David Jones Talks About Crackdown

At first sight, you’d think that Crackdown is Xbox 360’s version of Playstation’s Grand Theft Auto, and nobody can blame you since both games are set in a fictional city, wherein you can drive anything, shoot anything and anyone. Plus, both games were worked on by game designer-par extraordinaire, David Jones, but that is where the similarities end.

In Crackdown, you play the role of a cop who is shouldered with gargantuan task of cleaning up the streets, unlike in GTA wherein you are the one who brings up all that mess. Another difference is that here, you are commended for your good deeds by evolving your character and offering you rewards and achievements. David Jones was kind enough to provide insights about Crackdown’s setting, gameplay storyline, and the unavoidable comparison to GTA.

When asked about Crackdown’s visual style, Mr. Jones said that it was a conscious decision to move away from a very realistic style, he added that “a lot of people are doing really realistic games as you saw at E3. ThatÂ’s not what weÂ’re about. WeÂ’re about dynamics, weÂ’re about huge populations, and weÂ’re about making the game completely free for the player to do whatever they want. Because of that we made the choice not to go super realistic. We wanted our own visual style to suit the over-the-top gameplay, and we felt that going for a graphic novel style would be ideal for the experience we want to offer.”

As for the storyline, Mr. Jones said that “you play a member of a futuristic Agency charged with cleaning up the streets of the city. There are three main gangs causing trouble, and itÂ’s up to you to figure out the best ways to take them out. We do tell the story with cutscenes, that is done in the game engine. Each of the 21 Kingpins has his own Dossier with a cutscene that explains who they are, which gang theyÂ’re affiliated to, what their speciality is, and how itÂ’ll affect their gang if you take them out. ThatÂ’s how you can really start to chip away and weaken the gangs at street level, and that information is always there for the player.”

And he also answered about his reaction about the unavoidable comparison of Crackdown with GTA. He said that “thatÂ’s why we wanted the free form aspect to be the core gameplay of Crackdown. You can do free form stuff in a lot of games these days but it never really rewards you. You always end up having to do the missions anyway. So what we wanted to do with our character progression system was really give the player a reason just to have fun and do what they want. With Crackdown weÂ’re offering a balance. If you want great story and the full Hollywood experience, you can have that. But if you just want to mess around and have a good time, youÂ’ll be rewarded just as much.”

The full interview also goes more in-depth about other aspects such as downloadable content, Xbox Live multiplayer, player experimentation and other topics. Crackdown sure is different from GTA.

At first sight, you’d think that Crackdown is Xbox 360’s version of Playstation’s Grand Theft Auto, and nobody can blame you since both games are set in a fictional city, wherein you can drive anything, shoot anything and anyone. Plus, both games were worked on by game designer-par extraordinaire, David Jones, but that is where the similarities end.

In Crackdown, you play the role of a cop who is shouldered with gargantuan task of cleaning up the streets, unlike in GTA wherein you are the one who brings up all that mess. Another difference is that here, you are commended for your good deeds by evolving your character and offering you rewards and achievements. David Jones was kind enough to provide insights about Crackdown’s setting, gameplay storyline, and the unavoidable comparison to GTA.

When asked about Crackdown’s visual style, Mr. Jones said that it was a conscious decision to move away from a very realistic style, he added that “a lot of people are doing really realistic games as you saw at E3. ThatÂ’s not what weÂ’re about. WeÂ’re about dynamics, weÂ’re about huge populations, and weÂ’re about making the game completely free for the player to do whatever they want. Because of that we made the choice not to go super realistic. We wanted our own visual style to suit the over-the-top gameplay, and we felt that going for a graphic novel style would be ideal for the experience we want to offer.”

As for the storyline, Mr. Jones said that “you play a member of a futuristic Agency charged with cleaning up the streets of the city. There are three main gangs causing trouble, and itÂ’s up to you to figure out the best ways to take them out. We do tell the story with cutscenes, that is done in the game engine. Each of the 21 Kingpins has his own Dossier with a cutscene that explains who they are, which gang theyÂ’re affiliated to, what their speciality is, and how itÂ’ll affect their gang if you take them out. ThatÂ’s how you can really start to chip away and weaken the gangs at street level, and that information is always there for the player.”

And he also answered about his reaction about the unavoidable comparison of Crackdown with GTA. He said that “thatÂ’s why we wanted the free form aspect to be the core gameplay of Crackdown. You can do free form stuff in a lot of games these days but it never really rewards you. You always end up having to do the missions anyway. So what we wanted to do with our character progression system was really give the player a reason just to have fun and do what they want. With Crackdown weÂ’re offering a balance. If you want great story and the full Hollywood experience, you can have that. But if you just want to mess around and have a good time, youÂ’ll be rewarded just as much.”

The full interview also goes more in-depth about other aspects such as downloadable content, Xbox Live multiplayer, player experimentation and other topics. Crackdown sure is different from GTA.