The Freaks come out to play

Publisher Microsoft (Alan Wake) and newcomer developer Ruffian Games, revisit Pacific City and its super-soldier crime fighters, the Agency, in Crackdown 2 for Xbox 360.
A decade after the events of the first game, not all is well in Pacific City. The Agency is being accused of corruption and a group called the Cell is staging a revolt guided by a woman named Catalina Thorne.

On top of that, a virus is unleashed that is turning the civilians into Freaks — mindless zombies with a passion for trouble.

As a new Agent within the Agency, players will participate in Project Sunburst — "a revolution in Freak control." They will install and kick-start absorption units; generators to harness enough energy to take out all of the Freaks in the city, restoring peace to the streets and ruining Thorne's plans. Meanwhile, members of the Cell aren't afraid to get in the way.

Crackdown 2 is an open-world, sandbox title. Pacific City is made up of several environments ranging from an industrial center to shantytowns and suburbs on the outskirts. This makes exploration a blast.

In fact, exploration is often more interesting than the story missions — especially once players increase their jumping and running levels.

This may be because the story relies primarily on a handful of mission types. Agents activate beacons to put Sunburst generators online, make them explode in Freak lairs and to take tactical locations from the Cell (via huge standoffs) and turn them into locations for Agency item drops. 

This repetition makes another problem blatantly obvious — the short narrative is pretty weak. Agents are all clones with no particularly interesting character traits, and we never get too far into the motives of characters like Thorne.

The one character of any substance that sticks with you throughout the game is your handler, an invisible narrator who guides you through Pacific City. 

The handler cracks jokes, making fun of the Xbox 360's achievement system.

"You just collected your first agility orb. That's an achievement," he says early in the game.

It's funny the first few times, but it becomes overkill. On the other hand, he'll crack down on you from straying from objectives and harming innocent civilians. "It's not good for the Agency and it's certainly not good for you."

Luckily, there's more to do in the game than just the standard missions. Agents can collect agility orbs to increase their armor, speed and jump height; collect driving orbs for better mastery behind the wheel; and level up their skills with guns, melee attacks and projectiles. Also, there are driving and rooftop races to take part in.

Improving their Agent (particularly through agility orbs), makes players forces to be reckoned with, and they must defeat the Cell and the Freaks at any cost. 

Ruffian Games did add in a cool feature with their day/night system. During the day, Cell agents walk the streets, ready to attack. At night, the Freaks come out, and they are more resistant to standard weaponry.

The crowning achievement of this game, however, is online multiplayer. The absolute freedom of a sandbox title — doing what you want when you want — becomes more fun when you have friends on your side.

Up to four agents can play cooperatively over Xbox Live, bringing justice to Pacific City and Freaks and the Cell to their knees. Competitive games with up to 16 players let gamers show their friends who's boss.

Graphically, Crackdown 2 isn't up to par with some other recent games. Explosions (and there are a lot of them) are blurry and pixelated. Water effects are all but absent; Agents in their 300-pound armor jump into the ocean without a splash.

The city is only mildly detailed. Graffiti reads "Long live the Cell" and "Welcome to Hell." Windows are cracked and blown open where attacks have taken place. Buildings are often generic, though — they are designed with the ability to be scaled in mind but visual aesthetics have been ignored.

The controls are great, though. Fans of shooters and adventure games will adapt immediately, and camera controls are tight so that you can adjust to the perfect angle during big fights.

Crackdown 2 is an ambitious game but not in the ways one would expect. Ruffian Games picked up online multiplayer and exploration and pushed them above and beyond the campaign. Most players will put the repetitive story missions on the backburner as they chase after agility orbs, improve their agents and explore the vast environments of Pacific City.

That is to say, you'll do more justice to Pacific City by exploring it than saving it. 

RATING: 3.5 stars out of 5

afreedman@umdbk.com