There’s a few other standout improvements in Crackdown 2. Graphically the game is cleaned up a bit, textures are sharper, and the draw distance is just as large as before. More explosives objects litter the world making the beautiful explosions even bigger and better than before. There game also contains, surprisingly, a lot of licensed music that you’ll hear from cars and speakers that Cell has placed at the entrances of their sections to scare of Freaks and spout propoganda. There’s also some really nice ambient pieces that play as you complete objectives througout the game.
While a lot of the old weapons have returned, and shown some marked improvement, there’s also a lot of new guns to load in your arsenal. The UV based weapons are great against Freaks, and fun to shoot your friends with to boot. There’s also some new explosives like the mag which creates beams of attraction between objects and the satchel which allows you to stick a bomb to a car (or other object) and remotely detonate it. You’ll unlock different weapons, explosives, and vehicles as you level up your agent - or you can find them in the game world and store them at tactical locations like the first game. Your agent also has new abilities like the charge maneuver and the wing-suit for gliding.
The co-op has been improved in every way. With the addition of four player co-op, I was a bit worried about network playability - the first game was pretty notorious for that. Thankfully the game handles the four agents nicely, though when the action gets pretty crazy the game itself slows down. Players can now revive each other and the co-op orbs help keep groups of people together - though you don't have to stick together. However there is one glaring omission, your progress in co-op games is not saved unless you are the host. You can still build your agent and level him up, but any supply points or UV bombs you launch in co-op don't get counted towards your city.
Crackdown 2 is essentially Crackdown on crack. I know, I know, that’s a cop out way of describing it. But it truly is everything you loved about the original game with plenty of more things to do and minor improvements all around. For some this might not make a true sequel, but like the original, the game is what you make of it. Co-Op doubles, triples, and quadruples the fun - and solid online code makes it much more enjoyable. Add in versus modes and Crackdown 2 has some serious legs.
Now in true co-op fashion, we’re going to talk about some of the co-op experiences the Co-Opticrew had in Pacific City during their Crackdown 2 excursions.