Review: Crysis 2

14 May, 2011

Title: Crysis 2
Platform: Xbox 360
Developer: Crytech
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Ten Words or Less: Forward thinking shoot-em-up with a familiar feel.
Family Friendly?: Nope.

What says Sci-Fi more than a man walking around in a Nano-Suit and being able to vault tall buildings in a single stride, cloaking himself out of sight of his opponents, sneaking up on them and snapping their necks from behind? Not much else, I tell you, and it’s this fast-paced glimpse of a fictional future that effectively sums up the protagonist in Crytech’s latest offering, Crysis 2.
When people spoke of the original Crysis, it was often to big up its mammoth-like system requirements that tested home PCs to limits never tested before. Now EA have published the hotly-anticipated sequel to the PC-melting original Crysis, the imaginatively titled Crysis 2 has now been made available for home consoles for the very first time. Finally, the console user gets a glimpse of the action in the series’ sequel. Here’s what I thought …

Crysis 2 takes place three years after the events of the original. Players assume the role of Alcatraz, a Recon marine officer who has inherited his Nano-suit from Prophet, a face well-known to those already familiar with the original Crysis. Unfortunately for Alcatraz, Prophet is being hounded by CryNet Systems for control of the suit, and now that the suit has been passed over, officials from CryNet confuse Alcatraz for the original Prophet. Suddenly, players are cast into a cat-and-mouse chase, the body armour they’re wearing at the centre to it all. In addition to all of this, rather coincidentally, an evolving alien life-form from under the sea is terrorising New York City – yes, really – to the brink of destruction. So not only are you tasked to outrun CryNet Systems and keeping this powerful suit out of their hands, but you’re also trying to harness the suit’s power to quell a threat the likes of which the World has never seen before.

Not quite the usual day at the office.

The Single Player Campaign isn’t a short affair by any means. It took me around 10 hours to complete on hard difficulty (which, admittedly, wasn’t that much of a challenge when I discovered the Cloak button …) so it’s not a quick feat. Fast paced and cinematic, the likes of which other games can only hope to achieve, it was therefore surprising that I found it difficult to engage with the narrative. This was further compounded by repetitious environments and decor, which, after a while, became tiresome and regimented – a surprise, given the game prides itself on a magnificent graphical engine. Whilst it’s only fair that, set within New York, it’s necessary to retain some of the city’s iconic landmarks, halfway through the campaign the visuals became stale. In fact, the whole campaign starts to run out of steam as you approach the conclusion.

Also, the checkpoints are a really messy bunch. Sometimes, they’re perfectly positioned and the game flows nicely, then there are one or two points where the game could really have used a checkpoint sooner than the game provides.

That said, I really enjoyed the capabilities of your suit and accompanying development system. You start out with a cloaking device, nano-vision and an enhanced armour mod that run on energy. The energy bar is at the bottom right of the screen and whenever you use any of these abilities, the energy bar starts to drain. Use two together at the same time and, as you might expect, the bar depletes substantially quicker. Naturally, when the bar is completely empty, you can’t use any of these abilities for the limited time and leave yourself painfully vulnerable to attack. However, the game doesn’t just confine you to these abilities; whenever you defeat an alien, you can claim some of the nano from their rotting corpse (nice) and use their power to upgrade your suit and unleash new abilities e.g. quieten your footsteps to make your stealth approach even more effective, or see the line of bullets being fired from your enemies, so you can better plan your attack.

It’s obvious that Crysis 2 has adopted and then built upon the original game’s heritage, with the Cry Engine 3 boasting some gorgeous effects from building-swallowing earthquakes to the inhuman enemies, unleashing truly captivating moments that make your jaw drop and make your head dizzy with excitement. Skidding across the ground, kicking the legs out from underneath a guard or watching a full-on earthquake suck skyscrapers into a muddy abyss – this is where the game triumphs. Look up action in the dictionary and Crysis 2 will be there – the quality of these game’s battle sequences and visuals shine gloriously.

However, it isn’t just the graphics that deserve recognition. With parts of the in-game score composed by none other than the legendary Hans Zimmer, the score – dramatic, exciting, and mostly fitting to the on-screen action – rivals any big budget Hollywood movie. But whilst the majority of the soundtrack is of a pulse-pounding disposition, some of the pieces are quite experimental, which – to be brutally honest – are sometimes hit and miss when placed with the events on the screen.

Which brings us to the multiplayer. Crysis 2 online can be summed up in three words – Reach of Duty. The online component takes some of the best aspects of Reach, some of the best aspects of COD and puts them together in a package that … works very well. Whether it be COD’s ‘scope and shoot’, XP and loadout action or Reach’s high rise jumping, sprinting and futuristic style, the game clearly borrows elements from its competition but packages them together in a unique, compelling way that create some suspenseful, breath-taking action. It also doesn’t use EA’s Online Pass System – another big thumbs up from me.

Naturally, all the elements prominent in the single-player can be brought over and used online, such as the ‘through the roof’ jumping, air-stomping, the slide attack and all of the weapon sets. This is what separates Crysis’s multiplayer from many others in the genre, and will definitely mix up your attack and defence techniques when entering the competitive online realm. When considering the single-player portion of the game was a tad hit and miss for me personally, the multiplayer was a real saving grace for Crysis 2.

In the final analysis, Crysis 2 is a total package. The graphics are excellent, the sounds usually top-notch, and while not perfect, the single player campaign is entertaining enough. The gameplay mechanics are intuitive and responsive and there’s some clever elements that have been implemented into the game. Even the multiplayer is solid and filled with replayability.

As a package, this game offers everything you want and expect out of a game released in 2011 and some added features that perhaps you wouldn’t expect. Crysis 2 is as solid as games come and stands as one of the best FPS games released this year. That being said, it’s not a campaign I’m going to rush back into and unfortunately, while the multiplayer is solid, it hasn’t sustained a deep-seated desire for me to jump right back in there.

Good times!

• Lengthy campaign, encouraging multiple methods of play.
• Beautiful special effects and breath-taking graphics
• A solid online component that works.

Bad times

• Levels become overly familiar and quite dull in the second half of the campaign.
• Ill-placed checkpoints make for some frustrations.
• The online isn’t enough to pull me away from other games in this genre, despite how solid it is.

Rating
4/5