Crackdown 3: "technically, there is no limit"

Crackdown 3 impressed nearly everyone during its Gamescom showing earlier this month, with a fully destructible environment powered by some impressive technology.

We caught up with series creator David Jones after seeing it in action for ourselves, and we had plenty of questions regarding the cloud-powered system that makes city-wide destruction possible.

"It's fully dynamic," Jones said of the server-based multiplayer element. "I mean basically, technically, there is no limit. So it's a fully dynamic system, we will design... there is obviously is a cost issue, so for us as game designers there always is.

"For us it's about ‘how many do we need to provide the experience that we want?' And that's really what we're focussing on. The great thing is we know we have a system that can dynamically handle whatever we want to do creatively."

The cloud-powered destruction isn't just skin deep either, with buildings being affected inside and out. Despite the demands of what is a complicated simulation, thanks to the tech, it's up to the developers to decide where they drawn the line: "We will do whatever the experience demands," Jones explained.

"The level of detail we go into on each individual building is really up to us as designers; what is that and what do we really need to build the game we want to build."

Of course, with the online element reliant on server-support, many people with slower internet connections are worried that their experience might suffer, but according to the game's creative director, they're aware of this and are working to make sure it's not an issue.

"We fully realise, you know, we're optimising for that, we realise that people have a certain download speed, and that we have to be within those kinds of boundaries. So we fully understand all of that and we're definitely working to that," Jones reassured.

Crackdown 3 is heading exclusively to Xbox One, and so far we know that the multiplayer part of the game will be playable next year at some yet to be determined point. For our hands-on impressions of the game, head here.