Final Score: Crackdown 3

Blockbuster games have begun flooding the month of February. That means Shacknews is bringing the Final Score feature out of hibernation a little bit early to help the discerning gamer browse through some of the top reviews across the industry. For today, we're looking at one of the few major AAA blockbusters in the Xbox lineup, Crackdown 3.

Crackdown 3 came with a lot of high expectations, having come off a series of unfortunate delays. But now that the game is out, how does it fare? Today, we're revisiting the Shacknews review, while putting it side-by-side with reviews from across the gaming world. Beyond the major outlets, we're also checking in on the Xbox and PC-specific crews to see what their thoughts on this effort are. Take these opinions and decide for yourself whether it's time to break down some buildings.

Shacknews 7/10: "The problem with trying to revisit a nostalgic moment is that it never really lives up to the memory. For its time, Crackdown was phenomenal. While some will argue that the Halo 3 multiplayer is what drove sales, Crackdown's gameplay is what brought people back. Unfortunately, Crackdown 3 doesn't revolutionize the series in any meaningful way. There is undeniably more to do than the original, and feels superior to Crackdown 2, but it's still the same game we played 12 years ago."
-Sam Chandler

Destructoid 6/10: "Crackdown 3 tries the hardest. The original Crackdown (2007) had a novel formula that worked in the early days of the Xbox 360. It set the player loose on an untethered destruction spree, free to dismantle a spiderweb of criminal gangs in any particular order. Of note, it also liberally implemented all the most notorious open-world tropes before they became a designer's punchline. Crackdown 2 did the same but with zombies; it wasn't cute. Crackdown 3 does its best to push the series forward -- and succeeds in some ways -- but can't shake the dated design that keeps it anchored down."
-Brett Makedonski

Easy Allies 5.5/10: "Crackdown 3 is partying like it's 2010, ignoring almost every advancement the open-world genre has made in the past decade. The attempts at humor and provocation are forgettable, and if it wasn't for Echo and Goodwin in your ear, there would be almost no real meaning to any of it. Crackdown 3 excels at almost nothing, especially in comparison to several of its recent groundbreaking competitors. No matter how strong your agent can get or how much demolition you can cause, there are simply better cities to save."
-Brandon Jones

Giant Bomb 2/5: "I don't think I'd call Crackdown 3 an awful game, but I would call it dated. I don't know enough about this specific game's development to know what happened here, but I do know that this specific game feels like something that would have been better received had it been released several years ago. At the same time, Crackdown 3 fits reasonably well on Microsoft's Xbox Game Pass service. Paying $60 for this thing would be downright foolish. It's short and bland on the campaign end and the two multiplayer modes aren't worth your time. But if you're already a subscriber to Microsoft's service and can play this for no additional charge, it's a passable little bit of junk food that might hold your attention for an afternoon or two."
-Jeff Gerstmann

Xbox Achievements 70/100: "Nothing has changed in twelve years. Literally nothing. Like in 2007, there will be a Spider-Man film out in 2019. Like in 2007, there will be a Kanye West album out in 2019. Like 2007, Ian McEwan will release a book in 2019. Even Gianluigi Buffon is still playing in goal, for Pete's sake. Nothing has changed. The same could be said about Crackdown in fact. In 2007 Crackdown first launched, and in 2019 the latest Crackdown title releases and you know what? Nothing has changed. But that's not actually a terrible thing."
-Dan Webb

PC Gamer 60/100: "Crackdown 3 is never bad, but it's hard to take much interest in it here in 2019. Big open-world games have changed a lot since 2007, but Crackdown hasn't, leaving its latest supercop adventure looking good, playing smoothly, and offering nothing new enough to make it exciting."
-Ian Birnbaum

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Crackdown 3 is available now on Xbox One and PC.

Ozzie Mejia

Senior Editor

Ozzie has been playing video games since picking up his first NES controller at age 5. He has been into games ever since, only briefly stepping away during his college years. But he was pulled back in after spending years in QA circles for both THQ and Activision, mostly spending time helping to push forward the Guitar Hero series at its peak. Ozzie has become a big fan of platformers, puzzle games, shooters, and RPGs, just to name a few genres, but he’s also a huge sucker for anything with a good, compelling narrative behind it. Because what are video games if you can't enjoy a good story with a fresh Cherry Coke?