Released on 09/07/2010

• Crackdown 2 Preview

  Welcome back Agents

  Released back in February 2007, Crackdown was a crazy ride of super powered agents charged with clearing up a lawless city. The comic book visuals and over the top action made Crackdown a stand out title, not to mention that it came packed with access to the Halo 3 Beta…

  But in reality a large chunk of people who picked up Crackdown did not activate the Halo Beta, they picked up Crackdown because of it’s looks and what it offered, a fun, chaotic experience that had not yet appeared yet on the Xbox 360.

  Crackdown 2 has a far greater emphasis on multiplayer this time around. Be it Co-op or versus...

  Well Crackdown is back, with more action and explosions. You’ll return to Pacific City 10 years after the original Crackdown. With the City in the grip of Freaks and an illusive group called The Cell.

  The Freaks are mutated civilians of Pacific City, who take to the streets by night causing destruction and carnage. The Cell is an organised group who attack during the day. So night or Day, you’ll always have someone to fight.

  We got your back

  But you won’t be fighting alone; Crackdown 2 has a far greater emphasis on multiplayer this time around. Be it Co-op or versus Crackdown 2 is covering all bases and catering for all needs.

  You can draft in up to three friends to hit the city in four player coop and play through the entire campaign. Which means Crackdown 2 can be a much more tactical experience, if you want it to be.

  But for those who want to take on the world, Crackdown 2 will come packed with 16 player online multiplayer. Admittedly the game modes are being kept close to Ruffians chest but chances are they will be awesome and over the top

  It’s still the same cel-shaded-comic book looking graphics that made the first game such a joy to look at

  The same but different

  You won’t need to learn new controls either, Ruffian have kept the controls exactly the same so you’ll be able to pick up and play as soon as you insert the disc, if you remember the original controls. For those new to Crackdown 2 the controls are easy to get to grips with.

  Crackdown 2 also at this early stage looks like the original Crackdown too! Yes it is looking better than the original, Ruffian hasn’t changed the look of it. It’s still the same cel-shaded-comic book looking graphics that made the first game such a joy to look at.

  Ruffian have really listened to the fans for Crackdown 2 tweaking what needed to be tweeked and leaving what needed to be left alone. Crackdown 2 is a true sequel that is to be honest long overdue, anyone with an Xbox 360 should definitely keep an eye on this one.
  

  Published: 20/05/2010

• Crackdown 2 Review

  On the beat

  Any level-headed law enforcement agent would have retired their badge long ago faced with the troublemakers running rife in Crackdown 2's Pacific City. By day the streets are overrun with members of a terrorist organisation dubbed The Cell and at night they're overflowing with Freaks, an army of subterranean mutants who emerge to cause mayhem. It's just as well then that your character is not your average bobby on the beat, but a genetically modified super Agent capable of scaling rooftops with a single jump and hurling vehicles across the road.

  Becoming a super Agent

  In Crackdown 2 you're tasked with cleaning up Pacific City's mean streets, which consists of twin objectives. You'll have to clear gang territories of Cell operatives in order to secure key locations and also put an end to the Freak outbreak. There's little strategy involved in the former, unless causing mayhem counts (sometimes you forget you're supposed to be the ‘good' guy), but the latter is achieved by triangulating a series of satellites that help identify the underground areas the mutants emerge from, which you then have to seal with explosive devices.

  Explore the city, scaling its vertical limits and bounding across its rooftops, finding imaginative ways to unleash chaos.

  Crackdown 2 presents you with a fully open world in which you can tackle missions in any order you like, but if you played the original you'll know that much of the fun comes from ignoring the core objectives in favour of simply exploring the city, scaling its vertical limits and bounding across its rooftops, finding imaginative ways to unleash chaos as you do. And like the first Crackdown, for many this game's most addictive and rewarding element will be collecting orbs to build your powers.

  There are orbs for each skill - agility, strength, firearms, explosives and driving – dotted around the city, some easy to find and others hidden, and each variety is collected slightly differently. Netting agility orbs often requires elaborate gymnastic efforts, while acquiring them increases your ability to jump higher and farther to reach even loftier and more remote locations. Further down the line you'll even unlock a suit that allows you to glide through the air. Then you have the new flying orbs that dance around the skyline, teasing you and making you give chase. You won't want to put the controller down knowing another one's located nearby, such is the thrill of maxing out your skills.

  Action fest

  While developer Ruffian Games wisely chose not to greatly alter the core mechanics that worked so well in the original Crackdown, the studio has made a number of great tweaks to the formula. Combat is even better, for example, the game excelling in the action department. Fights against the Cell and the Freaks feel different and require alternate shooting strategies, while a great new melee system – which allows you to pick up and swing environmental props - can be used against both. Smacking up bad guys rewards you with health boosts and increased resistance to large falls when you mistime jumps or overestimate your capabilities, which will undoubtedly happen given the unavoidable impulse to hurl yourself at increasingly distant targets.

