I was a big fan of the first Crackdown game when I found it, later than most, on the Xbox 360. The little teaser trailer for Crackdown 2 that was shown at E3 2009 was probably my highlight of the press conferences. In February this year I got to see it in action, briefly, at X10. Yesterday I finally got to play it.
The demo is a timed, half-hour, blast of pure Crackdown madness. Everything is still there that I loved from the previous game. The dulcet-toned announcer calling me “Agent”, the faux-cell-shaded art style (although this has been tampered with slightly) and the sense of hectic, unhinged joy are all present.
Crackdown was a game which had copious amounts of fun coursing through it and, judging from the demo, the sequel is sticking closely to that ethos. I was dropped straight in to a fight between The Agency (my side) and The Cell (one of the gangs that make up your enemies). Within seconds I knew what I was doing. The game controls just as simply as its predecessor, running around, jumping, targeting and shooting are all intuitive. The down side to this is that driving control is still a little stiff but it does seem to be slightly improved on the first iteration.
The look of Pacific City is now one of a crumbling metropolis, filled with a new wave of gangs and a dusk-loving breed of mutant-zombie things. The geography is recognisable and familiar to those who played the first game but it is decayed by the passage of time and the ravages of all-out gang warfare.
It’s impossible to judge whether improvements have been made to the somewhat thin narrative that permeated the original so there is still a slim chance that they haven’t addressed the one thing that was most criticised. Luckily, it is plainly evident that they have retained and improved upon the things that made the first game brilliant. You can’t ask much more from a sequel.
Within my first thirty minutes I had completely and utterly fallen for the Crackdown universe all over again. I am even more excited for the game’s release than I had been up to this point. Overpowered, super-heroic fun has never been so distilled, so pure or so much fun.
crazyoaktree
Loved the first one. Can’t wait for the second
Deathbrin
That’s all good (no complaints on the review of course) for one who has alot of imagination but come on? I think it was you who bragged you _can_ do screenshots of games properly and yet there is none? I’ve at least wanted to know how exactly the game looks like…
colossalblue
Firstly, I never “bragged” anything. I told you I thought I was the only one on staff capable of doing HD screenshots when you bitched about someone else on staff not doing them (we NEVER have). Capable, yes, but it’s a complicated process which involves me moving consoles about. I wrote and published this article /instead/ of making my dinner during the brief moment I had in my own house on Saturday. I did that to give the great readers here /something/ to entertain them briefly. When was the last time you did something for the benefit of others at your own expense? Was it more recently than the last douche-bag comment you made on the internet to make yourself feel superior?
Secondly, if you want screens why not search for them instead of going out of your way to be confrontational? You could have found several in the time it took you to write a pissy comment on this article. Look I’ve just done it for you: http://lmgtfy.com/?q=Crackdown+2+screen+shots it wasn’t difficult.
I suggest that you keep in mind that the content we give you here is free of charge, we don’t owe you anything. If you intend to continue visiting TSA and commenting on other people’s hard (and gratis) work then I think you should probably adjust your attitude. As it is, you’re coming across as a bit of tool.