Crackdown provided one of the biggest surprises in this generation of consoles. Going on the screenshots and videos prior to release the game looked like it would be fun but that wasn’t the reason behind the huge number of pre-orders it garnered. In a stroke of genius the Crackdown disc included the beta for one of the most anticipated titles in gaming history, Halo 3. It wasn’t surprising how many copies of the game were sold on its release, the Halo 3 beta explains that. The real surprise was in how great that little title from Realtime Worlds turned out to be. Crackdown continued to sell long after the Halo 3 beta novelty wore off and is still regarded by many as one of the most entertaining games on the Xbox 360. This sequel from Ruffian Games, headed by a couple of guys who worked on the original title, has a great deal to live up to.

If you’re familiar with the abilities in the first Crackdown you’ll know what to expect here although some of them have been enhanced. The biggest change is agility which now allows you to jump even higher as well as the ability to glide around the city. Gliding is fun and I imagine it’s possible to stay in the air for an infinite amount of time if you manage to avoid crashing into objects and find a way around that whole human mortality business. You’re also able to fly around in a helicopter which is pretty cool but is nothing new to sandbox games and it feels a little odd as unlike titles such as GTA and Saints Row your character here has devastating powers without it.

The freaks from the first game have returned but this time there are many more of them. They come out from their lairs at night and roam the streets in their thousands. The freaks can be a bit of a pest from their sheer numbers but they don’t come close to how annoying the gang members of Cell can be. Freak lairs play an important part in the game and you’ll have to venture down there and deal with them on many occasions. Much like the freaks, Cell have their own guarded areas which you must tackle. There aren’t as many Cell members as there are freaks but they make up for their lack of numbers with all manner of weaponry including rocket launchers which they like firing at you in unison to create a powerful machine-gun effect.

This sequel is essentially the same as the original apart from a few positive additions and unfortunately a few negative ones too. The co-op in the first game was a huge success and you can now have four people tearing up the city, but only over Xbox Live. There is no local split-screen option and system link has been removed. One nice feature of the original was that vehicles would visibly transform as you increased your driving ability but that has also been scrapped with lack of memory as the reason. I accept that the impressive number of freaks on screen at any one time would require quite a lot of memory but I’d personally trade 10% of the freaks for transforming vehicles. Another thing which may not be quite as noticeable is the lack of pistols as the memory needed for one-handed firearms was deemed surplus to requirements. To be fair though, I can understand this decision more than the one to cut transforming vehicles as there are already quite a few weapons in the game.

The quality in visuals is something of a mixed bag. My initial reaction was that the game looked great until I noticed it was quite deceptive. Your character on the foreground looks really detailed and polished but this contracts with the dull and less impressive Pacific City which surrounds him. It’s hard to say whether this is from a lack of attention or if it’s just an example of choosing quantity over quality. The music is nice but being a fan of industrial metal I’d have chosen something with a little more punch while the sound effects, especially for explosions, are really good. Speaking of explosions, your character occasionally voices his approval at things blowing up by laughing and uttering the word “’splosions!” and it sounds horrible. That one word makes your character seem like an absolute moron and I found it so annoying I winced every time I heard it.

Crackdown 2 is one big orb collecting and ability enhancing circus and those who like that grind, which is more fun than in similar games, will really enjoy what this has to offer. With that said this has more in common with an expansion than a sequel and that’s compounded by the fact it takes place in the same area as the original. Because of this I recommend it more to newcomers, although picking up the original for a few quid is a good idea, but if more of the same is what you’re looking for you’ll be very happy with this.

7.5/10

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