Crackdown was very much a Marmite game. You either loved it or you hated it, because it took the concept of open-world gaming and dragged it to the extreme. Unlike most other games of that style – which offered story-based missions for when you got bored with... not progressing – RealTime Worlds plopped you in Pacific City and just told you to get on with the whole apprehending thing.
As a result, plenty of people I speak to hate it because there's no real direction in the Xbox 360 classic. Others vehemently disagree, saying the totally free nature of the game is a breath of fresh air. Either way, there's a lot of interest in a sequel, and Ruffian Games has the unenviable task of trying to please both sides of the gamersphere, while attempting to justify using the same setting in terms of story (if you don't know what happened at the end of
Crackdown 1, I won't spoil it for you).
OK, so it can be argued that story isn't important in a game such as
Crackdown 2, but players still like to know the setting in which they get to wreak havoc in the name of justice. It's now ten years after the events that left Pacific City in ruins, and as a newly signed up Agency enforcer it's up to you to deal with a guerrilla faction known as the Cell – as well as contain a viral outbreak that has infested the world with mutants.
During the daytime, the Cell rebels own the city, and you have to claw back control of the map by finding various strongholds and wiping the opposing forces out. The strength of these enemies are comparable to that of your average grunt in the original Crackdown – they're not all that powerful, unless they have the right weapons at their disposal.
As light turns to dark and the moon rises, civilians and Cell soldiers alike start running for their doors and hiding away. For a brief moment, Pacific City is empty. Then you realise why everyone's gone into their homes – mutant brutes known as Freaks crawl out of the sewers and roam the city at night. Producer James Cope said that your Agent – with the superhuman powers and all – was essentially an unchallenged god in the original
Crackdown. Here, the Freaks act as your challenge.
Using your earned Agility Orb stats and weapon loadouts, you will need to fight your way through hordes and hordes of these beasts to survive to the next day. Freaks come in all shapes and sizes too – from the puny and speedy to the lumbering and brutal. Get surrounded and you're finished. Luckily, as this game maintains the rather fun-loving cheeky atmosphere of the original, things aren't likely to get that bad too often.
There's nothing more satisfying, for example, than hopping into a jeep and mowing down a seemingly endless wave of monsters. It's like
Dead Rising, but at high-speed, super strength and on crack (I'd imagine). A new weapon called a UV Shotgun can be used to burn large numbers of Freaks at once, and it also works on human players and opponents – it won't damage them, but they'll go flinging off into the distance. Fun.
Shotguns won't completely eradicate the Freaks though. To stop them from coming, you need to help in Project Sunburst: an initiative that aims to direct concentrated solar energy into the underground hives of the mutants to wipe them out of that area for good. The difficulty comes in trying to complete each part of this objective, as you first need to hijack and redirect solar panels – which during the day are protected by Cell members.
Other improvements to the campaign experience include Mag Grenades – two sticky bombs connected to a tether that can be used as an impromptu slingshot or makeshift mace involving a lamppost and car – a helicopter to traverse Pacific City from extremely high altitudes and – my favourite – the Wingsuit, an upgrade that allows you to glide from tremendous heights and turn into a human plane. All of these need to be earned however, meaning a lot of incentive to play
Crackdown 2 will likely take place in the middle of the campaign, several hours in.
The multiplayer co-operative mode works similarly to that in the original
Crackdown, and functions as a campaign boost as you quickly realise that you can't easily tackle all of Pacific City's scum on your own. But what's really caught my eye here is the brand new PvP mode called Rocket Tag. The name speaks for itself – run into an orb and you become 'it.' Everyone else has rockets. Hilarity ensues. Add jump pads and the human desire for making things go boom and you have a real winner here.
All in all, this feels exactly like the original game in terms of mechanics – controls are identical, levelling up and earning power-ups is very similar, you can respawn anywhere at any time and the freeform nature of Pacific City remains. In short, this is shaping up to be
Crackdown+, which won't do much to help bridge the gulf between the lovers and the haters. The lovers will love it more, and the haters might like Rocket Tag for a skirmish or two and then hate it again.
Crackdown 2 will be releasing exclusively for the Xbox 360 on the 9th July.
