Crackdown 2 Notes

You get to choose difficulty and select agent appearance from a choice of four faces and a few colour schemes for armour.
A cut scene quickly tells you in montage about what has happened since the last game. The freaks created by one of the gangs have escaped into the wild and have bred and mutated. The agency have been accused of corruption and are under attack from a terrorist group called the Cell. The cell destroy the agent lab at the agency tower and without agents on the streets the city devolves into chaos. The freaks rule at night and the cell play freely by day.
The agency has managed to get the agent programme back online and you are the first agent.

We get control in a room in the agency tower. The agency boss talks to you and tells you to look at four lights to calibrate your camera controls.
Next he asks you to jump off a ledge.
Then to climb up some blocks to get an agility orb.
The orbs boost your jumping abilty.
The player controls with the normal analogue sticks for movement and camera.
A is jump.
B does a melee attack.
Y enters and exits from vehicles.
Right trigger shoots the gun.
Left bumper reloads
Left trigger locks on.
Left bumper throws grenades.

We are then told to walk along following a glowing marker to get to a gun.
We then have to shoot the freak using free aim.
When locked on moving the right stick targets different body parts.
we are asked to pick up a shotgun and use it on a gang of freaks.
In the next training area we are told about melee combat. Basically pressing B a lot.
Now we are told to get into a vehicle.

A helicopter comes and lifts you in the car taking you through the city. As you go the narrator tells you of the sunburst project and how much of a mess it's in. The cell have basically thwarted it at every turn and control all the collectors and generators that have been made so far. Our first mission is to take back a prototype generator from a cell base at the docks.

We come to a cell held area and there is a red symbol on the ground. Standing in it initiate a takeover mission.
We call for air support and loads of enemies spawn. Once they are downed we get peacekeepers drafted into the area to keep the cell away.

The next area is a stronghold formed out of containers. I go in and clear the area of the default cell enemies, it seems that they don't come back again. I find another symbol near the generator and pressing back starts the mission as before. More cell spawn and once they are downed the chopper comes in and drops off peacekeepers to hold the area and take away the generator.

Our next given mission is to reactivate sunburst collector absorbtion units.
Three waypoints appear on the map and we have to go to each one in turn and stand on the absorption unit for a set time period to activate it, around thirty seconds.

Once all three are done you can now drop the sunburst generator into the freak lair.

This mission sees you enter the lair and trigger off the drop of the generator. The generator then has to charge and unleash a blast of solar energy that kills the light sensitive freaks.

The freaks come out at night and the cell come out by day.
Attacking a cell base is harder at night as they all come home and hide from the freaks.

I take over a few more tactical locations, clear the cell guards, call in the mission, clear the spawned enemies and the area is yours.
Only now areas are linked in groups and if you don't get all the linked areas then some can be taken back by the cell.

I activate a collector unit at the top of the oil rig.
I activate a collector unit on top of a bridge.

Now a beacon activation, only difference is some freaks attack from a balcony shooting something at the beacon.

I activate a collector unit on top of the old observatory. A barricade errected by cell must be destroyed to let the beam pass.
I activate a collector beacon at the top of the quarry.
I activate a collector beacon on top of a random building.

Now a beacon activation in the old quarry. This one introduces larger freaks which stand on towers of rock and shoot the beacon with acid.

I activate a collector at the old gym.

I activate a collector at the pier
I activate a collector at a building.
I activate a beacon under the gym.
I capture a tactical location at funland.

And another four tactical locations.
Two more tactical locations and a collector.

Yada yada, repetitive.

Eventually there are 27 generators to activate, some have walls to remove.
There are 27 cell strongholds to clear out.
There are 9 beacons

When you finish all the beacons the agency tower is the final huge beacon that will clear the freaks from the city.
The cell have taken the power plant and valves valves need to be turned

You then go to the tower. The previous agents it turns out aren't dead and are released by cell to prevent the beacon firing. You have to defend three locations as waves of giant agent freaks attack.

The final cut scene shows Catalina Thorne attack the tower with a helicopter. The agent stops her but his hand is severed by his rotor blades.
Thorne keeps the hand and can be seen working on it in her lab after the credits.

At each level of driving new vehicles are unlocked.
When you get to level five agility you get the wingsuit.
Level five strength means you get a running speed boost by pressing B.

Freak breeaches spawn loads of freaks which you must kill then a chopper comes and seals the breach. Only possible at night.

17:15 to complete the main storyline.
390 achievement points.

