Were People Too Hard On Crackdown 3? (AKA The Joy of Basic Open-World Games)

[Video Games Are Dumb]

Hello ya salty dogs,

With reviews finally coming out for Ghost of Tsushima, I was personally relieved when I heard to was a very pretty but very basic sort of open world game. Don't get me wrong, I adore a mechanically complex and emotionally stirring story. But there's something comforting about this traditional format of open world design. Of course, perhaps I'll feel differently once I finally play the game this Friday.

Then again, I'm the sort of person that 100% The Godfather game, True Crime: Streets of LA, and still recommend Scarface: The World Is Yours on a fairly regular basis.

But whenever I bring up Crackdown 3, I'm always amazed at the "reasons" they don't care for it. Old E3 demos and promises of cloud destruction and...the physics engine used to be better??? And yet, I've met very few people who actually played Crackdown 3.

And that's a shame because it's quite good! Run there, shoot that, climb that, collect that. It is a very basic open world game where your abilities get better and the explosions and get better and...that's it! It was fun! I listened to podcasts. It was just a good time.

Assassin's Creed Odyssey, Mafia 3, Spider-Man, and so many fairly flat but enjoyable open world games seemed to treated a little better for some reason. And I don't mean in terms of review scores, I can admit that some of those are better than Crackdown 3. But I'm shocked more people don't have more nice things to say about it!

So how about you Era, did you enjoy this game? Or this style of basic open world game?

 

[Mad_Rhetoric]

Yeah Crackdown 3 was really fun and the city in that game was very vertical and well designed. Movement was also great and a big step up from 1 and 2.

People def wanted to hate on it when it released bc it was delayed for so long people got cynical.

 

[CanUKlehead]

Having zero experience with the previous games, I liked 3 enough. I had a good time. It was short, but that was ok. Also helped I played it on Game Pass so the only thing used up was my time.

My time spent was forgettable, but not regrettable.

 

[Deleted member 58846]

It was Neat 's GOTY

 

[Navidson REC]

I really enjoyed my time with it, although my motivation kinda dropped once I reached Max Agility. Still super fun and I will finish it one day. It's nice to just boot up and cause mayhem for half an hour or so, although I wish I could still kick vehicles around.

 

[DrDeckard]

I completed it and genuinely really enjoyed it. I think its the best 6 out of ten game I ever played.

 

[Dega]

I had a lot of fun with that game. I never got the hate for it.

 

[KDC720]

I played through it via gamepass awhile ago. I enjoyed the first 2 Crackdown's and I enjoyed 3 for the most part as well. There's a substantial argument to be made that it was stuck in 2005 and didn't really change up the structure much, but I certainly enjoyed it for what it was. I don't think it's the absolute trashfire some like to paint it as even if it was pretty basic.

I didn't even bother with that competitive multiplayer mode though, which seemed pretty bad by all accounts.

 

[cabelhigh]

Yeah, it was a great gamepass game. Did a lot of things better than the previous 2, but I think it also did a lot of things WORSE, which is kind of unacceptable for a third game. Explosions were vastly reduced, and the driving was unfathomably bad. I think it was a lot of fun overall, but its hard to ger around the bad parts.

 

[Bojanglez]

I've been playing it periodically since release, still not finished it, but it is just simple, mindless fun. Definitely a more fun than it is good game.

I understand why it reviewed badly, but as a catalogue piece for game pass I think it works ok.

 

[Fredrik]

I played it for an evening, didn't like it at all. But I never played the previous games so maybe I miss some pieces of the puzzle.

 

[Handsome James]

I truly and genuinely enjoyed that game. Never understood the hate and overly harsh review scores it got tbh

 

[Deleted member 34714]

The game was supposed to be something special for Xbox, ended up being just Crackdown after many years of Xbox pushing the game as something more.

 

[Deleted member 16876]

These games are sometimes fun. Godfather 2 has some of the most lifeless open worlds ever but it is really fun to go around taking over rackets and killing rival gangs. The point of the game is to have fun and it is really fun.

As for Crackdown 3, I feel like there are games just like it but better. You Saints Row 4 which is basically the same type of game due to it's super powers but the game has more varied busy work and more meat in general.

 

[PianoBlack]

Having zero experience with the previous games, I liked 3 enough. I had a good time. It was short, but that was ok. Also helped I played it on Game Pass so the only thing used up was my time.

My time spent was forgettable, but not regrettable.

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Similar to my own view and experience. I really enjoyed playing it. Never bothered with MP.

To me Crackdown is just a strong example of the general tendency to dismiss games that don't line up with current trends, expectations of the moment, or arbitrary review score thresholds. I'm not saying it was incredible or revolutionary or anything, but it was solid fun, especially the platforming. I'd happily take another one with improved weapons/combat/vehicles.

