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Crackdown 3 multiplayer hands-on preview: Cloud, combat, and concerns
Jez Corden10 Nov 2018
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We've finally been able to go hands-on with Crackdown 3's multiplayer, running on Xbox Live, several years from its initial announcement. First and foremost, I'm happy to report that the cloud destruction is as awe-inspiring as all those early trailers eluded to. Our demonstration was not in closed-network conditions, it was running live on the same Xbox network we all use, and the technical achievement on offer is undeniable.
Where Crackdown 3's multiplayer may fail lies in the gameplay systems layered on top of that destruction, which, for now, have a concerning lack of depth. Microsoft emphasized that the game is still four months away from launch, set for a February 2019 debut, so take this as an early feedback preview rather than a definitive look at what the finished product may look like.
Despite some concerns, I had a blast with Wrecking Zone. The cloud-based physics rendering is staggering, and has wide-reaching implications for the future of gaming.
Note: Unfortunately, it seems our capture card lost some color information during the exporting process, which is why some of the visuals in this piece may look a little strange. Rest assured that Crackdown 3 looks as vibrant as depicted in all of its trailers.
How Wrecking Zone works
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Crackdown 3's multiplayer "Wrecking Zone" is split into different game modes, "Agent Hunter," which is similar to Kill Confirmed-style game modes on titles like Call of Duty. Territories, where teams battle for control of large cuboid regions that spawn randomly throughout the map, and Team Deathmatch, which is self explanatory. The battles take place across three huge maps, peppered with gigantic skyscrapers, high-powered jump pads, and clusters of explosives.
You'll be able to select your appearance from 21 Agent archetypes, which are also present in the campaign. In the full game, there will be "lots" of weapons to choose from, but for our demo, we had hands-on time with a pistol, a shotgun, a rifle, and a gatling gun, as well as an assortment of explosive weapons designed for maximum environmental destruction. You can also equip several utility bonuses, including an overshield and a holographic decoy.

Crackdown 3's multiplayer is not about precision aim or twitch shooting, owing to its lock-on gunplay mechanics. Instead, the emphasis is placed firmly on movement, environmental awareness, and map traversal. A red line denotes when an enemy agent is locking onto you, a grey line denotes when their line of sight has been broken. Health regenerates slowly over time, and you're encouraged to lay waste to buildings, towers, and other forms of cover to both avoid, and chase down your enemies.
Crackdown 3's Wrecking Zone is also tied into the game's story. The Agency uses the Zone to train its agents in "virtual" competitive city simulations, and while Microsoft isn't quite ready to talk progression just yet, we were told there are no plans for loot crates or microtransactions at this time.
The Good: Combat in the Cloud
The first thing to note is that we now know for sure, Microsoft has finally delivered on those cloud buzzwords from back in the day with Crackdown 3. Obviously, the ephemeral "cloud" powers dedicated servers for titles like Halo 5, and the A.I. mobs in Titanfall, but Crackdown 3 is the first time we've glimpsed cloud computation utilized to calculate physics in real time, rendered using the power of up to a dozen Xbox One X consoles over your internet connection.
The technical accolade Microsoft has achieved in Crackdown 3 cannot be understated.​
The good news is you don't need any super duper internet speed package in order for this to work, nor does it sport any data requirements beyond an average multiplayer title. Crackdown 3 works exactly the same way as any other multiplayer game you're used to.
The technical accolade Microsoft has achieved in Crackdown 3 cannot be understated. To be able to render hundreds, maybe thousands of building chunks in real time, synchronized for every player in the game, is not only awesome, but makes for some truly epic gameplay mechanics.

