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Utilising the CryENGINE 3, the multiplatform FPS Crysis 2, is the sequel to Crytek’s PC-exclusive shooter, Crysis. The Crysis whingers have been well documented. The ones that believe that Crysis has been given a lobotomy to fit in with the console market? Ignore them. While some aspects of the shooter do conjure up thoughts of past games, it brings a breath of fresh air to the FPS genre’s stank filled pub.
Vitals
Title: Crysis 2
Developer: Crytek/Publisher: Electronic Arts
Platform: PS3, 360 and PC.
Available: Now
The story takes place in a devastated New York City, three years after the events of Crysis. Its the year 2023 and humans are dead or dying in the streets from a flesh melting plague, the “Manhattan Virus.” Amongst the skyscrapers, Alien forces – the Ceph – are battling against the humans for global dominance. Players take the role of Force Recon Marine ”Alcatraz,” who is unwittingly put into the Nanosuit 2.0 after a failed extraction mission. So Alcatraz finds himself in a fancy new suit in the middle of New York City with two forces dying to get their hands on him: the Ceph and terrestrial CryNet Systems army, Crynet Enforcement & Local Logistics (CELL). CryNet are particularly interested in Alcatraz because they think he is “Prophet” – the supporting protagonist from the first Crysis – and they want the Nanosuit.
The plot is standard video game fair, it doesn’t pretend to do anything ground breaking and it has no illusions about what it is. Think if Snake Blisken was put smack in the middle of New York, with some aliens thrown in for some extra zing, and you have the games main plot artery – minus the mullet. The story telling was similar to that of Half Life’s. It isn’t as good but it had similarities that I won’t delve into for fear of revealing too much. The storyline was easy to follow but left me pondering for a few moments at the end, mentally tying all the facts together.
The suit had three main attributes: sprint, armor and stealth. If used too liberally, each attribute will drain your suits power faster than a box of wine at a bogan’s house party. For instance, cloak drained power faster the quicker you moved, and shooting while cloaked drained power completely. Some good techniques was to de-cloak right before taking a shot, and cloak straight after taking the shot. “Pockets of safety” would need to be sought out every minute or so when out of cloak to recharge the suit. I generally activated armor when a frag detonated close by, when an enemy was engaged head to head, or when a large drop was executed.
The nano suit and weapon upgrade menus were very elegant and easy to access. Press and press-hold start, to bring up the suit and weapon upgrade systems, respectively. The suit had four upgrade paths, each with three attributes – only one of those three attributes can be activated at a time. You unlock suit upgrades with alien DNA, that gets picked up from dead aliens. I only had to walk over the DNA to pick it up, rather than doing that annoying walk over and press ‘a’ to dance. That made me very happy. Suit and weapon upgrades can be switched out to harmonize with the shifting combat situations or players style.
Weapon unlocks included different sights, silencers etc. The weapons felt satisfying to use, especially against humans, but a few made me feel like I was shooting spit balls at the aliens due to their physical superiority. The weapons had good “weight” with great reload animations. Added details, like the sniper scope border, really jazzed things up.
Stealth kills or remaining in stealth while in a combat situation removed my reliability on weapons – I only used them out of curiosity or to cause mindless destruction. Being short of ammo was never a problem as ammo drops were frequent and the enemies dropped loads of ammo. The tank controls felt a bit awkward, very weird utilizing the bumpers to shoot rather than the triggers. Another thing I found inconsistent about the tank was that it could push over cars but not a lamp post.
Generally, the gameplay consisted of periods of high intensity enemy contact and then breaks with traversal and exploring. These breaks gave me a good chance to appreciate the environment and allowed the story to progress. The structure of Crysis 2, unlike the first, is linear. Done away is the sand box nature, and in with the linear, get from point A to point B. However, unlike most other linear shooters, Crysis 2 gives you options to progress through those points.
You have options to go about a combat situation; stealth kills, circumvent altogether using stealth, or Rambo your way through a level. Once you approach an enemy-infested area, a reminder will be voiced to look at your strategic options using your visor. Your visor will highlight key vantage points and suggestions of how to dispatch enemies in that particular level (e.g. snipe, stealth kill etc). I only used the strategic highlights a couple of times to get the gist of what it was about, but the visor came in handy to flesh out ammo drops and enemy positions.
I favored the stealth route and silent kills, mainly because it was more thrilling to do so than the usual run and gun. This was surprising because I’m not usually a stealth fan. The downfall to sneaky route is that less aliens are killed, which means potential credits for suit upgrades are missed out on. Generally, you could usually tell what enemies would be encountered by the environment; CELL for corridors and building interiors and Ceph for open spaces.
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