 

[Sotha_Sil]

It wasn't as horrible as people made it out to be, but it wasn't really worthy of any acclaim, either.

It was satisfying to hunt down the orbs.

 

[plagiarize]

I enjoyed it quite a bit.

But I get why people who wanted something clearly more advanced than Crackdown 1 (rather than something prettier, but in other ways kind of less advanced) were disappointed to say the least.

HDR was beautiful.

 

[Swift_Gamer]

Games shouldn't even have open worlds nowadays. It's overrated, padded and gets in the way of developing more important stuff like the actual gameplay and story.
Open world existence is a main decisive thing to me, if the game has it, I tend to stay away from it.

 

[Smash-It Stan]

I dont think people were too hard on it, Crackdown 1 is still way more fun than 2 and miles better than 3 in many different ways. Idk if linking crowbcat is still allowed but his video comparing 1 and 3 is what I mean in terms of 3 going backwards. The most amount of open world next gen fun I had in 1 was stacking cars up and blowing them up, upgrading the cars and doing cool stunts. Everything is just toned down and neutered feeling in 3.

Also you cant divorce the marketing and promises made for the game from it. Somehow gamers have done that with the fable series but all the delays and cloud gaming and destructibility promised and just about none of it making it into crackdown 3 does matter and should be judged accordingly.

 

[I Wanna Be The Guy]

One of the better open world games of recent times imo. It was honestly such a joy to play. I rank it alongside Sunset Overdrive. Just really fun to pick up and play. Great traversal don't have to think too much. A playground.

Also after 3 I tried CD1 again and was surprised by how baaaaaaad it was. Like that was one of my favourite 360 games and I wasn't prepared for how much worse it was especially coming off CD3.

 

[Odesu]

It's an open world checkbox game without all the tedious shit most open world checkbox games make you do.

 

[RobotHaus]

It was ok, but it fell in the whole realm of "I couldn't care less about the story", which unfortunately kept getting pinged on you as you were playing around.

 

[Garrett 2U]

Try it in coop with a friend and it's amazing!

 

[Rosebud]

It has a 6 score. The problem is that people see it as a 2/10.

 

[DrDeckard]

This is no comment on quality of any platforms games...but crackdown 3 just made me feel all warm and fuzzy...it felt like a classic Dreamcast game to me. just kind of fun, simple in many respects, but overall i really enjoyed it.

 

[CountAntonio]

It was a fun and well made game but not to the level it should have been for some big first party exclusive.

 

[Evolution of Metal]

With reviews finally coming out for Ghost of Tsushima, I was personally relieved when I heard to was a very pretty but very basic sort of open world game.

But whenever I bring up Crackdown 3, I'm always amazed at the "reasons" they don't care for it. And yet, I've met very few people who actually played Crackdown 3.

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Why are you even bringing a game nobody played in this thread (Ghost), and then complain about people who didn't try Crackdown 3 complaining about Crackdown 3?

Is this a platform wars thread attempting to somehow match exclusive games' quality tit for tat?

 

[Chopin the Third]

No, I don't think people were too hard on it. It's not a good game (just mediocre) and it's traversal mechanics are the only thing I found enjoyable in my time with it, though they were not enough to prevent me from dropping it. I don't think most of the other games you mentioned have basic open worlds either, at least not in a manner that would draw a comparison with CD3.

 

[Deleted member 7948]

I really liked it, especially later when you have more abilities, speed, powers and stuff.

I don't like serious open-world games, but series like Saints Row, Crackdown and Agents of Mayhem are my jam.

 

[CloseTalker]

Nah, it was a weak game. Gunplay was bad, mission design was boring, and even the novelty of moving around has been surpassed by other open world games. I appreciate that it wasn't truly awful on any one level, but it didn't stand out in any either. You'd have to be truly hard up for games to play to choose this over any number of others.

 

[Video Games Are Dumb]

Why are you even bringing a game nobody played in this thread (Ghost), and then complain about people who didn't try Crackdown 3 complaining about Crackdown 3?

Is this a platform wars thread attempting to somehow match exclusive games' quality tit for tat?

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Naw it's just another big high profile game coming out

 

[SteviaRelievingYa]

I loved it. Never understood all the hate it got and the MC score is way too low imo.

 

[noyram23]

It deserve the meta it currently has, which is flat 60. It's ok and fun for an hour or 2, I probably won't bother though if it's not on XGP

Also Agents of Mayhem is a better crackdown game imo

 

[John Rabbit]

I think people expected Crackdown 3 to be something it was never going to be and then got upset about that. Game was totally fine.