As mentioned, Crackdown 3's gunplay is firmly a lock-on affair. With double jumping, aerial dashing, and flying punches, you can traverse the sizeable, vertical maps quite quickly. Manipulating the terrain is an important part of the challenge. Need to escape enemy lock-ons? Smash through a wall and hide on the other side of the building. See a player running across an overpass? Blast it out from under them, creating cascades of falling debris in the process.
The inherent dynamism in the environmental destruction creates a fast and frenetic gameplay formula that rewards those that stays on their toes, leaping, vaulting, and blasting their way across the cityscape.
The game rewards the aggressive. Once you have a lock on someone out in the open, it's kill or be killed. When players slip behind buildings, you'll switch to your explosive weaponry, which often travel too slow to hit rapidly-moving players but deal tremendous environmental damage to walls. In-keeping with classic Crackdown gameplay, Overcharge powerups spawn across the map, and will reward you with boosted gun damage, melee power, or explosive power when maxed out and triggered.
Experiencing physics-based destruction on this scale is a true joy to behold. That said, I have a bunch of concerns that, hopefully, will be addressed before the game's February 15, 2019 launch date.
The concerning: What about depth?
My biggest concern with Wrecking Zone is the lack of depth in the general combat experience. The cloud destruction is fun and incredible to experience, but the gameplay layered on top still feels like it needs a lot of work.
I tried every available weapon during my playtest, including a gatling gun, a magnum pistol, an assault rifle, and a shotgun. The fact the game removes the necessity to aim with its lock on system, impedes the feel of the weapons in some ways. It's the first time I can say that a "heavy" gatling gun felt almost indistinguishable from using an assault rifle as a result. The spin up time on the gatling gun was practically the only thing that differentiated them from a gameplay perspective, which felt a bit off to me.

I feel like I mastered the multiplayer after the third match, pretty much, which makes me question its longevity in this form. I settled into a flow of jumping around, triggering my overshield powerup while under attack, returning fire as fast as possible. The "Overcharge" system doesn't feel particularly exciting in practice, either. Save for some glowing effects on your character, right now, it's generally a little hard to feel the additional impact of your abilities. Would love to see more work in these areas.
Final thoughts: A promising glimpse at the future
While I am concerned about the overarching gameplay experience in Wrecking Zone, the implications for the cloud-based physics Microsoft is putting on display here is quite incredible. Envisage Gears of War Horde mode with hundreds of enemies rather than dozens, imagine a Halo Warzone mode with destructible environments. Unfortunately for Crackdown 3, therein lies the problem: I'm more excited about the possibilities for the future than what we played.
That said, Crackdown 3 is still four months from release as of writing, set for a February 15, 2019 debut. The towering environments Ruffian Games and Crackdown 3's other collaborators have built for the game are gorgeous, made all the more exciting when you tear them down, explosion by explosion. I just hope that they're not relegated to gimmick status by the multiplayer systems layered on top of it, which at least for now, are indeed infectiously fun, but potentially lacking in staying power.
It's true that we haven't seen many of the weapons or progression mechanics yet, though, which keeps me feeling optimistic. We'll have to see what comes next for Wrecking Zone.
 
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I’m happy with what I’m seeing. Even if the game is shallow at release, we see with Sea of Thieves and State of Decay that Microsoft is continuing to support and protect their IPs now. Won’t surprise me if it’s a shallow tech demo at release and becomes something else in a year. Fact that cloud destruction works on regular internet is exciting.

I’m hoping the multiplayer graphics make it to the single player. Much more vibrant and fun to look at than the drab, muted colors we saw from the campaign shown last year. Animations, while still not great, have moved into the acceptable category.

Overall I’d consider Crackdown 3 to be a positive showing. Still potential to be one of the best comeback stories this gen.
 
Some say the destruction has been downgraded. I SUPER disagree. That s*** looked insane!

Downgraded? we've never seen it before today other than a tech demo, what was described originally (and what was shown in the tech demo) was something on a larger scale than what they've actually been able to deliver.

The original game wasn't an MP game and it didn't really need it, maybe co-op would have been nice but competitive MP was never something people said they wanted. I wish we'd see more single player footage but what we keep getting is Terry Crews ads like he's going to make anyone interested in the game.
 
