Not just another wide-open, go-anywhere, do anything, game of playing thug rising though the ranks of thuggery, running and/or driving around and completing nefarious tasks involving indiscriminate beatdowns and murder, Crackdown turns such "sandbox" gameplay on its ear and adds gameplay elements that could very well be described as "evolved" if you bear in mind that evolution is just as likely to make bizarre left turns as it is to advance a species.

First off, you're not a thug in Crackdown, you're a cop, a genetically enhanceable one at that. A budding superhero, really, with Barbie doll sensibilities (you get you create the look of your character and play dress up). Your missions, aside from obsessively collecting little glowing beach balls like you might in an overgrown platform-hopping game, aren’t so much nefarious as they are justified homicide where you're taking out indiscriminate thugs and their bosses with as little collateral damage as possible -- though you can mow down innocent bystanders with the best of them, but it's frowned upon and will slow your rise through the ranks of "good" guys.

Carjacking is out, commandeering in the name of the law is in. There's nary a difference in methodology, mind you; just toss the poor fools from their vehicles and off you go (eventually you can toss the whole car) while three available company car models (car, SUV, tractor truck) are upgradeable like your self, eventually going supercar, augmented with added guns and giant bunny hop hydraulics. Sounds ridiculous on paper, but surprisingly fun in the suspension-of-disbelief way of superhero videogames.

Still, not "evolved" in the "next level" sense of the word, Crackdown is the same old big ol' sandbox thing with some hybrid superhero-ing, exploratory rooftop-hopping and ubiquitous bauble collecting twists. It's really good, but not really great.

• TIP: In Crackdown, when you pick something up and make ready to toss it, press and hold A to jump your highest, then toss the object and hit A again and you'll jump again from there. A double jump, as it were.