Cleansing the Zelda palate with a nice Crackdown sorbet

[Chris]

Crackdown is the perfect antidote to a serious case of post Zelda blues.

It’s been six weeks since I completed Zelda on the Wii, and every other game has seemed utterly pale and pointless since. Zelda is a fifty hour epic that demands your full attention and takes over everything while you experience it. It’s a masterpiece of virtuoso videogame design on all levels – worthy of academic study in how perfectly everything has been assembled. You could teach this game to students of game design – a fact I constantly reminded myself of while bunking off Introversion work in order to “research” the next dungeon or boss.

It’s also made it virtually impossible to enjoy anything since. I’ve had my eye on Okami since the early previews, and I bought it on the day it was released here in the UK (several months after its USA release, thanks a lot Sony). Five hours in and I’m bored already, setting it aside and intending to return to it a few months later when the memory of Link in Wolf form has faded a little. Okami’s art style is some of the most beautiful I’ve ever seen on any platform, and from what I’ve played it’s an astonishing game, but it’s just too much like Zelda, and not quite good enough. The guys that made Okami have to be kicking themselves that Zelda came out a couple of months before them – two games where you play a Wolf in an epic rpg structure in as many months is just damn bad luck.

Final Fantasy XII is the latest casualty of this Zelda cold turkey. I’ve been patiently waiting for months for this game, overjoyed they’ve finally ditched the archaic random battles system and moved the series firmly into the 1990s. I’d been planning to buy FFXII and just vanish for a week or so, and it’s now in shops in the UK (several months after its USA release despite being in the same language, thanks once again Sony) and I haven’t even bought it yet. It’s not even the same type of game, but it’s another fifty hour epic with another world to be explored, another big boss to be uncovered and defeated, another set of aimless villagers selling red elixirs and telling tales of a nearby cave. Another game that demands the players complete involvement, commitment and (to some extent) obedience, none of which I’m able to offer at this time.

Zelda, Okami and Final Fantasy XII, three fifty hour games to be savoured and explored, all top of my list of games to play immediately upon release, all within six weeks of each other. This is surely somebody’s idea of a cruel joke.

This brings me on to Crackdown. Crackdown is awesome, just what the doctor ordered, the perfect cure to post Zelda blues. Bought entirely on the strength of a great demo on Xbox live (and released at the same time in the UK and the USA, take note Sony), it’s totally freeform, totally random, and extremely violent. It’s cathartic. The simple act of travelling around the city is immensely enjoyable, leaping from rooftop to rooftop and raining down gunfire on random gang members below you. It’s the exact opposite of Zelda, Okami and Final Fantasy. It genuinely does not care what you do with your time. There’s no grand quest, no set piece dungeons, no side quests, no linear story, no cutscenes. There’s just a vast explorable city, lots of cars, lots of guns, and lots of bad people who need to be killed. The entire city is open and unlocked at the very start – you begin in one zone and can travel freely to any other zone whenever you like, even driving right up to the final boss skyscraper and ramming the front door if you feel like it. You’ll die immediately, of course, but you’ll die in a spectacular hail of bullets and explosions that will make that death seem like a reward in its own right. You’ll also respawn and continue without every having to replay anything, without the game feeling the need to punish you for failing to do as you’re told, and without you ever feeling the need to throw the controller through the window in frustration.

In short, there are no convenient rock avalanches blocking the only exit to your starting village that need to be removed via the tedious side quest before you can progress onwards, and for that I am hugely thankful.

Crackdown is furnished with some phenomenal audio design, applying heavy amounts of reverb to the sounds of gunshots and explosions (which gives everything an inner-city-block intensity, much like the botched bank robbery escape scene from Heat) and making good use of some extremely low frequency sweeps as you leap the vast distances between buildings. Most of the game is played without music (except when driving) but there is a subtle yet epic track that only becomes noticeable when you are already extremely high up, and gradually gets louder and more epic as you climb higher and higher. A perfect use of audio reinforcing and rewarding your success, while simultaneously pushing you to try harder.

Another major factor for me is that Crackdown is a total surprise. I’ve seen previews but largely discounted it as a GTA clone, and I’ve never been big on the GTA games, or indeed driving games of any kind. Crackdown is advertised quite heavily as a GTA type of game, and the screenshots and magazine articles back that up, but the reality is that it’s a very different beast. GTA is fundamentally about stealing cars and driving around a freeform city. The few moments you are outside your car are quickly concluded by simply stealing another car. Crackdown on the other hand is much more about Guns. While you can steal any car or vehicle, there isn’t much reason to do so because your character is so good at jumping great distances himself. Most parts of the city extend upwards by several hundred feet and scaling the vast skyscrapers around you and leap frogging from rooftop to rooftop is a great way to get around. Returning to ground level (either by missing a big jump or getting blown off a rooftop by enemy rocket fire, or both at the same time) is the nearest equivalent to trashing your car and escaping on foot in GTA – a temporary return to zero which must be quickly rectified before you are overwhelmed by the rapidly descending enemy.

[shinygerbil]

I've yet to finish Zelda, I just haven't found the time. It's pretty good, but it hasn't got as firm a hold as Wii Sports I saw a good review of Crackdown in Edge magazine, which touted it as a gratifying GTA clone, and what San Andreas should have been. Shame I can't afford to have a Wii and a 360! I'm still looking to pick up a PS2 on the cheap somewhere..

