Hoewel Crackdown pas morgen (tenzij je als warez aapje de game een week geleden geleeched hebt) in de winkels liggen, zijn vele reviews behoorlijk negatief. De game zou geen kleuren en amper een verhaal hebben. MTV had een interview met James Cope, producer bij Ruffian Games en deze begrijpt de ophef niet helemaal en belooft dat er dadelijk met de aankomende DLC meer kleur zal worden toegevoegd.

"Expanding the storyline too much beyond what was already set wasn't what people wanted. The couple of design challenges we faced with the 'Crackdown' franchise was that it's built around a completely free-form and open world. Go-anywhere, do-anything in any order. Trying to tell a story in that is very hard. You can't tell a linear narrative and you can't direct or expect people to be in certain places at certain times and make anything cohesive in that environment. It's one of those things that you just have to sweep under the carpet a little bit and focus on the gameplay experience."