Back when the original Crackdown was released I bought it simply because I was broke and the price tag was right. If I remember correctly the game was released at $20 because it was extraordinarily short and the game developers knew it. I played through the entire campaign to completion in approximately 6 hours. That does not make Crackdown a bad game (see: Portal's two hours of puzzles and it's 10's across the board). In fact, it was one of my favorites. I loved the art direction, the fluidity of movement, the voice acting, everything. When I loaded Crackdown up it was the first time I had seen my xbox produce anything but gritty realism in a long time and it was a welcomed breath of fresh air. So, I'd be excited about Crackdown 2 right? Uh... well...
Zombies... more specifically... infected.
Now, don't get me wrong, a zombie game done well is a thing of beauty. I've been spending most of my time online playing Left4Dead2. I'm just getting the sinking feeling that "an infection spreading across the city" is going to be the crutch to rule them all in the coming years. In the past few months I've shot, hacked, and smashed more zombies than I have in the past 20 years of gaming. Left4Dead, Nazi Zombies (Call of Duty 5), Prototype, Dead Rising, Left4Dead2, and now a super-cop based sandbox game?
I'll tell you why. All the other games made sense. Sure, the idea of an infection turning everyone into zombies has been over used a bit recently, but at least the infection fit the setting. Nazi Zombies was just a little treat handed to us for beating the single player campaign of CoD5... and I enjoyed it very much. With all the oddities attached to the Third Reich it's not like we weren't prepared for zombies. Hell, Return to Castle Wolfenstein was all about Hitler's paranormal research. I don't consider myself to be a master of world history, but I have heard so much about Hitler's research into dark arts and super soldiers that I can't even separate the reality from the fiction... which is somewhat embarrassing... but does explain why I'm cool with Nazi Zombies in a WWII shooter but am whole heartily against zombies in a futuristic super-cop sandbox game.
The Demo
Crackdown 2 starts out in the same way the original starts out. Cops are in a fire fight and you're there to kick some ass. You shoot a bad guy, you get gun points that add up to make you a better marksman. You punch a dude to death, you get yellow orbs that give you more strength. Feels about the same as the original, but it's been so long since I played the original that I could have forgotten the finer points.
I had a little trouble changing targets and had forgotten the golden rule of shooting dudes in the face... I play with inverted controls, so that means to aim up I have to press down... even when locked onto someone. I was shooting people in the feet... the same as I did in the original... until I remembered that the controls are still inverted, even when locked.
I did notice that things didn't have the flamboyant feel of the first game. Sound effects and visuals seemed to be a little more subdued. I was throwing grenades and expecting the loud beeping noise from the first game... it was there... but much more quiet. The cell shading was still there, but the colors just didn't "pop" as much as they did in Crackdown. I really enjoyed the flashy silliness that was Crackdown's visuals. I really hope I was wrong and that things stay fun in the final copy. That even goes for the voice over. Something about his delivery just didn't seem as "fun" as the delivery in Crackdown.
So, your mission in the Crackdown 2 demo is to turn on some beacons by standing on platforms near the beacons so that communications can be restored. That's all fine and good. I worked my way through the mission easily and ranked up my gun, strength, and agility in the process. I was glad I found enough agility orbs because I was feeling sluggish. Again, that could be because I played through the original so long ago and I'm remembering the way I ended the game instead of the way I started it, but that's how I felt playing the demo.
I did a little bit of driving and was slightly disappointed there as well. It's tough to evaluate driving (or much else) when you start out the game with bottom level skills and everything you can do ranks up as you do those activities. Regardless, the car didn't have the crisp snappy feel of the cars in Crackdown. It just felt sluggish and difficult to control. Hopefully this is just because I had a driving rank of zero, but I really hope they don't go all GTA IV and make the cars more "realistic."
Zombies... Zombies Everywhere...
So, I ran the car around a bit and progressed to the next marker to continue the demo. I had actually forgotten about the infected citizen part of the game up until this point. I looked at the demo timer getting close to zero and realized that they'd have to throw some zombies in at some point. I moved on.
Then I saw them... zombies... as far as the eye could see... in all directions... thousands of them. I only had a minute or so of demo time left (and I'm planning on running through it again) but I figured I'd mess around and blast a few to see what this was all about.
I have to say... really not done too poorly, but I really am going to miss the idea of being a peace keeper instead of a zombie hunter. I just feel like zombie survival is done so well in other games that it simply isn't needed here. I really enjoyed whip-fisting dozens of infected at a time in Prototype. I've blasted hundreds of thousands of zombies in Left4Dead. I spent hours upon hours hitting the mystery box looking for the goofy laser pistol. I just don't see why they couldn't have stuck to what worked and left Crackdown 2 as a Cops and Robbers type game. I won't spoil Crackdown even though it's been out for many years... but I was really hoping they'd take the plot twist from 1 and really expound upon it in 2. They were set up PERFECTLY but they decided to go in another direction with a universally excepted bad guy that is clearly 100% evil instead of going with the grey area "criminal" and the grey area "cop." What a shame.
I think what it all comes down to is that there was no need for zombies, nobody was crying out for more zombie games, but someone who doesn't understand gaming, Crackdown, and the market decided that "hey, dudes LOVE zombies... let's put them in Crackdown 2 to really pump up the sales!" Instead, what they did was alienate people who really did love the first one. I went from the biggest Crackdown fanboy to not even being excited about the second one.
The picture at the top of this post (because I can't figure out how to move it here) illustrates another fundamental problem with Crackdown 2. It is really trying to be badass. The first game gave you some tough guy looks, but it wasn't the space marine-ish garbage they are adding to Crackdown 2. I'm not saying the guys in the first game were a bunch of emo boys with their bangs in their eyes, but the "badassery" of the first game was picking up a minivan full of criminals and throwing it a thousand feet into a river. It wasn't a cool new set of armor (which I'm sure will have a Microsoft point value) that made you tough. It was the fact that... wait for it... YOU WERE TOUGH. Tough as woodpecker lips as my old man likes to say. It's just another thing that feels like it's being done to make simple minded people interested instead of just coming out with a great sequel. Unnecessary if you ask me.
Final Thoughts aka tl:dr
The demo was fun. It feels a little different from the original, but I didn't delete it. I will go back and give it another shot to see if I can knock the rust off and do some cool stuff. The addition of zombies is lazy and stinks of focus group nonsense. The desperate need to bring in tween boys has resulted in super cool armor and an unnecessary boost to the visual badassery. With most of the gameplay elements left alone this could still be a great game. If the story totally neglects to continue where the last game left off this could be another shirt over the head punch in the face... but still could be a good game. If this game focuses on the zombies (freaks) and turns into a super-cop version of Prototype... I'll be devastated.
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