I love Crackdown and tolerated Crackdown 2 and I cannot believe how bad this game is
I would have thought people loving the original would love this, but it can sometimes be difficult to pinpoint what makes one game work for a person and not another that seems relatively similar. If you were to compare Crackdown 1 and 3, could you elaborate on what made you love the first and hate the third?
The one thing I think there's a discussion to be had about is the jumping. In the first game the momentum was much stricter and with no double jumps or boosts to save you, every jump was a thrill. Three is the complete opposite: You don't dedicate yourself to the momentum, meaning your jump isn't as influenced by the speed leading up to it and you can adjust direction more easily. Combined with the boosts and double jumps the platforming is much easier, but I don't necessasarily view that as a bad thing and it has the advantage of working really well with the combat, enhanching your options and almost giving it a slight touch of the dash gliding from Gun Valkyrie, as someone mentioned earlier and which I was also reminded of when playing.
There's quite a big difference in how the games do platforming and I could see why some would like one, but not the other. Personally I like both and enjoy the games feeling differently, while still belonging to the same franchise and core template. It's what I'm always hoping for from a sequel. From my perspective Sumo nailed the essential parts of Crackdown, improved and updated them - repetition notwithstanding - respectfully. I love it to bits.
And I would love to get a sequel with more varied objectives, more platforming sections like the propaganda towers, improved driving physics/handling and perhaps a better integration of vehicles into the core game.