on your Agility, you’ll probably look more like a gymnast. If you are focus on both, you’ll probably end up looking a bit like a male version of Mary Lou Retton. ;)

There are over 40 achievements. Two of my personal favorites are “Base Jumper” and “Global Impact”. With Base Jumper you have to climb to the top of the Agency tower, the tallest building in Crackdown, and then survive a jump into the water below. Easier said then done. With “Global Impact” we’ve placed a certain object in a certain location. You need to find this object and then beat down 15 criminals with it. There are a lot of unique achievements in Crackdown. I could go on, but I’d rather you discovered them for yourself. 

Pacific City is 10 square miles of landmass and includes 8 miles of freeway. The city’s tallest building would rival the Empire State Building at 364 meters tall. The key thing to keep in mind is that this game has been built for vertical exploration as well as horizontal exploration. Much of the action is going to take place on rooftops, ledges, balconies and even underground. Feel free to take a swim too.