Crackdown 3 (Xbox One/SX)

It's not bad, but this long-awaited sequel is a bland and uninspired time capsule of a game.

Crackdown 3's Wrecking Zone is a barebones and uninteresting multiplayer mode that makes poor use of its impressive environmental destruction.

Crackdown 3's mediocre, collectible-heavy campaign and poor Wrecking Zone multiplayer are rarely satisfying busywork.

Crackdown 3 feels like a game unstuck from time, a piece of 2007-era design that sneaked through into 2019, with middling results.

Crackdown 3 is fun to play and requires very little in terms of concentration to perform well, but at the same time, it’s fairly limited in scope and most players won’t find enough on offer to keep coming back.

However, a dozen years after the first Crackdown offered that same experience but failed to provide you with enough interesting content surrounding that, it's truly disappointing to see this latest iteration suffer from the very same problems.

Crackdown 3's mediocre campaign fills a big open world with paint-by-numbers gameplay that barely evolves after the opening hours.

The most remarkable thing about Crackdown 3 is how unambitious it is. It's content to come off as dated, like a relic from a bygone era. That can be comforting in a way, but it's immeasurably more disappointing. Crackdown 3, just like its kin, is only a distraction and nothing more.