Updated 23 May, 2012, 6:39 pm IST

TGS 09: Crackdown 2 Impressions

30 Sep, 2009, 2:13 pm IST | by Avinash Bali

We check out both the single and multiplayer aspect of Crackdown 2 at TGS 2009 and come back thoroughly impressed.

Crackdown has always been about co-operative, over the top mayhem and with Crackdown 2, developer Ruffian games is taking that ideology to the next level as was evident with the single and multiplayer build being shown at the Tokyo Game Show. While we could mess around with the multiplayer campaign, single player was strictly eyes only and we were given a taste of things to come by one of the game’s producers.

As far as the plot's concerned, Crackdown 2 takes place immediately after the events of the first game. Sometime during your crusade to liberate Pacific City you accidentally released a bunch of mutants into the city (remember the Shai-Gen lab?) who’ve managed to convert innocent civilians into - wait for it - blood thirsty nocturnal mutants! As if that wasn't bad enough you now have the local populace growing angstier by the minute thanks to all the loose mutants running around the city. So yeah I’d say life in Crackdown 2 looks pretty tough but thankfully developer Ruffian Games are cutting you some slack and will allow you to play the game with not one but three other agents controlled by your friends (or complete strangers) across Xbox Live.�

As the demo started, the producer dropped a fully pimped out agent in the middle of the city and began assaulting our senses with the game's new content that included new weapons, newer vehicles, newer moves and tons of other stuff. Oh before I forget - just like Saint’s Row 2, Crackdown 2 takes place in Pacific City itself so you may get a bit bummed out about lack of variety. On the bright side, if you’ve really killed the game you won’t find navigating overwhelming.

As far as your agent is concerned Ruffian don’t really want him to feel human anymore. He’s a killing machine - like Robocop if you will - and will not stop until the job’s done. Also upgrades now will get reflected by your physical attributes so the higher level you are, the more pimp armor you wear.
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Out of the new arsenal we were shown the new shotgun that allows you to take out multiple opponents at a time. We also saw him cruise around the city in a new albeit fictional vehicle that we were told will level up with you a la Crackdown. But the most interesting addition to the game was the sticky bomb called the Mag grenade. Now you can throw it on any moving object (including an opponent) and detonate it like a conventional sticky nade but if you deploy two of them close to each other they actually link to each other via an electric field of sorts. This makes for some insanely innovative gameplay and we actually saw him make a sling shot using three sticky nades and a car - the results of which were beyond awesome off course.

Tags: Crackdown 2 , Tokyo Game Show 2009