Crackdown 2 Review

8.0

Review Score:

Back in 2007, Crackdown was seen as an added extra when you bought the Halo 3 beta, it has since become one of the most successful Xbox 360 exclusives and a game that most gamers hold close to their hearts. Its over-the-top super agents won us over and left us wanting more, however, we were uncertain as to whether there would be a sequel until 2009 when it was announced that Ruffian Games were going to take over the franchise and start work on a sequel. A year later and that sequel is finished and almost in the shops. But does Crackdown 2 still have the same charm and appeal that Crackdown had in 2007?

It’s been 10 years since the events of Crackdown and after a short time of peace, mutants from the research facility, present in Crackdown, have broken free and have overrun Pacific City. The remaining gang members have come together to form a group known as The Cell, they are revolting against both the Agency and the mutants. It’s the Agency’s job to take care of the mutants and putting a stop to Cell activity in Pacific City. To make matters worse, a new med-student, by the name of Catalina Thorne, joined the agency only to be caught performing unauthorized experiments and as a result was kicked out. She then chose to blame the Agency for ruining her life and to get revenge she decides to break into the Agency labs and infect the cloning facilities with a virus which mutates the agents into mindless and enraged freaks. Yes, it’s a lot to take in and the story is definitely a lot more in-depth that it was in the first game. However, it’s quite easy to ignore the story and just blow your way through the game.

The gameplay remains very similar to the first and builds on the existing structure. Your agent still has the five main skills; agility, weapons, strength, explosive and driving which are all raised by performing various feats or collecting orbs. This is really what keeps the game interesting for me, as each time your skills rank up, to a maximum of level 5, you unlock new abilities, weaponry and your agent’s suit looks ever more bad-ass. The main change I noticed in the gameplay was caused by the addition of freaks, these roam the city at night and overrun any roads and pathways, and this is a real game changer as there are so many enemies on the screen at once but provides an extremely fun playground for driving. There’s nothing quite as satisfying as mowing down a few hundred freaks in an agency supercar.  Just as in the first Crackdown, the strength still is so over-the-top it’s hilarious and there’s nothing more fun than watching a Cell gang car speeding towards you, standing in front of it and just lifting it into the air and throwing it off a bridge. As your strength skill increases, so does the amount of weight that you can lift and at level 5 strength, expect to be lifting lorries and sending them flying through the air.

The orbs make a return in Crackdown 2 with another 500 agility orbs and 300 hidden orbs to be found across Pacific City; however Ruffian Games have been extremely kind to us and have given us the ability to “ping” the map for nearby orbs. By pressing up on the d-pad, your mini-map will display green or blue dots highlighting the locations of any nearby orbs which will make life much easier for you achievement hunters! However, it’s not all that easy – Crackdown 2 sees a new set of orbs, renegade orbs. These mischievous orbs come in two forms, agility and driving and when approached will make a quick move away from you and you must chase these down to collect them, they do reward with a fair amount of XP but are no easy feat to catch and even at level 5 agility there are still a few renegade agility orbs I’m struggling to grab. On top of the orbs there are also a handful of audio logs to be found which detail some of the events that have occured since the first Crackdown, these are fairly tricky to locate as they don’t glow or make a noise like the orbs but can be found with a little determination.

There are a few new additions upon levelling your agent, at level 5 agility you’ll receive access to the wingsuit which allows you to glide around using the wind, this is great fun when jumping from tall points in the game such as the agency tower and allows you to survive what would normally be a messy death. There are also a handful of new weapons, explosives and vehicles to be unlocked and used which allow for maximum destruction in Pacific City, the most notable of which is probably the addition of helicopters which can be used at level 5 driving and are great fun to fly in both campaign and arena modes as you fire rockets into large groups of Cell and freaks alike. The only thing that seems to be missing is the evolution of vehicles as your driving skill increases that was present in the first Crackdown game, however, there are plenty of awesome new vehicles to be unlocked as your driving skill increases.

Probably the biggest and best addition to the game for me though is the ability to play the campaign in 4 player co-op. The first game was a riot with 2 players but I always felt like it could be so much better with a few more friends and I was completely right. Blasting your way through waves of freaks and Cell members, while riding a battle bus with 3 of your friends on turrets is more fun than I can possibly hope to describe in words. It’s something you really have to try.

Graphically there’s an obvious improvement but it’s nothing mind blowing, I suppose it would have been nice to see a major overhaul with the graphics but the cell-shading is a great deal smoother than it was in Crackdown and the graphics are just what defines Crackdown to me and I probably would have felt a bit lost with a completely new art style. Explosions still look as great, if not better and driving your supercar through a pile of freaks and Cell is extremely satisfying to watch so I had no real quandary with the games visuals. The game sees the return of our cocky narrator who will feel the need to comment on everything you do but has some great one-liners; one of my favourite things during the game was the acknowledgement of the Xbox 360’s achievement system. Every time you unlock an achievement the narrator will speak to you and say something along the lines of “You’re the master of explosions, that’s definitely an achievement!” Although I was constantly mocked for making “school boy errors”.

Another addition to the game is the multiplayer arena modes, these support up to 16 players online and offer three different modes; rocket tag, death match and team death match. You each take control of a maxed out agent and battle it out across various areas of Pacific City. At the time of writing, I’ve probably spent as much time in multiplayer modes as I have in the campaign which says a lot for the multiplayer as I’ve completed the campaign and maxed out my agent. The only thing I would want for is possibly a few more multiplayer modes but there’s definitely going to be DLC for the game so there’s still a good chance of seeing these in the future.

Crackdown 2 builds on an already great and successful formula to bring even more explosions, mayhem and fun to the table. It’s great fun from start to finish and I heartily recommend you play the game in 4 player co-op whenever possible as this is probably the most fun I’ve ever had with a co-operative game. Now what are you waiting for? Get to it agent!

NXT Score: 8/10

Pros

• Addition of 4 player co-op allows for maximum fun
• Handfuls of new weapons, vehicles and abilities
• The game builds on the already great Crackdown gameplay

Cons

• Graphics could have seen a slightly greater improvement
• Only 3 multiplayer modes could mean that the multiplayer won’t be overly long-lasting
• May just steal the next few weeks of your life searching for that last agility orb!

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