Crackdown: Difference between revisions

The game takes place in the fictional metropolis of Pacific City, whose several districts and areas are divided among four islands. The city is controlled by three crime organizations: [[The Cartel|Los Muertos, of Central American origin;]]; [[The Mafiya|an Eastern European gang, the Volk;]]; and the formerly above-the-books [[Mega Corp|Shai-Gen Corporation,]], from East Asia. Normally, a police-like organization called the Peacekeepers kept the city under control; their forces, however, were overwhelmed by the sudden rise in crime.

The city, therefore sought additional help from "the Agency,", an organization that, in addition to outfitting and supporting Peacekeepers, has used advanced surgical and cybernetic technology to create [[Super Soldiers]] known as "Agents.". The Agency is based out of a former hotel in the very center of the city. The player takes on the role of one of their Agents, and is tasked with systematically bringing down all three organized gangs, while keeping both the populace and Peacekeepers safe. The Agent's actions are continuously monitored by the Agency, and its Director (voiced by [[Michael McConnohie]]) provides continuous reports to him of his progress.

''Crackdown'' was met positive reviews. What was particularly liked was how your Agent [[Level Up|levelled up]]. The Agent's five abilities, agility, firearms, strength, explosives, and driving, increase in power when you use them and unlock more cool stuff for you to use. For instance, if you beat up a bunch of people, you eventually get stronger and can lift heavy objects, or if you perform well in driving missions, you get cooler cars. The ability people enjoyed most though was agility, which you filled up by collecting orbs on rooftops that made you faster and jump higher. So by the end of the game you go from a regular guy to a super cop who jumps effortlessly from rooftop to rooftop. [[Just One More Level|And goddamn was it addictive collecting those orbs and jumping around.]].

The sequel was released on July 6th, 2010. Ten years have passed since the last game, and the Agency faces two new problems. CELL is an anti-Agency group armed to the teeth that has taken over parts of Pacific City that attacks during the day. At night, the streets are filled with hundreds of fast zombies called "Freaks" that attack everything. A new Agent has to take back the parts of the city controlled by CELL during the day, and clean out the Freak nests at night with the help of a new weapon called Project Sunburst.

''Crackdown 2'' was not as well liked as its predecessor. Everyone was upset that the game took place [[ItsIt's the Same, SoNow It Sucks|in an exact copy of Pacific City from the first game]], except the city was rundown instead of bright and vibrant. And the fun [[Storming the Castle]] missions were replaced with repetitive king of the hill games. Plus, fighting members of [[La Résistance]] with legitimate complaints [[What the Hell, Hero?|was just not the same as taking out gangmembers]], nor was killing zombies that you could kill with a single punch.

* [[The Atoner]]: {{spoiler|Some of ''Crackdown 2'''s audio logs mention a high-ranking former Agency employee who's working with Cell.}}.

** The sequel, however, has quite a few literal broken bridges, having gone from [[Crap Saccharine World|Crapsaccharine]] to [[Crapsack World]]. [[Averted Trope|Still, there's nothing stopping you from swimming to the other islands.]].

* [[Captain Obvious]]: In addition to his annoying [[Jerkass]] quips, the director will state "''You did <insert remarkable action here>, that's worth an achievement!''" while you get an achievement.

* [[Car Fu]]: The player is at times, encouraged to use vehicles as a weapon, in addition to improving their driving skills. In addition to the standard form of vehicular homicide, when your agent becomes powerful enough, you can wait until your enemy exits their car (on the opposite side from you) and then immediately ''kick it into their face.''. Sadly, the enemy AI have 1337 car-dodging skillz, so running them over is much harder than it should be.

* [[The Cartel]]: Los Muertos.

* [[Cool Gun]]: Nearly the entire arsenal is a wonder to use, comprising everything from [[Hand Cannon|Hand Cannons]] to [[Roboteching]] [[Macross Missile Massacre|Macross Missile Massacres]]s and [[More Dakka]].

* [[Crap Saccharine World]]: {{spoiler|What you help to set up in ''Crackdown''. A beautiful, safe, clean ''totalitarian dictatorship''.}}.

** The intro to the original;: the world is said to be anarchic. The Agency is allegedly a union of various police units around the world, and by the start of the game, really only maintain control over their headquarters.

* [[Death Is a Slap Onon The Wrist]]: When the player dies, they simply regenerate at the last visited Supply Point. This ''does'' impair the player a bit if they are deep in a gang's hideout though.

* [[Evil Tower of Ominousness]]:

** The Agency HQ Tower, the tallest building in the city, rises from the island at the middle of the map. Also, the Shai-Gen mastermind and his top lieutenant dwell atop their own massive towers; the Agent must [[It's All Upstairs From Here|fight his way up]] from the ground floor to the penthouse ({{spoiler|though he can use adjacent buildings to skip the entire lower half of Shai-Gen boss' tower}}.).

* [[Evolving Attack]]:

** The three agency vehicles are also notable;: their handling improves the higher the player's driving skill is. Once the player maximizes their driving skill, they gain Bond-style special abilities.

** The game actually calls the Agent's ability to upgrade himself "evolution" and as you progress, his armor subtly transforms from something very light to a huge power suit as the man himself becomes huge and muscular. The transition is so gradual, though, you likely won't notice it until you replay the game after beating it. {{spoiler|Alternately, you could always just flip through the various stages of armor evolution in Keys to the City mode.}}.

