Preview: Crackdown (Microsoft)

Within the walls of Microsoft's white-and-green themed E3 booth, the industry giant showed off to us a build of their upcoming Xbox 360 game, Crackdown. The game takes place in the futuristic cityscape of Pacific City which stretched for what seemed to be several miles surrounded by water. The impression of Manhattan came to mind and that's precisely what the development team was trying to accomplish. A sprawling urban landscape complete with warehouses, skyscrapers, hordes of pedestrians, bumper to bumper rush hour traffic, and a lack of any loading time.

And of course twenty one different associated gangs with which to beat up, blow up, and ultimately take down through the aid of liberally applied firepower and cybernetic enhancements. Taking a cue from the GTA series, Crackdown is an open world game where the player, in the role of The Agent (a part of the law keeping organization, The Agency), can do whatever they want and approach their missions however they please. If the player wishes to take on the city's kingpin of crime straight from the start of the game, they are certainly free to try (and the team hinted that there might be Achievement Points for doing so).

To that end, the player has not just your standard variety of law keeping weapons such as rocket launchers, machine guns, grenades, and martial arts, but also a set of seven or so skills representing various enhancements and development of their character. During the course of the demo, we were shown the Strength Skill cumulating in the character hefting a mini-van at a gang members face and wielding a car door as a shield, the Agility Skill which increased the distance and height that the Agent could jump, and several others skills. Interestingly enough, as these skills increase, the Agent changes appearance as well. A stronger Agent will appear more muscular for instance. The agility skill in particular was important as the developers really wanted to push the vertical element. Many times there were gang members on rooftops and building ledges and escaping pursuit was often a matter of leaping from roof to roof as it was ducking in an alley.

The player can not just fire and forget however - indiscriminately harming civilians will result in a minor skill penalty. Though not severe, the penalty is to encourage people to play lawfully and to weave in and out of cover. Not that it stopped one of the developers from rampaging through the city and resulting in both gang members and other agents attempting to stop him.

In addition, the Agency also provides the Agent with three vehicles, each with their own special attribute and that also improve with use. The semi is the heavy hitter of the three. Remember in Terminator 2 where the T-1000 is driving through everything with a semi? It's like that; the semi in Crackdown drives through most everything. Meanwhile, the sports car has an emphasis on speed and has a 'scoop' ability. Whereas the semi goes through things, the sports car goes under them and tosses obstacles up and over. Lastly was the truck which, to go with the theme of through and under, went over obstacles, with its fully powered up mode being a massive monster truck.

Where the game refined on the GTA formula was in the targeting mechanism. Players can lock on to targets with a quick press of the lock on button. But after locking on to a target, the player can then flick the control stick to target a specific body part. Shoot a gang members arm and they drop their weapon. Send a round through their knee and they fall to the ground. Introduce a rocket to their skull and well, you get the idea. The mechanism worked well. So well in fact that the demonstrator was able to throw a van across a street and shoot it in mid air before it could land. His more evil counter part took advantage of the physics engine to juggle a gang member in the air - with rockets.

The game also includes a cooperative mode where a second player will be able to join in and play co-operatively within the game world, offline or online via Xbox Live. Many of the vehicles will allow one player to drive while the other rides along (with gun in hand of course).

Crackdown is scheduled for a Q4 2006 release.