They really painted themselves in a corner with the cloud power thing, makes me think it wasn't just that the game didn't progress as they wanted but more that they felt if the cloud power didn't show this insane advantage the loss of face for xbox brand would be tainted even more than it already was after the pre launch outrage.
Honestly, I think as long as the destruction is as impressive as they first promised (and it seems it is), it's a win enough for Microsoft. Crackdown 3 isn't going to sell any systems regardless and never will, it was a fun series once upon a time but I honestly can't understand why people talk about this game at all (except the cloud thing).
 
They really painted themselves in a corner with the cloud power thing, makes me think it wasn't just that the game didn't progress as they wanted but more that they felt if the cloud power didn't show this insane advantage the loss of face for xbox brand would be tainted even more than it already was after the pre launch outrage.
Honestly, I think as long as the destruction is as impressive as they first promised (and it seems it is), it's a win enough for Microsoft. Crackdown 3 isn't going to sell any systems regardless and never will, it was a fun series once upon a time but I honestly can't understand why people talk about this game at all (except the cloud thing).

As impressive as they first promised would mean the city can be brought down not just little arenas set aside for Multiplayer. Clearly they over promised and under delivered here. That doesn't mean they lied at the beginning or anything like that, just that they probably thought that they'd be able to do more with it than they have, they wouldn't be the first to do this nor will they be the last. They announced this game way too early, hell it was probably announced before they had done any serious development on it.
 
As impressive as they first promised would mean the city can be brought down not just little arenas set aside for Multiplayer. Clearly they over promised and under delivered here. That doesn't mean they lied at the beginning or anything like that, just that they probably thought that they'd be able to do more with it than they have, they wouldn't be the first to do this nor will they be the last. They announced this game way too early, hell it was probably announced before they had done any serious development on it.
😂
 
As impressive as they first promised would mean the city can be brought down not just little arenas set aside for Multiplayer. Clearly they over promised and under delivered here. That doesn't mean they lied at the beginning or anything like that, just that they probably thought that they'd be able to do more with it than they have, they wouldn't be the first to do this nor will they be the last. They announced this game way too early, hell it was probably announced before they had done any serious development on it.
Or..... you know, the destruction works as promised, and instead of having to work so friggin hard attempting to bring a building down on your opponent's head with your shotgun, they made it a bit easier to do and strategize in order to win. Did you see the first Cloud demos with destruction in this game? The Dev literally shot at the wall for like five minutes.

And for FS, how do you even make such a claim like over promised, under delivered when there's never been a game with this kind of destruction? I didn't know that you were an armchair Cloud Dev too. Jesus... lol

You haven't sold your X yet?
 
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Microsoft just announced a cloud based gaming service with console quality experiences coming to the device of your choice. Yet the cloud based destruction in Crackdown is bs. That makes sense.....not really seeing as though cloud is a huge part of their next gen plans.
 
Or..... you know, the destruction works as promised, and instead of having to work so friggin hard attempting to bring a building down on your opponent's head with your shotgun, they made it a bit easier to do and strategize in order to win. Did you see the first Cloud demos with destruction in this game? The Dev literally shot at the wall for like five minutes.

And for FS, how do you even make such a claim like over promised, under delivered when there's never been a game with this kind of destruction? I didn't know that you were an armchair Cloud Dev too. Jesus... lol

You haven't sold your X yet?

Nope, been playing it a lot lately actually, AC Odyssey and RDR2 are great.

As far as cloud you were the one who said people were complaining about a downgrade, I pointed out that they had never actually shown it to begin with so it couldn't be considered a downgrade. That being said there have been a ton of games with destruction with much larger environments. These maps are relatively small compared to the average battlefield maps, the player count is much smaller and it just looks like something they did to say they did it vs making a meaningful long lasting multiplayer experience.
 
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Nope, been playing it a lot lately actually, AC Odyssey and RDR2 are great.

As far as cloud you were the one who said people were complaining about a downgrade, I pointed out that they had never actually shown it to begin with so it couldn't be considered a downgrade. That being said there have been a ton of games with destruction with much larger environments. These maps are relatively small compared to the average battlefield maps, the player count is much smaller and it just looks like something they did to say they did it vs making a meaningful long lasting multiplayer experience.

