Possible Crackdown co-op achievement problems
by Dustin Burg 
{ Feb 23rd 2007 at 7:00PM }
If you've been playing Crackdown co-op style, then we need your input. After playing co-op with a friend the last two nights we noticed a problem with the achievements in the game. The problem arose when I was invited to a co-op Crackdown session, which was easy enough. Hours went by, we were leveling up our characters, earning achievements for such deeds, and even picked up the "Double Trouble" achievement. It was bliss until we killed every gang member in Los Muertos. My friend (who was hosting the game) unlocked two achievements, both the "Los Muertos Intel Master" and "Los Muertos Cleanser". But there was a problem, I didn't receive any achievements. We then exited the game, I started a solo campaign by myself and noticed that all the progress I made in co-op with my friend was remembered except for how many gang members we found/killed. My agent's skill levels were retained, all agility orbs remembered, and even the supply points were marked as located. But it still showed that I haven't killed or found any of the 21 gang members and therefore haven't earned those corresponding achievements.So fanboys, do you have a similar story or is this a weird one-off incident? Have you been playing co-op and earning achievements pertaining to taking down the gangs and its members? I've sent out a query to the powers that be and hopefully we will get some answers, because playing co-op and not earning certain achievements is ridiculous. Again, any information from you guys would help to get this issue figured out.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Daniel @ Feb 23rd 2007 7:08PM
Your level stats remain the same throughout, as does collecting orbs.
If your friend hosts you join his single player game, and although orbs/skills you get save - the bosses being killed will not - if you start and he had already located/killed at least 1 boss - and you joined after you would have only killed 6 bosses. The game remembers who you have and have'nt killed wether its your game or not.
When i got the achievement i had already completed the game, and my friend halfway through - we had to do the bosses in Time-trial mode to unlock the complete all missions one
Tel @ Feb 23rd 2007 8:12PM
That's the way it's supposed to work.
When you play co-op, you play in the host's city - which is why your city is untouched and you kept your exp.
dale_furr @ Feb 23rd 2007 7:10PM
Yeah I noticed that myself. My brother and I had played and beat the game. We had the same achievements, and then when I went back into the game it showed that i didn't complete the game. I still had bosses to beat, and it took my achievements away. I think it might have to do with who is hosting the game. If they join up with you on your system, you get the goods. If you load up on there system, they get the goods. Kinda sucks a big one! Same with this whole beta test. I got through on the first phase, but if anyone goes out and rents the game, they will be able to unlock the download. Kinda takes the award away for being in on the first phase.
raymond @ Feb 23rd 2007 7:13PM
i thought that only the host got the achievements and only the gangmembers on the host side got killed but when you do a single player its like nothing gets done.
John @ Feb 23rd 2007 7:20PM
Yeah, I started a new game after I played some co-op and there were many weird things. I started at one of the supply points to start the game and wasn't in the Keep. But the narrator kept saying about how I was in the Keep and where I could get vehicles and how to get out into the city.
And although they marked the supply points orange, I still had to "reclaim" them. This was especially obvious with the first one because the police and the three los muertos dudes were shooting it out.
Adam Sutherland @ Feb 23rd 2007 7:22PM
This is a terrible design choice, and pretty much takes away from the game. My buddy and I have played two nights, with each of us hosting once. I now have Los Muertos completed and he has the Volk completed - but we've both done the work. You shouldn't have to backtrack and redo things to get credit. It's pretty backwards.
James @ Feb 23rd 2007 8:04PM
It was stated many times before launch that the boss progress was from the hosts game save...
Dr Spank @ Feb 23rd 2007 7:57PM
How is this different than Gears of War? Progress against the campaign is saved for the host but the joiner is a "guest" on that game. Achievements are still stored, progress on your character is saved. It works like one owuld think it would.
Jdaman @ Feb 23rd 2007 7:58PM
"This is a terrible design choice, and pretty much takes away from the game."
How would you have them set it up? This is the way to make sure u dont just pop into your buddies game and kill a kingpin and the remaining gangmembers and get an achievement.
Remember there is not a shared world, it is the world of the person hosting. The client player is there to help, level up, stack cars, whatever. But the world is always that of the host.
Wii360dsPC @ Feb 23rd 2007 8:36PM
This is by design and fantastic. It's brilliant.
