Crysis 2 [PC/PS3/Xbox 360]

[Wools]

I must have completed over half the game the week it was released and was thoroughly enjoying it. The closest comparison I could make was to Halo: Combat Evolved and Fear. The game placed you in beautiful environments (Far closer to the destroyed beauty mantra than Gears of War was) that were open and could be tackled in any way you see fit. After years of corridor shooters, it was a breath of fresh air to be out in the open, deciding who I want to take on in a variety of different ways. The AI was not as smart as Bungie?s masterpiece, but it was aggressive and quick, comparable to Fear and a real delight to fight and fool enemies with cloaking and silencers.

->Open Spoiler<-

After a long downtime, I picked it up on Sunday and I have rather mixed impressions of the second half. The aliens are very quick but not really fun to fight against, with countless moments of me firing at them, before they changed direction multiple times in the space of 5 seconds. The constant back and forth was really draining when you had 4 or more enemies to take on, with the cloaking aliens being a chore later on in the game. The level design also changed, with the gloriously open New York streets, being replaced with corridors, caves and rooms. These two changes of pace and design were grounded down even more with an apparent desire to take control away from the player and have QTE?s, cut scenes, and moments of downtime that felt more intrusive than those in the first half of the game. Why Crytek ended on a protracted QTE rather than use their obvious talent and make a huge climax is beyond my understanding. Maybe because they decided to include a truly un-involving and techno babble plot, and then follow it, rather than let the games qualities come first. I truly did not care for the characters, Prophet or what happened to them. I was more enamoured with the bloke who gutturally growled ?Maximum Armour? than any of the characters on screen.

I would not normally bring up the story of an action game except for instance like this. Halo 2, Doom 3, Crysis 2 and countless others, fall foul of the idea that a uninvolving story should dictate the design of a game. The reason Ico, Uncharted 2, Portal and Half Life 2 are so brilliant, are that they have warm characters wrapped round a story that allows the maximum amount of opportunities for great set pieces or emotional moments to be created in the game. Whereas if you create a shooter first, and then think these factions and characters need a backstory you?ve already lost; as boring gameplay scenarios and levels will be created to tell that story.

->Open Spoiler<-

Crysis 2 is a game of 2 half?s. The levels are so incredibly open ended that they invoke comparisons to the best moments of Halo: Combat Evolved, with some great AI and set pieces that are genuinely breath-taking. The other half disposes of the games strengths and constrains the structure so you?re running through grey and lifeless environments. The ending then becomes an anti-climax, and you?re left wondering why Crytek took those possible, story dependent decisions, that sully the memories of what it done well.

I would recommend the game to anyone as the moments where you?re free to run around a beautiful environment with clever enemies are too good not to. But if it had been tidied up some, with a far more accomplished plot, the lesser moments would have been erased and replaced with a truly brilliant and consistent game.

[cutmymilk]

I completed this a few days ago and loved it. Truly one of the best FPS campaigns ever. The last bosses were pretty easy though, melee the hell out of them with armour on.

[Supergoal]

The battles with the giant tripod hunter style mech monsters were pretty cool I thought.

[cutmymilk]

Yeah they were ace. Really enjoyed all of the aliens.

[marcus]

Ive tried really hard to get into this but just cant. Ive a long way to go still but after the immersive, gripping (and brilliant) Dead Space 2 playing such a detached, open-spaced game like this is a real comedown. I have almost come to expect enemies with even a little personality but here there is none, so far its been by the numbers straightforward killing of dull adversaries. Its very pretty but really seems to lack something, yet nearly everyone seems to think its one of the best fps games ever, clearly Im missing something here as so far its been lukewarm at best. Or a real slow burner. Either way, motivation to persist is deteriorating.

[englishbob]

Ive tried really hard to get into this but just cant. Ive a long way to go still but after the immersive, gripping (and brilliant) Dead Space 2 playing such a detached, open-spaced game like this is a real comedown. I have almost come to expect enemies with even a little personality but here there is none, so far its been by the numbers straightforward killing of dull adversaries. Its very pretty but really seems to lack something, yet nearly everyone seems to think its one of the best fps games ever, clearly Im missing something here as so far its been lukewarm at best. Or a real slow burner. Either way, motivation to persist is deteriorating.

I'd suggest then that you should just skip to Multiplayer and try that out and ditch Single Player. If MP isn't your thing, then I would steer clear of FPS games for Single Player action until Half Life 3 appears, as you are not going to get better than this for quite some time!

[Supergoal]

Shame you can't get into the game, as it's definitely one of the better FPS in a long time. I don't think multiplayer would float your boat either.

I would steer clear of FPS games for Single Player action until Half Life 3 appears

He'll be waiting years!

[marcus]

I love FPS but online multiplayer is not my thing and I barely touch it, so rely on there being a decent single-player campaign. Ill carry on as I hardly ever play a FPS without going to completion, and Ill hope it picks up soon so I can see what all the fuss is about.

[rmoxon]

If you love FPS I'd think you would love the single player this becuase it truley is one of the very best ever made.

To me it was stunning from the very first moment to the last, if it somehow hasnt impressed you already then I doubt it will. Its hard to fathom why it wouldnt impress someone who is a big fan of the genre though really, it does nearly everything perfectly, with only its dodgy A.I. being the thing that drags it down slightly.

[capcom_suicide]

If you love FPS I'd think you would love the single player this becuase it truley is one of the very best ever made.

To me it was stunning from the very first moment to the last, if it somehow hasnt impressed you already then I doubt it will. Its hard to fathom why it wouldnt impress someone who is a big fan of the genre though really, it does nearly everything perfectly, with only its dodgy A.I. being the thing that drags it down slightly.

Might be a bad idea coming off the back of Dead Space 2. Give it a break Marcus and return to it in a few months.

[englishbob]

Put the disc in today to have a go at MP and was prompted to download another patch. (360)

Depressingly much appears to be the same. Lags as bad as COD, staid map rotation (especially starting new matches, its always a choice between Skyline and Impact!) and the ****ty distorted music is STILL THERE!

[marcus]

Its getting better.

[nonny]

They need to turn off the blurry vision filter. I've played tonnes of FPS games on the 360 and this one is the only one that makes me feel sick... takes about an hour but the eye strain I'm getting is painful.

[cavalcade]

This is pish. This is the Crystal Skull of FPS games. Where to start with the reasons why this sucks?

1) The plot. More specifically the start. How many FPS videogames start like Crysis 2? Clue: ALL OF THEM.
2) The graphics. No sorry. Lots of HDR/bloom and long draw distances don't make up for a chuntering framerate, buckets of blur and awful texture work.
3) The checkpoints. Hey Crytek, for Crysis 3 why not put them even further apart? Say, 4 hours? That'll be fun won't it? (No)
4) Target selection. Build big environment, populate with soldiers. Make environment very detailed so soldiers blur into background. Make it so soldiers can appear from any compass direction. Stab player in eye with rusting compass needle (optional).
5) Text size. Note: when converting PC game to console, increase font size to greater than microscopic.

Seriously, this is a terrible game. I am genuinely amazed at the praise. Crysis 1 was excellent, this is utter gash.

[SUMIRE]

I'm playing it on PC and while it was slow to start it just got a lot more interesting. Graphics are very nice although I had to put it on "very high" just to stop objects popping out on nowhere, gameplay is pretty much standard FPS suff with the suit thing thrown in, music and sound effects are amazing, best I have heard in a game of this type. The story, well, dont really give a damn to be honest, enviroments seem ok so far if a little samey. I think its taking it a bit far saying the game is "terrible", but yeah, each to their own I guess.