- Huh. I think Ruffian Games knew the crap they were putting out there.
Two weeks ago I gave you a view into Crackdown 2 and my thoughts based on the demo. My hopes were that the retail version would be much more polished than the demo and that the player would have an actual story to play this time. Unfortunately, I was disappointed on both fronts. Not only does Crackdown 2 play exactly like the demo, there is really no reason to play anything other than demo if you want the Crackdown 2 experience.
The easiest way to think of Crackdown 2 is to compare it to its predecessor and peers. In the first Crackdown you were an agent that scaled the city, increasing your various skills that allow you to jump higher, run faster, lift heavier objects, etc… Now Crackdown wasn’t a perfect game, and the fact that so many people love it (myself included) is because it dropped at a time when there were very few good games out and Crackdown provided a new gameplay experience with such extreme horizontal and vertical expansion. But, even compared to newer games the original Crackdown still has one thing going for it and that is its character. You could tell that Realtime Worlds, the developers of the first Crackdown, put their heart and soul into this game. From the booming agency voice chastising you or your enemies to the colorful gangs that occupy each of the three islands. On top of that were the different agent skins and how they changed as the character leveled up. Crackdown was the type of game where the developers put stuff in just because. At the end of the day you had a flawed, but very fun and entertaining game that could keep you occupied for hours. Then comes Crackdown 2, which plays like a copy of a copy, only hitting the major strokes of what makes Crackdown a great game.
So what makes Crackdown 2 so bad? Well first off, the game lacks style and flavor. The agents are now faceless and all of the colorful gangs from the first game are replaced by a terrorist group known as Cell. In the first game, taking out a lieutenant in the gang would have an effect on them – for instance, if you took out their weapons dealer, the gang would have inferior weapons. In Crackdown 2, defeating a Cell stronghold only secures that location so you can receive supplies there. Essentially, half the game is liberating weapons drops from a terrorist group.
What about the addition of the freaks? Ok, so this is the only saving grace for Crackdown 2, and it is a small one at that. The freaks are a carry over from Crackdown, where in one mission you blow up a research facility and release them on Pacific City. Bravo, at least that showed some continuity. But, even the freaks are boring in this game. You can be swarmed by them on the street and be pummeled with little effect to your life, and one good blast from a UV Shotgun and 10 will go flying off to die. The only time the freaks pose a challenge is when the beacon (UV bomb) is charging in one of their lairs. But it isn’t your life you have to worry about, it is the health of the bomb that is tough to control.
Alright, so what about a story? Well, as if it were even possible, Crackdown 2 has even less of a story than the first. How is this possible? In the first Crackdown you were given dossiers on all of the gang members. In this file you were given a bit of back story about them and you knew you were cleaning up the city. But you were given something. In Crackdown 2, the story of the game is “kill the freaks”. No back story. Sure, there are audio logs scattered around the city that attempt to bring a story to light but no, it is just another way that Crackdown 2 attempts to distract you from its thin and repetitive premise.
Of course agility and hidden orbs are back with renegade agility and driving orbs (moving orbs that force you to chase them) as well as online orbs that can only be collected if you are playing on Xbox Live. Be prepared for more monotony as collecting orbs to level up your agility isn’t just for fun like in the last game – no, it is now mandatory. I’m not sure why, but collecting agility orbs was a drag for me this time. I enjoyed it in the first game and in fact collected all 500 orbs, but the second time around was a grind. The same when upgrading the driving, I spent every night period in the game running over freaks in a car until my skill was at level 5. Sure, I could have performed some street races, but driving vehicles in this game was brutal enough as is without putting a time frame on it (more on that soon). As you level up your driving, weapons, and explosives skills you will unlock additional vehicles and weapons but this isn’t really a must as you can just as easily attain the terrorist version of the weapon by bringing it back to a weapons drop (not to mention that they are often better than the agency version). Two other additions to Crackdown 2 are the wingsuit and agency helicopter. The wingsuit is unlocked once your agility hits level 5 and performs like the glide ability in [prototype], except that you need to jump from a very high point to do anything with it. When you first activate the wingsuit, you will fall like a rock. You have to pick up enough speed (hence the height issue) to be able to glide through the air. At times it proved to be of some use, but in general practice it was gimmicky at best. The agency helicopter is nice to have (and its inclusion in the game is why the dynamic car changes to reflect your driving skill is absent) and a must have if you want to reach the tip top of the agency tower. For how much the developers touted this helicopter, they sure made it hard to get one. Where as you can call and have a vehicle delivered to you, the helicopter can only be found at the agency tower, on a landing pad with no easy way to get to it. In fact, you will have a hard time reaching it unless your agility is level 4 or better.
What about the city? Surely, after 10 years have passed in the game Pacific City has changed? Well… yes and no. From what I could tell there were no new buildings in Pacific City, they were all just derelict. From top to bottom the city looks like it has taken a beating. Walls are crumbling, building have holes in them, and roads fall through to the roads below. Maybe it is a reflection of how the user is supposed to find Crackdown 2, a broken version of its former self. But all this destruction makes it difficult to jump from rooftop to rooftop with all of the holes and pit falls. A jump that you would barely make in the first game is now impossible in the second. Driving in Pacific City is a joke too. The smallest bump or dip in the road will send your car flying off to the side. I’m not talking about it becoming a little shaky or unstable, I’m talking about your car flipping into the side of a building. This is why the road races are a joke. Racing through Pacific City is an exercise in futility given you will either go flying off into a wall randomly or you mow down citizens at every turn.
My last and final gripe about Crackdown 2 is the agency voice. In the original, he was witty and often gave me a chuckle at his anecdotes. In the second, he is annoying, repetitive, and useless. In Crackdown 2 the agency voice never, ever shuts up. No matter where you are or what you are doing, he has something to say, and in fact what he is saying often has nothing to do with the situation you are in. For instance, I was climbing the agency tower and he is droning on and on about watching out for freaks. You accidentally kill a stray citizen (practically unavoidable in Crackdown 2) and you get yelled at. It is really quite annoying and what was one of the best parts about the first Crackdown became one of the worst in the second.
Crackdown 2 is a lazy, unimaginative game that takes the major parts of Crackdown and adds in a dash of [prototype] with freaks and the wingsuit. The game is repetitive at best, and if you want to save yourself time and money just go play the demo. You will have the chance to take down a Cell stronghold and to set off a beacon. Just imagine doing that about 10 times and you have finished the game. Crackdown 2 pales in comparison to its predecessor and is a down right insult to its peers like Just Cause 2, [prototype], and Red Dead Redemption.
