Ruffian Studios doesn't want to get into a pissing match with Realtime Worlds, the original developer of Crackdown. Of course part of that reason is so many members of the Ruffian team that are working on the game's sequel were actually AT Realtime Worlds when they made the game. How many? Well almost half.
Close to half of our team worked on the original game. We’ve got core members from every discipline who worked on it, the majority of the design team, and, depending on whom you speak to, some of the best coders and most talented artists. But there are still guys at Realtime we want to be friends with, so we don’t want to get dragged into a slanging match.
In an interview with Edge magazine, creative director Billy Thompson, producer Jim Cope, and executive producer Peter Connelly talk about Crackdown 2 without actually dishing out too much in the way of concrete details.
What we do know is the game won't just be the find boss - kill boss - repeat formula of the first. The team went on to say that the city played an important role in the first game, so much so that it was almost the main character, and has since evolved. Crackdown 2 takes place a few years after the first game, and the city has changed as a result. We've also learned the game mechanics will remain relatively unchanged, and that the infected will also play a role in the game's story - though Ruffian isn't dishing on exactly what or how.
Sadly there's no details on the four player co-op mode, and how it's going to work, but we'll hold out hope that Ruffian will be dishing that desert out soon.