Crackdown 2

A video game sequel should improve on the original product by learning from the problems that were identified with the first game. I’m not quite sure what happened with the creation of Ruffian, a company that is filled with employees who previously worked at Realtime Worlds (who developed the first Crackdown game three years ago). Maybe the creative minds that created Pacific City and everything inside it didn’t cross over to Ruffian for the development of Crackdown 2.

I say this because; Crackdown is in the running for one of the most uninspired video game sequels ever. The original Crackdown had its problems but, at its core it was a good game with good underlying concepts. Crackdown 2 has all of the problems of the original game and manages to have even less character. It’s like Ruffian Games barely acknowledged the existence of the game that they were developing a sequel to.

Even if this game wasn’t a sequel, it is still an embarrassment in some ways, as many other games that exist in the ‘Open-World Action ‘genre (inFAMOUS and Assassins Creed) have demonstrated good combat and vertical traversal of buildings with the least amount of frustration possible. I haven’t experienced such anger in a long time, on multiple occasions I would be awkwardly ascending a skyscraper and my ‘Agent’ would fail to grab a ledge which he just soared above, and then proceed to fall to the ground.

Sometimes while climbing buildings, I would be stuck in this frustrating deadlock where my character would jump into the base of the ledge, knocking me down to the streets. Landing on small platforms is also problematic as; your agent is only capable on taking huge, clumsy steps, thus making it hard to correctly position yourself for the next jump. I had to turn the Xbox off twice because I was so frustrated with these problems that I experienced.

Disappointingly, the problems don’t end at the platforming aspect of the game, the combat is also problematic. The lock-on mechanic is barely usable, as at times it is extremely hard to target a specific enemy. Melee combat is very inaccurate; it works well in large mobs when you just keep pressing the ‘B’ button but, one on one it becomes very inaccurate and results in your Agent aimlessly punching the empty air.

Crackdown 2’s definition of the term difficulty is ‘amount of enemies’ in the last quarter of the game, you will approach a ‘Tactical Location’ and you will be instantly greeted with a monstrous barrage of sniper bullets, homing rockets, and airborne grenades, which can result in death within seconds. When fighting mutants in the later portion of the game, they spontaneously inherit the ability to muster a punch which is so hard that it turns your Agent into a whimpering, motionless ragdoll for a few seconds, and once you recover, the mob will knock you down again and again and again. Thankfully you can escape this frustrating shit-storm , by tapping the ‘A’ button repetitively so you can jump out of the screaming ‘one-hit knockdown’ mutants.

The game doesn’t look that great either, adopting the same comic book style as the first game, the game is filled with muddy textures and at points looks like a game which was made in a lower resolution and has been stretched to fit your television. The game also can be quite dark in areas, making it hard to see where you are supposed to be going. This results in the game looking more simplistic than stylish. In some of the later Beacon fights the game stutters and struggles to maintain a decent frame rate with the large amount of explosions and enemies on the screen.

The main missions feature barely any variation. There are 3 types of missions in Crackdown 2: Tactical Locations, you are required to call in a helicopter and clear the area of Cell. Beacon Power Activations where you are required to clear the area of Cell gang members again and then proceed to stand on a activation pad for a minute or so. The final mission type is the Beacon activation missions where you call in a helicopter to drop the light beacon, and fight freaks until the Beacon explodes, killing all freaks in the area. This is what the campaign is, the same thing 9 times in a row until you come to the climax of the game, which is still just a variation of the Beacon mission type.

Fortunately, everything else in the game is functional and enjoyable for the most part but, before I delve into the components of Crackdown 2 that Ruffian managed to develop successfully, I will explain how Pacific City has changed in the 10 years between Crackdown 1 and 2.

A dangerous virus has spread through Pacific City, mutating most of the human population into ‘Freaks’ (basically Zombies, I’m not sure if this is Scottish lingo or just a way to work ‘The Freaks Come Out at Night’ reference into the game). Anyway, the ‘Freaks’ have ruined much of the once beautiful Pacific City. The colourful criminal gangs which existed in Crackdown 1 have been replaced by ‘The Cell’. ‘The Cell’ are a large group of rampant terrorists who are fighting for control of Pacific City against ‘The Agency’, and believe that the freaks should not he exterminated, they believe that they should be cured.

It’s up to you as ‘The Agent’ with the use of your Superpowers, to complete ‘Project Sunburst’, a plan which is The Agency’s answer to the mutant problem.

That is your preface to Crackdown 2, and there really isn’t that much more to the story other than the various audio logs and the lacklustre ending to the campaign. The narrative of Crackdown 2 was obviously an area which Ruffian left to the wayside.

Despite all of Crackdown 2’s flaws which could have been easily remedied, like the first game, Crackdown 2 is still fun to play, when it works.