Transformers War for Cybertron Notes

An intro movie plays, showing that while Cybertron was once peaceful, pride and lust for power divided the two sides, into Autobots and decepticons, lead by Optimus Prime and Megatron respectively. Megatron fights to be the dictator of all Cybertron while Optimus Prime opposes him in the name of freedom. We see a cut scene of the two sides fighting it out. fast paced, transforming from car and flying machine to robot and hacking each other to pieces with fist, blade and projectile and beam weapons. Two huge robots face off against each other with an army of smaller ones beneath them.

There seems to be a bewildering array of options
Easy medium hard
Soldier scout leader.
Autobot or Decepticon

We are with Optimus prime as he is assaulting a space station, the station is guarded by Starscream. The station is rumoured to contain dark energon and Megatron will do anything to obtain it.
The ship they are approaching in is pounded and the only option is a suicide ramming run which Megatron of course being edgy does. We land in the ship and climb out of the wreck of our own ship.

Usual anlogue sticks for movement and camera.
Third person view.
A is jump
Right Trigger fires an orb of energy.
Clicking in the right stick does a melee attack.
X is used to interact with objects, like opening doors.
Left bumper makes Megatron hover.
Right bumper uses a shield ability.
Y cycles through available weapons.
Clicking left stick transfroms into a tank.
B fires a grenade when you get them.

Chapter 1 Dark Energon
Starscream appears and tells us that we should leave or die. Megatron is an asshole.
Ammo and health can be picked up from crates.
We have to use a robot arm crane type thing to stack a box to get to a higher area.
I find a new weapon a grenade launcher.
You fire grenades with right trigger and detonate them with left trigger.
We progress through the station fighting bots all the way.
I come to a area with emplaced guns and we have a fight with them, they can be detached and used as heavy guns.
We come to a control room and meet soundwave.
He wants us to get the station schematics so the dark energon can be located.
I get an emp shotgun which is fun.
There is a fight in an arena like room lots of enemies pour in.
Then a boss type appears, named a brute it carries a shield, it must be shot in a pack on it's back to finish it off.
We then come to a dead end and are directed through a vent into the guts of the station. Here we must blow up fans and avoid vents of fire.
I find a sniper rifle, zoom in with left trigger and fire with right.
We are accompanied at all times by barricade and Brawl.
Sniper enemies and flying enemies are encountered.
We come to an area of the station that was blown up by a dark energon explosion.
Megatron is sure he can control the energon, i  doubt he will be able to.
We cross the blown up area which is open to space, it's like a platform game.
I come to the energon chamber and we have a hard fight to get inside.
In cut scene Megatron goes in and absorbs the dark energon. He weilds it and survives. Giving  some to Barricade and Brawl. We then come out and shoot up a few fleeing autobots with waves of dark energon blasts.
Starscream decides to join the decepticons after seeing Megatron's power.
Starscream tells them that a energon  bridge can be reconnected to the station to provide even more power to Megatron.
Jetpack flees to warn the autobots.

Chapter 2 Fuel of War
I choose Starscream, soldier class.
We are going to Cybertron to reconnect the energon bridge.
We have thundercracker and Skywarp with us.
They are flying transformers and we start the mission flying in through large tunnels.
We meet resistance and we can either stay in the air or do it on foot. it's up to you and that is nice.
We come to a large ship which is projecting a force field where we want to go. We have to knock out around 8 mortar launchers from the top of it, which fire all the time. We also have interference from flying enemies.
Once the mortars are down we have to mop up the fighters.
Then a bay open on the side and ground enemies attack from the bay. We go inside and have to blow up the power core. Once done we have too escape the disintegrating ship.
Now we come to some cloaking autobots.
Then a large open area where we have a lot of flying and ground based enemies. Two switches need to be pulled then four machines need destroyed before blowing open a door to progress.
We fly inside a machine and find a control to activate power to the energon bridge.
Autobots ambush us and more cloakers appear.
The power is only at 50%, there must be another power  switch to find.
We progress through some more tunnels to a room where we have to get some power cells into place.
We have to shoot three power conduits and press some switches.
Then we go into a boss battle.
There is a large reactor and we corrupt it with dark energon. The reactor fights back and it is a huge spinning machine with two attacks. It shoots lots of energy bolts and puts out huge beams and spins around.
The boss does varieties on these themes and we get to shoot it's core in between each set of attacks.
Once down we have to flee through the tunnels to the surface avoiding the corruption of the dark energon.
We watch in cut scene as the energon bridge powers up and provides the station with enormous power.
Megatron now wants to corrupt the core of Cybertron with the dark energon.
To do this he must obtain the Omega key, which is in Iacon the city of the Autobots.

