Crackdown 3’s cloud computing features topple cities in real time

By Danny Cowan August 13, 2015

Microsoft has issued an early look at the gameplay featured in its upcoming sandbox-styled action game Crackdown 3, revealing that environmental destruction will play a significant role in the game’s multiplayer component.

Notably Crackdown 3 will use the Xbox One’s cloud computing functionality to calculate and render real-time damage to buildings, creating a fully destructible environment for players.

Microsoft notes that Crackdown 3‘s cloud computing features allow for “20 times the computational power of [the] Xbox One,” resulting in enhanced detail and environmental destruction not possible using a console without cloud connectivity.

These features will not be found in Crackdown 3‘s single-player mode, however. Microsoft clarified recently that cloud-driven destruction is only possible within the game’s multiplayer component.

“You have to be online for multiplayer, and at that point we can connect to the cloud and really expand the experience,” creative director David Jones stated in an interview with IGN. “You’re meant to be saving the city [in the campaign], so we really wanted to create a new multiplayer experience that bent that.”

Jones additionally stated that Crackdown 3‘s multiplayer modes will offer “more than just a simple deathmatch,” but did not describe in detail which competitive or cooperative modes will be featured in the finished product.

The original Crackdown launched as an Xbox 360 exclusive in 2007, featuring open-world gameplay that put players in control of a superpowered law-enforcement agent. The 2011 sequel, Crackdown 2, improving the original game’s online co-op features to support four simultaneous players.

Crackdown 3 will expand on the criminal network mechanics introduced in the original Crackdown, allowing players to weaken enemy stronghold defenses by taking out strategic targets located throughout the gameplay world. Collectible orbs will also return, rewarding player exploration with enhanced abilities, improved jumping height, and more destructive attacks.

A multiplayer beta version of Crackdown 3 will launch in the summer of 2016.

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