* [[Game Breaking Bug]]:

* [[Grey and Grey Morality]]: You play the genetically-enhanced supercop running around shutting down gangs, which makes you unambiguously the good guy, right? {{spoiler|'''Wrong'''. Turns out, the Agency covertly sponsored the three gangs, ''letting'' Pacific City get to the point of ruin, only to (ahem) crack down on them with the Agents, giving them control of the area in question. They also plan to do this in other cities until they [[One World Order|own the world]].}} .

* [[Heroic Sacrifice]]: {{spoiler|The Agent throwing himself into Catalina's helicopter to stop her is a bizarre inversion of this, considering Catalina is the most outright heroic character in the series and the Agent is effectively just a [[Superpowered Mooks]]. Since the Agent can be resurrected as necessary, however, it's questionable how much of a sacrifice his death is.}}.

* [[Impaled Withwith Extreme Prejudice]]: The HRX Harpoon gun which... shoots harpoons. Agents are [[Cosmetic Award|encouraged]] to pin whole gangs of criminals to their car, but nail them to a wall and they can work as stepping stones.

* [[La Résistance]]: The Cell is a pro-democracy terrorist organization that function as one of the primary antagonists of ''Crackdown 2''. Overlaps with [[Hero Antagonist]].

* [[Light'Em Up]]: In ''Crackdown 2'', Freaks are [[Nocturnal Mooks|nocturnal]] and are terribly [[Weakened Byby the Light]]. Your goal is to turn on as many light-generating devices as possible to wipe them all out, and in the meantime, you have a few "UV" weapons specifically designed to annihilate Freaks but spare humans.

* [[Lightning Bruiser]]: By the time the Agent's skills are fully maxed, he counts, especially in the sequel. They run fast enough to keep pace with many vehicles (and in ''Crackdown 2'' gain the ability to plow straight through oncoming traffic), can lift and throw heavy objects with ease, and are able to resist quite a lot of ordinance and rapidly heal any damage taken.

* [[Macross Missile Massacre]]: The MSK Lobber fires up to five homing mini-rockets in close succession; it's absurd enough to allow Agents to juggle targets (people, mutants, ''cars'') in the air for several seconds... which is exactly the point --: there's even Achievements for it.

* [[The Mafiya]]: The Volk.

* [[New Era Speech]]: {{spoiler|At the end of the first game, the Director gives the Agent a speech.}}.

* [[No Plot, No Problem]]: ''Crackdown'' has no plot. It has a ''premise'', then kicks you into it and tells you to go nuts. There are no hard missions and no cutscenes to speak of other than briefing videos (and "this neighborhood is clean!" victory videos, which are mostly just pans over the existing city while the narrator talks more).

* [[RPG Elements]]: The player can collect Hidden Orbs to increase either their jumping / running ability, or everything at once in small increments. Using weapons and driving cars also contributes to an increase in skills. ''Crackdown 2'' offers more levels of customization.

* [[Sequel Hook]]: ''Crackdown 2'' ends with one. See [[The Stinger]], below.

* [[Shout -Out]]:

** Some of the pedestrians [[Clerks|aren't even supposed to be here today.]] .

** One of the quotes the Director can throw at you when you fail to capture a Strategic Location in the Sequelsequel is "The assault on this Strategic Location is aborted. [[The World Ends With You (Video Game)|Come back and try again when you grow a pair!]]".

* [[Stuff Blowing Up]]: So ''very much'', because you are equipped with grenades at the beginning, get a rocket launcher early on, and there are [[Explosive Barrels]] everywhere.

** Likewise in the sequel, you can let CELL and the Freaks run wild without any trouble while you dally.

* [[Unwitting Pawn]]: {{spoiler|The Agent. The Agency's plan involved running the law enforcement of the world into the ground, allowing complete anarchy, so they could step in and take over the world as a totalitarian government --... which they do, now that you've been so polite as to take out the gangs for them. Some think the action montage ends with the Agent shooting the Director --... this has definitely been [[Jossed]] by ''Crackdown 2''}}.

* [[Villain Withwith Good Publicity]]: {{spoiler|The Agency. They want to look good to the people, so they trust them. So if you screw with civilians, they'll take you out. Of course they're only playing goody-two-shoes until they [[Take Over the World]]}}...}}

{{quote| ''"[[ThisPunctuated! IsFor! SpartaEmphasis!|Do. Not. Kill. Innocent civilians!]]"''}}

* [[With This Herring]]:

** Thoroughly averted in the first game --: the player starts off with an assault rifle with an adjustable scope, access to the best vehicles in the game, the ability to jump ten feet straight up while standing still, and the strength to rip a car door off its hinges... and ''everything goes up from there''. Of course, given that you eventually become [[The Incredible Hulk]] with a [[Stuff Blowing Up|missile launcher]] and a [[Batman|Batmobile]], it's hard not to feel underpowered when you replay the game from the beginning.

** Played straight in the sequel, which starts you off with access to a standard-issue Peacekeeper cruiser and the most budget SMG and shotgun the Agency could find --... even weaker than the SMGs and shotguns on the street, in the hands of the Cell.