Chapter 3 Iacon Destroyed
I choose Megatron.
Zeta Prime is the leader of the Autobots.
We start fighting our way through the streets of cybertron. Starscream is leading the main forces on an all out assault. While Megatron is taking Soundwave and Breakdown on a sneak mission to find the omega key.
We fight soldiers and then snipers
We come to a security pillar. This is a pillar that fills the room with laser fire and then rotates.
We have to infuse the controls with dark energon.
Then we come to an large scultpture of Cybertron in a room. Megtron accesses the controls. Zeta Prime appears and warns Megatron of his folly.
Megatron learns that Zeta Prime has the key for safe keeping.
We are ambushed and have to fight off the attack.
Then we drop down through a large tube and then race down through some subway tunnels avoiding the trains and large rolling balls.
Your other teams members can heal you.
I progress through the city fighting all the way, waves of cloakers.
Then we come to an area where bombers are dropping dark energy bombs, these are from our own side.
We come to a square and meet up with Brawl who is under heavy attack. We support him and meet up with him.
Zeta Prime is behind a doorway here.
Megatron is unable to blow it open using dark energon.
He orders bombers in to blow it, however they are shot down by anti aircraft guns.
we have to take out the anti aircraft guns.
This is done by fighting your way up and wrecking their controls.
You then have to defend the area until the bombers can come back for another run.
This means waves and waves of all types of autobots.
Then we encounter a boss autobot, a huge robot that can turn into a tank.
Shooting things in the bottom seems to be an unhealthy preoccupation of this game.
Once you shoot it in the ass a few times it transforms back into a robot and you have to  hammer away at this robot form.
Now we get inside the vault and have to knock down a bit of girder to blow a hole in the floor.
Then into a new area where we are shown that glowing symbols on the floor mean you are about to be crushed by a hammer from above.
We enter a room and find the key, only to have it taken from us by Zeta Prime.
This is a boss battle. Zeta prime is inside a shield bubble and uses energon ghost clones of himself to attack. He also uses the hammers to try and squash us flat.
In between attacks he recharges his machine and we can damage it's core when it is recharging.
After wearing down the cores health a cut scene shows Zeta Prime being hit by falling debris from the machine. Megatron approaches him and take the Omega key. Zeta Prime smugly tells him that the Omega key is not the actual key to the innards of Cybertron only the on switch for the real key.
The real key is a huge autobot called Omega Supreme who is now coming to kill Megatron.

Chapter 4 The death of hope.
Omega Prime can be tracked with the Omega key.
A cut scene shows Megatron and his gang in a flying ship, they are attacked by Omega Prime and crash.
We have to rendevouz with a decepticon drop ship.
As we do Omega Prime smashes it. We are then attacked by it. It's like a huge King Kong smashing around the city. Our fire has no effect, it hoovers up soldiers with a field and hurls them for miles. Megatron tells the gang to shoot out the bridge supports.
Two targets appear and you have to shoot them. Omega Prime falls with the bridge. It comes back quickly transformed into a flying ship. It uses a huge cannon blast to sweep the bridge. Megatron tells the gang to retreat and we have to go back to a door and use dark energon to open it and get inside. There are autobot big guns nearby and we are going to use them against Omega Prime.
Inside the room we are attacked by some autobots.
Starscream thinks that megatron is dead and makes his inevitable play for power.
We then use an elevator to go back up to the surface. However Omega Prime is waiting and shoots the elevator, we have to shoot out emergency brakes to make it drop down to the bottom again.
We then take an alternate route and pile through the city with Omega Prime shooting at us the whole way. This is a fun platfroming section.
Inside a tube Omega Prime tries to grab us and we have to shoot his hand.
Then we fight some more autobots.
And then a driving sequence where you have to avoid mines that Omega Prime drops.
More fighting with a large autobot and lots of smaller ones.
Now we have to make it through power conduits with power that turns on and off at intervals.
More fighting and more driving, we have to make a bridge extend to get to the guns we hope to use against Omega Prime.
I find my way up to the gun platform and there about eight emplaced guns of varying types.
We have to clear out the autobots then Omega Prime shows up for the boss battle.
We are on a horseshoe type area with two levels. Omega Prime attacks with his power beam and releases fighter autobots. He also shields himself and uses large missiles.
It's a long fight, maybe I was doing it wrong. I did it first time and by staying along the back wall never seemed to be in any real danger.
Omega Prime falls to the ground in cut scene and Megatron presses after him.

