http://www.gamersplot.com/content/reviews/_/shooters/ Thu, 09 Sep 2010 01:59:25 +0000 43200 A shooter game focuses primarily on combat involving projectile weapons, such as guns and missiles. They can be divided into first-person and third-person shooters, depending on the camera perspective. http://www.gamersplot.com/content/reviews/_/shooters/third-person-shooter-tps/crackdown-2-r6



Crackdown 2 picks up a few years after the original. After defeating all the gangs of Pacific City, a virus has broken out from the Shi-Gen gang when it was destroyed. Not long after facing serious accusations of corruption, a resistance group called the Cell is formed to combat the Agency. However at this point the virus outbreak has gotten so bad, the streets have been over run, and the entire city is now a war zone for all 3 sides. With the agency losing it’s grasp on the whole situation, they bring back agency agents one last time to regain control of the city.



The core elements of the game, just as it was in the last one, remains the same. Powering up your agents abilities to their full potential. Whether that be by jumping around collecting the highly addicting agility orbs, or battling the evil groups of Cell and the freaks, or using explosives and driving. New elements such as driving orbs that you can only get while driving, and moving agility orbs, both give you point boots to their respective stats.



Since this is true, the story, however, does take a back to seat to everything else. Especially with the different objectives in the game. All the “missions” just feel as though they are nothing more but excuses to up your agent’s power. The major plot really get’s pushed more through collecting audio logs scattered throughout the city, than rather going to a certain point and completing the objective. To be honest, I enjoyed the original crackdowns story push more. Because after beating major bosses, it showed the effect, at least through a watchable cut scene, and gave you the feeling you were accomplishing something. Having this new company take that out and replacing it with the audio logs does make the story a little less engaging. However that being said, the audio logs are very well done. The voice acting in the game is good, and the voice of the agency that talks while you play is better than ever in this game.



Game play can be very hit and miss at times. Which is a shame, because when it’s working, the game is great! When it’s not, it’s frustrating. More than several occasions I would look at a ridiculously large freak monster that towers over me, aim at him and hold the lock on button for accurate shots, and for some reason my agent would turn around and lock on to an explosive or smaller freak a few yards behind me. I’ve lost many objectives not because I wasn’t aware of a threat, but because I WAS aware, and the aiming system wouldn’t allow me to aim at the correct target. This lead to me to stop playing and taking a break before the disk found a new home in my street. While after calming down from my 10th failed try, and eventually beating it, I do find an issue with games that force players to not play because of basic issues. If a game wants to be considered “good,” it should never have a reason for you to put it down because you’re getting tired of an annoying problem with it. However the aiming issue only really showed up and became a major problem during the much larger and time cruncher parts. So at times it can be either be a minor nuisance, or a game breaking issue. With that being said, crackdown 1 had the same issue, and while I’m sad it wasn’t improved, in the world of major’s and minors, the aiming can be considered a minor. You can still have more than plenty of fun with this game. Jumping rooftop to rooftop is always fun in it’s own right. The action is huge, explosive, and causing a 20 car pileup in the center of town and detonating it never gets old! Achievements here can be pretty easy to net as well…



In the multiplayer world, the game now features an online multiplayer with the usual team deathmatch and what they call rocket race. While deathmatch is self explanatory, rocket race is where one player collects an orb, and avoids being killed by all the other players who have rocket launchers. A kind of Crackdown’s version of Oddball. If competitiveness is not your thing, there is also up to 4 player co-op. If you set a game up for it, you can have 4 friends, 4 random players, or a mixture of both, to team up in the world of Pacific city and either complete objectives or just go crazy. The best part is you can bring your specific agent into anyone’s co-op game. So if you just spent 15 hours straight upping your agents power to his max (don’t forget there’s something else out there called women that are fun too), you can bring that agent over to a friend’s co-op game and have all his bad ass ability make your online friend feel jealous.



In the end, the only real way to sum up Crackdown 2 is to simply say, its crackdown. There are some new weapons, some new faces, but at it’s core, it’s the same game. Keep in mind that’s not a bad thing! Crackdown 1 was fun! Popping in this disk you’ll feel right at home! Think of it as the same awesome game with more options. So if you’re a fan, you don’t have to worry about being disappointed. You’ll get your monies worth of enjoyment. While it is more of the same fun, it is still more of the same. Again, all joking aside, the same old issues are there. If they didn’t pose a huge issue for you before, then they won’t here either. It’s just good old fashion crazy fun! May not be a game of the year type deal with ground breaking new features, but if your look’n for some just down right, good old fashion Arnold Schwarzenegger action, you won’t be disappointed. Now, where’d I leave my car? There’s another old lady try’n to cross the street… and I need just 10 more driving points…

-the incredible NightHawk]]> Sat, 21 Aug 2010 00:38:13 +0000 19ca14e7ea6328a42e0eb13d585e4c22