The physics chunk you see is the same one I see. Sure, if you’ve got an Xbox One X, you’ll be playing in 4K, but the physics simulation is exactly the same. The cool thing about that is it doesn’t matter if you’ve got an Xbox One X or a day one Xbox One. “What we’re seeing right here is the equivalent of 12 Xbox Ones worth of physics compute handled by Azure.
CRACKDOWN 3 AGENT DNA SIMULATOR
“The thing that it’s doing in multiplayer is offloading Havok physics simulator to Azure cloud compute,” Staten explains. When it’s pointed out, it’s easy to understand the technical feat it accomplishes. Under the hood, “Crackdown 3’s” multiplayer is impressive. How do we use destruction and make it a set of interesting choices for players rather than just spectacle.” “But once we understood what we could do with cloud compute, we had to figure out what people like to do. It took us a while to do that because they were tough,” he says. “We were able to knock down the big technical challenges. Staten reaffirms this sentiment, suggesting that one reason for “Crackdown 3’s” delays was that the team was working to find a fun application for the destruction technology. This ultimately leaves it feeling unfulfilling, especially amidst a sea of other competitive experiences that make meaningful use of destruction as a core gameplay element (see: “Fortnite” and “Battlefield V”).
“Crackdown 3’s” multiplayer feels like it is driven by the technology, rather than the technology serving as solution to a design need. That is a design choice, not a technical limit.” When one flies out of nowhere and conks you in the head and kills you, it wasn’t a great experience. Given how fast you move from space to space, it’s very hard to keep track of every physical chunk that’s being simulated in the world. They didn’t enjoy quite so much a random chunk of a building falling on them and killing them. “What we found is that people enjoy smashing through buildings. “We have explored different options with that over time,” Staten tells Variety. The floor can be blown out from under you, but with no fall damage and no debris-based damage, it’s more of an inconvenience. The destruction Microsoft promised early on is still present in the multiplayer mode, but it doesn’t feel terribly meaningful. This ultimately leaves it feeling unfulfilling, especially amidst a sea of other competitive experiences that make meaningful use of destruction.
You can’t both dodge unerring bullets and protect a stationary object. When an enemy’s locked onto you (“Crackdown 3” does not have aim-down-sights, opting to use the left trigger for a hard lock on a target), chances are you’re going to die unless you can break line of site. Standing in one place makes you a target, which becomes readily apparent. This is less satisfying, as it’s nearly impossible to defend a fallen badge, with enemy agents dropping from above or punching through walls. Instead, the badges are on a ten-second countdown before disappearing. Unlike other Kill Confirmed-style modes, badges cannot be “rescued” by teammates, thereby denying a point to the other team. Not only must players kill opposing agents in the five-vs-five mode, but they need to collect the badges left behind to score a point. The player-versus-player offerings, designed by Ruffian (currently in the midst of a studio rebranding as Elbow Rocket) include two modes and three maps at launch.ĭuring a recent preview event, Microsoft showed off the Agent Hunter mode, which is similar to “Call of Duty’s” Kill Confirmed. Like Ruffian Games’ “Crackdown 2,” it features both a story-driven campaign and competitive multiplayer. That has been dialed back, as the campaign is now limited to two players.Īll of this is important table-setting to understand where “Crackdown 3” has been, what it was supposed to be, and where it is now.
Four agents bounce through the city, causing massive explosions (but very little destruction). Featuring the bombastic Terry Crews, the cel-shaded look of the original “Crackdown” games is more prominent, eschewing the more photorealistic look of the 2015 trailer. In 2017, Microsoft gave a better look at what the game was shaping up to be.