| Author | Review |
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silver DewSky
159,037
TA Score for this game: 866
Posted on 22 July 10 at 22:25 |
This review has 30 positive votes and 8 negative votes. Please log in to vote. |
Same City. New Foes. Welcome Back, Agent!
Crackdown 2 doesn’t stray too far from its predecessor, instead it amps up everything that the first game contained. There are still orbs to collect, but now finding them is a bit easier and new types are available to collect: Renegade and LIVE Orbs. Renegade orbs float away from you and require great agility or a nice car to catch up to, and LIVE orbs are collectibles containable only through online play. All the orbs still boost your skills, and are still fun and satisfying to collect.
The game takes place 10 years after the first one, and things haven’t been too great for those that live in Pacific City. During the day, Peacekeepers engage in firefights with Cell, the new unified gang in the city, and once the sun goes down, Mutated freaks populate the city and take out anything in their way. It is your job as the latest agent for the Agency to Rid the City of the Freaks by detonating beacons that will destroy their hives located underground. To complete this task, you will need to level up your skills to best prepare for the challenge that the freaks can bring.
The announcer is back and better (or worse ) than ever. He gives you an overview on everything in the game, and now even speaks about when you unlock an achievement in the game.
The Achievements in the game are require you to do almost everything the game offers. Many involve completing story-related missions, and will give you around 500G for story stuff alone. The rest involve your abilities like gliding and driving, collecting orbs, and cooperating with friends to achieve gamerscore together. Thankfully there are no multiplayer achievements besides the co-op ones.
The original Crackdown had fun multiplayer with the co-op, and the Crackdown 2 doubles the fun with 4-player support. Friends can jump in to your game at any time and assist you complete your goals, or just be there to goof around with. Even in the big world of Pacific City with four players running around, the game seems to run smoothly at all times. This is a great reason to have Xbox Live Gold. Competitive multiplayer is here as well, and 16-players can engage in combat with lock-on assisted support. It seems to play well enough, but the Co-op is the coolest way to play this game with others.
Leveling up your skills once again gives you great new tools and skills to use. Get to level 5 with agility and you get to glide around the world, and maxing out your Driving will grant you the keys to a tank. When you start out the game, you will seem barely better than a peacekeeper, but once you level up, you will get around Pacific City and take out enemies with ease.
Overall Crackdown 2 changes little from the first, but keeps a lot of what we remember. The awesome sounds of orbs and the sometimes annoying announcer are a constant element to the game just as we remembered. If you loved Crackdown, you will love Crackdown 2. If you didn’t, you may want to pass on this game. I thought Crackdown was great myself and enjoyed Crackdown 2 just as much.
4/5 |
TRI Dr Pepper
104,673
TA Score for this game: 831
Posted on 10 July 10 at 21:30, Edited on 11 July 10 at 02:34 |
This review has 55 positive votes and 34 negative votes. Please log in to vote. |
This is my first review so I will do my best.
Still editing...
The original Crackdown, which came out three years ago, was thought to be brilliant. It was funny, great combat, and a story that is more than what it appears to be. Around a year ago, Crackdown 2 was announced. However, people were a little scared that it might be a flop. Only one gang and zombies, people thought that this game would be terrible. One year later, we get to go orb hunting at last. Now, I wasn't to excited when I played the demo, it seemed like a bore, but I pre-ordered anyways, crossing my fingers. When I write this now, I am convinced that this is one of the best games I have played this year.
First off, I must say that there is much more to do. From detonating Beacons to destroying Feak breaches, and let's not forget 4 player co-op and competitive multiplayer, this game has it all. Best part is, is that the 4 player co-op is as fun as Borderlands, and makes the storty that much better. Lastly, is that the achievements are a complete level up from it's sucessor. They are orginal and fun to earn.
Next, there are many unlockables a secrets around the world, like going into the pipe at the Agent Tower, and not to mention tons of guns, cars, and grenades. These are unlocked through normal skill avancement, and since unlockables were a con to the original, here they shine.
Also, to many people's delight, orb hunting is much easier ,more fun, and with many different types, creates excitement every time you get one. There are Driving and Agility Renegade orbs that move and dodge you, creating a challange worth enduring. There are also the intresting Xbox Live orbs, which you can only get in co-op.
