Crackdown 2 - Hands On Preview

On the surface, there's little to really differentiate between Crackdown 2 and its predecessor. The latter was one of 2007’s BAFTA action-adventure winners, gained a huge and unexpected following, and was praised for its innovation. The sequel, this time under the development eye of Ruffian, sets out to offer the same explosive experience, aiming to fulfil gamers’ continuing desire to blow the hell out of everything they can.

Set ten years after the events of Crackdown, you’re back in Pacific City - a city which has taken quite a beating and is now suffering from a severe viral outbreak causing citizens to mutate into the horribly disfigured 'Freaks' of the original. Meanwhile, Cell have been busy taking over the city and it’s the Agents’ job to gain control again and to initiate Project Sunburst.

Once again you take control of a nameless Agent. From the preview build there was only a small amount of customisable freedom: a selection of rather dull male faces and ethnicities as well as suit colours which, from the preview at least, was just as limited. It’s regrettable to think that Ruffian may have missed the mark with this - if the agent is just some drone you control and never really care about, then why can’t you at least customise them? Even the lack of female characters seems slightly lazy, and their excuse boiled down to pushing the gameplay rather than character models and animations.

Concentrating their time on gameplay rather than aesthetics is admirable, but when you’re put back into essentially the same city, with the same kind of mission structure and lack of any real narration, it becomes a little difficult to understand why they didn’t push the customisation further. It seems just as important for players to have some kind of individuality when you’re pushing the game as a co-op experience.

There is a continuous feel of not wanting to force any story with Crackdown 2. There were no notable cut-scenes to speak of, and after a brief introduction to the current city situation and gameplay mechanics, there was no real urgency to partake in missions.

As we’ve already mentioned, you’ll be returning to Pacific City, which has had a few notable additions. It’s expanded not only in width but also in height and depth. Climbing to the highest point in the first title was a real achievement and the terrain offers a diverse range of highs and lows. Players of the original will recognise key places from the first game and might question any changes the city has undertaken. These changes and the city’s history are explored in more detail via audio logs you collect alongside the hundreds of Orbs dotted around the map. It’s a good way of telling a story for an open world game but something we feel could be expanded upon. There's also the concern that the less collector savvy might miss out on a good background story or feel for the city.

The city is split into day and night cycles. During the day you fight Cell, an underground resistance, take over points they have stationed at and work through the majority of your missions. Once night falls, the city is swarming with Freaks, making it the perfect time to level up your skills. This seems to answer complaints that the first game took too long to upgrade certain abilities, allowing you to head out at night and kick a large amount of infected ass. Getting into a car and running down literally hundreds of Freaks as we sped around the city was a real thrill and impressive that there wasn’t any severe frame rate issues given the sheer amount of Freaks on screen.

If you choose to leave the safety of your vehicle, then you are presented with the tough challenge of taking on hundreds of Freaks. We panicked a little bit when we realised that jumping out of the crowd wasn’t as easy as originally anticipated, furiously mashing the buttons and hoping it would clear enough space to jump to safety. A few nods to the Left 4 Dead universe are clearly made here, with a variety of Freak types to spice up the swarms. The more Freaks you kill the stronger they become, meaning you can’t spend hours levelling up your skills so easily as the bigger Freaks can knock you over without a pause and even take you out if you are still early on in the game.

There have been changes with the ever so popular Orbs. There are a total of 500 Orbs for players to collect. Previously, they were dotted around the map and locating them was the only real challenge, but this time around Orbs have found a life of their own and can run away from the player. Some Orbs can only be obtained in co-op while some even require the player to be connected online. The best Orbs are the ones that can only be obtained in a car, as you race around the streets furiously trying to grab it and steer at the same time. Not only do you need a keen eye to locate Orbs but also skill at catching them.

There is a selection of new weapons and gadgets to play around with such as a UV Shotgun, Jump Pads, Turreted Minigun and Rocket Launcher. The Mag Grenades are an epic addition, letting players attach two items together and use it as a weapon. We childishly stuck a lamppost and car together to run around swinging the motor and causing all sorts of mayhem. Another neat addition was the Wingsuit, which lets players control their falls and glide in the air - a nice alternative to getting around the large city. Other new alternative modes of travel are offered via the new Agency Helicopter, Agency Buggy, Supercar and Truck.


Crackdown 2 plays to the strengths of its predecessor: crazy, over-the-top action to be had particularly with friends, but questionably at the cost of a drive for the single player user. It’s looking to be a safe sequel. Sure, jumping into co-op with a friend and causing some explosions is a real laugh, but surely there's got to be a little more tucked away for the sequel to a surprise hit.