Crackdown Interview (con't)

FiringSquad: What sort of enemies will we see in the game?

Billy Thomson: There are three different gangs that control the streets of Pacific City. The Los Muertos, a south American street gang with a massive street presence, they mainly deal in petty crime, stealing cars, modding the nice ones for their own use and selling on the others. They also have an unhealthy obsession for firearms, which they use to terrorise the civilians who inhabit the district they control and make sure they are well equipped to fend off attack from the Agency. The Volk are an Eastern European organisation formed by a group of experienced ex military who have trained a well organised troop of fearless soldiers. They are heavily involved in the importation of illegal immigrants, and decommissioned military equipment – firearms, explosives and vehicles. The Shai-Gen Corporation are the most powerful threat to the Agency within Pacific City, on the surface this corporation appears to be a legitimate company, running scientific research facilities, hiring and training a Security Teams to patrol the district, essentially running and governing their own district with Pacific City, this all seems benign but if you scratch beneath the surface you will discover a different, more sinister side to the Shai-Gen.

FiringSquad: Besides the character's abilities, what sort of weapons and items can be used?

Billy Thomson: I think we’ve got a really well balanced spread of firearms, projectile explosives and grenades. I love our shotguns, the homing rocket launcher is just immense fun and there’s nothing better than laying traps with the sticky remotely detonated limpet charges, triggering them and watching the resulting chain explosion take out all of the unsuspecting bad guys in a fiery ball of death and destruction – great fun! Other than that you can use just about anything in the game world as a weapon, just pick it up and throw it at your target. We’re talking about anything here, even the smouldering remains of an old lady who was in the wrong place at the wrong time. L If you get caught low on ammo, just hoist her above your head and throw her into the face of your foe, now I’m not saying this is the way to go here people, but let’s be honest, Grandma would have wanted to help!

FiringSquad: Crackdown takes place in an open world game setting. What can you tell us about the game world and how much access will the player have in it?

Billy Thomson: Crackdown’s game world consists of three main Districts. La Mugre – two islands controlled by the Los Muertos. The North Island is a rocky, rugged, tree lined landscape that’s really only accessible to the player if they’re on foot – or in the Agency SUV! J The South island has many steep twisting roads that are great fun to drive around, we’ve got quite a few vehicle races dotted around this island that make great use of the curving, sloping roadways. There are also many low level rooftops dotted with Agility orbs to allow the player to learn the basics of scaling buildings while increasing their Agility skill. The Den.– controlled by the Volk – is a large industrial island that is split in two by a large canal. The island to the North is home to the Refinery and the Quarry, two massive locations that house two of the Volk gang bosses. The South island is the larger of the two, it has many high rise apartment buildings that sit alongside the Power Station, Sewage Plant and the Docks that face out to sea, where an oil rig can be seen in the distance. The Corridor – controlled by the Shai-Gen – is the last of the three districts that form Pacific City. The Corridor is home to the highest buildings in the city, these massive architectural masterpieces dominate the skyline of Pacific City. The buildings are so high that only an Agent with very high Agility skills will have any chance of using the rooftops as a safe haven from any pursuing Shai-Gen security teams. As for access, every single structure in the city was constructed to be scaled by the player. The player has access to absolutely any section of the city from the very first minute of play, all they need to do is fight their way past all the bad guys and figure out how the hell they can get their way up to the top. :)

FiringSquad: What multiplayer elements, if any, will Crackdown have?

Billy Thomson: We have the best multiplayer element of all, we’ve got the entire solo game available for anyone to play co-operatively with another player. There’s no change at all from playing on your own to playing with one of your friends, all of the missions, the ambient population, the races, the orbs, the Achievements, the draw distance, they’re all there for you to experience co-operatively with a friend of your choice. One of the cool features we implemented was the ability to join in play, so you can setup your solo game to accept someone to join your game as you’re playing – your preference, a particular person, a friend, anyone or nobody – then if someone becomes available to join while you’re playing the game solo, you’ll be asked if you wish to accept them to your game, if you do they can instantly jump into your city and you’re off again! I can’t tell you just how much fun co-op is, especially when it stops being co-op and you inevitably turn on each other for some Agent v Agent deathmatch fun – which we keep score of! This can all be done via system link or over Live.