Crackdown might not be an original concept in terms of its main concept (fighting a gang, joining a gang, attacking a gang as a main storuline has been to death in a multitude of titles from The Godfather to Saint's Row), but the gameplay, graphic style and fun multiplayer make this title from Dave Jones, Realtime Worlds and Microsoft make this third-person action game stand out from the rest of the pack. And how could it not with its great targeting system, frenetic action, big violent explosions, super jumping and the ability to toss massive objects at enemies? Crackdown is a great game that will keep you going back for more even after the main plotline is put to bed..

Players will have to tackle each gang's turf within the city, which is divided into four connected islands. On two islands are the vicious Los Muertos gang who populate the first areas as you exit the massive tower called the citadel, home of The Agency. Anyone that has played the demo has already had a taste of this Latin American themed group whose symbol looks suspiciously like a squid head (read into that what you will). The other gangs are the Shai-Gen Corporation headed up by a disgraced Asian geneticist who has past ties to The Agency (and your existence) and The Volk, who are comprised of Russian gang members. Each organization has multiple leaders, or generals, that give strength to their respective gang's kingpin. By taking out these gang leaders, you slowly weaken the kingpin and the forces defending him. Doing all of this won't be as easy as you think because each leader has an insurmountable force of foot soldiers ready to put you down for a dirt nap. But because the save system in the game is automatic, the only thing players will truly have to do is more killing as cleared areas get repopulated when you die.

And killing is integral to the game because there are skills you'll need to build to succeed. There are five core skills to deal with and only two aren't directly related to combat. The most obvious is your weapons skill, which you build by using anything with bullets to kill people with. As you build your skill in weapons you gain accuracy and your shots become more affective. The next important skill is explosives, which you earn by killing people with things that explode like grenades, sticky bombs, grenade launchers, rocket launchers and more. As you build this skill up your radius of damage increases, giving you the ability to create extreme havoc in tight areas or on the streets. Next up is strength, which determines how much you can lift and throw. When you begin the game you can barely lift a street lamp, but as you build and perfect this skill you'll be able to lift a truck or a dumpster and use it as a weapon against your enemies. Finally there's driving and agility. Driving improves how you handle a vehicle at high speeds and when used in tandem with agency vehicles, players will be able to special powerful and agile moves. Agility affects how high you can jump, which a pretty important skill because many of the areas that hide secrets are well beyond your reach if you have low agility. Driving and Agility can be further improved by using foot and road races - win them and earn some cool points. Agility can also be improved by finding agility orbs scattered throughout Pacific City.

Beyond improving your skills, the road and foot races are a nice touch, but not exactly an original concept.. road races are filled to the brim with obstacles like pedestrians and other vehicles as well as all kinds of solid and destructible environmental objects. Players will also find a number of stunt circles that can earn them further driving points. All of the races and special events in the game ultimately lead to unlocking a ton of achievements, so mastering these skills is a must if you want to earn those prestige points from the game.

One of the more refined features in the game is the targeting system. Not only does it let you lock on to an enemy or an object, but in some cases it allows you target specific areas. For enemies that means you can aim specifically at different body parts to cause a special condition to happen. The target defaults to the chest, which does regular damage, but the more affective areas are also available like the head, legs, and right & left arms. Shooting the arms will cause an enemy to temporarily drop his or her weapon; a leg shot will immobilize and enemy; and a head shot will do lots of extra damage. As your weapon skills increase you'll be able to instantly kill enemies with a good head shot. The targeting system is well rounded and very useful.

For vehicles, the player has the ability to target the windshield, tires and the gas tank. Shooting out the tires will make the vehicle stop; shooting the windshield has a chance of killing the driver and shooting the gas tank will make the vehicle blow up. Again, as you grow your weapons skill, your attacks and the use of targeting becomes more effective.

Crackdown also features an interesting system that lets you teleport around Pacific City's multiple areas using "supply points." These points allow you to heal and refill your ammo as well, but the most important thing they do is give you a way to teleport to other supply points at will. As you explore the different areas you'll find supply points that you'll have to recapture. Some of these will be guarded by area gang members, while others are in out-of-the-way places that require a high amount of agility. These points are pretty important because as you take on all these gang members you'll die a lot, and when that happens you are given a list of supply points to respawn at. If you don’t want to have to trek across the entire map to get back to where you were, then you’ll be wise to unlock a nearby supply point. Supply Points also allow you to storeyour enemies weapons: bringing a weapon to a supply point puts it in your permanent arsenal, allowing you to select from any supply point on the map..