I wouldn't compare the destruction with BF,
which doesn't cascade at all, and debris doesn't persist, and I doubt it's all synced between players (physical debris, not damage states) outside of the craters, which would have to in order to provide cover.
 
I wouldn't compare the destruction with BF,
which doesn't cascade at all, and debris doesn't persist, and I doubt it's all synced between players (physical debris, not damage states) outside of the craters, which would have to in order to provide cover.

Again I ask will you really notice that while playing or is it just something to put on a checklist?
 
I wouldn't compare the destruction with BF,
which doesn't cascade at all, and debris doesn't persist, and I doubt it's all synced between players (physical debris, not damage states) outside of the craters, which would have to in order to provide cover.

Details, details...it’s basically the same. Lol
 
Heard Jez on YouTube. Crackdown's multiplayer is a shallow tech demo right now. He was really impressed with the destruction. When he explained the gameplay, I could see how it would get old quick. Basically the game is more about traversal and strategically blowing ish up than any shooting skill. Doesn't sound like much room for a skill gap.

My gut feeling is it will launch multiplayer as a tech demo but Crackdown is tailor made to be a Battle Royal game. With how much Microsoft has invested into this game due to it being their cloud tech demo, I'm expecting lengthy support and experimentation in the sandbox.

I really like the color scheme and looks of the game now. Interested to see if the visuals are the same in single player.

I am very excited about what this could mean for future gaming. I hope Halo tries to leverage this is some way.

Edit: Jez is a Battlefield whore. If he's blown away by the technical achievement, it's not due to lack of exposure to games with large scale destructibility.
 
Nope, been playing it a lot lately actually, AC Odyssey and RDR2 are great.

As far as cloud you were the one who said people were complaining about a downgrade, I pointed out that they had never actually shown it to begin with so it couldn't be considered a downgrade. That being said there have been a ton of games with destruction with much larger environments. These maps are relatively small compared to the average battlefield maps, the player count is much smaller and it just looks like something they did to say they did it vs making a lj lky 74meaningful long lasting multiplayer experience.

Here you go, like clock work. Dwnplaying another game on Xbox. "they never really showed anything to begin with so it shouldnt be considered downplaying."

"This is a case where they over promised, under delivered." ...What exactly does this mean to you?

And what games would those be that have had Cloud destruction on this level, since "this isnt the first and wont be the last.." I gotta hear this sh!t. Even with your limited, but admirable understanding of how real game development works, you can sometimes over reach which diminishes your reputation here -- which is what you're doing now. Nothing like this has been done before. It's okay to say you're a tad jealous that Sony didnt think of it first.

But you know Jinca, you're okay. No matter what they say about you.

HEDON: Tell em what you said, bro!
 
Here you go, like clock work. Dwnplaying another game on Xbox. "they never really showed anything to begin with so it shouldnt be considered downplaying."

"This is a case where they over promised, under delivered." ...What exactly does this mean to you?

And what games would those be that have had Cloud destruction on this level, since "this isnt the first and wont be the last.." I gotta hear this sh!t. Even with your limited, but admirable understanding of how real game development works, you can sometimes over reach which diminishes your reputation here -- which is what you're doing now. Nothing like this has been done before. It's okay to say you're a tad jealous that Sony didnt think of it first.

But you know Jinca, you're okay. No matter what they say about you.

HEDON: Tell em what you said, bro!

Jealous? I couldn't care less about having that kind of destruction in a game, I've been perfectly happy with the type of destruction Battlefield has been offering for years. Why does everything have to come down to Sony vs MS with you? same BS with that other discussion about subscription services, you made it about something it wasn't just to turn it into some kind of pissing contest.

