How Crackdown Became the Surprise Star of the Halo 3 Beta, Far Beyond Its Pack-In Role

IGN writer Ryan McCaffrey admits that the original Crackdown was not a game people expected much from, yet it ended up being one of the best superhero fantasies ever put on a console. He wrote about it in a new piece, which is part of a series he is doing in advance of Xbox’s 25th anniversary. McCaffrey came to IGN after spending a decade at Official Xbox Magazine.

A pack-in game came with the Xbox 360, sold at a reduced price so customers could get the Halo 3 multiplayer beta. It was not the main feature. It was the extra item thrown in. The game was made by David Jones, the person who first created Grand Theft Auto, and it turned into a strong open-world title that paid off when players raised their strength, agility, and shooting abilities.

Discounted Delivery

Before streaming services existed, console makers relied on new IP to promote their online offerings. The PS2 featured Zone of the Enders as the vehicle for delivering Metal Gear Solid 2. Meanwhile, the Xbox 360 employed Crackdown to distribute the Halo 3 beta. According to McCaffrey, that beta served as a stand-in for the public’s initial experience with Halo 3 multiplayer.

No one anticipated any excellence. The game was sold at a reduced price. It came with the beta purchase, something players felt they had to acquire. Nobody really expected much from it either, although McCaffrey now suggests we might have, considering who was managing it.

Skill Orbs and Superhero Progression

The game Crackdown takes place in Pacific City, which has been split between three gangs that each control their own part of town. As a new agent, you step in to stop them. Your skills improve through practice: running, shooting, driving, and jumping all get better simply by using them. When you kill an enemy with a gun, a pile of gun skill orbs comes out of him. The same thing happens with agility, strength, explosives, and driving.

By the time the game ended, you had become a full-blown superhero. At the beginning, your abilities were limited: you could run a bit, shoot a bit, punch a bit, drive a bit, and jump a bit. The power progression was one of the most satisfying in any game McCaffrey has played, according to him. He also places the original Xbox cult classic Breakdown in the same category.

Freedom to Roam

There was no limit to where you could travel in the game. Gang bosses occupied their fortresses, protected by henchmen and servants alike. Should you manage to find a path through and eliminate the gang boss within the first hour or two of play, well, that was up to you.

The sense of liberty was what drew people in. It turned a comic-book fantasy into reality, and it proved to be a great way for an Xbox 360 owner to spend their time.

The Best Achievements

McCaffrey held several of his most cherished Xbox Achievements in Crackdown. They came together in a set he found particularly satisfying. One stood out for reaching the summit of Agency Tower, the city’s highest building, earning the “High Flyer” Achievement. Another followed right after: if you leaped from that great height and landed safely in the bay beside it, instead of faceplanting into the pavement around the Tower, you secured the “Base Jumper” Achievement.

The Director’s Track Record

The man who first created Grand Theft Auto, David Jones, had not worked on Rockstar’s megafranchise for quite some time when Crackdown came along. He helped get that game off the ground, and his experience with open-world design gave the title its sneaky greatness. It was a surprising superhero power fantasy that nobody expected to be so good.

The Sequels Did Not Match

Crackdown 2 was a pretty same-y sequel that did not bring a lot of appealing new stuff, aside from four-player co-op. Crackdown 3 had a more interesting development story. The game was going to power a fully destructible world using Azure servers in the cloud. The promise of what the game said it was going to do versus what it finally delivered was a Grand Canyon-sized gap that not even a fully powered-up Crackdown Agent could leap across.

The argument presented is that the original game stood apart from its successors, and that none of the later entries managed to match the quality of that initial release.

The End of the Series

The magic of the original Crackdown has never quite been recaptured by Microsoft, and the series appears to be finished for good. At present, the company’s franchise-first attention rests on Asha Sharma.

Why It Deserves to Be Remembered

An Xbox 360 period packed with standouts produced Crackdown, and it should be recalled as more than merely a required buy to unlock the Halo 3 multiplayer beta.

A Grand Canyon-sized gap separated the promise of Crackdown 3 from what the game actually delivered, and nothing about the experience felt capable of bridging it. The game had been pitched as something that would power a fully destructible world using Azure servers in the cloud, yet it never quite reached that destination.

The original Crackdown was a comic-book power fantasy brought to life. It was a terrific use of an Xbox 360 owner’s attention. It had a brilliant power progression that made players feel like superheroes by the end. It had some of the best Xbox Achievements of all time. It was directed by David Jones, the original creator of Grand Theft Auto, and it was a surprise hit.

That magic did not hold up through the sequels. Crackdown 2 was a repeat of the formula. Crackdown 3 offered a more interesting history behind its creation, yet the distance between what it advertised and what it actually gave players proved too wide to cross — a Grand Canyon-sized gap that even a fully upgraded Crackdown Agent could not span.

The original Crackdown stands tall on its own, and it deserves to be remembered for doing so. The difference between what the sequels promised and what they delivered was a chasm so wide that not even a fully powered-up Crackdown Agent could clear it, yet the first entry remains a standout in an Xbox 360 era rich with standouts. It should also be remembered for being more than just a necessary purchase to access the Halo 3 multiplayer beta.

Crackdown · David Jones · game review · open-world · Xbox 360