John Noonan (http://twitter.com/JohnNoonan) started throwing out early release codes for the Crackdown 2 demo, and as a HUGE fan of the first Crackdown I jumped on it. To put it in perspective, I preordered APB, a “GTA style MMO” solely because it’s made by the guys that made the first Crackdown.
So I downloaded and played the demo. Let me say this off the bat:
If your game is an open world game, that can even remotely be described as “explorable,” a demo that has a time limit is OFFENSIVE. That shit pisses me off. I completely understand the IDEA behind it. You don’t want players spending TOO much time in the world, a demo is only supposed to be a taste. However, if that is the situation, limit the AREA I can explore. Limiting my time in a game demo only serves to piss me off because I’m the type of gamer that, when presented with a “go anywhere the fuck you want” environment, I’m gonna spend at least a little while going all over the place, which means I’m killing time I should use to actually “do” what you want me to in the demo.
THAT BEING SAID, I’m digging what I see so far. The controls feel VERY familiar to the first game, although slightly changed. The UI/graphics are similar enough that it feels like a true “extension” of the first game.
Part of what made the first Crackdown so great was it feels far more “sandbox”-y than most sandbox style games. There’s very little story, just enough to explain “this is why these guys shoot at you.” This one feels like it’s doing a bit more involved story, but it’s not a drastic switch. I feel like I’ll still be able to just run around shooting things.
One of my favorite moments from the first game, I turned down the volume because I was on the phone, and all the sudden the game “locked up.” It turned out it wasn’t a lock up but the game was going to a cut scene because I killed a boss. By accident. I tuned out the audio enough to not hear the little queue’s that I was in a boss area and I just destroyed it. It sounds like that would mean the game is too easy, or that it’s too random, but really it was AWESOME. I loved the first game because I CONSTANTLY felt like a god walking amongst mean, dishing out bullets to foreheads where I saw fit. The challenge was rarely the individual bad guys, it was the sheer number of bullets that flew at me while I jumped from roof top to roof top raining down a firey death with my homing missiles. I really feel like this game is going to have that same feel.
All I got thru in the demo was clearing the first “tactical position” and clearing out the first Freak nest, and it’s definitely early enough that I’m not powerful, but I feel the potential even this early in the game.
Like I said, I HATE time limited demos, but this hit every button it needed to in order to ensure I pre-order the game. I’m very, very excited.