As far as the competitive multiplayer goes, it's never going to be as popular as Call of Duty, but it is very addictive and will keep you entranced for a long time. The level up system is great, and with tons of stuff to do, you will have a hard time trying to leave Pacific City
The only dissapointment is getting from place to place, unlike in the first Crackdown, most points of intrest are put in terrible sports from spawn points, making it much harder to get to a certain spot.
Overall, this game is what Xbox Live is all about. Hanging with your friends, blowing stuff up, getting achievements, and throwing cards. That's a Level 5 game.
Weapons: 8/10- 15 or so guns. enough to have a blast.
Achievements: 9/10- Just about perfect, but no MP achievos
Co-op: 10/10- Everything you could want in that type of game. Perfect
Graphics: 7/10- Good Cartoony visuals, but not the most realistic
Replay Vaue: 9/10- Will keep you in Pacific City for a long time, will easily hold you over until the AAA titles come this fall.
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Saint Devourer
175,508
TA Score for this game: 704
Posted on 11 July 10 at 07:21, Edited on 08 October 10 at 21:10 |
This review has 65 positive votes and 44 negative votes. Please log in to vote. |
The original Crackdown was released back in 2007, and without the help of a beta invitation to a distinct spartan's new game, many of us would've passed it over. However, those of us who indulged in Realtime World's title found a lovable sandbox game with a lot of charm and a lot of orbs to collect, as well as one of the most fun co-op experiences to hit the 360. Ruffian aims to bring that co-op experience back to the 360 with Crackdown 2. But how does it stack up compared to the original Crackdown?
Not very well, I'm afraid.
To start off, upon your arrival in Pacific City, you'll notice a few things. First, you'll notice that the game no longer has it's signature cel-shaded art style, but rather an awfully standard (and I do mean standard), psuedo-realistic art style. Now, not to say the graphics are bad, they just aren't good. The environments aren't as colorful as they once were, the bright hues of the first game have been toned down, in order to show the dire situation of Pacific City. However, the lack of color will just bore you, and have you wanting the Pacific City of Crackdown 1 to return.
You might be delighted to know that the very same Voice of the Agency from the first Crackdown has returned to his role in Crackdown 2. Michael McConnohie (the Voice of the Agency) retains the spirit from Crackdown and brings it to the sequel. However, it should be noted his various phrases and sayings get more and more repetitive as you play the game, introducing every car you drive the same way each time. The audio as a whole gets very repetitive, as even the soundtrack that plays while you're in a car begins to blend together. Most guns sound the same, most objects sound the same when they explode. Thankfully, the UV weapons offer a little bit of variety in the sound department, with a high tech, almost alien like sound when they are used.
The gameplay of Crackdown 2 remains largely the same, at least in nature. Rather than being tasked to hunt down gang leaders, you'll instead be asked to redeploy "absorption units" in order to power the Agency's new weapon "Project Sunburst" against one of Pacific City's new enemies: the freaks. The freaks are a group of mutant civilians who leave their lairs at night to terrorize the population of Pacific City. But the freaks are not your only enemy, you'll also be tasked with taking down the Cell gang and their strongholds, who now occupy most of the city. These strongholds, however, are optional. So, in all honesty, your only goal is to redeploy the 3 absorption units needed to power the beacon to destroy the freaks in their lair. As you may be able to imagine, this gets repetitive very quickly, and soon becomes a chore.
There are a number of distractions, if you choose not to immediately take down the freak lairs. Both Road and Rooftop Races have made triumphant returns. While Road Races can be a lot of fun, especially since the driving mechanic usually works quite well, Rooftop Races are quite frankly boring, having you jump from rooftop to rooftop to try your hand at the fastest time. This is made worse if you accidentally fall off of a building, and are forced to deal with the horrid climbing mechanics.
And yes, the ever so popular orbs from the last game are back. But rather than just agility orbs and hidden orbs, you also can collect renegade agility and driving orbs (which move when you get close to them) and LIVE orbs (which can only be collected when in co-op and a co-op player is in close vicinity of the orb). But even with all these orbs, it doesn't mask the fact that Crackdown 2 doesn't have a lot to do. After you've deployed every beacon, taken down every cell stronghold, and sealed every freak breach, there's nothing to do other than collect orbs and go for stunts.
