Crackdown 2 Toy Box Impressions

Now that all you prospective agents have had ample time to clean up the Freak-riddled Pacific City, the gang at Ruffian has rolled out the first Crackdown 2 DLC pack to rope you back into performing your civic duties.  To reward you for your actions, you’ve been granted the new Keys to the City mode, which essentially gives you access to a limited level editor, along with a few other perks such as a new Thruster ability and a Vehicle Tag multiplayer mode.  The DLC comes in two forms – a free version, and a paid-for “Premium” version.

The free version of the Toy Box include the aforementioned Keys to the City, Thruster, and Vehicle Tag.  This is definitely the meat of the add-on.  The Keys to the City mode follows in the footsteps of the original Crackdown, and sadly feels like a rather uninspired addition.  Instead of coming up with new missions to further the gameplay, Ruffian turns the keys over to you and tells you to make your own fun.  It’s entertaining for a bit to engage in shenanigans such as filling up the Agency smoke stack with beach balls, but it doesn’t take long for this mode to feel played out.

The Thruster ability adds a new edge to the game because it was fun to jump around as a fully-leveled Agent, and it’s even more fun to compound that with the jet pack in your boots.  It makes you go higher, faster, and further which can lead to you crossing the majority of Pacific City without ever touching the ground.  The downside to the Thruster is that it effectively eradicates the only difficult parts of Crackdown 2, specifically the wingsuit challenges and the later rooftop races.  For instance, I performed the Agency Tower Rooftop Race, which has a time limit of 5 minutes, in well under 3 minutes without really trying.  Before the DLC, that race was one of the harder parts of the game; now it’s child’s-play.

The last addition to the free DLC pack is the Vehicle Tag mode.  This is actually surprisingly fun.  In groups of up to 8, Agents are pitted against each other in a free-for-all to capture and carry around an orb.  Equipped with only the Agency Supercar, your objective is to hold onto the orb the longest and score the most points.  There are six different maps, which keeps everything fresh and everyone on their toes.

The Premium DLC, which costs 560 Microsoft Points ($7), adds two vehicles (an ATV and a Squad Chopper) and some new gadgets (such as Portable Launch Pads and the Stickler Grenade).  More importantly, it enables the ability to unlock two new avatar awards, 10 new achievements (boosting the game’s overall Gamerscore to 1250), and 8 new Agent suit colors.  Some of the achievements are almost like new missions because they’ll temporarily change the way that you play the game.  The avatar awards are cool as always, and the suit colors don’t really matter much unless you’re a true fashionista at heart.

The final verdict on the Toy Box is that I would only recommend buying the Premium version if you’re in the market for some relatively easy Gamerscore.  The free version offers almost everything that the Premium version does, only it doesn’t reward you for playing it.  $7 isn’t going to break the bank, so if you feel an overwhelming urge, go ahead and pull the trigger. However, for most of you, your Microsoft Points would most likely be better spent elsewhere.