Crackdown the "antidote" to Zelda fallout

Wednesday 28 February 2007
Microsoft's recently released Crackdown is the only way to recover from post-Zelda fatigue, reckons Introversion lead designer Chris Delay, who's found that after completing Twilight Princess' mammoth adventure, Okami gets boring and Final Fantasy XII demands too much.

"Three fifty hour games to be savoured and explored," Delay laments on Introversion's official blog, "all [released] within six weeks of each other. This is surely somebody's idea of a cruel joke". Fortunately, Crackdown is different - "just what the doctor ordered, the perfect cure to post Zelda blues".

"Okami's art style is some of the most beautiful I've ever seen," Delay explains, "but it's just too much like Zelda". But Crackdown is "the exact opposite of Zelda, Okami and Final Fantasy ... There's no grand quest, no set piece dungeons, no side quests ... There's just a vast explorable city, lots of cars, lots of guns, and lots of bad people who need to be killed".

Which sounds like a great reason to trot out and buy Crackdown yourself. At the same time, though, don't forget to pick up Okami - it's brilliant, and once you're in the mood for more magical adventure you can slap it on and treat yourself. And you don't want The Little Britain Game topping the charts instead, do you?

Ben Richardson is a former Staff Writer for Official PlayStation 2 magazine and a former Content Editor of GamesRadar+. In the years since Ben left GR, he has worked as a columnist, communications officer, charity coach, and podcast host – but we still look back to his news stories from time to time, they are a window into a different era of video games.