QnD quick review: Crackdown 2 (Xbox 360)

Price: 13.99 eur

Where: Play.com

A couple of years ago (or maybe three) came out an open world game called Crackdown (or Riot Act, like my JAP region free version was called).

It didn't include anything really new, except maybe the collection of agility, hidden, etc orbs that were sprinkled around the city in various hard to get locations, some impossible to get  until you had collected enough of the said orbs and got your agility up (as it governs how far and how high you can jump).

The game had all kinds of goofy achievements; like "juggling" a car in the air for several seconds with explosives, blowing up certain number of cars in one go, etc.

All in all; good fun and not that much originality.


Now it's 2010 and the same studio is out with the sequel. What has changed? Well, not much.

The orbs are still there, the the skills still advance by you using them, the buildings are still high and there's lots to blow up, shoot, maim and destroy.

Added are the "infected" (read: "zombies" from "28 days later"). By day the city is full of normal citizen, peace keepers and gangers, but by night the citizens are replaced by blood-hungry, zombie-like infected.

Instead of battling against the various gangs and trying to kill their leaders, this time around you're battling the infected by fixing up a series of beacons that can kill them by light. Yeah, they're severely allergic to light. So much so that they'll explode when exposed. Thank goodness they don't glow in it... ;P

All the while the only "gang" left, The Cell, is running interference (they're the guys that broke the damn beacons and their power generators in the first place, and are now guarding them). You can "pacify" things by taking over Cell HQs, fixing things up and taking care of the infected lairs.

All in the day's work for a good-guy agent. Or are you the good guy? There are recording and propaganda radio transmissions flying around that speak of an antidote for the infection - is it right to blow them up after all? Hmm...

The game engine is pretty robust with cartoon-like graphics. Sounds are mostly unnoticeable - in good and in bad. If you have Live Gold you can invite players to your world for co-op matches.

Crackdown 2 can look pretty at times.

But, somehow, it all feels nearly too familiar. There's no real new "gimmick" or new stuff to do. As an open world game, GTA IV beats this one hands down, without any DLCs.

Crackdown 2 is not a bad game, especially if you liked the first one. It's just a little... "uninspired". I paid a whopping 14 eur for it on Play.com, so I can't really complain as at this price it's an OK buy.

Score: 7.5 / 10