Microsoft’s E3 presentation showcased many games, but none were quite as strange to watch as Crackdown 3

Crackdown 3’s development has been openly displayed as troubled for some months now, having missed several release windows before only last week being officially confined to the increasingly crowded window of February 2019. Microsoft had to show the crowd that the game had life in it, yet the only thing that really came across is how it just seems to exist without any solid grasp on itself.

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That would be fine for any normal open world game, but Crackdown 3 has been built up as a true sequel to the original game, wiping Crackdown 2 from canon and being touted as a powerhouse to grace the Xbox One and PC for several years now, especially considering it was originally set to launch alongside the Xbox One X. Whatever faults there were with Crackdown 2, it established an identity quickly with the promise of four player co-op and ridiculous destruction. It’s not clear just what’s supposed to be happening in this game beyond Terry Crews and neon lights, and that can’t be enough to carry the third game in a series such as this. Compared to the information disclosed about what sets Just Cause 4 apart with its new grapple system and the debut of weather, Crackdown’s secrecy does it no favors for whatever it winds up being.

Crews may be a larger than life presence largely became known thanks to the utterly ridiculous Old Spice commercials, but his casting in Crackdown 3 as Commander Jaxon feels off. Volition’s Saints Row games did stunt casting with Keith David and Daniel Dae Kim, and it’s clear that Crews’ inclusion here is meant to be similar. The problem is that Kim and David at the time were both in stages of their respective careers that allowed for this gag to work; David was best known as a character actor during the whole tenure of Saints Row, and Kim was primarily known as Jin from Lost. Crews’ offscreen persona winds up working against him in this case: in the past two Crackdown 3 trailers, he’s been the bombastic and wild self that defined him for years in Old Spice’s ads.

But now Crews is perhaps better known for his role in Brooklyn Nine-Nine, where he’s an emotionally sensitive man who loves his family and has an artistic side. He has an image that he can’t shake now, and with the Crackdown games being light on plot, anyone coming in from how he is in Brooklyn will find Jaxon lacking or not as engaging as Terry Jeffords.

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Saints Row took its time firming up what it was, but it started out as a nakedly open GTA clone and rose to that occasion. Crackdown has spent several years MIA and in that time, a variety of other games have taken respective parts of its shtick. Saints and Just Cause have different footholds on the goofy chaos sandbox games, and Infamous and Spider-Man have the superhero game market cornered. This can’t be allowed to rest on its laurels, much like how Capcom can’t just rest on the laurels of Devil May Cry to push this new game.

DMC 5 has been an open secret for years, but the game has something of a special importance since it’s the immediate follow up to Ninja Theory’s incredibly divisive 2013 reboot. Any DMC game following the reboot was going to have to address it in some way, and Capcom’s solution just seems to be to rather rudely write it off completely.

Ninja Theory’s reboot wasn’t perfect, but coming at DMC 5 from the basis of “not like that reboot” isn’t a wise move. The two Capcom reps onstage talked about how fans were clamoring for a “true” sequel to the series, and in throwing DmC under the bus, winds up showing DMC 5’s hand. The flashy footage of Nero and his new robot arm look cool, but all of it also looks like it could’ve come from a sequel that came two years after Devil May Cry 4’s 2008 release as opposed to 11 years later. The demon killing and music look as DMC as ever, but there feels like a certain amount of desperation there, like the game is trying too hard to be liked and bring back the fans turned off by Ninja Theory’s game.

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In the five years that DMC was on ice, Bayonetta made an identity for herself that may have borrowed heavily from Dante, but found a new angle through goofy sexuality that makes it distinct. Conversely, bringing back Nero just shows the franchise wants to have the young reboot Dante without officially labeling him as such, and the final shot of an older Dante on his motorcycle says more about the series’ age than it does a welcome return. They need to find a new angle for these two characters that reflect their humor in some way because in some aspects, being intentionally silly and delivering cheesy one-liners isn’t something that can be as easily forgiven anymore.

Devil May Cry 5 and Crackdown 3’s insecurities both stand out in part because of how strong and confident the rest of the trailers at the Xbox presentation were. Halo Infinite firmly said it would be about Master Chief, and Cyberpunk 2077 promised a beautiful world with free DLC. 2019 is going to have expectations on both games because of their respective histories, but this E3 only showed that they need some time to grow into themselves.

Justin is a freelance writer in living in Kansas City and eating too many Frostys. You can find him on Twitter @GigawattConduit.