The GameFly Rundown

Well, I've returned my Valentines presents to GameFly, and am drumming my fingers eagerly anticipating the next two games they'll send me (hopefully Bulletstorm and Killzone 3 if all goes well).  Now that I've played a little more of 3D Dot Game Heroes and Crackdown 2, I'd like to give my thoughts so far after bidding them farewell.

3D Dot Game Heroes is ... is ... well, it's Zelda.  Sure, some of the details have been altered, it has a really unique 3D cubist art style, and is packed with referential humor, but it's pretty much just Zelda sans Link.  Not much else to say about it: I would definitely buy it if I ever found a copy in stores, moving on.

I actually have a lot to say about Crackdown 2 now that I've gotten into the meat of what the game is.  Essentially, it's an open-ended sandbox taking gameplay cues from both Grand Theft Auto and a Prototype/Infamous-type super-powers game.  Your guy is super-powered, indeed, but the actual powers are not all that expansive.  You can run full pelt at 40 miles an hour (more or less) and jump 20 feet straight in the air (more or less), but there's not much in the way of interesting powers other than that.  The "more or less" here comes from the fact that your guy's agility can be upgraded by hunting down special orbs or completing rooftop races.

This leads me to the one interesting thing I can say about the game, the levelling of skills.  By killing enemies in different ways, doing special maneuvers, and collecting orbs scattered throughout the city, you can increase your strength and agility and unlock different weapons and vehicles.  It's something that genuinely not seen in very many other games in its genre, and something I'd like to see more of.

With that out of the way, the rest of the game is competent but uninspired.  The combat boils down to either shooting, exploding, running over, or beating up enemies either with your fists or with a nearby environmental object.  There's enough variety, but not anything that the game can call its own.  The acrobatics are not all that fun, either.  Getting around the city via the rooftops, an act that is made interesting to look at with the parkour stylings of Assassin's Creed or the electricity-powered flair of Infamous, comes down to either running, jumping, or grabbing something in Crackdown.  Climbing a building is especially yawn-inducing: "jump, grab, jump, grab, jump, jump, grab."  No real climbing, no swinging, and very little shimmying on ledges: it's just jumping and grabbing.

Overall, it's just kind of okay.  The skills levelling is somewhat unique, and the commander's voice you hear throughout the game adds an almost Verhoeven-esque tone to the whole experience, but it's dragged down by uninspired combat, unengaging acrobatics, and a clear lack of focus in its overall design.  It all amounts to a heaping amount of side missions that eventually results in some kind of game progression, without the benefit of a clear plot to move things along.  5/10: A good 10 to 20 dollar game, there you go.