Crackdown 2 Review

This article comes courtesy of Felix Kemp, Staff Writer at Dealspwn.com, a leading UK gaming blog.

Crackdown 2 is an odd game. While at its molten core, it’s an explosive superhero romp, replete with fifty foot leaps of faith and SUV-slingshots, on the surface it’s the epitome of lazy and uninspired sequels, recycling the same move-set, the same cars and weapons, even the same city. But beneath the all too familiar facade, Crackdown 2 is a game of the purest form, simple but effortlessly addicting.

For a customer, Crackdown 2 is an exercise in principles. Do you purchase it for its merits as a game, or do you decide not to for its shortcomings as a sequel? Read on to decide…

Project Sunburst

Is anyone an AA member?

It’s no picnic being a Pacific City resident. Since enduring the gangs of old, now the sprawling metropolis is the battlefield for a three-pronged war between freedom fighters, mutants and one reckless Agent.

The story in Crackdown 2 is barebones, an excuse to pit a super-powered Agent against Mad Max-style soldiers and hideous freaks. Cell, a local militia committed to destabilising the Agency regime, has stolen vital cogs from a vast network of machines built to purge Pacific City of its mutated populace.

Armed to the teeth with guns and biceps so big the cast of Predator might blush, the Agency tasks you with recovering the lost Project Sunburst components from Cell strongholds, then to drop to Pacific City’s underworld and face the freaks on their own turf.

Extra Crispy!

Crackdown 2 isn’t interested in its story. It’s an afterthought, summed up no better than the audio-logs scattered across the city, each one containing more plot-points than the entire game itself. But you shouldn’t be concerned with Crackdown 2’s lack of story, as you’ll write your own as you delve deeper into its toy-box and discover the abundant potential at your disposal.

You’re constantly evolving in Crackdown 2. Glittering orbs spew from fallen enemies, and either fill your firearms, explosives or driving skills, depending on the nature of their death. You begin with a standard-issue submachine gun and patrol car, but soon you’re toting harpoon guns and an SUV capable of launching itself into the air.

This sense of constant progression, of rewarding effort, is the vein that courses throughout Crackdown 2, almost, but not quite, atoning for the absence of solid story structure and varied mission progression. Agility Orbs, the pulsing spheres scattered across Pacific City for your consumption, epitomise the simplicity in Crackdown 2’s appeal.

You Freak

Worse than Weatherspoons on a Saturday

So far, so Crackdown. So what’s changed? Pacific City, though the same in name and layout, is but a crumbled ruin of its former glory. Toppled buildings, ramshackle favelas, raging fires, wrecks and rubble are the order of the day – the city is in its death throes. Cell patrol their strongholds, roaming the streets in cars bristling with blades, as frightened civilians scurry to and fro.

But when darkness falls, the freaks emerge. Shambling, pus-spewing outcasts of the mutant kind, they’re supposed to be searching for new victims, but instead exist solely for your own amusement. Hundreds froth on the screen, which you can happily plough through in a car or scatter with a nicely placed blow from a lamp-post.

The freaks, as a concept, seem promising, and in the opening stages are responsible for much giggling. The UV Shotgun, which fires concussive blasts of UV light, hurls dozens of freaks into the air, where they vanish into glittering dust. But it soon becomes incredibly repetitive, the recycled missions not helping to alleviate the stress of facing the same shambling freaks over and over again. They do come in different shapes and sizes, some freaks capable of chasing the Agent on rooftops, others hurling cars, but they’re not challenging enough to pose a threat, and thus just as boring as their weaker counterparts.

Fun With Friends

The opportunities in Crackdown 2 for mayhem, violence and general craziness are insane. Pin enemies to a car with the harpoon gun, and then ride around as their bodies flop lifelessly on the hood. Attach the brilliant Mag grenades to a car, then two more to adjacent walls, and watch as a pulsing line of electricity tethers the car to either wall and transforms it into an impromptu slingshot!

Then, there’s co-op. Invite up to three friends to your game, or join another, and carry out ridiculous schemes, like attaching a tank to a helicopter with a Mag, one player piloting the chopper, the other onboard the tank, swinging like a wrecking-ball, burping rockets on the hapless citizens below.

A competitive multiplayer mode is available, too. PVP is a chaotic but enjoyable mess, obviously rough and unfinished but brimming with potential. Rocket-Tag is a sign of what Crackdown multiplayer could be, as one player dons a glowing crown and must escape his attackers, who are armed with rocket-launchers, from nabbing his helm.

Sequel Syndrome

As far as sequels go, Crackdown 2 is slacking. The story is generic and fails to develop, it simply ends. The structure is repetitive and uninspired. It recycles concepts, weapons, and vehicles. And the faces for the Agents, brilliant in the original, are now so ugly it’s no wonder they receive a helmet upon their first upgrade.

But to judge Crackdown 2 on its merits as a sequel may be wrong. It’s endured a hastened development, from a brand new studio tasked with delivering a game in less than a year whilst establishing staff and structure, too. But it’s also not very concerned with the conventional PR bullet-points, like “an epic story of redemption and betrayal”, or “fifteen new features, including the ability to sleep”. Crackdown 2 wants you to explore, it wants you to try things and experiment. It’s the odd uncle who offered you booze on your twelfth birthday, in regards to the frowning parents to insistent on good grades and university.