Reviewed on Xbox 360. Developed by Ruffian. Published by Microsoft.
The tale of the making of this game is a saga in it’s own right. The first Crackdown came out in in mid 2007 bundled with the Halo 3 multiplayer beta. Once the beta was over, some of those people actually tried the game and found they had a fun superhero game rather than just a lukewarm open-world cop game promised by the demo. Demand for the game, driven initially by the Halo 3 beta, kept ticking over and the game eventually sold over 1.5 million copies. Of course, this slow burn meant Crackdown developers Real-Time Worlds moved on to APB (and their eventual demise) and a new studio, Ruffian, was set up to make a sequel. Ruffian, located close to RTW in Dundee in Scotland, hired several ex-RTW staffers to quickly make the DLC mission pack re-skin expansion pack full priced sequel.
At the end of the original game, there was a twist (of sorts) but here we are back in the same Pacific City ten years later. In the years since you cleaned out the three gangs terrorising the place, a resistance group called The Cell have taken over large chunks of the city, broadcasting propaganda and shooting at you as you go about running your agility orb collection business. Also, a plague has created the zombie-like Freaks that swarm the city during night time hours. You play as a new agent backed up by the dulcet tones of Crackdown Guy (he also plays almost the same role in Red Faction: Guerrilla) whose job is to clear up Pacific City. Again.
Like the first game, you have 500 agility orbs to collect and can level up other stats by driving, using melee attacks, etc. There are also the rooftop races and car races to help with stat-building. Later on your agent can even glide and this ability can be levelled up by glider races where you fly through rings. Crackdown was one of those games that catered to OCD by having 500 agility orbs to collect. CD2, whilst being a decent open-world game, is also a decent collectathon if you so wish. There’s the agility orbs, online only co-op orbs, hidden orbs and, in taking ironically a pointer from inFamous, audio logs which flesh out the fiction of Pacific City. There are types of renegade orbs, which are orbs that move away from you forcing you chase after them if you want to collect them.
Instead of the three gangs whose bosses you are looking to take down, you have the Freaks and the Cell. The Cell are in charge during the day and Freaks play after dark and the game is structured so you take on both. The cure for the freaks is Project Sunburst, which involves you powering up the network of nodes in each area so that you can enter a Freak lair (typically underground) and face the horde whilst a power beacon (think EMP for Freaks) charges up. If both the beacon and your agent survive the onslaught, the resulting flash will instantly obliterate all traces of Freakdom in the area. You also have to face off against the Cell in their strongholds which amounts to killing x number of enemies without moving too far from the start point. This is the main point of differentiation between the original game and the sequel and it’s one area where the original way is best. You don’t get that element of working your way towards the boss at any stage and the game doesn’t really give you many clues as to your progress without digging around in the menus.
You can upgrade weapons by picking them up from fallen foes and calling in a chopper to save (the closest thing to the safehouses from the original game), and you can do likewise with vehicles. I barely bothered with cars, something I always liked about Crackdown, since the cars aren’t necessary to beat the game, that’s just how I roll. On foot. There’s the assortment of assault rifles, shotguns and machine guns with a few grenade/ rocket launcher weapons as well as standard grenades and mines. There’s also the UV shotgun, harmless to humans, but devastating to Freaks but even better is the harpoon/crossbow which shoots a lethal metal bolt at your foes. There are also mounted turrets around the place you can detach and become walking artillery shooting up the place like something out of a Sam Peckinpah film. Also of note- collateral damage is not something you’re going to find easy to avoid. Just take Crackdown Guy’s remonstrations in your stride. By the end of the game, you will have no choice but to use Rocket Launchers to clear out Cell strongholds and any civvies or peacekeepers who get too close will just have to die. It’s the price of cleaning up the city.
GTAIII and GTAIV are both set in something called Liberty City but they feature different takes on the same place. Pacific City is the same in both CD games, just that in CD2- it’s a little more rundown. Buildings that housed massive gang hideouts are now nearly derelict and it’s kind of cool to see how things have changed. But if you’re someone who’s run through the original more than once (or even just recently), you might find the similarities a bit of a cheat. It doesn’t feel like it’s the same game but it doesn’t feel like a full sequel, more an expansion pack using the same code and assets as the original. It’s not worse than the original, but it does lack that wow that many felt after getting into the original back in 2007.
There’s a strong co-op component to the game- evidenced by the co-op orbs around the place. I found Cameron’s story where, after having just started to play the game he went online and some stranger who was able to get to the final level joined the game and finished Cam’s game for him. I actually find that anecdote to be a good reason for changing your online options to friends only.
The graphics are still in Crackdown’s cel shaded style but the overall look is slightly dated. In it’s favor is the sweeping vistas the game offers when you can literally see forever. Things run at a stable clip and I only once noticed some slowdown in proceedings (others have had it worse). The sound is the same quality as the first game, which is to say, very good. I did, however, find Crackdown guy to be rather verbose this time around. Funnier, but sometimes he just won’t SFTU. He’s also got a bit of a potty mouth this time around, which is fun. The Audio Logs you collect are nice because they give the game some more voices to listen to. Sure, the crowds can get quite chatty, but for the most part you want to hear more than Crackdown Guy talk about online orbs.