Adam Sutherland @ Feb 23rd 2007 8:14PM
If you're in the game when the boss gets killed, you get the credit. Otherwise it breaks the continuity and you have to backtrack. I understand it was a conscious choice by the devs, but I think it was a wrong one.
I already killed the Volk and now I have to go back and do it again? Without any markers on my screen when I already know where they are and killed them? Does this make sense?
I love this game - it's by far my favorite "sandbox " game I've played since Vice City and it probably surpasses that one. I'm not saying this is a crippling flaw, but it was a poor choice.
Ampersandwich @ Feb 23rd 2007 8:26PM
"How is this different than Gears of War?"
'Cause in Gears, if you're playing co-op and you finish a chapter, you both get the achievement, regardless of who's the host and who's the guest. Most of the achievements are available to both players.
doug @ Feb 23rd 2007 8:31PM
This happened to me as well.
As some have pointed out, it *MAY* have been a design decision to keep people from *gasp* getting easy achievement points (the horror!) - but none of the achievements have any phrasing to make one think that they won't be unlocked through multi/coop play... And since you can get the achievements regardless of difficulty level played on - what's the point of caring whether people "earn" the completely tertiary ones or just "get" them?
All the rest of the acheivements function correctly in coop, aside from the gang member Intel and Cleansing ones so far as I can tell.
So if it's a design decision, why does my "helper" agent's activity count for something when I blow up 500 people, or go 200 kills without dying?
But, I guess if the worst situation that occurs is "You have to play the game more" then I can hardly call that reason to complain.
Eisen Soldaten @ Feb 23rd 2007 8:38PM
Well I was playing co-op last night and we were going for the Observatory Globe chievie. I took the globe, killed 15 guys, and we both got the achievement, without him ever touching the thing.
Sekiria @ Feb 23rd 2007 8:48PM
Killing the bosses in someone else's game to help get them the achievement makes since. Running a race (like co-op driving in the same car) and only the host getting the achievement or no one getting an achievement despite getting 1st place, that's screwed up.
Dustin Burg @ Feb 23rd 2007 9:03PM
See, the problem is that even though I'm in "their city" I'm still unlocking supply points and finding orbs that magically transfer over to "my city". I just don't see why the gang bosses are treated differently. Either everything in a co-op game should save for the joiner, or not at all. Anyway, thanks for the info guys!
robk @ Feb 24th 2007 2:03PM
yup i played through each city and then had to go through again by myself and do it again to get the achievements for myself. it wasn't to hard but a bit annoying
Holt @ Feb 23rd 2007 10:34PM
Yeah, I had a big problem in a co-op game with a friend where after we killed Mrs. Timbol (on the Shai-Gen island) the rest of the bosses just disappeared. Their markers were there, but when we got to the base there would be nothing; no gangsters, no boss, not even any goddamn cars or boxes.
This happened twice in one night, once I was hosting, the other time my friend was. Both times, the bug happened after killing Timbol.
Daryl @ Feb 23rd 2007 10:52PM
Can you get the double trouble achievement for beating any gang boss?
It doesn't have to be the first right?
HHHawk @ Feb 23rd 2007 10:59PM
Hey, best way to go about this is find someone online or in your friends list that has beaten the game and then just do the Time Trial together and defeat every boss together. You'll get the "Tag Teamer" achievement. It's tested in my Gamertag achievement list. That's the best I can offer to you. I wouldn't do any other way because it'd be a waste except for doing the other achievements.
Bangbang... @ Feb 23rd 2007 11:05PM
In co-op you are actually just helping the host beat his game. You are able to level up, collect orbs and gain any achievement that are specific to your actions, but you are still only there the host beat the bosses. If both of you want achievements, you have to play the time trails.
If that doesnt make sense, think of it like an MMO where one person needs help getting an item and you join up to help. You will still gain xp for killing things, but only one guy will get the drop.
Justin U @ Feb 23rd 2007 11:07PM
Its not a glitch, its not a bug.
It happens with EVERYONE. Its mean to be that you are helping the friend, and its not reflected upon your own campaign.
Not like its hard if you were levelling to get those guys dead.
Bangbang... @ Feb 23rd 2007 11:10PM
**but you are still only there to help the host beat the bosses.
svobs @ Feb 24th 2007 6:03AM
same problem here!
