Crackdown

So in a wonderful face-saving PR stunt, Microsoft is offering one free game every fifteen days to gold Xbox Live subscribers. And these aren't just gimmicky DLC games, but older full-fledged releases, it seems. This much is awesome. What isn't awesome, from a backlog perspective, is just how quickly these free releases will build up in my backlog. But, hey, a free game is a free game, and if part of my rationale for the concept of backlog-clearing is an idea that buying new games is a waste of money, then there's no good reason to avoid a free game. Right?

Crackdown was great. It's an older game from 2007 that I'd never even heard about before downloading it, but I'm thoroughly impressed. It took about twelve hours to beat, but two or three of those hours were wasted just dicking around in the wide open sandbox environment. The story is extraordinarily simple, and almost nonexistent. Violent gangs have taken over the city, and you, a special agent with superhuman capabilities, are tasked with cleaning them out and off the streets one by one. There are three gangs, each controlling a distinct and separate part of the city. Each gang has seven leaders, including one kingpin. These leaders are heavily guarded in fortified sections of the city - parking garages, sports arenas, caves, towers, mansions, shipyards, and so on. You don't need to eliminate the leaders in any specific order, but its wise to go after the six non-kingpin leaders before taking on the kingpin himself, as each leader's defeat weakens the kingpin's fortified defenses in a different way. Fewer guards, guards have fewer weapons, guards may turn on each other, guards stop using vehicles - that sort of stuff. I really came to appreciate the very different ways you could take on the various leaders, and I applaud the game design for giving you several distinct options without making you specifically choose one from a dropdown menu, or something similarly unengaging. If you feel like climbing up a large building for a minute by scaling the walls, go ahead. If you'd rather sneak in and take on a few guards at once, quietly, good for you. If you want to head right in chucking grenades and shooting from the hip... don't do that, I guess.

In many ways the game reminded me of Infamous and Grand Theft Auto. It lacked the characterization and storytelling of the former and the mission variety of the latter, but it had the WRPG elements of the former (level up your skills by using them) and the driving-around-and-shooting-guns aspect of the latter. I was able to get four of my five core skills (agility, weapons, explosives, and strength, but not driving) to a four-star rating by spending a few extra hours attacking hapless gang members. (They max out at five stars, I think.) This "grinding," though helpful, was probably unnecessary, as the final boss's stronghold - while awesome to play through - was fairly easy for me. I mean, I did die plenty of times throughout the game, but almost always because I got overambitious in firefights or fell from enormous heights.

The game wasn't perfect, by any stretch. One notably irritating aspect came whenever I'd fall down, often from an explosion or melee attack. You're stuck on your back for about two seconds, no matter how frantically you push buttons, during which time you're still susceptible to attacks. This meant that falling down almost always puts you in much deeper trouble than it should in a game where your character is ostensibly a superhuman. And sometimes the climbing elements of the game felt underdesigned. I can't even remember how many times I leaped from one building to another, only to miss it completely and not grab onto any of the various ledge-like protrusions from that building's facade. And driving? I never drove. Driving was just awful, thanks to some shoddy controls. Overall though, these were very acceptable flaws given how much pure fun I had with the rest of the gameplay. Great call by Microsoft, releasing this for free; now I'm fairly likely to look into Crackdown 2.

Oh, and Keith and Sween - I'm totally down to play this with one of you guys co-op style. I imagine my presence early on in your games would give you access to some great weapons, and frankly, I could use some more achievements for doing driving-related stuff. Consider it!