The shooting mechanics of the game also leave something to be desired, with it's auto snap feature assigned to the left trigger favoring targeting cars over enemies. This is extremely frustrating, especially when dealing with enemies that throw hundreds of rockets your way at once. It doesn't help that once the action on screen picks up, the game tends to slow down in frame rate.
But, to be fair, the co-op function of the game works perfectly, with seamless drop-in drop-out of the campaign at any time. There's also competitive multiplayer, but with only 3 gametypes (rocket tag, deathmatch, team deathmatch) and no weapon balance done, it's a tacked on afterthought not worthy of anyone's time.
Almost everything that had been done right by Realtime Worlds previously, Ruffian's sequel has managed to mess it up entirely. Not only is the game shorter in length than the first Crackdown, it has absolutely zero of the character that made Crackdown so fun to play. It is a chore of a game, and one that will bore you very quickly if you're looking for gameplay with some thought in it. If you're looking for a mindless co-op romp, you'll find that in Crackdown 2, just don't expect it to last long, about 5-10 hours. Everyone else, however, steer clear of Crackdown 2.
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DJ KroniikZ
59,356
TA Score for this game: 1,253
Posted on 07 January 12 at 07:51, Edited on 07 January 12 at 07:52 |
This review has 13 positive votes and 4 negative votes. Please log in to vote. |
I've been a fan of the Crackdown games ever since the original came out in 2007. It was unlike anything else out on the 360 and it became one of my favorite games that i own. I was ecstatic when I found out Crackdown 2 was coming out and i couldn't wait to play it. After a few hours of loading it into my disc drive, I can happily say I satisfied any urges to throw someone right across the city and jump higher than humanly possible.
The story takes place where the first one left off in Pacific City, a place formerly run by 3 gangs has now been infested by mutants and one other authority. Throughout the course of the campaign, you have to go around the city crushing mutants and destroying their hives so they do not come back again and also shutting down Cell bases of operations.
As you progress throughout the game you gain orbs to help boost all of your 5 skills: Agility, Driving, Strength, Firearms and Explosives. Collecting agility orbs and completing rooftop races really is the best way to increase your agility skill, races and stunt jumps are the best way to improve your driving skill, killing Cell and mutants with your fists builds up your strength skill, Killing Cell and mutants with firearms builds up your firearm skill and Blowing up Cell and mutants with explosives increases your explosive skill. You will need to build up all your skills if you want to make it to the end of the game and achieve 100% completion.
The multiplayer is a lot of fun if you have agents working with you to help you out with what you need. There is no competitive multiplayer though, only co-op. Players can join each others sessions in their cities so they can help that player with any challenges they may need to complete. Unfortunately if you get in a city where there are a bunch of people who like to be "those guys" and keep killing you, it is rather annoying. I've been in lobbies where one player will go to the agency tower, take an agency helicopter, blow up the other 3 helicopters, and fly around the map killing all the other players. This is rather annoying but you can just simply back out and find another game to play in. So it is there, just a minor nuisance. Another thing about the multiplayer is that this is where the game gets all its replay value from. Once you liberate Pacific city and do all the races and find all the orbs, multiplayer is your only hope, so if you are playing offline only, this game will last you for a good while, but it won't last you forever.
I loved everything about this game, the graphics, the gameplay, the co-op multiplayer, and the fact that by the end of the game I was able to completely obliterate everything that got in my way. The only thing i didn't like about this game was the fact that it got rid of the gangs there and put in...zombies (or zombie-like monsters). I loved the original Crackdown because it was so original. It was the first game of its kind and it was so much fun having to go around destroying the gang's strongholds before you can take on the leader. I didn't find this one as challenging as the first one, but that may be just me. Also the fact that it had zombie-like monsters in it. I mean come on, the whole zombie thing has been so overdone it should be dead by now, but then again, that's just me.
Overall I would give this game a 4.5/5. This game is just as good as its predecessor. The game looks great and finding all those orbs will keep players playing long after they liberated Pacific City. The only thing stopping me from giving this game a 5 is that it lacks in originality, which is what made the first game so amazing. I'm disappointed that they decided to go with the whole "zombie/mutant theme" since it's what everyone is doing, but if you like that sort of stuff then this game is a great game for you to try.
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