  It's now possible to play with up to three other friends online thanks to a seamless drop-in and out co-op feature.

  You can also leap into the air and pound the ground on your way back down, sending objects around you flying skyward, and perform a barge attack that sees you flipping over cars and other obstacles that stand in your way. Maxing out your strength will essentially transform you into a one man army capable of unleashing devastating attacks against the evil masses – and there are loads of them. It's also fun to mow enemies down using the game's numerous vehicles, of which the tank and chopper are particular highlights.

  Co-op mayhem

  Crackdown 2 is at its best when played with likeminded Agents and it's now possible to tackle it with up to three other friends online thanks to a seamless drop in and out co-op feature. Four times the power equals four times the destruction and creativity, after all, even if it can be difficult trying to keep your group together with all the distractions on offer.

  You'll spend days searching for orbs, performing side missions, roaming the city looking for inventive ways to cause carnage, and playing out the main campaign as a solo Agent. You'll spend even more time doing it with friends. And that's before you get down to tackling the 16 player multiplayer modes online. Prepare to lose yourself all over again in the unique virtual playground that is Pacific City.

  GAME's Verdict

  

  • Fantastic skill-based progression.
  • Excellent co-op gameplay.
  • Pure unadulterated action.

  

  • It might feel a little too familiar to Crackdown veterans.
  • Some overcrowded locations can feel a bit samey.
  • Territory missions aren't as strategic as the original's gang encounters.

  Review by: Tom 'Roof Jumper' Ivan
  Version Tested: Xbox 360
  Review Published: 08.07.10

  Published: 08/07/2010

• Crackdown 2 Review

  Welcome back, Agent!

  Get ready to take to the rooftops once more: it's time to return to Pacific City. Crackdown 2 sees the classic open-world action game looking better than ever, with four-player co-op, new multiplayer modes, dozens of new guns and gadgets to muck about with and - best of all - 500 more of those pesky green Agility Orbs to track down and collect.

  The years have not been kind to Pacific City. A decade has passed since the events of the first Crackdown, and the place has taken a bit of a battering. Super-mutants known as Freaks have reduced the streets and buildings to a shambles, most of the population has died or been run out of town, and there's a militant terrorist organisation on the loose. They're named the Cell, they're armed to the teeth, and they blame the Agency for everything that's gone wrong.

  Playing as the first Agent brought back online after chaos broke out, it's your job to regain control of the populace. That means you'll need to hit each faction where it hurts: reclaiming tactical strongholds from the Cell by shooting it out with them at specific drop zones flung around the streets of Pacific City, and finishing off the Freaks by getting a network of Absorption Units back online, and then heading into their underground lairs to burn the mutants out with powerful sunlight bombs known as Beacons.
  

  Orb-viously brilliant

  It's frantic stuff, providing far more set-piece fire fights than the assassination laundry list offered by the first game ever could, and it's race-tuned to be played with friends, too. When the screen starts to fill with literally hundreds of enemies, you know it's time to head online with three co-op Agents and give the Freaks a righteous shoeing.

  When the missions are over, this being Crackdown, there are still plenty of things for you to do. Level up your character until they're a virtual superhero leaping over entire buildings and causing huge explosions with a single bullet, test out crazy new weaponry such as the UV Shotgun, which can blast Freaks hundreds of feet into the air, and nip around in a range of brand new vehicles, ranging from the Agency Super-Car, which accelerates like an FI prototype, to the brand new SUV, capable of taking back the highways with its giant tyres and gleaming bulk. There are even options to let you take to the skies in a brand new wingsuit and an unlockable chopper. It's exciting stuff, and the cars, guns, and brutal new attack moves are all great.
  

  Blasting back

  Sadly the game's competitive multiplayer options can't match the fun offered by co-op, however. With deathmatch, team deathmatch, and a new mode called Rocket Tag, that sees you escaping from hordes of rivals all of whom wield rocket launchers, there's plenty of enjoyment to be had, but there isn't enough variety to keep you playing for very long, and if you're used to the perks, unlockables, and XP of games like Modern Warfare, you're going to be disappointed by the absence of any of that here.

  Multiplayer aside, however - and if you're willing to overlook the fact that the game isn't the prettiest thing you'll see this year - this latest Xbox 360 exclusive delivers brilliantly.

  The campaign's much meatier this time around, the urge to scour every inch of the city to pick up all those Agility Orbs has never been stronger, and there are so many new ways to blow things up and cause chaos. Everything you heard is right: Crackdown 2 is a blast.

  

  Boom
  + A huge playground.
  + Great weapons and gadgets.
  + 500 new Agility Orbs!

  Bust
  - Could be prettier to look at.
  - Limp multiplayer modes.
  - Why can't we have 1000 new Agility Orbs?

