Crackdown 2 Aims for a Disruptive Open World

Crackdown 2 is nearing its launch date and the developers are promising that they have created an open world video game using previous titles in the genre as inspiration, with Grand Theft Auto from Rockstar being the main reference, but also adding disruptive elements new to the concept, the aim being to disorient the player and make them question their every move.

James Cope, who is a producer working on Crackdown 2, has told IGN as part of an interview that “One of the things that we think about games like inFamous, Prototype and Grand Theft Auto - not to denigrate them in any way - is that they're all doing the same sort of thing. We're going to do something to really bring the genre forward.”

Billy Thompson, who is the creative director working for developers Ruffian, talked about the next game his team is working on, “What we would like to do in the next project is go further in that direction and go completely nuts. We think there's a lot that can be done with our engine.”

It's not clear whether the people at Ruffian are interested in making a Crackdown 3, using the same city and updating the acrobatics move that the main character can execute in the open world, or whether they have the freedom to pursue a completely new intellectual property that can use the same game engine but uses different characters and a new setting.

The original Crackdown was a surprise hit on the Xbox 360 when it was launched in 2007, with some of the popularity coming from the beta code for Halo 3, which was included. The sequel is handled by Ruffian while the original developer Realtime Worlds went on to make the well-known MMO All Points Bulletin.