Hello and welcome.
Intro
Crysis 2 is a first-person shooter set in a post-apocalyptic New York. OK, so let’s not draw too many conclusions about the
setting and what emotions are trying to be evoked – it’s not worth the speculation, although it is intriguing. Any-who, you play a
guy called Alcatraz who gets rescued by a mini-gun totting C3PO called Prophet. Without going into spoilers let’s just say
Prophet saves you, then for reasons that are as mysterious as the odd socks in my wardrobe he decides to slap you into his
metallic suit, then commits suicide. Seems a bit extreme? Well, it kinda makes sense as the story evolves .. despite initially being
a bit of an abrupt start. Abrupt .. but compelling.
Gameplay
The gameplay sees you wandering around trying to uncover what’s happening .. initially there are troops out to get you and later
alien bugs that sometimes resemble squid-like Muppets. The whole way through you’re given directions and objectives by
contacts who are quite charismatic and well considered, which all gives you a structured framework to commit bloody murder in.
There’s a reasonable level of customisation in the game revolving around your weapons and your nano suit. You can adjust your
load-out at fairly regular intervals, and then customise what type of sights you use, whether you have a silencer, whether it’s
automatic fire etc. In a similar vain, your suit can be customised to offer more resistance to bullets, more stealth, quicker recharge
times, as well as things like enhancing special moves like air stomp. Both of these aspects bring a decent, although not extensive,
level of customisation to Crysis 2 that tend to fit well with your type of gameplay whether it’s sneaking around like a cross
between a ninja and Robocop, or all guns blazing like terminator, or indeed if you fancy yourself as some kind’ve gymnastic iron
man. All of this might sound quite arbitrary but it isn’t .. as you move through the game it becomes quickly apparent that you
have to consider your moves. Often you’re prompted to seek tactical options that might give you good vantage points, lead you to
beefy weapons, or allow you to flank and stealth kill enemies having a sneaky cigarette while their sergeant isn’t watching.
This leads me to the AI .. and where my main problem with the game was. The AI is, for want of a better term, is like a fish on a
bicycle .. it works, but it’s weird. By that I mean that the AI works how you expect it should sometimes, while at other times it
simply doesn’t work at all or soon reacts stupidly. Here’s an example .. I shoot one guy, and the guy next to him immediately
reacts either firing back or taking cover while calling for back-up. This seems reasonable. I can reload the same instance and
make the same move and one of the guys will just stand there having not noticed his fallen comrade whose blood is now
cascading over his boots. This is a quite unusual example, but there are others where the AI works extremely well, and is spoilt
somewhat when it acts weirdly. Enemies will go to their downed companions – something that seems a reasonable thing to do,
and something you can use to your advatange, while at other times they simply do very little. While this didn’t spoil the game
overall for me it did detract from what was otherwise a very engaging and sometimes challenging game.
Graphics & Sound
Graphically the game is very beautiful, and despite it’s setting of utter devastation it delivers big time on looks. Now to some this
might be a put-off, but the graphics aren’t anywhere near as demanding on your PC as you might think – OK so there’s not
masses of space to roam around in, but at no point do you feel too boxed in and without options. All of the in-game action and
cinematics are very well put together and I have to admit to being impressed with the level of detail that’s been put in .. it all
adds-up to a very comparable gaming experience overall. Sound also plays a large part in the experience .. whether it’s birds
flying overhead, your machine gun, running water, or the sometimes oddly-timed music, it all comes together quite well.
Replayability
Overall Crysis 2 has a decent amount to offer. Aside from the campaign which can be played at differing levels of difficulty – the
hardest of which is very challenging indeed – the multiplayer experience is quite a refreshing, fun experience too. Having said
that I wouldn’t class Crysis 2 as a breakthrough game .. it doesn’t achieve new territory really, and while certain aspects show a
great deal of promise it’s a bit like cooking a birthday dinner for your mate and sending out invites to all his friends and family
for an awesome party - and forgetting to invite the person whose birthday it is. In other words it has a lot of unrealised potential.
However, don’t let that put you off .. it’s a good game, and well worth looking into – if anything you’ll enjoy stomping around
like a platinum-clad Godzilla melting faces simply because some bearded hippy told you to .. and no, this isn’t a back-reference
to my earlier comments about New York in a setting of devastation .. honest. In short check it out, look closer .. there’s a
diamond in the rough with this game despite its occasional flaw.
Anyways, as usual my scores will come up at the end. If you want to see more of the gameplay or watch me playing Crysis 2
then check out my channel’s playlists or visit the web site. Until next time .. be ubor!