Chapter 5 The final guardian.
Here we face the Omega Prime in it's humanoid shape in a rectangular arena with balconies along the sides.
We have to shoot off four turrets to make it conjour up and energon battery with which to recharge. We can quickly run to the battery as  it arrives and corrupt it with dark energon. When this is done we have a short window of opportunity to shoot Omega Prime in the face.
Once this section is complete we have to shoot at his chestplate until his second health bar is down. He uses an array of missiles and beam weapons as well as his tractor beam.

A cut scene shows Megatron entering the core and infusing it with dark energon which spreads over the planet itself.

This is the end of the decepticon campaign A new character is unlocked for multiplayer.

Autobot campaign.
I choose to play Optimus Prime.

Chapter 6
We start at the end of the decepticon campaign.
Zeta Prime is dead and Omega Prime defeated.
We watch Optimus Ratchet and Bumblebee fighting. Bumblebee tells Optimus of the defeats and he takes over the mantle of leader and vows to rally the autobots.
we go down in a lift and Jetfire asks for the planetary guns to be put online to aid his fight.
We travel along a little while shooting up decepticons and then come to the gun controls.
Turning them on starts them shooting up flying decepticon warships.
We then have to turn on a communication grid.
I progress until we come to some defence turrets and we have some waves of fighters then a dropship.
We then have a long driving sequence along a highway.
We then come to a boss after more fighting.
This is a three legged drill which is injecting dark energon into the city. we have to shoot out it's legs then it's chest. It has missiles and a very effective one hit kill beam weapon which is a real cheap death pain in the ass.
We then have a lot more road to cover and decepticons to fight on the way.
Then another of the drill machine bosses. I was about to turn of when I found that this one was much easier. No insta death beam, just pound it from a distance.
More road and more soldiers before we get to the decagon, it is a huge antenna like structure.
We have to fight along the road to the decagon which is filled with lots of decepticons.
Inside we fight some more then come to a puzzle of sorts. A prong must be aligned with the floor by shooting either side of it which moves it. Once aligned the prong is brought down into the socket by pressing a switch.
We then have to climb up the tower using parts of it's mechanism as a lift.
We then get to the top and have a boss battle against Starscream.
He attacks as a plane for a bit then comes down to fight. He uses missiles and beam weapons as well as emp grenades, he moves very fast.
Though this is nowhere near as annoying a boss fight as the earlier one on this chapter with the drill.
A message from Zeta Prime in Kaon prison tells the autobots that he is alive and has information that can help them. There is some doubt as to the authenticity of the broadcast as some of the autobots think he didn't survive the decepticoon attack. Optimus believes that they have to try and rescue him.

chapter 7 Kaon prison break
Optimus allows himself and a few other to be captured with a plan to infitrate the prison and free zeta Prime.
We watch as Optimus, Ratchet and Bumblebee are led into the prison in force field chains.
A tour of the prison shows lots of prisoners being murdered. Optimus and the gang are lined up against the wall to be shot and Jetfire comes in and saves them.
He lets them into ducts and is captured himself.
We are now loose in the duct without guns.
We progress until we find some guns and get to fight our way through the prison.
We meet up with a giant statue of Megatron which speaks to us. We are in an arena of sorts and get lots of waves of decepticons before megatron gets bored and just teleports us into a cell.
Optimus reveals that he can use his axe to cut through walls, however only when it has fully charged which takes a long time.
We then get out into the cell blocks and have to survive waves upon waves of decepticons, brutes and heavy gunners.
We come to air raid, but he is trapped in a force field cell.
Cloaked enemies attack.
We have  to go down two long winding corridors and hit switches at each end to free Airraid.
Cloakers make it hard along with spiders.
Airraid takes us to a control which opens the autobot's cells all around the prison.
however Zeta prime is still held captive.
We help the autobots get out giving covering fire and massacaring loads of decepticons.
Then we go down in a wall crawler to the bottom of the prison and have some emplaced gun fun on the way.
Then a long driving sequence where huge swathes of floor are blown out. It reminded me of the end of Halo 3.
Then a boss battle against Soundwave. Soundwave hides inside a force field. He uses remote turrets to attack. When we defeat these he has his little sidekick which ejects from him to attack. When we wear it's health down Soundwave comes out and repeairs it. When Soundwave is out doing repairs he is vulernable. We have to do this three times and each time the little robot has different attacks. The last being a bird like flyer.
When we have worn soundwave down enough he flees the battle.
We find Zeta prime only long enough for him to inexplicably die.
Optimus takes his body to the autobot ruling council who name him Prime then tell him to go uncorrupt the core of Cybertron.