Overall it’s fun package and should give you at least 12 hours of fun, which is a decent amount. I say if you like open world games, you’d like Crackdown 2. It’s not an essential game that you simply must play but it is a good one.
Controller1.com rating 2/3
(1/3 if you fear deja vu or 3/3 if you have more than one Commodore 64 in your cupboard)
So after a work-induced week away from gaming last week, I’m back into it. And by it, I mean Crackdown 2.
There’s something about the game that isn’t gelling with me. It’s either open-world fatigue after Just Cause 2, Saboteur, Assassin’s Creed 2, Borderlands, etc or it’s just a little lacklustre compared to the original. For me it’s not the similarity to the original, it’s the lack of similarity that gets me. I loved having to work my way through the waves of gang members before attacking the boss in the original and here, the ‘enhancements’ aren’t as much fun. The games’ fun, it’s just not as compelling. I’m a fair way through the game and fully intend on finishing it soon (certainly before Halo Reach), but I’m not getting the urge to play in the morning before work (my metric for HOLY FUCK THIS GAME IS AWESOME).
I live in Australia and of course, aren’t able to buy the same version of Left 4 Dead 2 as the rest of the world due to classifications issues. A friend gifted it to me after it was more or less being given away by Valve in a sale. I mean they almost paid me to download this game. Somehow receiving the game from someone with a US account means you can DL the normal version in Australia and play it without Zombies disappearing before your eyes.
It’s also a case of too little to add to the first game and I do agree with the critics of L4D’s releases so soon after the original- apart from a few enhancements- why wasn’t this DLC or an expansion like HL2 episodes? The new crew don’t have as much charisma as the original crew and yada yada yada.
Grumpy George continues grumpily with a some Grumpy Theft Auto IV. I’ve perhaps played 90 minutes of the PC version multiplayer- and seem to play once every few weeks. I like a bit of structure. this has none. There are several modes and for some reason they always end up with everyone having Bazookas or Helicopters, even if it’s a race.
So two weeks before Halo: Reach and I’d loooove to play some Halo 3 or ODST in the meantime. Approximately two weeks after H:R turns up, I’m off overseas for a few weeks so chances are I won’t feel like playing Halo when i get back. When you were a kid, did you ever have this thing that any fads or lunchtime activities would always be bookended by holidays? In Year 6 Term 2, everyone was into Marbles but gave up in Term 3. In Year 9, everyone was playing cards on the bus after Easter but that stopped the next holidays.
I therefore expect two weeks of concentrated Halo Reach from mid September. If you hate Halo, this site might be one to avoid till October.
Gaming is full of suprises. As Gomer Pyle would say: “Surprise, surprise, surprise!”
Reviewed on PS3. Developed by Sucker Punch. Published by Sony.
Infamous, in a nutshell, is an amalgamation of Sucker Punch’s earlier Sly Cooper series, infused with a healthy dose of Crackdown and a little Force Unleashed. You play as Cole McGrath, a courier who’s at the heart of a massive energy release in Empire City. Surviving the deadly blast, Cole finds himself infused with super powers the same way warm water is infused with tea leaves. Hmm. Time for a cuppa.
skip ahead 10 minutes
So begins Infamous, with its great comic book style cutscenes and an open world city with game play ripped from Crackdown. You play, gather XP every time you beat a mission, defeat an enemy or perform an act of cruelty or kindness. As you get more XP, you can level up your powers, becoming more and more badass. You can also play good or evil, with the game giving you lots of opportunities to decide on your path. The story, though very well done, drags on a bit longer than you’d like. This is perhaps unavoidable on longish games like this, but what the hey- it’s a fun game. You have a Karma meter which has Infamous on one end and Hero at the other. Kill a pedestrian or drain the life force of a vanquished for, you get evil karma points. Heal a citizen and merely lock up a defeated foe, you get positive karma. There are both good and bad story missions- beating the good mission will lock the bad mission, encouraging multiple playthroughs if you’re into that thing. I always tend to play these games as a good guys since I’m such a cunt in real life.
The game structure is fairly familiar. You start off in one section of the map with the rest blocked, in this case a third of the city and you progress by completing the story missions that appear on your map. There are also side missions which ask you to do things like, remove all surveillance devices off the side of a building, defend an area or clear and area of enemies, pose for photos, etc. These are mostly good missions that enhance your Karma but there are a few evil missions in there as well. More on that later. Each side missions you complete will mark the map in a way so that enemies don’t respawn in that area so there is a very real reward for side missions since in some areas you can’t walk down the street without some asshole shooting at you. All of the collectibles are woven into story so there are no blue orbs floating arbitrarily at the top of a building. There are blast shards you collect to up your electrical storage (fragments of the device that explodes at the start of the game).
