Thoughts of a Predicate Felon: Crackdown 2

The release of Crackdown 2 is on the horizon now, which is great news for my fellow agility orb hounds. Upstart developer Ruffian Games is the studio behind the new release. The shift in development duties shouldn’t be palpable though, as most of Ruffian is made up of former developers of the original Crackdown. These guys know how to make a Crackdown game and it shows, for better or worse.  

 
 Sweet armor and ride

The core gameplay concepts of the original all return fairly unchanged. You still play an agent who works for a mysterious agency. There’s still a wise-cracking, all-knowing voice giving you instructions. Your job is still to protect the city from gangs and general crime that may occur. Your agents various attributes still improve accordingly as you exert physical strength, shoot, blow things up etc.  The bottom line is that this feels very much like Crackdown. Refinements and tweaks aside, don’t expect a vast departure from the original game. For fans of the original, this is great news. But what about players who weren’t captivated by the faint whine of agility orbs waiting to be captured? 

 

Some of those tweaks mentioned earlier have the potential to make the game quite a bit more interesting. Structurally the original was the very definition of sandbox gameplay. There was no structure and very little story tying it all together. In fact, the original Crackdown’s structure essentially consisted of a list of people to murder. This time, missions will loosely tie into story elements and will hopefully help the story be something the player can actually care about. There is also more significance to the day and night cycle now. With the introduction of the new enemies known simply as “freaks”, different times of day will determine which enemies are out and about. During the day, the standard gangs are out of their hideouts and around the city. This makes gang hideouts easier to raid during daytime hours. Similarly at night, the freaks come out of their lairs and relentlessly swarm the streets of Pacific City. This makes freak lairs easier to raid during night hours. The changes being made seem smart and interesting. I think they’ll really help to mix up what was formerly a very bland structure. 

 

The multiplayer aspect of Crackdown 2 seems to have shaped up nicely. As in the first game, the ability to team up with friends and take down gangs is still available. This time the action is amped up though with the option of four player co-op over Xbox live. That’s double the mayhem of the original Crackdown’s multiplayer. Something totally new though is competitive multiplayer. Crackdown 2 will feature eight on eight action, which I imagine could get extremely hectic. Competitive multiplayer was always something I personally felt should have been in the original Crackdown, so I’m excited to see for myself exactly how fun it ends up being. The most fun I’ve had playing Crackdown was when I was screwing around with my friends. As long as the essence of that multiplayer sandbox experience is carried over to Crackdown 2, then this game should provide tons of hours of fun.  

 Multiple agents = more carnage
 

When it comes right down to it, Crackdown 2 looks to be essentially more Crackdown. The shooting is still wonky and the climbing can still be a hassle. Whether or not you dug the original game should tell you everything you need to know about your feelings towards its sequel. For anyone who doesn’t have a reference point of the original, there is a nice 30 minute demo of Crackdown 2 that’s definitely worth checking out. I can say though that even with the issues Crackdown 2 may have, I’m definitely looking forward to jumping back into the world of Pacific City. No orb will remain safe! 

 
Spolierz: I'm not a predicate felon.