I'm going to start this off by saying that I am a HUGE fan of the original Crackdown for the Xbox 360 with easily 100 hours in. So when I heard about Crackdown 2 and saw the trailers, I flipped **** and immediately went and pre-ordered the game. Most of the trailers depict explosions, flying objects, bodies thrown all over, and just all around awesomeness. Now I'm not saying you shouldn't expect all of that, but for as much awesomeness that was thrown in the trailers, the game hardly lives up to expectations. When I went and got my copy the day it was released, I sat down and played for about 6 hours straight. And for those 6 hours, the game was absolutely amazing. Since the game is set in the same city the original Crackdown takes place in, everything seems familiar yet new thanks to the huge visual overhaul. The game looks a lot better than the original in just about every aspect from the city, to your Agent, to vehicles, and even other NPCs look better. There's also a noticeable difference between the original Agent and your new upgraded Agent. The first thing I noticed is that you start off somewhat weaker. A new level 1 Agent can't hit as hard, shoot as accurately, or just as high as the old level 1 Agent. This could be considered a small downside to the game, but I don't consider it one because this time around, your skills develop much faster. Probably about half an hour into the game, I was no longer a level 1 anything. I've also maxed out my Agents in both games and i can guarantee you that maxing out your skills is significantly easier and quicker in Crackdown 2. I'd call that a good thing because it allows players to get into the game and have more fun a lot quicker. Alright, enough about looks and feel, lets talk gameplay. In the first game, gameplay felt somewhat repetitive to me, but that repetitiveness was limited to each island in Pacific City. You change islands, gameplay gets mixed up a bit. This time around, the story missions seem even more repetitive. There are 3 main types of missions revolving around the story and they don't change much over the course of the game. You capture strongholds on each island by shooting Cell gang members in specific areas to summon Crackdown 2's version of supply points. The next type of mission simply involves you getting to a station, killing 5 or 6 Cell members, and standing on a pad to activate a machine that concentrates UV rays from the sun in to a light beam. Get 3 or 4 of these things running, and you unlock the 3rd type of mission. In this type of mission, you're sent underground to defend a UV bomb while it charges using the beams of energy from the machines you activated above ground. None of these mission types change really except they get harder to survive as you progress in the game. Now, you may be asking, "Why am I blowing up light bombs underground?" The answer: FREAKS! Freaks are these zombie like creatures that only come out at night. Freaks are probably the best new addition to this game in my opinion. They appear in the hundreds, are easy to kill, and a hell of a lot of fun to run over. Their weakness is light. That's why you have UV bombs underground and new UV shotguns and UV grenades which are a ton of fun to play with since they can't harm humans, but they'll still send semi's flying through the air. Rooftop and street races are back and they're more of the same but they are different from the original races to mix it up a bit. There's another new type of side mission called Freak Breach. These are just little holes that open up around the city that you have to plug up so freaks can't come out of them any more. Simple enough when you're Agility is maxed out and you can commandeer a helicopter with rockets or mini-guns. Most of that sounds insanely fun and it all is insanely fun, but sadly the fun doesn't last. I say that this game is more or less the same as the original, but that is only partly true. They added a ton of new and original things to this game that make it insanely fun, but at it's core Crackdown 2 is just a lot of repetitiveness just like the first game was. If you are a fan of the original Crackdown and enjoy maxing out characters in RPGs, I think this game would be worth the buy. But at the same time, Crackdown 2 is a phenomenal game to rent. I finished about 90% of the game, had all my skills either maxed out or only one level from it, and had over half the achievements in only a single week. All in all...Fan Boys? Buy it. Anyone else? Go rent this game. You won't be disappointed.