Nick:
It's kind of odd writing a review of a game I played more than 2 years ago, but after all this time I still find myself enjoying the cooperative gameplay of Crackdown. Honestly, playing Crackdown the way it's meant to be played will bore you quickly. It's a shoot everything that moves kind of thing, and it ends at that. The real beauty of the game comes in the layers upon layers of stuff you can do - either intentionally provided by the developers or not.
While everyone loves co-op orb collecting, calling out locations for the next hidden orb, it's the stuff that happens on the way to the orb that is entertaining. Perhaps it's watching your buddy endlessly try to climb the Ferris wheel only to fall over and over again. The running and jumping from building to building with effortless ease, only to see your partner miss the one jump just short and fall to his doom. And there's the playing in traffic, tossing cars around, or racing through the streets unlocking achievements together in the same vehicle.
No, this is not frolicking.
Really that's the nice thing - you'll discover so many ways to accomplish anything in the game with a friend that Crackdown truly sets a new bar for sandbox gameplay. I still remember running through the city with my partner in the car, tossing him through the stunt markers to help unlock them all. It's little moments like these, ones where you feel like you "beat the designer" that make the game so exciting. To this day anytime you ask someone about Crackdown they'll bring up the infamous Agency Tower climb, something best experienced with a friend. Why? Well you might just nudge him off the top...accidentally.
Crackdown is so much more than just a game, especially in co-op play. Two years and endless sessions later the second someone asks if I want to play there is no hesitation. Crackdown possesses those qualities that are simply intangible, and it's something I think every Xbox 360 owner needs to experience with a friend.
Verdict
Co-Op Score
The Co-Op Experience: Run, jump, climb, and shoot your way through Crackdown with a friend. Each player levels up their super human character in this completely open sand box style game.
Co-Optimus game reviews focus on the cooperative experience of a game, our final score graphic represents this experience along with an average score for the game overall. For an explanation of our scores please check our Review Score Explanation Guide.