Its an open world but not really a sand box. You don’t drive cars so vehicular stunts are out but you can climb almost anywhere within the map if that’s your thang. And I mean almost anywhere and straight out of the box. Your climbing powers are pretty much the same from the start, you just get the gliding ability later. Want to climb up that building now? You don’t have to wait until your level is maxed out in Infamous. You can climb up most buildings just by tapping X a lot. A lot. For a game that’s not about climbing, Sucker Punch didn’t make the climbing a limiting factor in the game play. Some areas require special attention to climbing (like in Uncharted) but these are very much in the minority. You can go where you like in most cases.
Your powers are what the game is about. You start off just shooting electricity as your ranged attack and a simple melee attack for CQC. Since the powers are based on power, you will need to restore underground substations in each area to progress. These conveniently hold the key to you gaining new powers so you will need to do these a lot in order to beat the game. Its funny how some of the powers you have in the demo are those you would have fairly late in the game. You do get one power that slightly overpowering but you do get that so late in the game that its not like the gravity gun in HL2 where you just have a win button. It also doesn’t help against the final boss.
On criticism is that the game does have some annoying boss fights with specific methods required to defeat them, which is where Crackdown shines- the rules are the same. You just shoot them more in the 360 game- you use the same rules as the rest of the game. AI in the game is another mixed bag with NPC’s with pathfinding, both good and bad. But then you’re in world where the equivalent of a small nuke has gone off and everyone is just going about their business as if nothing as happened. There can be major battles going on and the citizens of Empire city are not running and hiding, panicking as they soil their pants in terror- they are just milling around, walking into your zone of fire.
Graphically the game is a mixed bag. With its fantastic comic book-style cutscenes, the game has a boold style. But then you get in-game cutscenes with horrendous models with off lighting. The animation is definitely very ordinary. Its adequate, but you can’t call it good. Sound is quite well done with very good voice acting from the cast. Cole McGrath has a 50 a day habit by the sound of him. Must make being a bike courier hard.
So Infamous. The best PS3 game since MGS4. Its better than Resistance 2, Motorstorm 2, Little Big Planet and Killzone 2. Its the type of game you would buy a PS3 for.
Controller1.com rating 3/3
After returning from a holiday and trying three different local stores, I finally found a copy of inFamous. This morning I have been having a great time playing it and feeling kinda sad for Prototype. Its also killed any chance I had of ever replaying Crackdown. Infamous is better in some ways. Its making Protoype look like an also ran and Uncharted 2 look limited by comparison. Sly Cooper 4 Infamous also has its problems, such as really ordinary animation but overall its probably the best PS3 game so far this year, easily eclipsing Killzone 2 for fun.
Its a free roaming game set in an open world where you play as a guy who has suddenly developed all of these cool powers, mostly to do with Electricity. You don’t shoot guns, you discharge electricty and you consume electricity in order to fire off more electricity. The guy’s got some serious rubber shoes on his feet and its a lucky thing his head is shavd otherwise he’d be a dead ringer for one of the Jackson 5 circa 1974. Infamous has everything Crackdown has apart from a Halo 3 beta invite.
So if you like Crackdown like controller1.com’s very own Cameron, you will like infamous. So what does Infamous do better and what does it not do as well?
Better than Crackdown:
Movement and climbing is so easy and therefore fun. You don’t feel like you’re fighting the controls (as you do in the god-awful-to-control Prince of Persia). It manages to make Assassin’s Creed movement seem clunky (which was one of its better features) and now I feel Uncharted 2 will feel more restrictive during its platforming sections after the total freedom afforded in Infamous. Of course, restricting movements to paths is a gameplay decision. Infamous doesn’t make platforming difficult since its not a platformer- you just need to get places and the game doesn’t make it too hard to do that.
Story: The actual storyline is more involving that Crackdown’s simple “cleaning up the streets” mantra. It also has fantastic comic book style cinematics (even if they are just a modern version of those flat cardboard rod-puppets children have)
Not as good Crackdown:
The in-game animation is really, really ordinary. Even bad in places. Combat is a bit less fun (at least initially). This Sly Cooper in a new skin. Really. Not a bad thing but oh boy is it obvious the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.
You have the time-trials and equivalent of the agility orb hunting as well, though they are more neatly integrated into the story, rather than just being collectibles. So play this while we wait for Crackdown 2. I would hope the guys at Ruffian games have a good look at this
This is really the best PS3 only game since MGS4 (yes better than KZ2, Resistance 2, Little Big Planet, Singstar AB- huh?). If you have a PS3 and don’t have this game yet, what are you waiting for and if you don’t have a PS3, it means you haven’t played this, MGS4 or Uncharted. I hear there’s a price cut brewing around the launch of Madden 2010
Its like Crackdown but its not crackdown. See how many times Crackdown can be mentioned in a 25 minute podcast
that’s not about Crackdown.
