AndyMoogle said:
I have to say though that Crackdown 2 brings out the flaws from Crackdown more clearly.
I agree, and thought I'd use this as a launch pad to detail some thoughts I've had simmering on the topic. There are a number of gameplay systems that Crackdown 2 just carries over from the first game, but because of changes made around them, rather than directly to them, the flaws they had are magnified.
The Camera Is Unsuited to the Game
Crackdown's camera system was pretty rudimentary, a third person camera a fixed distance from the player than can be rotated and angled up or down. It was most effective in wide-open areas, as the distance was ideal for enabling those long jumps with pinpoint landings. Where it was weakest was in close quarters. When the camera came up against an obstacle, such as a building, the camera pulls in close to the player, over the shoulder. Worse, it moves out of the way of the building, pulling over to the side and changing the viewing angle. In corners and against walls, it pulls in so close the player is pushed off the screen entirely. This had the effect of making player orientation difficult to determine, the camera difficult to control (because it's moving on its own as the player moves) and mêlée targets impossible to see.
Crackdown 2 amplifies all of these flaws by creating a more cluttered environment, more closed-in combat spaces and filling them with more targets to engage in close quarters. The Freak lairs in particular are often filled with pillars and other obstacles that cause the camera to have fits when you move past them. This is a huge problem because there are a number of dangerous enemies that have to be kept track of, namely the super Freaks that can knock me down. I ran into countless situations where I'm running away from one in order to get into rocket distance, only to have the camera pull to the side because I passed a pillar, causing me to lose sight of them and not know they had begun a charge I needed to jump over. Since those were often instantly fatal thanks to the rag doll (more on that in a sec), it was a huge issue.
The same problem showed up in numerous other situations, as rubble and transmission towers added to the game all messed with the camera even in relatively open spaces.
One other camera related issue is worth noting. When climbing, any time you grab a ledge the camera returns to center, facing the player's back at shoulder level. This wasn't a huge issue in Crackdown one, since nearly all climbing surfaces were flat; if you grabbed the side of a building, you just jumped up to the next ledge right above you to keep going. In Crackdown 2, the destruction and some altered building designs mean you have to climb up and around outcroppings, and steer your jumps onto ledges that are not right above you. The problem is, you look at your target and hit jump, only to have the camera snap back behind the player. It makes navigating the surfaces difficult. And it's especially maddening when chasing Renegade Agility Orbs; often I had one in my sights, but I'd miss a jump and grab a ledge, which would swing the camera to my back causing me to lose sight of where it went; I had to rely on radar to get going in the right direction.
It's also an issue in mêlée combat, especially Freak packs. Against walls and ledges, the camera will pull to the side and focus on the player, not the target, so I won't be able to see who I'm striking.
My ideal camera would stay facing the direction I point it in, and cut into the environment, making it translucent. MDK2 on the Dreamcast still has the best third person camera I've played in an action game, which is kind of sad.
My Beastly Agent Should Not Crumple Like Tissue Paper When Struck
In the first Crackdown, this only came up when the player was getting nailed with explosives. It was frustrating, but only affected specific situations. In Crackdown 2, Ruffian kept the system, but added new enemies that can 1) knock the player down and 2) keep hitting the player while they're down. On Psychotic difficulty (what I played on), this meant one strike from the super Freaks meant death, as 2-3 blows was enough to kill. I had at least 50 - probably more - deaths caused by being beaten to death while I waited tried to get up from an initial knockdown - from nearly full health. A powerful strike should send the player flying, but recovery must be quick if the enemy has the ability to juggle.
You Can't Make Fun of The First Game's Announcer Unless You Have Fixed Him in the Sequel
I admit, I smiled at the homage to the "I can see my house from here," line in Crackdown. It was a cheerful nod to how inane the Crackdown 1 announcer was. The problem is, the dude in the sequel is even worse. He seems to have a couple of buckets of line types, and most of them spout randomly. He'd tell me what Agility Obs do when I was Level 5 Agility; how to level my Driving skill by completing races when I was in the starting gate to a race; he'd tell me how to capture a supply point when I was working on the 25th one. The man was an idiot (and a newly profane one, at that). Halo, on the Xbox and released in 2001, had thousands of lines of context-specific AI dialog. I expect at least that level of intelligence applied to a game like this, nearly ten years later.
No, I Don't Want to Target the Agency Car, I Want to Target the Guy With the Grenade Launcher
The targeting system in Crackdown wasn't perfect, but it worked. In Crackdown 2, it's both less accurate at identifying targets, and has more of them to pick from. I had situations where I'd be trying to take aim at a sniper on the next building, but pulling the trigger would target some object way off to the side, even though I was aiming right on the sniper. Others, such as the aforementioned car versus grenade launcher dude, had more dire consequences. And with the addition of Freaks into the mix, you just needed to give up targeting entirely. This system needs to be overhauled.
There are other areas, but those were the biggest ones that took away from the game, in my view. I'd mentioned how mêlée combat was hurt in the camera section, but it bears repeating. And as AndyMoogle said, running and jumping took a hit from the clutter and broken surfaces. I really hope that if there's a Crackdown 3 (and I do hope there is one), the core gameplay is worked on, and not just the context we get to employ it in.
Great time, will return for dlc.
