Being a new owner of an Xbox 360, I didn't play the original Crackdown much. I had the odd blast round a friend's place and found it fun.
Hence when I got the chance to get the sequel for a good price, I leapt at it.
Crackdown 2 sounds great on paper. You're a law enforcement "Agent" in the near-future, set to restore order to a chaotic city by any means possible.
Unfortunately, after a few hours of playing I'm rather underwhelmed by the story of the game. Crackdown 1 wasn't exactly a novel, but it seemed to have various gangs and factions as well as tasks such as assassinations that you had to carry out.
The sequel ditches that, and instead has two enemy factions: "Cell", a terrorist group who has sufficient power to actually control areas of the city completely and the "Freaks", weird lab abominations that devastate the city at night.
Now, as someone who enjoyed Prototype, this is starting to sound familiar - zombies and an enemy human faction (with Cell replacing Prototype's military enemies).
In addition to that there are also the Peacekeepers, your cop allies.
Unfortunately, this potentially interesting setup is destroyed by a clunky intro. Not only do we get next to no information of who Cell are or how the group works, but the whole concept of "Freaks" seems pretty ridiculous. Are we honestly meant to believe that a serious, professional leader of a law enforcement agency would dub ravenous monsters "freaks" as their official name? It's kinda laughable.
In addition, the monsters just aren't fun to fight. Unlike Prototype, where you could rip zombies to pieces with your own biological talons, Crackdown just lets you shoot them or beat on them a bit. It's more fun just to avoid them entirely and plough through in a car.
Cell baddies are fun to fight, however the lack of background info on them makes it seem a little pointless. The concept of a group of psychotic nutters banding together to take over a city is intriguing, but they're played in a totally one dimensional manner. The game only gives them the bare minimum of depth.
They will scream anarchist remarks ("You're going to get some of your own medicine, pig!") at you and cry out for help when shot ("I'm hit, arrrgh my leg!" brought a grin to my face as I kneecapped one with my rifle).
That brings me onto another thing - the locking system is a pain in the arse. Skirmishes are often frantic, with Cell guys hiding behind cover and their reinforcements roaring in with vehicles that look like they're straight out of Mad Max.
This gives a great atmosphere, but the target locking system can quickly make it frustrating. Sometimes you'll want to shoot a guy in the legs to stop him getting to a hiding spot, or hit his arm so that he can't fire back. Instead you'll randomly not be able to switch aim and you'll spend precious seconds being shot.
Other times I've been shooting away at a terrorist, tried to lock another and instead end up locking something totally random, like a civillian car driving the other end of the street. This is again, very frustrating.
However, I must say I'm enjoying the game overall. The sense of freedom is immense and there are simple pleasures to be had. Speeding in a police car, sirens blazing, slamming into a bunch of baddies and then leaping out of the still-moving vehicle to pump the rest full of lead is very satisfying.
I look forward to getting my special abilities up and then making a more thorough (and most likely more positive) assessment of the game.
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