Review: Crackdown 2

We return to Pacific City in Crackdown 2, the sequel to 2007’s open-world crime smashing game for the Xbox 360. Ruffian Games and Microsoft Game Studios have taken the original and tried to see if they can push it a little further without breaking their winning formula resulting in a mixed bag and some inner conflict.

The conflict arises from the nature of the game itself. It’s a lot like the original game. This can be seen as a bad thing. This can be seen as a great thing. It’s really difficult to make a definite distinction either way. They have not reinvented the wheel here, and so it’s clearly a sequel. Rather than revolutionizing game mechanics or upsetting the structure that made the original work so well they simply supplemented it with some new bells and whistles to make it more fleshed out.

That is not a bad thing. It’s a fun and addictive game at heart. There is enough here to keep you entertained for a while and the fluid four player unrestricted co-op keeps things from getting stale quickly, but that being said there is not too much else to do.

There are effectively only a few different missions with slightly varying permutations. That can be seen as a negative aspect. But those missions are undeniably fun and lend themselves to a ‘just one more’ sort of addiction. That is the positive aspect. So in the end, like with most considerations in the game, it balances out tipping ever so slightly in favor of being a positive. It keeps you playing.

You can shut down Cell strongholds, finish races, fight freaks, fight police, collect items, and generally smash stuff. That’s more or less it. In the grand scheme of things you’re simultaneously left with not much to do, yet the ability to do lots of stuff. If you can get over it and learn to accept unstructured gameplay then you’ll have a blast jumping off buildings, throwing cars at people, and generally living life as a personification of Michael Bay’s imagination.

If you can’t learn to accept unstructured gamplay, and require a more defined story and defined set of missions and objectives then you might struggle to enjoy this title. There is 16 player multiplayer which can help but really this game is about running around and playing in a city-sized playground (with your friends, whenever possible).

The audio is not horrible though music is almost non-existent until the end credits. The voice over work is fantastic though with the mayor bellowing commands and judgments to you throughout your escapades. The graphics are stylized and suitable, though the lighting could use some work and it’s not the most spectacular looking title of 2010. Overall it performs smoothly with slowdown only noticeable when explosions fill the screen. Otherwise the engine runs well and the draw distance for the Freaks is really something special.

The thing I wish to see remedied the most is the distinct lack of character customization, however. You can pick your face which becomes invisible after you level up. You can pick your colour (which is not well represented in the selection screen) and that’s about it. Customization options, even if only cosmetic, would open up a lot of depth, particularly if tied with hidden item collection.

If you can enjoy unstructured gameplay and general mayhem or treasure hunting then you’ll really get a kick out of this game. If you’re looking for great writing and engaging characters then you won’t find much here though. Really it’s the same as the first with a few changes and additions to improve upon it incrementally without venturing too far from ground zero. If you hated the first Crackdown then you probably won’t enjoy this one. If you enjoyed the first or haven’t yet given it a try then you should probably pick this up though.