Repeat offender

by ERIK LEIJON

While watching the recent G20 riot footage, specifically the bird’s eye videos with dozens of tiny, dark-clothed police officers chasing down hapless, colourful civilians, I couldn’t help but think it had the look and feel of a potentially awesome video game. Any thoughts about the perceived affront to justice gave way to a broad conceptualization of a game about building fences around a busy urban environment, surrounding your prey, then wailing on them mercilessly.

In that spirit, what the hell happened to anticipated open-world police brutality action title Crackdown 2 (X360/Microsoft, Ruffian)? It’s the sequel to the 2007 super cop caper that saw XBox Live gamers leap from building to building like a pair of Stephen Harper’s finest narcs, armed with every weapon imaginable and tasked with cleaning the streets of undesirable gangs under the banner of the mysterious Agency, all while causing hilarious amounts of collateral damage.

Crackdown 2 ups the number of players to four, reduces the number of gangs from three racially delineated groups to one and a pack of night-time zombies, but otherwise retains what made the first such an exciting entry into the sandbox genre. That’s about all the half-realized sequel is though, lacking enough new options to satisfy fans who’ve been spit-shining their riot gear in anticipation.

Competent-yet-thin Crackdown 2 commits the unforgivable sin of recycling the same open-world environment, Pacific City. It may be dingier and some of the buildings have fallen into disrepair, but familiar hotspots such as the docks, the amusement park and that strangely shaped hotel remain, now occupied by new gun-toting tenants. The bland, cel-shaded graphics are only marginally improved, and the customizable avatars still have five distinct skills (agility, firearms, strength, explosives and driving) to level-up.

Playing with three buddies might prove enticing to some, but the lack of interesting missions mean you’ll be more inclined to run off and cause trouble than actually accomplish anything. I did like the removal of the city’s main police agency hub in the centre of town, which was an obligatory pain in the ass to exit every time you booted up the game.

There are redeemable factors, again mostly borrowed from the first. The deep-voiced narrator, who does everything from provide sage advice to hurl insults, occasionally infuriates but has a few good one-liners. After spending a night in Pacific City blasting acid-spewing mutants, having him tell you how good it is to still be alive as the sun rises provided appreciated levity.

Mowing down freaks in Agency super cars was a green-blood-splattering good time. The super jumping ability is still the most repeated action here (until you max out agility and get to air glide), but climbing buildings and finding them ultimately blocked off before the roof was an annoyingly common occurrence.

In the thick of battles, Crackdown 2 is a mixed bag. Your avatar will be required to wipe out some well-fortified bases, dodge massive explosions and keep an even keel as bullets whisk by your head. Unfortunately, the fun of the more massive battles is negated by horrible frame rate drops and spotty auto-aim controls, which seemed to lose their efficiency at the worst possible times (such as when shooting at freaks perched on rocks pummelling the light beacons you were entrusted to protect).

All-in-One

California-based Hyperkin has an interesting new console for the retro-minded and space conscious. The Retro N3 has three cartridge slots, for the NES, Super NES and Sega Genesis, respectively. I haven’t tried it so actual results may vary, but curious parties should blow the dust off their old carts and check out hyperkin.com for more info.