
A couple of new side quests and weapons have been included. There's now an echo ping feature that will tell you if orbs are nearby, cars are unlocked instead of just having one transforming vehicle, and melee combat has a few extra combos. That's because it is, though small tweaks have been made here and there. If you played Crackdown 1, this probably all sounds very familiar to you. It may sound like an odd focus to build a game around, but this platformer-meets-pac-man formula is seriously addictive. Add in some audio file collectibles and you have roughly 1,000 things to seek out. You can also find hidden orbs, or the new renegade orbs - which annoyingly run away from you - and Xbox Live orbs which can only be snagged while playing online co-op. The main prize is agility orbs, found on rooftops or other places that require a bit of platforming. But Crackdown 2 is really a game for people who like collecting things. As you use these skills in combat, you'll earn streams of orbs and be rewarded with new weapons and special moves. Similar progressions work for strength, guns and explosives. Orbs for the driving skill can be earned by running over enemies, winning races, doing little stunts or soaring through rings in the air. And that is really the whole point of the game. To become that ultimate superhero, you'll have to collect orbs.

By the end you'll be able to leap from rooftop to rooftop with ease, pick up and toss cars and trucks, fill the sky with homing missiles, and even glide through the air like a flying squirrel. You've got a few guns in the arsenal, a decent car, and your athletic abilities are well above average.

At the outset of Crackdown 2, you'll find yourself in the shoes of a general badass, capable of doling out pain and stomping squads of freaks. To say that Crackdown 2 has a story at all is being generous. That's the introduction you'll get at the start of Crackdown 2, and you pretty much won't get any more exposition outside of collectible audio logs until the disappointing finish. The city is on the brink and it's up to you, a superhero member of the Agency, to restore order so that the good citizens can go back to life as usual.


Marauding terrorists who call themselves The Cell have done their best to destroy the rest. More Crackdown 2 In the years since the events of Crackdown 1, mutant freaks have destroyed much of the beautiful Pacific City. But before we get to all that, let's take a step back to get everyone up to speed. There's four-player co-op now, some new weapons and gizmos, a few new vehicles and missions, as well as a 16-player arena combat mode. Of course, not everything in Crackdown 2 is identical to its predecessor.
