Shockingly enough, I never actually played this game when it was released; it took until it became free seven years after release for me to even realize that this even existed. Nevertheless, that's never stopped me from writing inconsequential criticism about something that nobody cares about. But I digress; Crackdown is an open-world sandbox third-person fighty-action adventure clusterf­uck item collection game remembered mainly because it had a copy of the Halo 3 beta with it. You are a steroid-overdosed supercop that is tasked with clearing out the cesspool that is Pacific City from the gangs that rule the streets from the not-so-dark shadows. But this plot is negligible, the main reason why you'd want to play this game is to fight gangsters and make them your bitch with your super-steroid enhanced superpowers. Normally in sandbox games, you start out with jack all and you have to fight your way through enough mooks to create a mountain of brown and Eastern European corpses in order to get your hands on the good stuff. Not in this game, the Agency hooks you up with a scoped Assault Rifle, a scoped Pistol and a kickass car to mow down the civilian population of Pacific City with. Right away the game gets me in it's good graces by not being an asshole with how it hands out it's good weapons. All of the weapons pack a satisfyingly meaty punch when you're blowing away hordes of gangbangers. Crackdown is unique with it's skill progression system. By killing gangsters with either your roundhouse/shin kicks of death or by filling them with enough lead to create a monument to your sins, you gain points that improve how you handle that particular skill. So while you're bathing the streets of Pacific City in the blood of ethnic minorities and rednecks, your cop is getting stronger and stronger. However, killing civilians will set your leveling back and as such, discourages collateral damage or wanton madness. I found this gameplay mechanic to be a rather interesting way of keeping things within the game interesting. By the end of your leveling, your Agent will be a slightly more fleshy Terminator whose mere presence would be enough to send the members of those gangs screaming if their AI had any sense of fear. The plot is forgettable. You're an agent for an agency that bases itself in what appears to be one of Dr. Evil's abandoned phallic-shaped lairs. It's not really a shock when you find out that the Agency you're working for is an evil NGO that plans to take over the world. It's the one blemish on a rather fun game where you're allowed to take out your inner superman fantasies on the criminal scum of Pacific City. Overall, I'd give the game an 8 out of 10.