Microsoft’s sandbox action game Crackdown is finally here, and it looks as if it’s not quite living up to the standard set by GTA. The short and tame singleplayer campaign didn’t offer much, althogh the action itself is adequate enough to satisfy fans of the genre, at least until GTA 4 arrives.

IGN (80/100) “Crackdown won’t last that long, it’s uneven, and the story and the music are weak sauce. Some things are great while others areas fall flat (even the bosses are predictable and easy after a while). But overall the thrill of jumping like a mutant kangaroo from rooftop to rooftop is unrivaled!”

GameSpot (78/100) “Crackdown feels unfinished. It feels like the developers sat down and crafted a wonderful-looking city and carefully considered how the gameplay and abilities should work, and then they didn’t have enough time to plug in enough activities to take advantage of it all. While you’ll certainly have a lot of fun playing Crackdown, it’s hard not to get the distinct feeling that it was on the cusp of being so much more.”

1UP (90/100) “If Crackdown were nothing more than a GTA-ish game with the fat trimmed away and some insane physical abilities, hell, that’d be something to be thrilled about. That it represents the best, if not the first, online multiplayer sandbox game on a console is just gravy.”

Eurogamer (90/100) “Being so excellent that you obliterate the single-player in a weekend is not enough to stop it being my favourite Xbox 360 game of recent times. You should definitely buy it, because, on this evidence, waiting for Grand Theft Auto IV would be rather daft. This is what it should do anyway.”