Crackdown 2 Review!

The original Crackdown was a bit of a sleeper hit. Deftly combining a Grand Theft Auto esque sense of freedom and scale with an empowering, stat building mechanic that mimed the addictive, collect-a-thon nature of Rare’s best titles, it seemingly came out of nowhere, gave players an sandbox, and told them to run around and have as much fun as possible, either alone or with a friend. The fact that the game came packaged with the Halo 3 Beta was also a boon, as it meant that many gamers who wouldn’t have played it otherwise were exposed to it’s unique blend of platforming, shooting, and open world mayhem, and it’s a design that games like inFamous play off of to this very day. The aformentioned co-op was also unheard of at the time, and it ensured that the game would have a dedicated following, many of which were clamoring for a sequel.

Three years later, we’ve gotten our answer. Crackdown 2 is among us, boasting a new developer, new aesthetic, and all around more content. A new 4 player co-op, more weapons, more enemies, just MORE all around. It’s risky after three years to go the route of refine rather than redefine, and while I’m not one to mess with an already winning formula, does it work a second time around?

In short, YES. Crackdown 2 may not be radically different from its predecessor, but its list of upgrades and expansions do well to augment what was already a great game.

Crackdown 2
For: Xbox 360
Publisher: Microsoft Game Studios
Price: $59.99
Release: 7/6/2010 (North America)

A stylish opening cutscene narrates the it places events 10 years after the first, and the game’s location, once again the fictional Pacific City is in disarray. A guerrilla terrorist group named Cell is on the rise, a viral strain has been turning the population into aggressive, nocturnal mutants, and the Agency’s extreme methods are coming under more and more scrutiny as things spiral out of control. You’re part of a new, improved batch of agents, and you’re tasked with not only cleaning up the small pockets of resistance located around the city, but to activate an experimental weapon that should get rid of the mutants plaguing the city once and for all. With a focus on the escalating tension between the Agency, Cell, and the “Freaks”, it becomes readily apparent that you are no longer saving Pacific City from petty gangs, or organized crime–you’re saving the city from itself.

It’s a good setup, and one that manages to explain all at once what you’ll be engaged in once you start playing. The original had an assassination based structure that did well to point out your objective, but did little more than that afterward in terms of story. Now, the city feels less like a sandbox, has a sense of history and progression, and the fact that there are audio logs and diaries scattered around to fill in the gaps mean that the more curious of us can whet our narrative appetite. Even the announcer from the original is back, and he has MUCH more to say about what goes down on screen, making his trademark sarcasm and black humor that much easier to appreciate.

The story is HARDLY why we play Crackdown however, and I’m pleased to say that what’s on display is every bit as addictive and endearing as its predecessor. A very well paced tutorial starts the game off– a boon as the original had no tutorial of any kind and left players to their own devices–and each aspect of the game, Agility, Firearms, Strength, Explosives, and Driving are all touched upon in an intuitive manner before you’re literally airlifted into the city, and left to shoot, blow up, or pummel whatever stands between you and your objectives.

It’s in this aspect that >Crackdown 2 shines, and the method behind it’s addictive madness. While initially, it may seem like it’s TOO similar to its predecessor, it isn’t until you level up for the first time that the improvements start to shine. The stat progression is more fleshed out for agility and strength making each level feel like actual growth, new weapons unlock periodically along with the ones you manage to steal from enemies, and the number of vehicles, while not quite as many as there were in the first, are more diverse, and now have their own distinct abilities and purpose. Rather than overload the game with content, it seems as if Ruffian chose to make each component of the game as useful as possible, and it works.

But if leveling up in the original was an addictive timesink, in the second one, it’s MUCH worse, as the streets are literally packed with things to do. Audio logs from researchers, cell operatives and agency suits, agility orbs, moving driving orbs, stunt rings, breaches, tactical locations, LIVE orbs, and more, there’s so much to do and collect that the (admittedly) repetitive single player missions revolving around machine activation and defense are hardly an issue. I would even go so far as to say that the choice was in itself brilliant, because without an individualized mission structure, it means that each mission becomes an explosive action set-piece with you (or you and your friends) front and center.

Speaking of multiplayer, it’s serviceable, with a full on pvp mode for up to 16 players with modes like Deathmatch and Team Deathmatch, but it amounts to little more than single player with other agents instead of enemies. (Even though Rocket Tag, where a fully armed clan chases a player with grenades, is hilarious and hectic) The co-op is where it truly shines, and with 4 players, completing missions, collecting orbs, racing, and generally just fooling around couldn’t be more fun. It’s also surprisingly lag free, based on the games I’ve played, and as long as the host remains in the room, as many players can drop-in and drop-out as they please.

I know I’ve been endlessly praising the game, but all is not well in paradise. The graphics, while subtly improved, are really starting to show their age, the lock-on system is still spotty at times, and the games traversal system has seen NO improvement, meaning many of the games ledges, and platforms are inexplicably hard to hold onto, and while this was fine 3 years ago, since then we’ve seen Altair, Cole, and John Mercer parkour around their environments with ease. It’s inexcusable, and sticks out like a sore thumb. Some players may also take issue with the fact that all the story based missions revolve around activating and charging towers as well, despite my justification above, though honestly, this only sticks out if you’re trying to rush to the end as soon as possible.

My advice is not to. If you’re playing the game with a single minded focus to get to the end of the campaign, you’re simply doing it wrong. The entire experience is worth much more than that, offline or no, and by alleviating yourself of the countless and numerous distractions in Pacific City, you’re in fact shortchanging the game of its entertainment value.

At the end of the day, that’s just what this game is: Entertaining. It doesn’t revolutionize the genre, and occasionally at times feels more like an expansion pack rather than a full on sequel, but it matters little. It also won’t bring in any one who disliked the original, as it is in many aspects, more of the same. But in respect to the promise of more of what made the original so great, while adding on new features and subtelties that’ll keep players coming back for more (just wait until you see Agility level 5!) , Ruffian not only succeeded on reproducing the enjoyable groundwork that original dev Realtime Worlds created 3 years ago, but has where it counts, surpassed it. Hopefully for the next installment, they’ll feel more adventurous and truly innovate, but it’s hard to argue with what they’ve done here, and it’s a genuinely great first effort from an unfamiliar face.

Rating: 8.5