Crackdown 2 may have been automatically pigeon holed as a sandbox adventure title, but it’s more than that. It’s a playground for destruction and jumping to whatever the heck you want, then blowing it up when you want. Is it fun too? Check out this part of our Crackdown 2 review to find out if Ruffian Games have cracked the controls and the gameplay this time around.
Read the rest of our Crackdown 2 review now
Crackdown 2 review
Crackdown 2 review: Things to do in Pacific City
Crackdown 2 review: New weapons, gadgets and vehicles
As you’d expect, Crackdown 2 picks up where the original left off. After taking down the gangs from the original game the Agents must now do battle with a strain of superhuman mutants dubbed ‘Freaks’ as well as The Cell, which are preventing the Agency from cloning more Agents to secure the city.
As a freshly cloned Agent, it’s down to you to wipe out the zombies and secure the city from the rampaging Cell. For some part this largely involves heading to absorption pods, which are like power supplies in order to charge them to detonate underground beacons – flushing the Freaks out from their lairs once and for all, which gets a bit tiresome.
But even before embarking on the first mission you’re free to do as you please. It’s this freedom to go anywhere, and do almost anything that is the essence of what Crackdown 2 is all about.
In our Side missions section of our Crackdown 2 review, we mentioned how players are once again encouraged to collect as many Agility Orbs as possible. Beginning the game your Agent character is almost powerless until he levels up his agility.
Only when you’ve grabbed a sufficient number of orbs though, Crackdown 2 springs into life. Initially attempting to jump and scale high walls, buildings and ledges feels laborious, but once you’ve enhanced your leaping skills the city, and in turn, the game becomes more fun, as does driving. With so much space to play in you’re gonna need some wheels.
Needless to say, there are plenty of cars you can hijack in Crackdown 2. Driving is carried off reasonably well – in lighter cars performing power slides and drifts soon become second nature (and Driving points rewarding). Players will find a massive variation in handling between cars such as the speedy Agency Supercar and heavier vehicles with an almost non-existent turning circle.
Another key mechanic is the targeting system. Targeting is both automatic and manual. Move the left control stick to point your reticule at something, then hit the right trigger to use your firearm. To call into action automatic target locking hold down the left trigger to lock onto an enemy or vehicle. Automatic targeting is great for lobbing grenades at The Cell members with more precision, or if you’re a little more mischievous, sending hundreds of freaks into the air simultaneously in a giany explosion of awesome.
For the most part traversing the city in Crackdown 2 with the freedom to hop and drive anywhere and shoot at anyone and anything is a joy. But we did hit some bumps along the way, and they weren’t just the corpses of Freaks lying in the road.
Bounding from building to building is an entertaining experience, but not all the time due to the looseness of the controls. The Crackdown gameplay style carries over to Crackdown 2. While a good thing for fans it also means you’ll often find yourself mistiming jumps owing to the looseness of the jittery directional controls.
Later on in the game the only way to reach our mission was to hop across narrow pipes, which we often missed, forcing us to swim back up and try again. It’s even worse when you’ve just scaled a massive mountain only to reach the edge and find it difficult to steady yourself. Of course you’ll get better the more you play, but some will find the controls in Crackdown 2 a little loose.
Likewise automatic targeting presents another minor issue. You’ll often find yourself faced with multiple enemies. It’s easy to lock onto one, but not necessarily the one you wanted – using up valuable seconds while you take more unnecessary damage.
Our biggest complaint is that after the first few hours Crackdown 2 feels repetitive. The core gameplay revolves around jumping, driving or flying to your objectives and then doing it all over again. That said, Die-hard Crackdown fans will be pleased to know that the same gameplay remains, and hey, isn’t that what makes Rockstar’s games so great?
Read the rest of our Crackdown 2 review now
Crackdown 2 review
Crackdown 2 review: Things to do in Pacific City
Crackdown 2 review: New weapons, gadgets and vehicles
