Crackdown doesn't have a typical progressive story. In the first game you defeat the fractions and the bosses of those fractions in any order you want. Once you complete all those bosses, you get an ending mission. Some bosses are stronger than others so it's better to level up taking out the easier ones first, but you don't have to. There isn't cut scenes throughout the game besides the ending and beginning. Dialogue, as far as story progression goes, is pretty non-existent besides the narrator though out the game. CD3 will likely be similar. 

Regardless of how the cloud destruction is, it's still innovative. 

How Transformers did it is not exactly the same. In Crackdown, the Agent cars physically transform after they level up, becoming stronger and fast. Agents in Crackdown go through the same transformations.

I highly doubt getting Terry Cruise for some dialogue had any effect on the budget for how the game looks or plays. 

And I doubt he was as cheap as chips to grab either. 

Not creme de la creme of current actors, but still not as cheap as say Nolan North of Steve Blum, well known voice actors (yet not paid anywhere as much as A list actors).

Yes, he was great for advertising, but I don't see what that has to do with the money and funding for the game itself.

Looking at the map design, it honestly looks far too zany, far too out of place, like it's really trying way too hard to be in your face. 

It does look like more of what we got back in 2007. If that's all you want then more power to you, but the industry has come a long way since then.

I did play the first one, not the second one though. What I'm referring to was the fluidity of movement and combat. Btw you can traverse without web slinging as well in Spider man, double jumping, wall running, boost jumps, with tons of upgrades.I think there's even a mission that disables web slinging. From what I see from Crackdown 3, it feels like Saints row 4. Falling behind, yet should still be fun.

Uh huh, as someone else said Crackdown is more like arcade action. Its not particularly polished but its going for something very different than a game like Spiderman.

Crackdown is more like playing as the Hulk. Its not supposed to have the most technical combat. Its just button mashy and when you get powerful enough you can send people flying with a simple punch or kick.

Spiderman may have the basic traversal stuff as well, but that isnt its focus. They didnt build a game around that.

The thing about Saints Row IV is it suffered from being too much the same. I mean it was literally the same engine, graphics, many of the assets are recycled, etc. So I dont see that comparison as valid.

Crackdown 3 appers to be making significant tweaks to the core gameplay, vast improvments to the visuals, new skills, etc. These things make it feel more fresh even its not a far cry from predecessors. While Saints Row IV is a fun game, it didnt feel fresh at all because it was just a glorified expansion and it didnt evolve beyond that

You could make the same argument to people who want retro inspired games or remasters/rereleases of old games. There are countless games that try to emulate what old games did but bring some mordern ideas to it.

I like Crackdown and I dont see other games really doing what made that game so much fun. If they can do that again but with more polish amd features, I'm up for giving it a try.

According to the Wiki it seems like numerous studios worked on different aspects of Crackdown 3 and left when they were done. One studio handled the engine stuff/cloud, another handled visual assets, Ruffian handled MP, while Sumo Digital was focused on the single player and apparently stuck around to put everything else together. Sumo is the primary developer.

So if your is concern the studio(s) needs to move on, the reality is they did and Sumo wasn't only working on Crackdown 3.

Here is a list of everything Sumo worked on or released the same year Crackdown 3 was announced.

Hence, Crackdown 3 probably had a small team for much of its development because the primary studio was working on many projects.

Has the industry come a long way since last gen? For the most part all of these open world games play just like they did last gen, which is basically taking Ubisoft's FarCry template and pasting it into their own games with small tweaks here or there. The only developer to really move the wheel was Insomniac with traversal in Sunset Overdrive and Spider-Man. Outside of that all of these open world games are pretty much indistinguishable.

I mean right now I'm playing through Mad Max and it's a good game, but it easily could have come out last gen. I've gotten the platinum on Spider-Man and Horizon, nothing ground breaking in either of those. GTA V is literally a last gen game. FarCry 5 did nothing to reinvent the wheel. In fact it's biggest change was just getting rid of "Ubi towers". Maybe I should give Ubi more credit for Ass Creed though, I haven't played any this gen but I've heard the last two are very different.

Just Cause 3? Nothing radically different from 2. And 4 comes out shortly and doesn't look much different than 3. I'm pumped for Rage 2 but it looks less like Rage and more like a marriage between Just Cause and Mad Max, which makes sense since it's being made by the people who did Just Cause and Mad Max.

Point being if the foundation is good enough, there's nothing wrong with sticking to something that is good. Microsoft tried to mix it up with Crackdown 2 and introduce the current trends (like zombies) and the results were trash. Fans of the original are perfectly happy with a new campaign and city to run around in and max out levels in so they can fly around it like a super hero, and the MP is where the real change is supposed to come.

Biggest concern is having a world with a lot of things to do rather than repetitive - go here collect that, and kill him method.

If it's on Game Pass, I'll give a shot.