Crackdown 3 retains the core gameplay of Crackdown and Crackdown 2, featuring a number of different organizations controlling the city of New Providence that players need to take down by killing their bosses and Kingpins, destroying their facilities, and destabilizing their infrastructures. Players can use a variety of weapons to achieve this end, from guns to grenades to rocket launchers, as well as their own physical power. Players can also drive any vehicle found in-game. The game features the “Skills for Kills” system as found in previous games, in which killing enemies with different tools and finding pickups hidden throughout the city award the player with orbs, which increase the player’s core skills %u2013 agility, firearms, strength, explosives, and driving.

Crackdown 3 includes a new system known as “Gangs Bite Back”, in which a boss’s or a Kingpin’s attention can be drawn to the player upon destroying locations and elements that they specialize in. Gang members can retaliate for these actions at any time and in any place.