10th Anniversary of Crackdown

After 10 years, Crackdown is a game best remembered for being a game bundled with codes to give players access to the Halo 3 Beta. But was it worth it?


Published: February 20, 2017 11:00 AM /

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Welcome to Pacific City, a metropolis filled with bustling citizens, large skyscrapers, and some of the worst crimes in the area. Three crime organizations hold the city hostage: Los Muertos or The Dead Ones in Spanish, the Volk or Wolf in Russian, and the Shai-Gen Corporation of East Asia, each of them controlling various districts and trades. Normally crime in a City is dealt with by the Peacekeepers, a police force like any other, but with each of these gangs choosing to make a move for power, The Agency gets called in.

The Agency is an organization that doesn't just supply firearms and other supplies to the Peacekeepers, but by being on the forefront of science, has been able to give their Agents surgical and cybernetic improvements creating the ultimate super soldiers whose job it is to take on these crime syndicates and bring back peace to Pacific City.

Crackdown was originally released as an Xbox 360 exclusive title back in 2007 on the 20th of February. Originally planned to be released on the original Xbox developer, Realtime Worlds, encountered issues during development, including a small beginning development team, retooling of the progressions system to account for the entire world being accessible from the beginning, and even switching engines to Renderware 4, a decision that Producer Phil Wilson labeled as a "gross mistake." 

Crackdown is also well remembered by a lot of fans as being a game that was bundled with codes to give players access to the Halo 3 Beta, an extremely large push to sell the title. It was only after purchasing the game for the Halo 3 beta that players then realized they'd actually also purchased a good game.

crackdown gameplay

The game blended open-world gameplay, both on foot and driving, an in-depth leveling and upgrade system, and an interesting story to create an experience that you could jump into alone or with a friend to take on the world. If there's one other thing that players of Crackdown will remember, and might have some not-so-happy memories of, it is the collectibles that went with the upgrade system.

Across the 495 city blocks that you could explore across the three islands, there were a grand total of 800 Orbs, 500 of those are Agility Orbs, and the other 300 are Hidden Orbs. When you begin the game, apart from a larger jump, there's not much that's that special about your super soldier; once you begin collecting those orbs, you can run faster and jump higher than you would believe. This experience is similar to other open-world games like Saints Row 4 and Prototype, where you start as a normal human and end up a god walking among men.

A sequel, Crackdown 2, was released headed up by Ruffian Games, and while it received a generally positive reception, many players could see how similar it was to the original title with very little additional content. A third game in the franchise has also been announced, originally being shown off at E3 2014. This game is planned to release on the Xbox One, but no further information about the game has been revealed.

What are your fondest memories of the original Crackdown? Did you get it to play Halo 3? What were your thoughts on Crackdown 2?

Have a tip, or want to point out something we missed? Leave a Comment or e-mail us at tips@techraptor.net


Andrew Stretch Headshot
| Senior Content Manager

Andrew has written Video Game and Entertainment news, reviews, and guides for 10+ years. As Senior Content Manager, he assists in creating and editing… More about Andrew