The year is 2023 and aliens have invaded. At least that’s what Crytek will have you believe in EA’s latest release Crysis 2. The game starts with a thrilling opening scene in which you, as the hero destined to save the world, are thrown straight into the action. Your quickly introduced to the controls and the all important nano suit which you will soon learn is the difference between life and death.
Crysis 2 is not your usual first person shooter. If you play your game in a run and gun style you will soon realise these aliens are not your usual drones, these guys think fast and react to your every move. So, lucky your nano suit is equipped with some pretty snazzy gadgets. Armour mode does exactly what is says on the tin. If you find yourself surrounded by alien scum with nothing but the smell of your bowels in your suit for back up stick armour mode on. Your suit becomes, well stronger, at the expense of manoeuverability however this is not the ideal situation. What Crysis 2 does well is gives you an opportunity to choose how you want to progress in a scene usually by giving you a high viewpoint before you engage. This provides you with 2 benefits. First you can bring up a HUD display and tag enemies and various other points of interest. Now its worth spending a bit of time on this as when you hit the action your tags will show on your mini map giving you a tactical advantage however untagged will not causing that bowel moment again should you meet one around a corner. Second is you can plan your route through. This may sound silly being a directed fps but stealth mode is your friend here. In stealth mode your suit makes you invisible however, as with armour mode, it drains your suits energy so any women’s shower shenanigans will have to be quick (you got to love the future). Your suit allows you to sprint and super jump, again draining precious suit energy so everything will have to be planned so spending time surveying the scene will definitely pay dividends.
Now I can already feel the heat coming from some of you older gamers, I can see the sweat beads forming on your brow as you ponder how your going to cope with all those actions but fear not, Crytek seemed to have got this spot on, not taking away some of the complex combinations you can do and managing to keep it simple which is quite remarkable seeing as how versatile your nano suit is. The cover system also works well and intelligently asks if you would like to peer around a corner without any need to actually go into cover.
Graphically the game, as you would expect, looks sexy including some great detail on surroundings and some excellent water effects but never seems to be pushing any boundaries. Sound is the same, suitably moody and atmospheric emphasising the impending doom your about to face.
Taking the game online is a breath of fresh air and not just because it worked!! Here the same applies, run and gun at your peril. The ranking system works well enough and allows upgrades to your suit that are available in the main game. Your usual game modes are to be found making the MP very familiar to the masses and what could be more fun than bouncing around with eleven other humans all in hyper charged nano suits? Armour works well but you will soon find stealth mode is pretty pointless with human opponents being able to see your outline but still adds a to a satisfying stealth kill especially knowing your victim is about to witness your greatness on their killcam.
All in all Crysis 2 should be a great game. It offers a deep single player game and a credible online experience. The tactical side to Crysis 2 works incredibly well but can slow the action down which may put the Call Of Duty nuts off and mp can sometimes feel a bit of a grind against good players especially when you’re getting spawn killed for the umpteenth time. I wish I could I could say Crysis 2 is a must buy but it just misses out for me. If you want a game you can settle into straight away then steer clear however if you have a bit of time to play the game how its intended Crysis 2 will offer you hours of game time
8.5/10
Just to add a bit to your views on the MP side of Crysis 2 and that is they seemed to have come up with a way to sort of stop the campers and this is by way of the dog tags .
ReplyDeleteUnlike many shooter games with kill streaks ( x amount of kills = killstreak ) , Crysis 2 say right you have killed that player and they have dropped a dog tag - want a kill streak then go get it .
So the more dog tags to get (3,5 & 7 ) the better the kill streak . There are only 6 multiplayer killstreaks enabled in Crysis 2, maximum radar, radar jammer, and manosuit jammer, and so on depending on your load out set up .
So being a camper in Crysis 2 isnt the best choice