The same old song and dance.
The original Crackdown was somewhat of a surprise release for many. Once announced that the game was to be bundled with a much sought after Halo 3 Beta key, it gave the impression that Microsoft had serious fears about Crackdown, and as such by bundling it with such an elusive key would guarantee great sales. However their fears were unwarranted, and much to everyone’s surprise, Crackdown was a fantastic game with an addictive undertone of orb collecting that got everyone hooked. So what have Ruffian Games delivered with the sequel?
Crackdown 2 takes up the story (can we really call it a story?) a few years after the events of the first Crackdown, and since you’ve taken care of business in the original game, crime is at an all time low. However, a new virus is after crippling the city, turning many of the citizens into mutant zombie type thingies, and a new threat called “The Cell” are convinced that the Agency are corrupt and have set out to cause as much havoc as possible. You take on the role of a cop from the agency, a super human, sent out to the streets to take care of business. And that’s pretty much all you need to know, and essentially all you’ll be told in the progression through the campaign. The story is pretty much non-existent, but is that a bad thing? I’m not entirely sure.
At the beginning of the campaign you start off with pretty meagre abilities, but these can be boosted through a variety of fashions. Collecting agility orbs boosts your agility, hand to hand combat boosts your strength, skilled driving and completing stunts boosts your driving ability etc… The great thing about this is with each level gained new items or abilities are unlocked, until you become the meanest SOB in Pacific City, and you’ll soon be bounding over buildings with a single jump and round-housing bad guys into the middle of next week.
The missions in the game focus around securing three generators which are heavily guarded by The Cell, once all three are activated and their emitted beams intersect a new fourth objective is unlocked, where you have to go underground to fight those mutant thingies while a resonator is powered up to kill everything underground (hopefully they’ll have better success than Marcus and Co in Gears of War) While underground you have to protect the resonator while it charges, leaving you in a horde meets left 4 dead style game. And that’s pretty much the bones of the game rinse and repeat nine times. Remember, I said there’s no story.
On your way to completing these objectives you will come across mutant spawn points that you can attack and shut down, as well as Cell strongholds. Think of them as side quests. These Cell and Mutant hangouts are dealt with in the same way as the resonance defence mentioned earlier. Go to that location, call for help, and kill everything that moves until said help gets there. There is a little strategy involved however; Cell outposts need to be completed in pairs. Only capturing one of those bases in a neighbourhood leaves it wide open for counterattack by The Cell, and you will find that they will reclaim it as soon as you move on.
Now, the thought of doing the same nine missions over and over, may sound like a mundane task, along with the fact that Crackdown 2 is based in the exact same location as its predecessor, it seems like this would be a game to avoid. That however, would be a serious error. This game isn’t about story, or missions, or self enlightenment. It’s about fun, so much fun in fact that you’ll set yourself a goal of paying a visit to one of your objectives, and you’ll find that an hour has passed and you’re still no closer to it on your HUD. This is not to say that the game map is huge, it’s simply down to the fact that while your bounding over buildings, you’ll spot a rouge agility orb, so you’ll start chasing it, then you’ll come across a gang that need taking care of, then the sun goes down and the freaks come out to play, so you hop into a car and start mowing them down like a drunken driver, then while in the car you’ll stumble across a road race etc……. In other words, there’s plenty here to keep you busy besides the main campaign.
Along with the campaign you have a four player co-op mode and some arena battles. The co-op mode never really worked out for me, joining the general unwashed in Pacific City was uninspired, and I ended up just doing my own thing in someone else’s campaign. There is no way to coordinate attacks or strategise. You just land in the map and see an arrow on the HUD to show the whereabouts of your partner. And generally speaking, they are gone by the time you get there. Add to this, any story progression achieved while in co-op only works for the main profile, so go back to your own game and you’ll have to do it all again. There is one plus side though, you retain any ability levelling you achieve while playing co-op. That said I imagine playing the co-op with a buddy would be epic. The multiplayer player arena battles are in essence a steroid pumped version of Halo, with lots of jumping, dying and inevitable frustration. All my games tended to dissolve into a cacophony of explosions, with blasts filling the screen.
Crackdown 2 does have some short comings besides the story. Some of the ledges that you’d expect to be able to climb don’t offer any grip. When climbing, you run into the odd overhang. The frame rate can slow down when there’s a lot of commotion on screen. And the targeting system when there are a lot of enemies around can leave you frustrated. That said none of these are game breakers. You can find another route to climb, you still have to kill everything that moves and the frame rate slowdown is only temporary.
Is Crackdown 2 a revolutionary game? Erm, no. Is it a great game? No again, I’m afraid. Do you feel like running around like a lunatic, blowing shit up and causing carnage, for no apparent reason? Hell yes! Where do I sign up?
8/10
Review by Brian Buckley