So where are you planning to go with Subversion? A procedurally-generated sandbox game, hmm? ;P

EDIT: spelling. And also, FP

[Darksun]

Oi, get back to work

Mind, I'm getting tempted to get an X-Box 360, crackdown is one of the games I'll definatly get if I do, I really like Sandbox style games (GTA:SA is in my top 5 all time games).

[martin]

I've been thinking about getting an Xbox and a Wii, but I hate games controllers so havne't bothered. Gotta say I like freeform games, personally business and RTS do it for me - although the occasional freeform FPS is nice
Anyway, crackdown providing some subversion cityscape inspiration there?

as a final note, you may be interested to know that my friend, after spending 2 hours on that first fishing bit finally got lost (using the walkthought I may add) and gave up in the water temple!

[Nutter]

At least Chris ain't addicted to WOW: the great time destroyer. I'm stuck with my ps2 and Okami at the moment. It sure is nice to look at but also stupid slow and doesn't really have any challenge in it.

[Lastof]

Damn, now I need to get a 360, since I'm hopefully suffering from the same thing.

I finished Zelda, must have been the weekend before last, to allow me to move on to FFXII. And, well, I'm already bored. Five days since I got it, 14 hours in, and, I'm bored. The story seems to have evaporated. I'm not sure whether it's that it's a good game, but doesn't live up to the masterpiece that I feel Twilight Princess was, or, that it just, as some but not all of the players from the US I have talked to, a bad Final Fantasy (I can't say it's a bad game, it's just not, uh, well, it's just not what it could, and should be).

Maybe I need to find my Crackdown and them try again, and it'll get better, or, maybe be it'll never live up to my expectations. I just don't know.

The one good thing about my lacklustre response to FFXII is that Defcon:Mac beta isn't being neglected, as I was worried it might.

[shinygerbil]

I'm just about to go back and replay The Elder Scrolls 3 (because my laptop won't run Oblivion). I'm still rarely in the mood to carry on with Zelda, although it might be because the Wii is currently on a tiny television in the kitchen, which is hardly ideal for relaxing, especially in a student house ;P

[NukeLord]

Anyway, crackdown providing some subversion cityscape inspiration there?

Inspiration for the music too it would seem, and I really need to get a wii + zelda sometime soon...

[elDiablo]

Zelda for the Wii is, indeed, awesome. Played it for 40 hours within the first week of owning it, and then put it down before the final dungeon. Mostly because I didn't want the beauty to end! Still, picked it up last week and finished it, and the last boss battle is by far the best.

As for crackdown, I may give it ago! Cheers Chris!

[TimTim]

Having spent the weekend playing Crackdown and leaping from one roof to another I totally agree with Chris.

Its just fun to play.

Its always what I imaged a decent matrix game would be like.

[xyzyxx]

I'm not saying Twilight Princess is a bad game. Every game has good and bad points. TP definitely has plenty of good points, but I think it has more bad points than any Zelda game I've played. And I've played them all.

• Day changes to night in TP, yet there is no way to change it yourself. In the past three 3d Zelda games, you had the Sun's Song, the Song of Double Time, and the Song of Passing.
• There are several new items in the game, but almost none of them are terribly useful. You'll use that item to finish the temple you're in, and maybe to open the next one, but you'll never need it again.
• "You found a Blue Rupee (5)! " AAAAAUUGGHH! Does this message have to appear every single time I start up the game?
• Worst of all is the fact that there's almost no sidequests and games. Wind Waker had more than 10 ways to earn money, including treasure charts, Boating Course, the Post Office, picture puzzles, pig hunting, the acupuncture game, the battleship game, barrel shooting, and leaf gliding. TP has the "STAR" Game, and Agitha's Palace of Bugs.

[Taedal]

Yeah Zelda is great. Am about half way through. Another thing I like about my wii is its full backward compatablilty (take note sony ) - I never had a game cube - and i've just realised I got two great consoles for the price of one - with cheap GC games being very appealing at the moment (metal gear solid is pretty fun, got eternal darkness for £8 today... but its resident evil 4 i'm looking out for..)

Would like to try crackdown. Combined with xbox live and some other impending titles (assassins creed, bioshock.. gta4) it's another good reason to get a 360...

[shinygerbil]

...the battleship game

Spliiiiiiiiiiish...



KA-BLOOOOOM!!!!!!!!!

[elDiablo]

...TP has the "STAR" Game, and Agitha's Palace of Bugs.[/list]

Yep, that's about it in the game... Except for

• Magic Armour sidequest.
• Cavern of Ordeals.
• Poe souls collection.
• That weird game at the fishing place, Roll Goal or whatever it is.
• FISHING! (IT'S BACK!).
• Finding all 4 bottles.
• Hidden skills.
• The river ride (to get the big bomb bag).
• The island of treasure (which is easy as pie).
• The sledding and bird ride things.
• All those hidden holes you can find and loads of chests!

And I use a fair few of the new items while just walking around. The spinner lets you get to some places with chests, just look out for spinner tracks!

[xyzyxx]

Everything you listed is something you only do once in the game, activities that don't give you anything cool, and things that are part of the main quest.

The things I listed from Wind Waker are simple activities that you can do over and over to get more money.