Game Review: Crackdown 2

Billy O'Keefe - Mclatchy -Tribune News Service

For: Xbox 360

From: Ruffian Games/Microsoft

ESRB Rating: Mature (blood and gore, strong language, violence)

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Conventional wisdom would suggest that while "Crackdown's" combination of open-world freedom and superhuman powers made it a deserving cult sensation in 2007, enough has happened since for more of the same to not be enough. "Infamous" and "Prototype" trotted out similar ideas with deeper storylines, "Assassin's Creed" sped up rooftop bounding with its parkour controls, "Just Cause 2" blew the roof off the limits of verticality, and "Red Faction: Guerrilla" raised the environmental destruction bar considerably.

But in all that time, and with respect to all those games, none of them really went head-on with the little things that made "Crackdown" so uniquely awesome. "Crackdown 2" is more of the same with sprinkles on top, but it so perfectly nails everything the first game - and only that game - did right.

It'd better, too, because a lot of it might as well be the first game. "Crackdown's" nearly non-existent storyline has been upgraded to threadbare here, but the objective - kill the evildoers - is identical. The last game's ending carries over, and the mutants that began populating Pacific City in "Crackdown" are now overflowing the geographically-altered city during "Crackdown 2's" nighttime hours. A single, monstrous gang patrols the streets during the day, and players once again take orders from a bloodthirsty and completely hilarious narrator at The Agency. (Yes, it's called The Agency. Threadbare, see.)

Just as they did last time, players gradually increase their abilities - from jumping distance to ammo expertise to driving acumen - by utilizing those abilities in the game, and players who max out those abilities will outrun cars, jump (or, new to the sequel, glide via a wingsuit) clean over buildings, equip grenades capable of detonating block-wide chain reactions and gain access to some amazing modes of transportation.)

In other words, everything practically is as it was three years ago. The enemy A.I. hasn't evolved, with the gangs still fighting like meatheads and the freaks just plowing forward in extreme numbers. The upgrade system feels mostly the same. The optional pursuit of collectable orbs (500 perched atop structures, 300 hidden away, and a few that actually run away or only activate during co-op sessions) feels mostly the same. Even the highly imperfect targeting system from "Crackdown" returns with no significant improvements made.

But while the amazing level of disinterest Ruffian Games shows in evolving the "Crackdown" formula almost certainly should reflect poorly on "Crackdown 2," a typical game session often delivers more than enough arguments in favor of not breaking what no other game since has outdone. "Crackdown 2's" control schemes for running, jumping and driving feel magnificently responsive, and while the weapon targeting definitely could be better, the system in place offers enough upside to justify its presence. The game offers tremendous freedom almost from the start, and the sum total of all the firepower, horsepower, geography and Agency-given talent adds up to an experience that's shallow but explosively, tremendously fun.

Like its predecessor, "Crackdown 2" allows players to carry on with or without other players in their world, and the customizable four-player dynamic co-op emphatically improves on "Crackdown's" barebones two-player support. "Crackdown 2" also offers 16-player competitive multiplayer for maximum chaos, but while its fun in small does, the element of open-world teamwork and anything-goes ingenuity falls away when everyone's sole focus is on killing everyone else.

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