It garnered mixed reviews at best, typically criticized for being bland and not innovating much over its predecessor, released nine years earlier. Its competitive multiplayer mode - Wrecking Zone - was almost instantly forgotten. Given all that, it's hard to imagine a sequel getting greenlit without some impressive new ideas and a lot of faith. That said, Crackdown is still a well-known series with a fair number of fans, and there are examples of game franchises bouncing back after a disappointing entry or two.
The existence of Crackdown 4 may be uncertain, but activity at Sumo combined with Microsoft's interests and a nostalgic fanbase do make it look more likely. It may just be a matter of waiting for confirmation. As the game begins, the whole world is in peril. Millions of refugees are on the move. Time to step it up, Agent! Along with the franchise favorite Agency Director, Crackdown 3 features an all-new cast of characters.
Destroy TerraNova assets to weaken the enemy bosses, assault their soaring towers, and terminate their employment. This is where you really step up your boom! Earn rewards and bragging rights as you test your mettle on multiple maps and modes. Everything is an object you can break. No door? No problem. Crackdown was envisioned to exceed the gameplay of Grand Theft Auto, giving the player "toys" to create their own in-game moments that could be verbally shared with others. The entire playfield was to be open at the start, requiring the need to create a progression for the player, while still allowing for experimentation.
Realtime Worlds had hired a number of former Grand Theft Auto developers who experimented with refining the game's sandbox element. Microsoft subsequently increased the maximum number of Achievements in a game to Through playtesting, the team noticed that many players performed certain out-of-the-way actions, such as climbing to the top of the Agency Tower. An initial fear of Jones' was that in the early part of the game, when the Agent is underpowered, the player may not realize the potential of the game and would not complete it; "People weren't quite sure, because at that level, you're kind of like most characters in most other games".
Jones also expressed concern that "This game does not look good in screenshots". They took two major steps to overcome this.
First, the demo for the game on Xbox Marketplace allowed for accelerated growth of the player's abilities. Second, the full game included five in-game movies that would be presented early on to the player that would give them a taste for what a fully-powered character could do. Wilson stated that development of the game began in with a target release in on the original Xbox. Nine people were involved in the initial development for twelve months with plans to expand to 35 during full development.
By February , they were able to provide a playable demo, but recognized there were still several challenges with the game's progression. For example, the team introduced "skills for kills" where skill points were only rewarded for killing foes instead of allowing the player to gain them by less risky opportunities.
They also included the frequent reporting of the player's current chance of success for a player of defeating a Kingpin to prevent the player from being frustrated by trying to fight Kingpins beyond their level. By , Microsoft brought the team the Xbox hardware and suggested moving the game to that system, with a release date in the spring of By November , the whole of Pacific City was in place, and cooperative mode was possible.
However, in January they switched to the Renderware 4 engine, which caused many problems and was considered a "gross mistake" by Wilson. Microsoft was able to provide additional programmers to help during to correct the problems, just in time to create a demo for the E3 Convention. Wilson admitted that when Crackdown was first unveiled, the team thought the game was too early to debut. Microsoft found that by October , the game had fallen into the bottom 30 percent in test player reaction of all games currently in testing, and the bottom 50 percent in interest, though the numbers improved after a month.
To help the struggling game, Microsoft decided to package the Halo 3 multiplayer trial with the game. Jones also was positive about the tie-in with the Halo 3 trial; "We kind of knew Crackdown would need as much help as it could get to get into players' hands Like we've always said: It's a game player's game. It's not something that's going to sell in screenshot. So [the Halo 3 beta] was good". Pacific City within the game consisted of "city blocks" which the player could travel between, according to Microsoft Game Studio's Jami Johns.
Each block had to be tested separately, so Microsoft Game Studios designed a software tool to track issues when the game was in testing. For example, the tool was able to identify blocks where the performance dropped or the game crashed, allowing the developers to redesign the area to remove the issues.
A further tool was used for the "seams" between city blocks, and included a screenshot just prior to any problem, which significantly reduced the debugging time for the game; this tool was further used with Forza Motorsport 2.
However, the team had found some bugs during testing that actually worked well as game mechanics without throwing off the game balance.
For example, the ability to drive a vehicle up a vertical wall when the player has maxed out his driving skill was originally a bug within the game. Wilson and lead designer Billy Thomson had previously confirmed that Crackdown was designed from the outset to be a long running series of games, stating that sequels for the game are very likely to be produced, especially if Crackdown performed well commercially.
However, during the Industry All Stars event in September , Wilson confirmed that Realtime Worlds was not working on a sequel to the game, saying "Microsoft [was] a little late in stepping up to the plate to ask for Crackdown 2, and by then we had already started working on bigger, better things". However, Shane Kim, a corporate vice-president for Microsoft, stated that Microsoft still holds the intellectual property rights for Crackdown and that a Crackdown sequel would be coming out July 6th, It received mixed reviews, being praised for its exploration, orb collecting and four player co-op, but was criticized for its similarities to its predecessor and its storyline.
It was originally dated for January 18, , but was delayed due to Microsoft's certification process. This demo includes both single player and co-op play, but does not allow for jump-in co-op as seen in Gears of War.
Silver account members received the demo one week later.
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