I'm talking about this game and what the much touted (by MS) "power of the cloud" that was brought up in 2013 and is finally going to make its way into a game in 2019. I'm sure there is a future for that type of tech or they wouldn't invest in it but if that's all they could come up with many years after the game was announced I'm not impressed. As I said I believe they thought they could do an entire city etc when they were early in the planning stages, this game was announced too early and Spencer even admits that. They wouldn't be the first or last developer to think they'd be able to accomplish something in a game and have to end up toning it down, it's not like this has some top flight dev team working on it to begin with and it's not a crime if they couldn't accomplish their original vision.
 
Jealous? I couldn't care less about having that kind of destruction in a game, I've been perfectly happy with the type of destruction Battlefield has been offering for years. Why does everything have to come down to Sony vs MS with you? same BS with that other discussion about subscription services, you made it about something it wasn't just to turn it into some kind of pissing contest.

I'm talking about this game and what the much touted (by MS) "power of the cloud" that was brought up in 2013 and is finally going to make its way into a game in 2019. I'm sure there is a future for that type of tech or they wouldn't invest in it but if that's all they could come up with many years after the game was announced I'm not impressed. As I said I believe they thought they could do an entire city etc when they were early in the planning stages, this game was announced too early and Spencer even admits that. They wouldn't be the first or last developer to think they'd be able to accomplish something in a game and have to end up toning it down, it's not like this has some top flight dev team working on it to begin with and it's not a crime if they couldn't accomplish their original vision.
I agree for the most part. I feel like this game will be a lot of fun, but will have "missed opportunity" written all over it.

I suspect the main game will have very little destruction when they could have pushed the Super powered cop thing much higher by having environmental destruction everywhere and working it into the play mechanics.

I mean, I bring up red faction a lot, and keeping a level of superstructure indestructible would have been awesome. Especially if you could get strong enough to ram or throw people through walls..

Still, I'm pretty confident it will be Good, but MS needs great...
 
Actually, game looks pretty great graphically, the art style and colors look great imo.
Sad to hear gameplay being mediocre, would actually want to play this now for the first time since.. well ever.
 
I agree for the most part. I feel like this game will be a lot of fun, but will have "missed opportunity" written all over it.

I suspect the main game will have very little destruction when they could have pushed the Super powered cop thing much higher by having environmental destruction everywhere and working it into the play mechanics.

I mean, I bring up red faction a lot, and keeping a level of superstructure indestructible would have been awesome. Especially if you could get strong enough to ram or throw people through walls..

Still, I'm pretty confident it will be Good, but MS needs great...
I can't imagine there being too much destruction in the story due things that would affect the story. If there was a group of bad guys in buildings, all you need to do is take down the building, and no challenge and no cut scenes. Also, if you destroy everything, that would take away from getting the 1500 orbs that are strategically placed based on the building assets.

Other than typical destruction seen in many games now. I can't see how CD3 could stray from that.
 
Honestly, I feel like this game is going to pull a State of Decay 2 or Sea of Thieves. Professional and user reviews will be middle to low but the game itself will be a diamond in the rough. Both games mentioned before didn't set the world on fire, redefine the genre or become GOTY candidates, but they were a ton of fun to play especially with friends.
 
I can't imagine there being too much destruction in the story due things that would affect the story. If there was a group of bad guys in buildings, all you need to do is take down the building, and no challenge and no cut scenes. Also, if you destroy everything, that would take away from getting the 1500 orbs that are strategically placed based on the building assets.

Other than typical destruction seen in many games now. I can't see how CD3 could stray from that.
That's a cop out. You'd still limit destruction to a degree, like maybe essential parts of the building structure being indestructible, maybe have them get rebuilt over time. It would certainly have an effect on how you approach things, and deepen the gameplay experience. Maybe even have a mechanic that tracks the cost of destruction as you are a good guy, and public perception could be affected. You dont have to all or none.
 
That's a cop out. You'd still limit destruction to a degree, like maybe essential parts of the building structure being indestructible, maybe have them get rebuilt over time. It would certainly have an effect on how you approach things, and deepen the gameplay experience. Maybe even have a mechanic that tracks the cost of destruction as you are a good guy, and public perception could be affected. You dont have to all or none.
I agree, we don't need all or none. But I know there has to be a limit.