Steve @ Feb 24th 2007 9:10AM
hm. well last night when i was playing with one of my friends we ran into the whole "why isnt the boss here in the quarry thing. we actually had to backtrack across half the map, then go back and it was fine. but what i thought was interesting was i found the observatory and the globe. so i was going around killing the gang members with it for the achievement. after i got it my friend tried the same thing but found out since i got the achievement he did also. i had no idea thats how it worked.
Jason @ Feb 24th 2007 10:47AM
"Yeah, I had a big problem in a co-op game with a friend where after we killed Mrs. Timbol (on the Shai-Gen island) the rest of the bosses just disappeared. Their markers were there, but when we got to the base there would be nothing; no gangsters, no boss, not even any goddamn cars or boxes."
Yep--had this exact issue yesterday. Frustrating because the only way to get the bosses back was to restart the game. We wondered if maybe it was because I had already beaten them in my game and he hadn't--some kind of co-op bug mixing up the progress.
Czar Valo @ Mar 2nd 2007 5:16PM
yea..this happened to me too. I was a little mad that i didnt get the achievments. But hey, once we finnish the game on his host..i can host and we can play the game again.
Smokestorm @ Feb 24th 2007 6:31PM
This doesn't sound like proper co-op, should be like gears when you defeat th bosses together yo uboth get the achievments, who know myabe they will patch it cos it sucks this way
Rami Selim @ Feb 24th 2007 12:46PM
I noticed that I got a couple of achievements soon after I started playing WITHOUT actually doing them. For example I got the Base Jumper achievement without ever climbing the agency tower (I was level 2 agility). It was weird. Another one was the Airtime Assassin. I got that without actually doing it either. This was all in solo play however.
Kalroy @ Feb 24th 2007 12:53PM
Here's something I noticed last night. Let the host be the first one to get to the boss area. His game, his script triggers is what I figure. On the other hand it was kinda nice just exploring without being firefly'd constantly.
Kalroy
ericdrum @ Feb 24th 2007 2:32PM
It's like Justin and BangBang said. I knew the game would be like this 2 weeks before it came out after I had read someones impressions. I have no problems with how they implemented this. It's fine with me.
Rane Pollock @ Feb 24th 2007 3:44PM
What's wrong with having to go back and beat a boss by yourself? It's not like the game isn't fun enough and it's a chore. Just get in there and get your skill for kills and quit complaining.
robby2009 @ Feb 24th 2007 5:31PM
I have been playing co-op over Xbox Live basically the past two days, non stop (it's fantastic!), and I have not run into this problem. Everything we did is "remembered" in my single player game. I just went and booted it up, to make sure, and everything was just as we left it in co-op. This must be an isolated problem.
Aaron @ Feb 25th 2007 3:46PM
You did get anything because you are playing his game because he hosted it
LR @ Feb 25th 2007 7:55PM
There's definitely some glitches in co-op mode. A friend and I have been playing together, and we removed three gangs together-- but he did most of the work. I receive the achievements for this, and he did not.
He had to replay again in solo mode to gain the achievements.
Also, occasionally the gang members simply disappear in co-op mode. It's most certainly a bug, as this never happens in solo mode. But it's happened a couple of times now, most notably when we were fighting the last boss of Shai-Gen, and the gang members leading up to him would simply disappear and provided no challenge at all as it was just a matter of running up the building to face NOONE! Gang members were also missing from the final fight.
Those issues aside, the game is a lot of fun, in both co-op and solo mode
Got Nutzz @ Mar 5th 2007 3:59PM
What I want to know is if I get a orb in someone else's game that he hasn't got will he be able to get it after i get it or vice versus??
Ian @ Mar 30th 2007 6:18PM
yeah, I beat the game in single player and got all the gang leaders by my self, so does that mean that i can never get any of the co-op achievements?
andynic @ Apr 5th 2007 8:02AM
Guy's, Guy's, Guys,
When you join another friends game on Crackdown, you are just taking your character over to their game and effectively, helping them complete THEIR story.
I cannot see why people have a problem with this as 2 sets of bosses means more gameplay over a fantastic game.
If you are struggling to beat a boss after helping out a freind on theirs, why not ask them to return the favour.
Great game and still not completed fully yet but just wish the bad guys would not just disapear after taking over the city.