4:00pm Friday 13th August 2010
By Colin Miller
Following on from it’s 2007 predecessor, Crackdown 2 is set 10 years after the original and takes players back to the metropolis known as Pacific City.
During the 10 years that have passed, the excrement has truly hit the fan.
There’s a terrorist cell causing all sorts of havoc and not only that, there is also the small matter of the virus causing people to turn into ill-tempered-mutated-zombies. It’s all very bleak.
So once again, you take control of a nameless Agency clone and venture round the city, picking up orbs and increasing your skills.
Starting off as a basic agency clone, by the end of the game you’ll find yourself leaping over buildings and tossing trucks to your heart’s content. This collect-a-thon mechanic was one of the best things about the first game, so it’s nice to see that the developers have included it here.
Sadly, the game still suffers from many of the problems that hindered the first game, which is interesting, considering that the game was developed by Ruffian Studios – not Realtime Worlds.
The targeting mechanism is still frustrating, and all too often you’ll find the camera will skit around, causing you to lose track of your surroundings. The melee combat is also feels a bit lacklustre, leaving you tapping one button to perform your attacks.
Much of the gameplay consists of going from one place to another and blowing up stuff, shooting this person over here, driving over there and jumping through this hoop over here. It’s all pretty straight forward and after a few hours it all gets quite repetitive.
What also doesn’t help is the complete lack of narrative. Aside from the agency narrator (who goes on far too much for my liking), there is hardly any plot development and the game relies solely on your exploration abilities. When compared to the likes of other third-person sandbox games that we’ve seen this year, Crackdown feels a half-hearted.
The better additions include the 4 player co-op and a 16-player deathmatch option, but a few more modes wouldn’t have gone amiss.
Graphically the game is passable, but its nothing that I haven’t seen before. In fact, the whole city was seen in its predecessor – and aside from a few scratches, it’s pretty much the same. Having said that it is quite enlightening to see what has happened to the landmarks from the previous game.
The cell-shading look of the first game is still prominent and looks ok, but at times the rendering on certain objects can look a little low-res.
Overall, Crackdown 2 is a passable sandbox game – while not as groundbreaking as its predecessor, the levelling up with the orb collecting is still great fun. My main criticism of the game is that it relies a little too heavily on the original, and it would have been nice if the developers included a few original ideas.
Nonetheless, all the elements that made the first game so entertaining are still present and correct. However, the question of whether fans of the original are willing to visit the familiar surroundings again is still up for debate.
Verdict: 7 out of 10
The Good:
The Orbs
Pacific City is fun to explore
The Bad:
Cellshading graphics look a bit dated
Boring melee attacks
Targeting mechanic still flawed
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