Crackdown 2 -- Final Opinion.

Another game, another one-thousand points. I've completed Crackdown 2. I've found all the orbs, completed all races, and went through every stunt ring in the game. Oh yeah, I've also completed the story but that's not really saying much. The story is barely there and it's entirely irrelevant. You're not playing Crackdown for the story. You're playing Crackdown for the playground they've provided. You're playing Crackdown for the co-op. You're playing Crackdown for those maddeningly addictive orbs. I played through the entirety of the game in co-op with various people. I'm still messing around with the game helping others complete stunt rings or finding orbs. The game is both impressive and marred by its extremely short and fast development cycle. It's impressive they got it up and running and out the door while providing some decent new content. No matter how fun Crackdown 2 may be, there is a distinct lack of polish to the game clearly resulting from such a short development cycle. An extra six months would have done wonders for fixing some climbing issues and further refining the aiming and vehicles. The game could have been truly impressive. Hopefully we'll see a Crackdown 3 that has been given the proper amount of time to develop. The blame falls squarely on the shoulders of Microsoft. I think Ruffian Games have done rather well with what they were given. I had a great time with Crackdown 2. It scratched an itch for more Crackdown. I'm giving Crackdown 2 an 8.