If you manage to climb up to the top of a building, the platforming becomes fun as you leap from rooftop to rooftop, collecting orbs. This time around, there are over one thousand gizmos to collect (Agility Orbs, Renegade Orbs, Hidden Orbs, Xbox Live Orbs, and Audio Logs).

Agility Orbs are green glowing orbs which increase your agility stat when collected; there are 500 Agility Orbs placed all over Pacific City. As you collect Agility Orbs you will level up your Agent’s agility stat, which allows you to run faster, jump higher and eventually gain access to the glide suit which operates similar to the ‘Cape’ in Super Mario World, where you must gain momentum by diving and pulling up.

Hidden Orbs are hidden inside doorways, under bridges or inside alleyways; they reward you with experience for all of your abilities.

Renegade Orbs fly away for you, although they are harder to obtain, the reward is much greater. You can only find Driving or Agility Renegade Orbs.

Xbox Live Orbs are orbs that give the same reward as Hidden Orbs but, you have to find them with one or more of your friends via the Xbox Live service.

The collection of orbs is addictive and engaging, for those completionists who just have to collect everything, or those who just want to experience an Agent who has ‘Maxed Out’ his abilities.

The most satisfying aspect of Crackdown 2 is the levelling of your Agent’s abilities. You can level up your Agility stat by collecting orbs this allows you to jump higher and run faster. You will increase in Strength by participating in melee combat each time you level up you are rewarded with a new move to use against your enemies. You will gain explosives and weapon expertise by using explosives and guns and you gain experience in the Driving area by performing stunts and squashing freaks and Cell members. You will unlock additional vehicles each time you level up your driving skill the same goes for your explosive and weapons levels. You can also gain experience in your Agility and Driving disciplines by completing races, which are far easier to complete this time as the time limit for finishing is much longer.

The evolution of your superhero is the core concept that this game is built on, Crackdown 2 does a good job of making sure that you always feel like you are making progress in some way or another.

After you have played the game for a few hours (provided you have collected a few orbs in this time) you will feel overpowered. This is what Crackdown 2 does well, it generates a good feeling of empowerment, with your ability to jump over small buildings and use weapons like the ‘Floket Launcher’ and the ‘UV Shotgun’ as you blast your way through endless amounts Freaks and Cell members creating huge explosions in the process.

Like the first game, Crackdown 2 does have multiplayer. Ruffian has increased the co-op player limit to 4 players. Traversing the cityscapes of Pacific City with 3 of your friends, blowing up everything (including each other) in-sight is fun, although it won’t last forever. Apart from collecting orbs together there isn’t really that much else to do, if you plan to play through the campaign with your friend, don’t it only saves the Host’s progress as you are entering their world. You can’t set waypoints on the map either while in co-op, which makes giving directions to other players a pain. The Cooperative gameplay is fun but, being one of the main features of Crackdown 2 you would expect that there would be more to do in the world when playing with your friends.

There is also 3 competitive multiplayer modes; Rocket Tag, Team Deathmatch and Deathmatch, which allow up to 16 players. You play as an Agent whose powers have reached their peak, so you have access to the Wing Suit and the Charge and Ground Pound moves. Team Deathmatch and Deathmatch are standard fare, and don’t work particularly well with Crackdown 2’s combat system. The mode that I played the most was ‘Rocket Tag’. In this mode one player will pick up an orb and try to stay alive with it for as long as possible. Other players will chase after you with rocket launchers. This mode works well because of the large size of the maps, players will be bouncing around from building to building with ease, and with there being only one target, the combat works much better than the deathmatch modes. I wish there was more modes which took advantage of the ability to leap from building to building (multiplayer roof races?).

Crackdown 2 is an underwhelming release, from a game which had so much promise and just needed to fix the problems it had and iterate on the core concepts of the game to become a fantastic title. What Ruffian produced was something that you would expect from an annual franchise like Guitar Hero or FIFA. Crackdown however is not an annual franchise; it has been three years since Crackdown 1.

The ending definitely left it open for a Crackdown 3 hopefully next time the developers will take some chances and not just stick to a formula that half works, then maybe we will receive a game that will realise the potential that the original Crackdown had. Creating a game which is very similar to the previous game that was released could result in a decent game, provided that the game that you are recreating is very good. The problem is, Crackdown 1 was not a good enough game to warrant a almost carbon copy release.

If you never played the original Crackdown before, I would recommend that you try the free Crackdown 2 demo on the Xbox Live Marketplace. If you enjoy the demo, and think that you can enjoy 8 or so hours of the same thing, then you should buy this game. If you were a huge fan of the first game and loved every aspect of it, you should have already bought it by now. Now if you are like me and you played the first game and liked some parts of the game but really despised the flaws in the game, I wouldn’t recommend that you buy this game, because Crackdown 2 is more of the same. You can spend plenty of time in Pacific City collecting orbs and racing around the streets but, the real test is how long you will be able to play it without getting frustrated at the core mechanics of the game or becoming bored of the repetitive mission design.