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Crackdown 2 Details Get Upgraded

Written by Aaron Mitchell | Wednesday, 16 September 2009 01:09

crackdown2

After a pretty exciting debut at E3 with a nifty gameplay free trailer Crackdown 2 seemed to fade away from the scene, with nary a screenshot nor concept art to show. The first Crackdown was an early and largely ignored gem of a game combining GTA styled driving and shooting with urban exploration and super powers way before Prototype and infamous were motes in the eyes of fanboys.

The standout features of the game were the groovy Agency equipment you had access to including morphing super cars and the coop gameplay that let you and a friend go on crazy car tossing rampages. The first DLC expanded on both these features giving you even  groovier equipment and vehicles and a whole host of coop challenges. A mate and I spent more than a few nights racing trucks with civilians pinned to the doors with a spear gun. Good times.

The best news about Crackdown 2 is that the coop has been expanded to four players and vehicles, which previously had passengers sitting bored and unable to even fire out the window, will now feature elements like weapon turrents to get in on the action.  The melee combat has also been expanded beyond the repetitive super kick from the first game to several different moves. Hopefully they take a note from Batman's freeflow fighting gameplay, that's a fighting mechanic that would work wonders in a sandbox game.

 

crackdown2a

I am a super cop, I give out super tickets and eat only the superest of doughnuts

A few things will stay the same though. Crackdown will take place in the same city with the same general geography. Although the war that has broken out between The Agency, regular citizens and crazy mutants (like crazy Russians, only mutated) has reshaped the skyline a bit. All the original agency vehicles and weapons will return, plus a few new ones including a helicopter. Fingers crossed for an Agency morphing motorbike. There’s also talk of a 16 player deathmatch game that sees two teams of super powered warriors dukeing it out and there's mention in the press release of dynamic events that mention ‘giant critters’ but no more elaboration than that.

If you've never played Crackdown and are looking for something to bide your Xbox time until your summer blockbuster of choice releases Crackdown is worth picking up to give yourself a taster of the sequel. If you're a ridiculously cheap penny pinching grinch you can also download the demo for the original that gives you a time limit in which to tear up the city. Good fun.

It’s good to finally get some solid info on Crackdown 2. Now some screenshots would be most welcome.