Crackdown 3

A middling open-world action game that is fun but feels archaic and overly familiar, borrowing from Saints Row, Agents of Mayhem, and inFAMOUS without surpassing them. Strengths include a colorful world, an excellent elemental arsenal, satisfying traversal, and great enemy variety, while driving is a tank-like chore, combat is trivialized by auto-aim, the AI is unreliable, and activities grow repetitive. Enjoyable but forgettable, leaving an impression of indifference rather than a clear recommendation.

Essentially a decade-late retread of the original Crackdown, trapped in a new body with a humiliatingly small, uninteresting sandbox and little personality. The intro fails to establish its villains, the moment-to-moment loop of clearing icon-marked missions grows boring, and the touted destructible city is relegated to an uninspired multiplayer deathmatch mode. Time has made a fool of it.

A two-act experience where the single-player delivers exactly the mindless, brain-off superhero-cop fun of the original, with satisfying orb-grinding progression and chaotic boss battles, even if it feels old-school and the vehicles control poorly. The wrecking-zone multiplayer, however, is a disappointment that feels like a bare demo, with only two modes, no progression or ranking, and a destructible-environment gimmick that adds little to the gameplay.

A disappointing open-world action game that, despite years in development, delivers a small, hollow, bland city with a near-absent story and repetitive, confusing objectives. The platforming and verticality offer a few bright spots and Terry Crews' Commander Jaxon provides rare charm, but dated visuals, dull bosses, and a thin co-op and PVP Wrecking Zone leave it feeling stuck a decade behind. It ignores nearly every advancement the genre has made and excels at almost nothing.