When a game looks truly remarkable, the gaming community has a knee jerk reaction, assuming that the latest and greatest PC rig is required to achieve the full experience. This is something that notoriously pigeonholed the first Crysis, leaving its open-world first person experience, developed with CryENGINE 2, to only the most devoted of PC gamers.
With Crysis 2, Crytek aims to widen their prospective audience, and with the adaptation of CryENGINE 3, their efforts result in a stunning game on all current gen consoles (Wii excluded… at least Nintendo has The Conduit?). The impressive aesthetics of the game are coupled with a unique style of play, one that has renewed my enthusiasm for the engrossing nature of FPS single player campaigns – the scope of which falls somewhere between Halo: Combat Evolved, and Half Life 2.
LOOK & FEEL
Crysis 2 takes place in New York City in the year 2023. Without giving too much away, shit just hit the fan. You play as Alcatraz; a marine sent in on what seems like the first response to a combination of citywide epidemic, hostile private militia takeover, and alien invasion. All of which seems to be happening almost independently of each other as you play the game, only to later find out that it is all connected (duh).
Uh oh.
Now, if that seems like too much plot stuffed into one wrapper, that’s because it is. The game’s story suffers from something that many FPS’s are also afflicted with – an overly grandiose story told passively as the character progresses in order to serve the purposes of gameplay. All too often I found myself realizing that I wasn’t sure whether a character was someone I was supposed to trust, or even why I was following certain orders. This is partly due to the fact that Alcatraz does not speak – which can be seen as both a positive and negative. Much like Gordan Freeman in the Half Life series, Alcatraz’s silence allows the player to assume his own attitude towards what is happening around him. However, it also leaves the player with the task of creating a foundation that makes Alcatraz’s motives and actions believable.
This is not to say that the story is terrible – far from it. Personally, everything washed over me, giving me a general sense of dire straits that increased the level of tension, and more importantly, the level of responsibility that rested on my character’s shoulders. For those that go out of their way to find collectibles or dig deeper into the plot, there is definitely an entertaining and emotional value to it. Even if you rush through the game in a half drunken stupor at 3am, you will still get an incredible sense of drama and immediacy to the tasks at hand.
In terms of graphical presentation, Crysis 2 achieves something formerly thought to be impossible – its console counterparts (specifically the Xbox 360 version) look nearly identical to the fully optimized PC version. The characters have a great level of detail, the animations are fluid, the lighting and fire effects are nothing short of amazing, and firefights occur in large, multi-tiered settings (often spanning multiple city blocks). Aside from the occasional texture popping issue, where textures don’t load immediately, this game looks amazing from beginning to end.
Did I mention this game is gorgeous?
GAMEPLAY
But how does it play? A pretty landscape is nothing without it being any fun, right? Luckily the developers at Crytek have that more or less down too.
Your character, Alcatraz, finds himself in a highly advanced suit from the very start of the game. Like the first Crysis, you have the ability to use armor, power, or stealth in order to approach each firefight and adapt to new situations. However, unlike the previous Crysis games, Crysis 2 streamlines the process, allowing a much smoother transition between these powers. All it takes is a simple tap of the left or right bumper to switch between the three modes.
The powers are pretty self-explanatory but what the hell - let’s go through them briefly. By default your suit is set to power. This allows Alcatraz to jump several feet into the air, hurl enemies off of windows and rooftops, sprint like a jackrabbit, kick cars into unsuspecting enemies, and sucker punch 10-foot tall aliens. Armor decreases mobility, but allows for a heavier beating before dying. Stealth makes you nigh invisible, only noticeable if you are directly in front of an enemy.
The catch is that all of these powers take up energy and though it is quickly restored, depleted energy in the middle of a firefight can get you killed – fast. This is where Crysis 2’s gameplay really gets engaging. Each confrontation in the game is presented in a way that allows you to survey the scene before becoming noticed. Via your helmet’s visor, you can tag enemies, objectives, and tactical locations on the map that might be advantageous should you choose to use them. The game will suggest points at which to throw grenades, snipe, resupply, etc., and it is up to you whether you want to follow these suggestions or create your own method of engagement. The result is a game that you can tailor to suit your style. I found myself relying heavily on stealth, turning my character into a calculating assassin and each scenario into something that would feel right at home in games like Batman: Arkham Asylum and Splinter Cell: Conviction.
Getting the drop on a fool.
When I wanted to spice things up, or when my stealth attempts failed and I needed to take charge of the situation, my suit’s powers allowed me the freedom to adapt to anything, snapping into armor mode and clearing the immediate area before finding cover and rethinking my strategy.
On easier settings, it is definitely possible to blindly charge in and kick ass, but for more patient players, the game’s higher difficulty settings create challenges that require careful consideration before attempting.
But all this flexibility comes at a price. The A.I. suffers in the game – to the point of being partially broken. There was a point not too long ago when enemy A.I. was the main focus of FPS’s. Moving away from scripted waves of enemies running into your turret’s stream of bullets (a la Medal of Honor: Frontline) to enemies that flank, deceive, and push forward (Half Life 2 and Halo: Reach come to mind). With Crysis 2’s focus on amazingly complicated terrain, enemies are forced to traverse the rubble of former Manhattan while actively trying to bring you down.
Sometimes, this results in an amazingly aggressive patrol, where enemies will inspect your last known location, and then branch out to the most likely areas that you might want to sneak off too. I often thought I was safe from harm only to spot an enemy quickly advancing on my location, forcing me to choose between fight and flight. And that was GREAT. However, this complexity of terrain and behavior often put enemies in an endless loop, literally running around in circles, stuck in a wall, or just completely unaware that they were trying to kill me (or visa versa). Still, the gameplay is so satisfying that the shortcomings are easy to forgive.
Crysis 2 also has a decent online multiplayer setup. You are afforded all the same powers as in the single player campaign, though they seem far less effective in multiplayer. As you play more you can upgrade your character’s abilities and weapons, but this requires a lot of time to actually get anywhere. I often threw up my armor as I shot at an opponent, only to have him or her whip around and take me down with a quick headshot. After getting crushed for a couple of matches I realized that I had turned aim assist off (which the game has on by default) and that most others probably just left it on. After switching it back on I faired much better. It is a little disappointing to me that aim assist is even an option in online competition, but I suppose the developers are merely trying to make up for the obvious constraints of a controller verses a keyboard and mouse. All in all the multiplayer aspect is sufficient, and I definitely had moments where I felt it was a unique and admirable contribution, but the real test will be whether the community remains lively in the months to come.
Crysis 2 is a gorgeous, lengthy game that tries to go above and beyond in almost every category – and is mostly successful. The gameplay allows for variety, the story adds some much appreciated drama, and the levels are so ambitious and breathtaking that it is sure to influence future games in the genre. If you are a first person shooter fan who loves a strong single player campaign, Crysis 2 is definitely a must buy.
nine
out of ten
