So, I played Crackdown 2 this morning. I’ve been looking forward to this game since long before it was announced, and even though I’ve always known it’d be more of the same, I haven’t once considered that a bad thing. Anyway, it’s time for some more patented Jimpressions!
As you can tell from the demo, Ruffian’s definitely taken the “not broke, don’t fix” approach, with a game that looks, plays and feels exactly like its predecessor. I do have to say that, from the outset, it feels considerably more difficult. Enemies are highly aggressive and come in their multitudes. The first one could be pretty challenging, but this demo put up a hell of a fight. That’s by no means a criticism, either. It’s good to be stressed out by a game sometimes, and I definitely felt the pressure.
It’s been a long time since I played Crackdown, but it still feels so damn good to be an Agent. Huge jumps, superhuman strength, and endless bullets are all on the menu, along with those God damn Agility Orbs. Targeting feels a little off, as the Agent can sometimes auto-target something you’d really rather not shoot, and close combat could have used an improvement, but otherwise it’s looking damn fine.
Crackdown 2 definitely looks like Crackdown but bigger, and I am very cool with that. We’ll have a review coming soon, but check out the demo on Xbox Live to get your own feel for it!