The original Crackdown was a massive commercial success, but just how much of that success was down to the fact the game came bundled with Halo 3 beta access is difficult to estimate. Crackdown 2 has been left to stand (and jump) on its own two feet, but has Ruffian games managed to create a worthy successor to a game that became a hit in its own right amongst gamers, or have they fallen flat on their faces? Read on to find out…

Crackdown 2 sees us once again returning to the fictional Pacific City from the first game. In fact it sees us returning to the exact same city. The layout is the same, the buildings are the same, hell even some of the achievements are the same. The only difference is that this time Pacific City is clearly starting to fall apart at the seams due to the war which is raging in it’s streets, both day and night.



Players once again take on the role of a clone Agent, with instructions getting passed down from the mysterious annoucer from the first game. In fact the announcer has gotten even better in this new installment, notably in his congratulations that are dished out when players earn achievements.

Graphically the game features an absolutely beautiful cell shaded look. I would go as far as to say that this game is the finest example of cell shaded graphics I’ve seen (sorry Bordelands lovers). The colours are so vibrant and the effects so well put together that the game really is well worth seeing in motion.

The game features a day/night cycle and this feeds into what enemies players will be facing. During daylight hours the main source of opponent will be members of a terrorist organisation known as Cell. To start with very little is known about why these people are standing against the agency, however as the game progresses more is learned about the motives of Cell, notably through the collecting of Audio Logs which reveal a decent amount of backstory to proceedings.

Night time is when things start to turn really ugly on the streets of Pacific City because that is when the freaks come out to play. They are mutated, zombie like creatures and come in different shapes and sizes. Different types of freak feature varied attacks ranging from simple punching to spitting harmful acid onto unsuspecting agents. The freaks show off how well put together the game engine is because at times there can be hundreds of them on screen at once and as yet I haven’t seen a single instance of slow down.



The main mission of Crackdown 2, and in essence the only mission in the game, is to rid the city of the freaks which are causing such havok. The freaks have a vulnerability to light, which has the nasty effect of melting them into nothingness. It’s this vulnerability that the agency seeks to expose through Project Sunburst. This project involves activating a set number of absorption units which have fallen into the hands of Cell and then setting off a beacon of light inside a freak lair.

The absorption units are activated simply by players standing on pressure pads next to them, and the only real difficulty in most cases is that often they are located atop tall buildings. Setting off the beacons can be a little more of a challenge. Players must delve below ground, into the very lairs of the freaks and defend the beacon from freak attack for a set period of time before it can be activated. Once the beacon is activated it will destroy all of the freaks in each lair and then players can move onto the next. These freak lair battles are some of the most entertaining and frantic ones of the game as players struggle to stay alive whilst at the same time defending the beacon from attack.

There are 9 of these beacons which players have to activate as part of the main mission, and whilst the overall structure is therefore rather repetative, the gameplay more than makes up for this. Crackdown 2 is all about empowering the player through how awesome their agent becomes as they progress through the ranks in strength, agility, driving, firearms and explosives. Ranks are gained by simply performing the associated action, or by carrying out special skill specific actions such as collecting the famous agility orbs or winning street races. It’s a fun system that encourages players to level their character to the fullest in order to gain the unlockables that come with each increase in level.

Thankfully there’s plenty of other things to do in Pacific City besides just sticking to the main missions. New activities include: destroying freak breaches (think gears style emergence holes) by killing a set amount of freaks which pour out of the hole; wingsuit races which involve flying the agent through a set of rings using the suit modifictaion gained at level 5 agility and capturing strategic points from Cell which rewards players with supply points throughout the game. All of these activities are useful in what for me became the main addiction of the game: levelling up my agent.



The argument that Crackdown 2 is simply a re-hash of old ideas is one that I’ve read many times in reviews of the game, but in my opinion it just doesn’t wash. Does the latest FIFA game become and less entertaining because it still features the same grounds as last year? No it does not. And the reason it does not is because the core gameplay remains solid. That’s what, in my opinion, elevates Crackdown 2 from an average game to a rather good one. The core gameplay of ranking up, collecting orbs and messing around a city with three friends in co-op just doesn’t stop being fun. If the game had been released close to the original then maybe I could have understood the ciriticism, but it wasn’t and I don’t.

Verdict: 8/10. Still fun, no matter what they say!