 

[litebrite]

I think most of the criticisms were valid and yet I overall enjoyed my time with it. I think If you enjoy the gameplay loop of finding and collecting Orbs throughout it's open world verticality to improve powers then you're likely to have a good time with it.

 

[Deleted member 16876]

While we are on this topic, anybody else feel GTA5 could have been better if it had some of that "checklist" design for it's side content?

Usually in the game you would do a lot of one off side missions so when you do a bunch of them you will discover that there is basically nothing to do anymore. The whole game starts feeling empty.

Having gang wars, more races, the GTA3 era activities like vigilante, firefighter or paramedic etc would have made the game more fun to play. Sometimes you just want to be in the world and do stuff instead of something deep. The older GTA games had a lot of this but with GTA5 there was nothing more.

 

[SunBroDave]

Don't sully the good name of AC Odyssey by lumping it in with the trash open worlds of those other games

 

[Deleted member 679]

I really enjoyed my time with it. Trying to get to hard to reach orbs is always a ton of fun.

Couldn't find much motivation to keep playing after beating it and feeling content with my agility level, but that's fine.

It may not be a great game, but it's fun, and I think there's a lot of value in that. It's a game that knows what it is. A game that is trying really hard to be the next masterpiece, but ends up being a 7/10 leaves a much worse taste in my mouth than one that is a 6/10, but never tried to be anything more than that. It just wanted you to have fun for 7 or 8 hours.

I wouldn't think about Crackdown 3 today if not for this thread, but that's better than those games that were such huge disappointments that I keep thinking about them all the time for years.

 

[I Wanna Be The Guy]

It deserve the meta it currently has, which is flat 60. It's ok and fun for an hour or 2, I probably won't bother though if it's not on XGP

Also Agents of Mayhem is a better crackdown game imo

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Agents of Mayhem was garbage.

 

[Gestault]

I super-duper enjoyed it. I also thought it was braindead the way some criticism keyed in so centrally on the (relatively) short length; If CD3 stretched itself out longer, I probably would have gotten tired of it. It was a game that struck the right balance of exciting progression, basic story, and its own length.

The weapons, power growth, and collection components are a blast. That said, I'm not implying CD3 was some 10/10 classic. A lot of middling reviews were pretty dead-on. I just happen to love how the actual game itself plays.

 

[CloseTalker]

Why are you even bringing a game nobody played in this thread (Ghost), and then complain about people who didn't try Crackdown 3 complaining about Crackdown 3?

Is this a platform wars thread attempting to somehow match exclusive games' quality tit for tat?

Click to shrink...

If this was a platform wars thread, OP wouldn't be dragging out Crackdown 3 as his prime argument lol.

Agents of Mayhem was garbage.

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I unironically enjoyed my time with Agents wayyyyy more than Crackdown 3, for whatever that's worth.

 

[Bulby]

I loved the game. It was probably my favourite game of last year.

But it was definitely a 6/10.

They could have done so much more with the move set they gave you. More interesting platforming puzzles. More interesting boss design rather than just bullet sponges. I didnt think the map was that well designed. The centre of the map particularly sucked and wasnt fun to scale. The orb layout just wasnt in as satisfying a chain as they were in Crackdown 1. Vehicles we also pretty bad.

I would hate for Crackdown to be a standard quest style open world. I love how free form it is. I just dont think they really capitalised on how fun the game is.

 

[noyram23]

Agents of Mayhem was garbage.

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Well goes to show how low Crackdown 3 is lol

 

[I Wanna Be The Guy]

Don't sully the good name of AC Odyssey by lumping it in with the trash open worlds of those other games

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I would rather play Crackdown 3 than AC Odyssey or any modern AC game. Bloated nonsense. If there's fun to be had it takes way too long for it to happen. Crackdown 3 is fun inside the first minute.

 

[Oblonsky307]

Nope, loved the original but this game was awful. A laggy and buggy mess imo that shouldn't have been released and I love a crap but fun coop game. But i'm glad you got some fun out of it.

 

[Belthazar90]

And yet, I've met very few people who actually played Crackdown 3.

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I don't think that's the case, at all... I think most people that subscribe to Gamepass gave it a chance when it dropped, why wouldn't they?

 

[Outrun]

I thoroughly enjoyed it. However, MS made the mistake of hyping it as if it were a AAA title.

 

[FelipeMGM]

I enjoyed for what it was. A good ol podcast game, where I had fun jumping around and blowing stuff up.

The Wrecking Zone multiplayer mode was atrocious though.

 

[Fisty]

We can't let #Crackdown3Matters become #Crackdown1Better

 

[Skeeter49]

It was Neat 's GOAT

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Fixed that for accuracy.