Crackdown plus Halo 3 previews

If you happen to know me outside of reading this column, or just haven’t pieced it together by now, I am a pretty big Xbox fanboy. Ever since the first time I played “Halo”, my original Xbox and my 360 have held a special place in my heart. With that knowledge, it should come as no surprise to hear that I did a double take when I found out that I could play Halo 3 months and months before it was released. Granted, I could only play it by purchasing an upcoming game, “Crackdown”, for the Xbox 360. By purchasing “Crackdown”, gamers will also be buying a special code which will allow them to participate in the “Halo 3” multiplayer beta test. The beta test will allow gamers to play through a completed, but not final, build of the multiplayer features of “Halo 3”, which includes new maps, weapons, and in game features. But for now, I’ll get back to talking about a game I’ve actually gotten to play.

Though, “Crackdown” isn’t slated for release until February 20^th, a free demo of the game was recently released on Xbox Live Marketplace. Even though I whole-heartedly planned on buying “Crackdown” regardless of how good it was, I was quite anxious to see whether I’d be buying a game or a $60 beta test code and a trade-in come February 20^th.

Though the demo of “Crackdown” is a little more than a gig in size, it packs a lot of features into the relatively large file. In “Crackdown” you play as a super powered police officer working for the Agency, an all powerful police force, in the fictional Pacific City. Pacific City is built on a series on islands, each of which is controlled by a different gang and it is up to you take down everyone from street thugs to kingpins.

While it seems like impossible odds at first, your agent has super human powers and as the game progresses, these powers become stronger the more you use each. For instance, the more enemies you kill with guns, the better you get at using firearms. The categories you can level up range from firearms to agility, which when leveled up to allow you to jump from building to building. While in the demo you can max out your stats, it is unclear how fast these stats will increase in the final version of the game. Your agent can also recover control of Agency check points which act as points to revive your character if he happens to die, but they also act as weapons lockers to store any new weapons you may acquire in the course of taking down various gangs. Your agent can only carry two weapons at a time, but these checkpoints are in close enough proximity to each other to allow for easy access.

“Crackdown” most easily can be compared to the “Grand Theft Auto” series being that it is a third person action/adventure game. However, this similarity is no coincidence being that “Crackdown” was created by David Jones, who helped create the original “Grand Theft Auto”. This game is even reminiscent of the “GTA” series in the control scheme. But “Crackdown” has one thing that “GTA” fans have been whining about since its creation – cooperative online multiplayer. Now you and a friend can team up and take down the scum of Pacific City or just simply create as much chaos as possible.

“Crackdown’s” graphics are quite smooth and looks slightly cell-shaded, almost as if it were an animated comic book. For a demo, the game controls fairly well, but has plenty of quirks that need to be remedied before the final version is released. For example, your agent has the ability to scale buildings by jumping and grabbing onto ledges but too often your agent is positioned just slightly off and will not make a crucial ledge grab which usually results in you plummeting to the ground and having to start your ascent over. The camera also has some problems that need to be fixed, especially when your agent is in a confined area. But overall, “Crackdown” is on the right path to being a fresh take on the tried and true open-ended world game.

But what if the premise wears too thin after longer hours of gameplay? What if jumping from building to building a la Neo in “The Matrix”, shooting gang bangers and tossing grenades gets stale? Well luckily for those who get bored quick, the first wave of “Crackdown” games released will be packaged with the aforementioned “Halo 3” multiplayer beta test code. And for those raging “Halo” fans out there, there are plenty of new features in multiplayer to make “Crackdown” worth buying if only for the beta code.

In addition to a new matchmaking system, which is based both on skill as well as experience, “Halo 3” includes a truckload of new features.

The beta test will include new maps but also many, many new weapons for players to use. Master Chief will have a new assault rifle at his disposal, which looks eerily similar to the rifle in the original “Halo”. Bungie has assured fans that even though this rifle looks similar, it is not just a cop-out, rehashing of the original assault rifle. A new anti-vehicle weapon, called the Spartan Laser, will also be available to Master Chief. The Brute race, who is the primary enemy in “Halo 3”, also adds a few new weapons to the “Halo” universe. The first is a weapon that fires spiked bolts at high speeds and can be double wielded much like the human SMG. The second is a new type of grenade which sticks into any surface it is thrown into and when detonated hurls metal spikes in the direction of the explosion.

One new vehicle Bungie has added into “Halo 3” is the Mongoose ATV. Though the Mongoose has significantly less armor than the Warthog jeep, it is much quicker making it ideal for games of capture the flag. The Mongoose also only allows for one other player to ride directly behind the driver (a move which Bungie jokingly refers to as “riding brokeback” in reference to “Brokeback Mountain”). But perhaps one of the biggest surprises in “Halo 3’s” multiplayer is the introduction of the “man cannon” (cue the juvenile jokes). This new method of transportation catapults players hundreds of feet in the air and even though it will be difficult, players can attack and be attacked mid-flight.

In my opinion, the final version of “Crackdown” will most likely be worth buying, with or without the beta code. But if you are a fan of the “Halo” series and you’ve played “Halo 2” so often you’re surprised your disc even still works, $60 for a new game as well as new “Halo” action is worth every penny.