Crackdown 2: Early Review
There are so many things wrong with Crackdown 2. It’s repetitive. The story is weak. The fuzzy graphics are comparible to a Playstation 2 title. There’s little strategy involved in completing a mission and even when you do there’s little reward. Worst of all, the camera often jags around at weird angles when you’re stuck in a corner which is completely disorientating. It has not one single unique quality that sets it apart from so many other titles available on the Xbox 360. So it would be understandable if we hated Crackdown 2. The weird thing is, we don’t.
Ruffian’s Games latest release is not only great fun, it’s incredibly addictive – and that’s a rare compliment. The story couldn’t be more generic: you play an “agent” – a genetically upgradable soldier that has been deployed by the powers that be to wipe the city clean from Rebel forces called “The Cell”. Led by X The Cell are violent, aimless guns-for-hire who like holing up in various locations across the city and incinerating anyone or anything that comes close. If that weren’t enough of a headache, the city happens to be in the midst of a zombie invasion, which as you’d imagine, is a bit of a drag. Technically, The Freaks aren’t zombies, they’re mutated cannibalistic human beings with acid for blood, but who cares. They don’t wield any weapons, but they do swarm in giant numbers, so don’t hang around to make small talk.
The idea of the game is to supposedly to secure tactical locations, destroy enemy strongholds, that sort of thing, but when it all comes down to it, your job is simple: kill em all. It’s not easy. The Cell are ubiquitous and armed to the teeth with rocket launchers gun turrets, grenades and other massive shooty things. Standing still for thirty seconds anywhere in the entire game will almost certainly lead to death.
The Cell and the Freaks are relentless and the only way to defeat them is to evolve.
This is where Crackdown gets addictive. As an rookie agent you have limited abilities and limited equipment. But as you exercise your skills thoughout the game, they upgrade. It’s a simple XP collection mechanism that you find in most RPGs, but it works really well. Jump a little and you’ll learn how to jump higher and higher until you can leap buildings in a single bound. The more enemies you shoot, the better shot you become and the better weapons you can command. The same applies to your driving skills, complete a few races, master a power slide or two and soon enough your ‘handler’ will consider you worthy of a supercar, suv or tank. You can also speed up the process by collecting agility orbs (usually located on the rooftops of tall buildings) or chasing super-agility orbs on foot or on wheels. This is where I spent most of my time, jumping from building to building collecting shiny green tokens. It sounds stupid, but it’s addictive as crack.
As the game is very similar to Grand Theft Auto, I imagine the multiplayer mode is too, but unfortunately at the time of writing this review, there were so few people online that I couldn’t get a match going, even after patiently waiting for 20 minutes. When the game comes out on general release, I’ll give you an update.
*** (out of 5)