• Crackdown 2 Preview

  Time to Crackdown

  Pacific City is a burnt out shell of its former self. Buildings, bridges and motorways look battered and broken. Fires burn inside tower blocks. Terrorists battle against the authorities ? in the form of The Agency - for control of key positions in the city. Law-abiding citizens try to avoid going outside at night as the streets become overrun by blood-thirsty mutated freaks. To say the place has fallen on hard times is an understatement; Pacific City is hell on earth.

  Of course, all of this means that you will have an even better time hurtling around inside Crackdown 2?s dystopian metropolis than you did in the original Crackdown. Developed by Ruffian Games, who picked up the franchise when Realtime Worlds moved on to new things, Crackdown 2 builds on the impressive foundations laid in place by its predecessor and then cranks everything else up to 11.

  Chaos, Carnage and Orbs.

  The game?s main draw ? as was the case with the first Crackdown ? is the unbridled sense of freedom it offers. As an Agent - the game?s cyber-enhanced supercop ? you have very few limits placed on your actions. You can scale the side of skyscrapers, leap from building to building, grab a vehicle and floor it through the city?s streets and ? most fun of all ? unleash carnage at the drop of a hat.

  Furthermore, the more mayhem you cause, the more the game rewards you for it. As you shoot, punch and kick your way through Pacific City, you will collect orbs either dotted around the map or that bubble up out of the corpse of your latest victim. These orbs increase your character?s abilities; they?ll be able to jump higher, target enemies more accurately, dole out more damage with each attack and heft vehicles and hurl them at their foes.

  More toys, more enemies, more fun

  With the Crackdown core experience wisely kept in place, Ruffian Games have skilfully added some new features that improve on the template without sacrificing an ounce of player freedom. The first of these is a plot which lends the game?s main objective ? ?kill all the freaks and terrorists? ? a depth that its predecessor never had. Pacific City now has two new enemies to replace the crime syndicates from the first game. On the one side is The Cell ? a self-proclaimed freedom fighter group battling against the authorities ? and on the other are The Freaks ? nocturnal mutants who can be burned by UV light.

  The game?s main objective involves setting off a giant weapon called ?Project Sunburst?, which will use UV bombs to wipe out The Freaks. In order to activate it, you need to capture and realign radar dishes ? currently controlled by The Cell ? which transmit the coordinates of the Freak Hives. Once this is done, you infiltrate a Hive, call in a UV bomb and then have to defend against waves of Freaks while it arms itself and detonates.
  

  i-MAG-ination is key

  If this all sounds a bit more convoluted than simply wiping out core members of a crime cartel, don?t worry. Ruffian?s plot underpins the ?skills for kills? action subtly, never becoming a barrier to Crackdown 2?s central gameplay. What?s more, Ruffian has produced some brilliant new toys to help you get stuck into the action. The Agency has a lot of new additions to its arsenal ? such as Turret Guns, Harpoon Guns, Rocket Launchers and UV Shotguns ? as well as its fleet of vehicles. Supercars, trucks and SUVs make a return, but are now joined with buggies, helicopters and tanks.

  There are also a couple of wonderful devices that award more creative players. Top among them is the MAG grenade; you can use two of these to create a magnetic field which can then be used for all sorts of chaotic attacks. You can latch onto helicopters for a high-flying shooter action or even string two MAG grenades together at street level and slingshot cars at opponents. Agents also have access to the Glide-Suit which uses a series of thrusts and boosts to extend hang-time between jumps, allowing you to glide through Pacific City?s skyline.

  You are the law

  All told, Crackdown 2 delivers a punched-up experience that makes playing its predecessor feel slightly restrained. Like all the best sequels, Crackdown 2 offers more content and more action to players without losing sight of what made the franchise a hit in the first place. Time to suit up, Agent. Pacific City needs to feel the long arm of the law once again. And if the hand of that arm happens to be holding a Gatling Gun, so much the better.
  

• Crackdown 2 developers hard at work again

  Crackdown 2 developers hard at work again

  Remember Ruffian Games, the Dundee-based developer of the brilliant Xbox 360 exclusive Crackdown 2? What with the game's barnstorming release last summer, the team has been a bit quiet of late, but now they've just announced they're hard at work on new games. Yep, games plural.

  According to a blog post - thanks, Eurogamer - the developer said it's cracking on - sorry - with two new games, and it describes them as "high action, visceral titles," that are "heavily focused on online."

  "Rather boringly as is the case for most nascent projects we're unable to talk about them in any detail right now," apologises studio head Gaz Liddon, before signing off.

  Let the speculation begin! Crackdown 2 was a huge hit, which suggests that there's a good possibility that one of those new games would be Crackdown 3. The series, which casts you as an acrobatic agent mopping up crime in a futuristic city is both high action and visceral, and with four-player co-op in the last game, it would be great to see a further emphasis on online play.

  Maybe there's a new Crackdown on the way, and maybe there isn't, then. As for the second game, however, we can only wait and see.

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