Crackdown - superhero breakdown

Even with car-crushing capabilities, there are still some disputes that can only be solved with a bullet through the brain. Your sharpshooting and multi-targeting skills increase with each downed villain, so by the end of the game your aptitude for shooting sprees increases to the point where you can flip a car over with the first shot and detonate the gas cap with the second.

Such expert use of bullets, bombs and boomsticks made us think of the aforementioned Frank Castle. As the Punisher, Castle knows the ins and outs of anything used for mowing down thugs. As an operative with Crackdown's superpowered agency, you're given free reign to kill as needed. No baddie, no matter how minor, is exempt from your bloody justice. Still, even with an "M" rating, there's nothing in Crackdown that rivals Frank's murderous, psychopathic bloodbath.

Above: Frank kills 'em all. You're technically not allowed, but just let them try to stop you. And Solo is wearing a pink sash with grenades

While Punisher makes mowing down crooks seem noble and, well, interesting, there's another trigger-happy merc who just can't hold his own. Even with a miniscule presence in the Marvel universe, however, this character has managed to eke out a catchphrase:

"While Solo lives, terror dies!"

Yes, Solo. He's got guns and a costume. For some reason that gives him the right to strut around decent comics and shoot up the place without actually racking up a body count. Your Crackdown officer has access to state-of-the-art tech and a badass digital sniper rifle. Solo does not. Right now he's fighting in Marvel's Civil War, but if he should disappear amidst the chaos (c'mon Stark, one stray blast is all it'd take), we won't be worrying about the terror level in the immediate area.

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Brett Elston

A fomer Executive Editor at GamesRadar, Brett also contributed content to many other Future gaming publications including Nintendo Power, PC Gamer and Official Xbox Magazine. Brett has worked at Capcom in several senior roles, is an experienced podcaster, and now works as a Senior Manager of Content Communications at PlayStation SIE.