Crackdown was conceived by Realtime Worlds' founder, David Jones, who also created Grand Theft Auto and Lemmings.

The Agent's abilities improve by defeating both crime lords and their top subordinates, as well as by completing optional activities, such as street races and scavenger hunts.

Crackdown, initially planned for release on the original Xbox console, was envisioned as a vast world in which players could experiment and explore freely.

Microsoft Game Studios bundled specifically marked copies of Crackdown with an access code to the multiplayer test version of the much-anticipated Halo 3 Beta.

[3] Crackdown takes place in the fictional metropolis of Pacific City, whose three districts are divided among eight total islands.

The city is controlled by three criminal organizations: Los Muertos (which means "The Dead" in Spanish), a street gang of drug dealers from Central America who runs "La Mugre" ("The Dirt"); The Volk (Russian for "The Wolf"), a militia group from Eastern Europe who dominates "The Den"; and the Shai-Gen Corporation, a formerly above-board, corrupt governing body from East Asia that rules "The Corridor".

[4] Normally, a police organization called the Peacekeepers kept the city under control; their forces, however, were overwhelmed by the sudden rise in crime.

The player takes on the role of one of their Agents, and is tasked with systematically bringing down all three organized gangs, while keeping both the populace and Peacekeepers safe.

[7] Much like other sandbox games, the player uses melee attacks, guns, and explosives to fight the opposing forces, and can run, climb buildings, jump across rooftops, or use vehicles to navigate the city.

Crackdown features a series of character-based skills that can be upgraded to increase specific traits that can be used in combat, driving, or on-foot agility.

However, Agility orbs are awarded differently: they can be earned by either climbing buildings and seeking them on rooftops, or by killing an enemy from a high altitude.

If the player is too aggressive against the non-gang residents of Pacific City, including the Peacekeepers, they are flagged as rogue, and Agency hit squads are dispatched to take them down.

Both players are credited with the defeat of a General or Kingpin in the game—which will affect the state of the guest's progress—but are required to obtain supply points and gain experience independently.

Crackdown was envisioned to exceed the gameplay of Grand Theft Auto, giving the player "toys" to create their own in-game moments that could be verbally shared with others.

[10] Realtime Worlds had hired a number of former Grand Theft Auto developers who experimented with refining the game's sandbox element.

Second, the full game included five in-game movies that would be presented early on to the player that would give them a taste of what a fully powered character could do.

[10] By 2004, Microsoft brought the team the Xbox 360 hardware and suggested moving the game to that system, with a release date in the spring of 2006.

[14] For example, the tool was able to identify blocks where the performance dropped or the game crashed, allowing the developers to redesign the area to remove the issues.

The demo lasts for, at most, one hour, with a timer starting when either the player trains a skill to the second level, has eliminated two of the gang Generals, or has been playing for a half-hour.

During the demo, in-game skills can be trained up to the highest level, and this occurs at an accelerated rate in order to give players an example of higher-level abilities.

[19] Every pre-ordered and specially marked copy of Crackdown included an invitation to the beta test of the highly anticipated Halo 3.

[22] A free update was released on 11 May 2007, which allows the player to reset gangs, makes it easier to find orbs, improves stunt ring visibility, enhances targeting and camera angles when driving, and provides several other minor fixes.

The "Gettin' Busy" bonus pack introduced new vehicles, new weapons, new side missions, and a new street racing activity.

Crackdown features over 100 tracks of electronica and sample-based music by a number of mostly obscure independent and video game musicians, with some of the more notable artists including Amon Tobin, Atlas Plug, Celldweller, Hybrid, Molotov, Control Machete, Kinky, and TobyMac.

[28] Davenport was allowed to select music from any source given the premise and missions within the game, and worked with the audio leads at Realtime Worlds to shape the full soundtrack, keeping it to a "dark and ominous" vibe, rather than "super high energy".

"[4] The co-op play feature over Xbox Live was well received; Eurogamer wrote, "Being able to pick and leap into any of your friends' or even complete strangers' cities is likely to keep that buzz going though",[9] and 1UP agreed, remarking "That it represents the best, if not the first, online multiplayer sandbox game on a console is just gravy".

[12] However, the game surpassed many expectations; in his review, GameSpy's Gabe Graziani asked readers the rhetorical question; "Notice that I didn't mention the Halo 3 beta offer during this whole article?

That's because it's completely irrelevant when looking at Crackdown, it's a solid game that delivers exactly what it promises: a giant sandbox to blow the crap out of".

During the week of its worldwide release of February 2007, it was the top selling Xbox 360 game in North America, Japan, and the UK.

[48] Realtime Studios manager Colin MacDonald clarified that if they have the resources after completion of APB, they could approach Microsoft to discuss a sequel.