Crackdown 2 was developed by Ruffian Games and published by Microsoft. The original Crackdown came out in 2007 to a moderate amount of fanfare and preceded promptly to become a cult classic and a denizen of bargain bins everywhere. Despite the first entry in the series being developed by Real Time Worlds, many of the people involved at Ruffian were also integral in the development of the first and it shows.

Not much at all has changed from the first installment. Instead of fighting gangs, you fight terrorists or zombies. Instead of assaulting gang strongholds, you assault terrorist strongholds or zombie breaches. What is different is the background narrations and animations for the gang leaders are gone. They have been replaced by audio logs which I'm sure costs an awful lot less to producer. There wasn't much of a plot in the first, and there is certainly a lot less in the second.

Pacific City, where all the action takes place, has been in a downward spiral since the events of the first game. A terrorist cell called Cell (how clever) has risen to fight the corrupt Agency. A mysterious virus has began infecting the populous and turning them into "freaks" (read zombies) who also don't like sunlight (vampire zombies?). As a new genetically engineered Agent of the Agency you are the only one who can save the city from said terrorists and zombies. The Agency has also deployed a number of devices that make up the Sunburst System all over Pacific City to aid in eradicating the zombie, I mean freak, threat. Of course they are all captured and controlled by Cell. Your mission is to close the freak breaches, eradicate Cell control of the city and the Sunburst System, and to activate Sunburst nodes to remove the freak infestation.

My favorite aspect of this game is its stunning sense of speed. It has a very arcade like feel to it, and the ease of running, jumping, and driving through the city is actually a ton of fun. The action does unfold at a very frantic pace, and when you are in the heat of things throwing grenades, shooting, punching and having explosions all around you; it can be an adrenaline pumping good time. It is a very unique feeling to a genre that can often be slow and plodding.

My least favorite aspect of this game is the grinding. You have to grind your skills before you can really do any of the cool stuff your avatar is capable of. At the start you can only jump a few feet in the air, and the only way to improve your jump height, and the game, is to find agility orbs that you can only find by jumping. Before you really dig in you have to climb to the rooftops and run around doing nothing but collecting said orbs until your character can jump properly. Ruffian even acknowledges this and taunts you with it by having an agility orb in their company logo.

Crackdown 2 is an open world game in every sense of the word. At the start of the game you can pretty much go anywhere and see anything and everything there is to see in the world of Pacific City. Only problem is there really isn't much to do except kill roughly the same zombies or kill roughly the same terrorists. There are all kinds of different guns, grenades, vehicles, and sections of the city, but it all seems to blur together into a mess of shooting, dying, jumping, realizing you can't get to where you need to go after spending time jumping, killing, being killed, rinse repeat. Your goals don't evolve with your character and despite numbers and skills going up there is no real sense of progression.

If you liked the original Crackdown then it's time to pony up $60 and head down to your local video game retailer because Crackdown 2 is almost exactly the same; flaws and all. If you are like me and thought the first Crackdown had a lot of potential but it was difficult to see through all the faults then you aren't going to be moving to Pacific City any time soon. For some the 12ish hours of mindless run and gun same action may be just what your game library needs. For me, as a games are art nut, I need a little more depth than this shallow title can offer. If you haven't played the first then definitely rent Crackdown 2 before you buy.

Crackdown 2 was developed by Ruffian Games and published by Microsoft on July 6^th exclusively for the XBox 360. A copy of the game was provided by the publisher for review purposes.