Parents' Guide to Crackdown 3

While fun, accessible, and there's a lot to do in the game modes, compared to other amazing third-person action games out there, this game really is just average with lots of repetitive play. Aside from playing as the charismatic Terry Crews (and several other agents to choose from), players will mostly enjoy the game's verticality (there are some seriously tall buildings and other structures to climb). You'll also like hopping into transforming cars to race around the city, and the character progression system to upgrade your agent. You can imagine how fun it is to upgrade your agility to the point where you can literally leap over buildings or have enough strength to lift a car and toss it at a boss. Aside from somewhat long load times, the game's scope and art direction are worth mentioning, and the visuals are all nice eye-candy.

So, what's wrong? A few things, other than the previously stated underwhelming gameplay, especially when held up against other recent blockbusters. Many of the fetch-this and find-that scavenger hunt-style missions grow tiring. There's some variety, when you mix in some street racing and other assorted tasks, but there isn't too much exciting action woven in over time. Players were promised a fully destructible game world, leveraging Microsoft Cloud, but this tech is only available in Wrecking Zone. The main story campaign doesn't let you destroy too much (other than blowing up some objects and structures). Wrecking Zone doesn't allow you to play with friends for some reason, so it doesn't support Xbox Live parties at launch. This is something supposedly being remedied in a future update, but it's nowhere to be seen with the initial release of the game. As a result, it's hard to not feel like there's a lot to like about Crackdown 3's open world environments, but the repetitive gameplay and limited destruction really makes it a less compelling action title.