In Crysis 2, you take on humans and aliens like the first game, but in a more console-friendly manner.
Amusingly enough, cmfl3x and I have both been playing the same games lately; we played through Portal 2 together, started Crysis 2 around the same time, and each of us picked up L.A. Noire on launch day. While cmfl3x spent his recent gaming time getting through L.A. Noire, I’ve been putting most of my time into Crysis 2. Last week, cmfl3x shared some of his initial thoughts on the single player portion of the game. Having completed both the campaign and sank almost 10 hours into the multiplayer, I’m ready to give this major sequel a review.
Single Player
The Highs
For the most part, the the franchise’s transition from the PC-only title Crysis to its current multi-platform iteration is definitely noticeable. The most unique aspect of Crysis: the Nanosuit, returns and is a lot more streamlined and easier to use. Having freshly beaten the first Crysis game on the PC, it took me a little while to get acquainted with the new “user-friendly” suit controls. No longer did I have to turn on a Strength module to jump higher – I just jumped and it was high. I didn’t have to turn on strength before meleeing either; hitting the melee attack and holding it resulted in a supercharged hit. This made the game quite easy to understand, and while the suit controls seem more simplified, it allows us to focus more on enjoying the game itself.
There is definite awesomeness in Crysis 2′s campaign. The suit allows you to play through the campaign with many different playstyles, from a more stealth-oriented approach (due to the suit’s Predator-like cloaking ability) to the more Rambo-style charge approach with the use of the suit’s shield module. Your Nanosuit is also equipped with a visor, allowing you to tag enemies, equipment, and at opportune times, various tactical approaches you can take. A new addition to the series is the ability to earn experience points to unlock more advanced features of your Nanosuit and it works quite well. Crysis 2 is not a short game either – I clocked in at about 12 hours, making this a shooter that more than doubles the length of any of the other major shooters today.
What really is the icing on the cake to the game is its epic presentation. The new CryEngine 3 looks beautiful, and while the game takes place in NYC, water effects are amazing – even on the console. Owners of 3D TVs are also in for a real treat, as Crysis 2 supports it. Equally phenomenal is the game’s soundtrack, and for good reason – it was composed by Hans Zimmer. This guy is perhaps one of the only composers I know in the entertainment industry, simply because he’s composed memorable epic tracks for films such as The Rock, Gladiator, The Dark Knight, Inception, and many more. I get so pumped just sitting in the multiplayer lobby listening to the music – something that rarely happens with video games.
The Lows
The single player delivers in many ways, but it does have some minor negatives. The biggest negative about the single player campaign is the bad AI design. I don’t know if I’ve ever played a shooter this console generation with AI as lacking as in Crysis 2. Most of the time, the AI is decent, but then you will definitely notice weird things. AI getting stuck trying to go up stairs, enemies not knowing when you kill someone right next to them, etc. Granted, I can understand how being cloaked most of the game can make the enemy AI spazz out, but even so, it ruins part of the magic of the campaign and it wasn’t something I noticed in the first game.
Going console-friendly has also made Crysis 2 lose some of what the PC game was originally all about. In the original game, you were on a jungle island in North Korea, and you could feel the vastness of the game as you drove on various vehicles to move from point to point. Crysis 2 takes place solely in New York City, and you are always on foot. The gameplay and storyline are thus more linear, more simplified, and I can definitely understand why fans of the first game may have issues with the second. The sequel becoming more console-friendly probably irks longtime fans of the series, but as a fan of both PC and consoles, I enjoyed Crysis 2′s more streamlined approach just as I enjoyed the first game’s more open-ended style.
What I do find annoying is that the storyline of Crysis 2 doesn’t really continue Crysis 1′s much at all. This is both good and bad. It’s good obviously for newcomers to the series that never got a chance to play the original Crysis, but for those of us that beat Crysis 1, it’s just odd that Crysis 2 doesn’t really feel like it continued from where the first game abruptly ended on its cliffhanger. Crysis 2 almost is like the developers decided to just make it a console game and add in all sorts of elements that would make it play well on the console, and just forget that the first one existed – after all, who plays shooters for their story right? <cough> BioShock <cough>
This was also one of the first shooters I’ve played in a while where I actually sometimes wanted it to end sooner than it did. The game is quite lengthy, but the primary drawback in the game design is that there are just too few enemy types. You fight 3-4 enemy types throughout the course of the entire game, and all that really changes is that it’s in a different part of NYC each time. I groaned when I discovered that I had to fight the same boss basically one level after another. The level design in Crysis 2 is in stark contrast to the first Crysis, where you had a variety of different objectives across different terrain. One level you could be driving a tank, another riding a train, etc. I would have preferred a shorter, tighter experience for Crysis 2′s campaign than its current drawn out design.
Crysis 2′s multiplayer also feels like a dozen little Master Chiefs running around.
Multiplayer
The Highs
I am quite surprised to see that Crysis 2 isn’t even among the top 20 games that people play on the Xbox 360 anymore, as I think it’s excellent. There have been only a few games recently that I can think of where I actually bothered to get into the multiplayer: Starcraft 2, Halo: Reach, Call of Duty: Black Ops. Crysis 2′s multiplayer design is very well done, and I highly recommend it for anyone – especially fans of Halo and Call of Duty.
cmfl3x and I both agree that Crysis 2 feels like Call of Duty + Halo, and this is the case in both the campaign and the multiplayer. Crysis 2′s multiplayer feels just like the developers designed to make Crysis 2 as similar to what we all know and love from the Call of Duty multiplayer games these days: a level progression system, weapon and attachment unlocks, perks, challenges, etc. It’s basically all there, but what’s so great about it is that the Call of Duty system was placed atop Crysis 2, while preserving what makes Crysis 2 unique. This is reflected in the weapons and attachments that are unique in Crysis 2, but also the use of the suit and how the perks all revolve around suit abilities that Call of Duty could never give you. Unlocking perks such as the ability to see footprints of nearby enemies, bullet paths, and where opponents cloak are just some of the few things that still make the multiplayer exciting.
The Lows
There are only a couple lows in the multiplayer – most notably technical. I had problems playing this on my wireless router, as I would get dropped pretty often but no other online game posed this problem for me. Also, sometimes multiplayer stats don’t get saved for some reason, making me think the stat server was reset. It can be disheartening at times when you check your challenges list and discover that even though you killed 50 guys with a certain gun already, it’s reset back to 0.
Crysis 2′s multiplayer has tons of things to unlock and enjoy.
Final Thoughts
Crysis 2 really comes out swinging in the series’ console debut. For the most part, the package is well worth it, and worth its price merely if you only wanted to play the lengthy campaign without touching the multiplayer. But to skip out on the multiplayer to this game would be a travesty – especially if you enjoy playing Call of Duty multiplayer but want something a little different.
There are some technical issues that the game suffers from on both the single player and multiplayer side, but I think that Crytek has really hit the big time with Crysis 2. I am still enjoying Crysis 2 multiplayer today, and am looking forward to the next iteration when Crytek hopefully resolves all of the technical kinks. But in the meantime, I’m still having a lot of fun with Crysis 2 and will probably hold onto this game for a very long time.
Final Grade: A-
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