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When you think ‘Xbox exclusive’, the first names that crop up are Halo and Gears of War. Crackdown isn’t really in the same league, and looking at the sales figures and review scores, you’ll probably see why. But despite its mediocre success, Crackdown garnered a cult following for its explosive action, open-world mayhem, and addictive platforming. It remains one of the best superhero games of this generation, but that wasn’t good enough for Microsoft to immediately green-light a sequel. At E3 2009 though, the sequel was announced, with Microsoft surprisingly handing over the reins to new studio Ruffian Games. If you’ve played the first game, Crackdown 2 will feel like slipping into a pair of old, comfortable slippers. But play a little longer, and the dj vu begins to feel more like repetition. In many ways, this is still the game we played three years ago. You still play in Pacific City, although the architecture has taken a bit of a battering, and you’ll see crumbling buildings all over. Other than that and a few new areas though, there’s little new to see. At times it will feel comfortably familiar, but at others, it just seems like a lazy copy-paste job. Crackdown wasn’t exactly a showcase of high definition gaming, but its distinct comic book design and cel shaded art style, coupled with the colorful environments, gave it its own unique identity. But looking around Pacific City in Crackdown 2, you can see that the city has seen better days. This is represented by a more gloomy color palette and a toning down of the cel shaded art style. No matter how the developers justify it, the old visual style should have stayed. Crackdown managed to stand apart from the sea of brown and grey, but with Crackdown 2, that uniqueness is lost. What kept us coming back to Crackdown was the playable character’s superhuman abilities. You could effortlessly leap across rooftops, climb buildings whilst carrying a car, and blow up every combustible object within a block radius with just one RPG. While leveling up the agent’s strength and explosives abilities were great fun, the most addictive activity in Crackdown was collecting those agility orbs scattered all over the city's rooftops. Collecting these increased your agility skills, allowing you to jump higher and farther. All of these abilities are carried forward to Crackdown 2 as they were, with the addition of renegade orbs, which unlike the other stationary orbs, will try to evade you and make you chase them down. There are also co-op orbs all over the place now, and they can only be collected when playing the game with a buddy in co-op. |
Tags: Crackdown 2 , action games , Xbox 360 games
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