A More Serious Iroblog

or, Why I Will Never Use A Numerical Rating System

Opening Remarks

While the primary goal of this post is to review Crackdown 2, I will also be using the game as an example for why I don’t rate things numerically. As it stands, Crackdown 2 holds a very mediocre 71 on Metacritic. I’m not saying that mainstream critics are wrong— in fact, the score is pretty accurate. The apparent amount of effort that Ruffian Games put into Crackdown 2 does not deserve any praise, but at the same time, it is hard to scorn them for what they have produced. I paid $60 for this same game (minus the 2 in the title, and this one doesn’t have a Halo 3 beta) 3 years ago and I dropped another $60 last week; I feel that I have every right to blast this game for being too similar to this predecessor, and yet, I would recommend this game. This recommendation comes with a caveat, though: you have to be capable of having completely mindless fun. If you even try to use your brain while playing this game, it significantly decreases your chances of having any fun with it. If you can’t do that, stay away from Crackdown 2.

Gameplay

Crackdown 2 changes very little from the first game. Your agent has the same five skills: Agility, Strength, Firearms, Explosives, and Driving. Like the original, Agility is still the most fun to level up, with 500 new agility orbs for your collecting pleasure. In addition, the sequel adds “renegade” Agility and Driving orbs. They’re not much different from your regular old orbs, it’s just that they move around annoyingly on a predetermined path. Luckily, there are only 30 or so of each type, because you may find yourself spending 10-20 minutes running around in circles trying to catch one renegade orb— unless you succumb to futility before that. But if you’re a quitter, you better stay right in your weelhouse and quit reading this because this game isn’t for you. The reward for catching renegade orbs is nowhere near worth the effort, especially the level 5 ones, as the extra agility provides no additional benefit at that level. So really, you’re chasing them for the thrill of the hunt. The sense of accomplishment. The achievement points. If you still care about that stuff (it’s 2010, get over yourself). But such is the simple pleasure of Crackdown 2— progress is not a product of feats of skill, but rather a product of perseverance.

Your other skills are leveled up primarily by killing enemies. Strength by beating them with your fists, lamp posts, corpses, cars, and other heavy objects. Firearms by shooting them. Explosives by blowing them up. Driving by running them over, or just by drifting and going off jumps. Whichever you prefer (or for the extra skilled, drifting into a jump into a group of enemies). Additionally, there are hidden orbs all over the city that give you a small boost in every category. New to Crackdown 2 are online orbs that do the same thing as hidden orbs, but can only be collected while playing with others on Live. While this presents itself as a exciting new orb-gathering experience, it really isn’t. The online orbs are extremely easy to find, and it’s more tedious than anything else to orchestrate your fellow agents into collecting them, since you need at least one other agent with you at the orb’s location to get credit for finding it.

The most significantly changed attributes from the first game are Agility and Strength, and even then, not by much. Level 5 Agility comes with a wingsuit that allows you to glide through the air. It also opens up some wingsuit challenges that require you to fly through a series of floating rings, and unlike Superman 64, it is surprisingly difficult and fun. Level 4 Strength unlocks a charge attack that is effective in large groups of enemies and level 5 Strength unlocks a ground pound attack that is also good for clearing out crowds. And talking about enemies that cluster up…

Crackdown 2 has two main groups of enemies: Cell, a terrorist group bent on thwarting the nefarious plans of the Agency, and the Freaks, mutants that had a brief appearance in the first game, which have now spread throughout the city. Since the Freaks die when exposed to UV rays, they only appear at night. In a nutshell, daytime plays like the original Crackdown, while nighttime is reminiscent of Dead Rising. As the game progresses, there are some variation in the types of Freaks you fight— ones that spit acid, ones that can jump onto buildings, and so on— but they never really pose any challenge. Crackdown 2 introduces UV weapons that are especially effective against Freaks, but ultimately, the best way to fight them is to hop in a car and run them over, or if you like it a little more personal than that, jumping into a large group and mashing the B button to beat the shit out of them. If you have level 3 Strength or higher, you can do this with a fallen street lamp as well. I can’t quite put my finger on why fighting the Freaks is any fun, but it has something to do with the satisfaction that comes from ravaging large quantities of humanoids. Like the hero of an action movie you are invincible to the onslaught of enemy forces by virtue of the fact that you are killing them faster than they can attack you. It’s the same urge that compels you to drive on the sidewalks in Grand Theft Auto; perhaps it satisfies a primal desire to cause wanton destruction without any regard for the consequences of your actions. Or maybe I’m a sociopath.

