Crysis 2 - worth the wait?

It’s been 4 long years since the launch of the original Crysis. Undoubtedly the most graphically advanced game ever made…as a fanboy of the original, I have to say that when I caught wind of the imminent launch of the sequel I immediately went out and built up the meanest PC money could buy.

Let me set the scene: When Crysis launched late 2007, I thought I was ready to run the game on the highest settings that it could offer; I was running an Intel Quad Q6600 with 2GB of DDR II Dominator memory, Windows Vista and a 1st Generation DX10 8800 GTS 640mb Edition…needless to say, I was pretty bleak when after installing it I could only just play it on Medium settings…

That said, I think apart from the original Crysis blowing gamers minds visually, it did kinda just end. Leaving a gamer with wanting more. It didn’t feel quite complete. In fact I remember even looking for mods and expansion packs on the net after I completed the first game, as my addiction wasn’t fully satisfied. Also, I was left with a pretty bad taste in my mouth after completing the 2008 stand-alone, Warhead. Crysis Warhead offered more of the same visually astounding graphics that we had seen from the original, with no unique or new features, and more importantly no addition or continuation on top of the Originals’ storyline.

So, that leaves us with the unanswered question, what happened to Prophet at the end of the original Crysis? - He just gets into a VITOL, heads towards the alien sphere on the island, and minutes later the island is nuked. The end. Thank you for playing.

Crysis 2 does a nice job recovering from that bitter end, check this vid dubbed ‘Prophets Journey’ to get the full picture: Prophets Journey

So, enough ranting about the first game. What about Crysis 2?

First Impressions:
Well let me start off by saying that I was a little disappointed in the effort that went into the packaging of the sequel, my original Crysis came in a di-cast metal case, I got a t-shirt, it also came with a bunch of other really useless CD’s that I never used, but appreciated none-the-less as a fanboy. Crysis 2 on the other hand came in a traditional plastic DVD case, 1 DVD and an instruction manual that in my opinion is the biggest waste of paper ever…

Aesthetics aside, I was about as eager as a 5-year old child on Christmas morning to install and play this game, that when I got home on Friday I wasted about as much time getting the DVD into the rom drive as a drug addict taking a hit after 6 months. (Only in my case it had been 4 years) - I have to add, the game does take slightly longer to install than you may be willing to wait…it’s like a groom after he gets married…he has to go through the whole reception before he can have his bride…too long for formalities.

Once the game is installed however, and you run it for the first time, you will not be disappointed. - What the merchandisers lacked in delivery and packaging, the developers made up for in Menu design.

This is the in game menu:

As an obsessive-compulsive graphics junkie, I always -somewhat optimistically- maximise the graphics settings before I even start the game, just to see if the game will run in full settings.
Now as the original doesn’t even run on my new system in Full (or as it stands: ULTRA) graphics settings I was quite surprised when I landed on the Graphics setting page to find that ‘Extreme’ Graphics settings was set as my systems default settings…for those wondering, My new system spec is: AMD 1055T hexacore CPU, 4 GIGS of DDR III Corsair DOMINATOR Ram, Windows 7 64-bit and a 460GTX TOP 1GB edition.

Naturally, when I started a new game I was not expecting it to run at a playable FPS…but like any ignorant child, I went with it…and boy was I glad. After the opening movie, (which is like an introduction to a Hollywood blockbuster) the first scene ran at over 60FPS…and continued to do so throughout the game, which makes me feel things that I cannot possibly begin to describe…
Anyway, after an annoyingly long cut-scene schpeal, (the submarine you are on gets attacked and you have to do the traditional tutorial - crawl, lift doors and swim your way out of there with your team, only to get ambushed and any nearly die yadda yadda yadda…)

When you finally get over yourself and come up for air, half dead, a man emerges from the chaos in a Nanosuit 2…its Prophet. -All cut scene by the way- After a long-ass time later, and without giving too much away, you end up with a pistol and the Nanosuit…which is exactly where you want to be, and the gameplay begins.
Gameplay:
The gameplay is very much a hybrid between the original Crysis and the more recent ‘Call of Duty Black ops’ the story-line and scene feels very much like a ‘half-life’ cross ‘Alien versus Predator’ type vibe.
I mean, anyone who played the first Crysis will tell you that the sequel feels nothing like the original. Movement is different, suit features are different, interaction with the rest of the world is different, I mean, it’s like the developers knew what was lacking in the first Crysis, and fixed it all in the sequel. Including playability.

Some cool new features have been introduced into Crysis 2 that make it that much better than its predecessor in so many ways. The only problem is, you kinda have to figure it out for yourself as you go along as the manual is useless, and there are no blog posts with this type of content in, that are out yet to help Noobs figure out these new features.

The first feature is the introduction of a ‘battlefield assesment tool’ that comes equipped in the nanosuit’s visor. Basically, before most battles where a player is outnumbered, you are made aware that ‘tactical’ options are available. This occurs when you are at a vantage point over the battlefield, allowing you the opportunity to assess the battlefield and choose your attack. - This caters nicely for all gaming styles.

The next feature (and this is something I struggled with finding info about) is the introduction of a series of nanosuit upgrade modules. - These are broken down into 4 categories: armour, power, tactical and stealth. These 4 upgrade modules are passive upgrades that basically give you an advantage in the field of battle, by affording your nanosuit with special abilities, such as a cloak tracker, which enables you to see cloaked enemies. - A nice to have, if you know how to use it.
The instructions in-game are not very clear, it only tells you once that you can only have one ability in each category active at any given time. What it doesn’t tell you, is when an ability is active and when it is not. There is a button as you can see in the screenshot above that allows you to ‘toggle active state’ but when you only have one option to choose from in each category, you have no idea if it is the light shade of green, or the dark shade of green that indicates your ability is active as literally no other indication is given about this…anywhere.
Minor bugs aside, once you go get a hang of these abilities, they prove quite useful in the field of battle.

There are other minor changes that make the game that much more awesome than the first one. For example, in the original Crysis a user was given ‘short cut keys’ to activate abilities in the field. I.e. you had to double tap space to go into ‘Maximum strength mode’, in Crysis 2, the developers have graciously decided to give us dedicated hotkeys for these functions. Which makes combat effortless.
A simple tap of the ‘Q’ button will activate armour mode (which unlike the first Crysis is not always active in Crysis 2, and is actually somewhat effective in Crysis 2). Also, the developers have included an awesome little feature that allows users to pull themselves up a walls and obsticals automatically. You have all done it…jumped for a ledge in a game and not quite made it to the other side…In Crysis 2 that is a breeze…simply hold down the spacebar and your nanosuit will initiate a power jump, if you don’t quite hit the landing but get close enough, your character will automatically reach out and grab the ledge and pull himself up. (as one does)
It’s the little things like this that make Crysis 2, that much better than not only Crysis 1, but better than any First person shooter on the market at the moment!!

Graphics:
I am not going to go into this…as mentioned, I am running the game on extreme settings on my rig, I will let the below screenshots do the talking…

Landing:

Central Park:

Yes, they are epic.
Crysis 3 and on:
And then…after between 5 - 9 hours of gameplay action (depending again on your playing style) the game comes to an epic closing video…which will send the shivers down your spine one last time.

Again, the game ending is quite open-ended (at least all the aliens die this time) but it does end with the taste of Crysis 3…which by my speculative reasoning will take place somewhere in the United Kingdom if I am not mistaken…
But that is just my view.
I would recommend it for all gamers to try out. You haven’t played an FPS until you have played Crysis 2. It is everything in a shooter that a gamer expects and more.

Check it out on PC, XBOX or PS3. It will rock your world!