goldenpp72
Member
Here is my personal review of crackdown 2, keep in mind I got every achievement in the original and most in this sequel (missing a few odd ends now) so I do have a great grasp of the series.
Crackdown 2 is a very worthy addition to the series, while it might not have a brand new setting, it does a great job of reusing its setting and adding a lot of things that the original needed. If you're only interested in blowing through the campaign missions, this might not be a game worth the money for you, but if you're interested in doing all there is to do, you won't be able to do it all in under 30 hours time.
Crackdown 1 made achievements fun, to a point. Instead of having cliche kill 100 of this or whatever, it added a great amount of things that are fun to do. The problem is that it poorly managed them. You can get up to 499 orbs, with no way to even hint at where the last one is, crackdown 2 remedies this in many ways, it tells you where the vertical location of any orbs in your proximity when you hit up on the dpad, it has a map showing all the ones you have, and list how many you have out of whatever number in each island. This applies to all things, road races and the like are now able to be distinguished on the map as finished or not, stunt rings and all things are listed on your map instead of cryptically hidden, basically, in crackdown 1 it was a chore to play sometimes, in crackdown 2 they leave the fun to DOING the act rather than aimlessly looking around forever.
Aside that, there is a better flow to the game, in crackdown 1 all the armories were up high and the only way to access (or store) a vehicle was to redundantly track back to the agency tower, even with being able to regenerate there it was still a hassle. Now, there are locations scattered all throughout the game to deposit weapons, cars, and of course, withdraw any car or weapon you have available to you, making the flow VASTLY better.
Additions like the helicopter, wing suit, 4 player co op (which runs brilliant where as the original had trouble with just 2 people) and yes, even the 16 player multiplayer, are all worthwhile additions (with the multiplayer being the least relevant but not bad to dabble in)
Basically, post game crackdown 1 was great but frustrating to manage, post game crackdown 2 you feel empowered and know exactly what options you have at all times, it's so well laid out and organized that getting every achievement is fun and should be the goal for all players.
Other nice additions include a cool song for rooftop races, more vehicles, more weapons, and (subjective I know) better graphics. The deep colors mixed with the gritty world are appealing. The addition of the freaks is also welcome, mindless cannon fodder for your new insane weapons, it makes for a totally different ball game than the more intelligent and dangerous humans.
Now comes the campaign structure, I have to say that i do agree that the main campaign is a bit less fun than in the original, where as in the original you only had one style of objective, they were laced in more interesting ways using levels as actual set pieces, crackdown 2 has a more open world format to it's structure which is ok but not as compelling. While you do have 3 objectives rather than 1, it feels a bit more tedious.
Co op is also much more fun, from wing suit flying, co op orbs, more open world objectives, helicopters, it just feels a lot more meaningful to play co op in this game rather than the more aimless original. It's also worth noting that the story is much better in this game in terms of presentation, the original had some shitty cutscenes mixed with a stupid ending, this game has a couple cool fmv scenes and the audio diaries make for a more complex plot, it's not really a GOOD story but beyond the joke that was the originals.
Overall, I would give this a solid 8, the same score i'd give the original at it's time, if you buy crackdown 2 or own it already, I implore you to try and go for all the achievements if you want to see what significant changes the developers actually did for the better. It's truly a far better experience in that regard and no where near as frustrating. Going for them adds substance to the game by directing you to the various aspects the game offers.
I also think many people unfairly compared crackdown 1 final to crackdown 2 vanilla, dlc added a lot to the original and I bet it will do that here as well. While I would change some things (make the chopper easier to get to, fix some bugs and framerate hitches, add more objectives and tweak the aiming a lot) the overall experience is great for completionist and co op fans
There is much more to say but i'll leave all that alone, cd2 is a flawed game just like the original, but has a much smarter overall structure for those willing to dig into all that can be done.
Crackdown 2 is a very worthy addition to the series, while it might not have a brand new setting, it does a great job of reusing its setting and adding a lot of things that the original needed. If you're only interested in blowing through the campaign missions, this might not be a game worth the money for you, but if you're interested in doing all there is to do, you won't be able to do it all in under 30 hours time.
Crackdown 1 made achievements fun, to a point. Instead of having cliche kill 100 of this or whatever, it added a great amount of things that are fun to do. The problem is that it poorly managed them. You can get up to 499 orbs, with no way to even hint at where the last one is, crackdown 2 remedies this in many ways, it tells you where the vertical location of any orbs in your proximity when you hit up on the dpad, it has a map showing all the ones you have, and list how many you have out of whatever number in each island. This applies to all things, road races and the like are now able to be distinguished on the map as finished or not, stunt rings and all things are listed on your map instead of cryptically hidden, basically, in crackdown 1 it was a chore to play sometimes, in crackdown 2 they leave the fun to DOING the act rather than aimlessly looking around forever.
Aside that, there is a better flow to the game, in crackdown 1 all the armories were up high and the only way to access (or store) a vehicle was to redundantly track back to the agency tower, even with being able to regenerate there it was still a hassle. Now, there are locations scattered all throughout the game to deposit weapons, cars, and of course, withdraw any car or weapon you have available to you, making the flow VASTLY better.
Additions like the helicopter, wing suit, 4 player co op (which runs brilliant where as the original had trouble with just 2 people) and yes, even the 16 player multiplayer, are all worthwhile additions (with the multiplayer being the least relevant but not bad to dabble in)
Basically, post game crackdown 1 was great but frustrating to manage, post game crackdown 2 you feel empowered and know exactly what options you have at all times, it's so well laid out and organized that getting every achievement is fun and should be the goal for all players.
Other nice additions include a cool song for rooftop races, more vehicles, more weapons, and (subjective I know) better graphics. The deep colors mixed with the gritty world are appealing. The addition of the freaks is also welcome, mindless cannon fodder for your new insane weapons, it makes for a totally different ball game than the more intelligent and dangerous humans.
Now comes the campaign structure, I have to say that i do agree that the main campaign is a bit less fun than in the original, where as in the original you only had one style of objective, they were laced in more interesting ways using levels as actual set pieces, crackdown 2 has a more open world format to it's structure which is ok but not as compelling. While you do have 3 objectives rather than 1, it feels a bit more tedious.
Co op is also much more fun, from wing suit flying, co op orbs, more open world objectives, helicopters, it just feels a lot more meaningful to play co op in this game rather than the more aimless original. It's also worth noting that the story is much better in this game in terms of presentation, the original had some shitty cutscenes mixed with a stupid ending, this game has a couple cool fmv scenes and the audio diaries make for a more complex plot, it's not really a GOOD story but beyond the joke that was the originals.
Overall, I would give this a solid 8, the same score i'd give the original at it's time, if you buy crackdown 2 or own it already, I implore you to try and go for all the achievements if you want to see what significant changes the developers actually did for the better. It's truly a far better experience in that regard and no where near as frustrating. Going for them adds substance to the game by directing you to the various aspects the game offers.
I also think many people unfairly compared crackdown 1 final to crackdown 2 vanilla, dlc added a lot to the original and I bet it will do that here as well. While I would change some things (make the chopper easier to get to, fix some bugs and framerate hitches, add more objectives and tweak the aiming a lot) the overall experience is great for completionist and co op fans
There is much more to say but i'll leave all that alone, cd2 is a flawed game just like the original, but has a much smarter overall structure for those willing to dig into all that can be done.