The biggest disappointment in the gameplay is that it isn’t that much different from the predecessor. While the additions are definitely an improvement, I would have liked to see more variety with the missions. There are only about 5 different missions that are repeated in various locations over Pacific city. The same problem existed in the first game, and Ruffian did nothing to correct it. This really impacts the replayability of the game, because once you’re done with the main story you’ll probably be sick of the repetition. That means that the replay value comes mainly from achievement whoring, for however long that holds your attention. It took around 2 years before I got the urge to play the original Crackdown, but unfortunately at that time I had lent the game indefinitely to my friend and moved to Chicago, so I still haven’t gotten the chance to revisit the game until now. And I probably won’t have the urge to play the game again until Crackdown 3 comes out.

Story

Like its predecessor, Crackdown 2’s story is paper thin. It is propagated by short radio communications after you complete missions and recordings that can be found littered across Pacific City. It’s nothing new, especially coming after the predictable surprise twist ending of the first game. Due to the precedent of the first game, the lack of a coherent story is not much of a disappointment. It’s clear that Ruffian desires Crackdown to be a gameplay-driven series, with the story providing more or less an excuse to keep producing more sequels. If it wasn’t obvious from the previous sentence, don’t expect anything too spectacular from the ending of Crackdown 2.

Multiplayer

Talking about replay value, Crackdown 2 allows for 4 agents to band together to frolic around Pacific City. Because it’s a sandbox game, co-op is really only as fun as your company. Other than the online orbs, there aren’t many features that are specific to co-op mode. Though my experience is limited to 2 player co-op, I imagine it’s tons of fun to blow up 3 fellow agents with rocket launchers while they try to do other things like road races or collect agility orbs. Multiplayer is also a good way to speed through the main story; and don’t worry— you won’t miss much if you choose to do so.

There is also an Arena mode that I have not tried out. I assume that its major downfall is the lack of variety in the weapons. I will amend this part of the post when I do get the chance to try it out.

Style

One of the things that I adored about the original Crackdown was the personality that each of the gangs had. There were three sections of the city, one inhabited by a Latin American gang, another by poor post-Communist Eastern Europeans, and the last by a futuristic and corrupt Asian corporation. Each of these sections had citizens and scenery that conformed to their respective personalities, which made the game a lot more interesting. 

None of this is present in the sequel. Cell is more or less a generic terrorist group without any kind of interesting quirk that the gangs of the original game had. Similarly, the citizens are uniform in personality throughout the city, and while they still shout out bizarre things (“Are you, like, alive???”), they have none of the endearing qualities of the original Crackdown citizens. As far as the Freaks go, they’re zombies. Of course they don’t have any personality, nor are they very original as far as enemies go. Hand-in-hand with the inclusion of the Freaks is a scenery change. However, it’s not a significant one— and therein lies the problem. The vibrant scenery of the original game is replaced with dull, dilapidated shells of the old buildings. The least Ruffian could have done is add new sections to the city, but lamentably, there’s nothing new, and the changes made to the predecessor’s setting are undesirable. 

Closing Comments

The apple does not fall far from the tree with Crackdown 2. And it’s hard to blame Ruffian for staying with the formula that made the original game so fun. Perhaps they could have done more, but it’s still a fun game that I do not regret buying. Which returns me to my original point— I will never use numerical ratings. Crackdown 2 deserves the scores that it has been getting, but this game sets itself apart from similarly rated titles, and that is lost by simplifying a review into a single number. The lower score comes mainly from the fact that this game could have been more. But what the game does do, it does well, and for that it gets my recommendation.

7.4/10 Just kidding.