Due to the choice of character type in the campaign you sometimes find yourself telling yourself what to do. It's strange but the only way the dialogue could have been delivered unless they recorded it in three or four different ways for each character.

Chapter 8 To the core.
we are now going to the core to purge it of dark energon. we are accompanied by Warpath and Ironhide.
We find Omega supreme being tortured by the Decepticons. we are talking on the radio and ask if we can use hacking to free Omega supreme. We can but we have to do some tasks.
We have to destroy some power nodes. Then we have to get to a console that is shutting our friends out.
Once we fight our way to the console we are told to free Omega Supremes Restraints.
There are two nearby switches to pull, both guarded by Decepticons.
Once free we have to go into Omega's chamber and kill the Decepticons inside. He needs time to repair before he can open the Omega gate for us. Ratchet is asked to come and help, but it will take him time. We have to defend against Decepticon attack until he gets there.
This is a long hard fight in the large rectangular room. we have lots of health and ammo. There is also some help in the form of turrets and health recharging station.
We get all enemy types except cloakers then a large tank to deal with.
Once done we get to enter the core after Omega opens the door.
We drive down a long corridor then drop down a huge shaft further into the core. I see Space slugs which are part of the Cybertron repair system.
We fight some waves of soldiers in a large room with no exit due to corruption.
A space slug comes through the wall and it seems to want us to ride on it and has a turret on it's back.
This is an on rails section. It's quite fun though as we get to deal with a corrupted space slug which attacks like a giant robotic scorpion.
We eventually get ambushed from behind by the slug which knocks the floor out from under our slugs. We crash down a shaft and find the gang separated. We have to progress until we can reunite. with the others and press forward to the core.
At the core we have a platforming section to get in then a boss battle with the slug.
The slug slashes with claws and fires a beam weapon at you. you basically have to avoid it's attacks and wait for a chance to shoot it in the mouth until it's dead.
It's actually a fun boss battle though and not that hard.
In cut scene Megatron enters and speaks to the core. The core can remove the dark energon but will need to shut down all life support for the inhabitants of Cybertron. The repair will also take millions of years. This basically means that the autobots will have to go out and find a new home until Cybertron can become habitable again.
The Core gives Optimus part of it's spark.

Chapter 9 Aerial Assault
Megatrons Orbital station stands in the way of the evacuating ships. It's main gun is blowing ships up as they try and leave the surface.
I choose Jetfire.
We fly up along the beam from the ground to the station then encounter a boss on the outer skin of the station. we have to shoot two arms from it then hit it's laser emitter.
Now we go inside the station and get to the coolant area. Here we shoot some the the highlighted machines up to destroy the station's gun. We then descend through the coolant and try and find a way to eject the coolant from the station.
We fight in a defend situation in a room until a control becomes available.
Then move through more corridors fighting as we go.
In a room two switches must be thrown to sabotage the station a little more.
We then shoot a plasma gizmo and have to defend it until it overloads.
We are then put outside after a cut scene and find ourselves flying through a minefield.
Then we land on a heavily guarded platform and have to take out all the enemies on it.
The next room is huge and filled with two heavy gunners, two tanks, and loads of snipers and flyers.
We then have to fly along a narrow corridor filled with obstacles and shoot out the defenses on the core of the stations transformer. This forces it to change into it's robot form. A form of a large humanoid with a snake like head.
I thought this was going to be a huge hard boss battle, however this guy has a glass jaw.
You basically have to shoot his jetpack off. Looks like the final battle with him will be on the surface as he crashes to it.

Chapter 10 One shall stand
I choose Optimus Prime
We have to drive through the city to get to the crash site of Trypticon, when we get there he attacks.
This boss battle takes place in a square Arena. Trypticon attacks from one side where he is hemmed in.
He uses missiles, orbs of energy and fast showers of plasma.
We have to hit a switch that makes nearby battery machinery work. When the batteries move close to his shoulders we shoot them and they explode damaging him. This is done on both sides. He then starts a new attack pattern and we have to hit him on either side of his ribs.
Then we plunge down through the floor to a new area for yet another round of shooting red targets from his back.
Shoot all three on his back and he goes down.
In the final cut scene Optimus Prime slaps Trypticon in the chops with his axe and down he goes for good.
We watch as Autobot ships leave Cybertron. Optimus tells of the ark that will take the Autobots to the stars.
The credits roll
Another character is unlocked for Escalation.

14 hrs
310 stingy achievement points.