Review: Crysis 2 (Console Version)

A surreal depiction of a war-torn and plagued New York City comes to life, and you’re smacked down in the middle of it. As a Marine named Alcatraz donning the Nanosuit 2.0, you must fight, sneak, and shoot your way through enemy humans and aliens alike, and uncover your ultimate fate. In this battle, who needs a weapon, when you’re the weapon?

Note: You can click on the section titles below if you prefer to jump ahead to a particular section of the review.

I. Story

II. Gameplay

III. Graphics

IV. Sound

V. Multiplayer

VI. Overall

 
Story – 3.5/5.0

Set three years after the first Crysis game, a mysterious virus known as the “Manhattan Virus” ravages New York City, severely affecting the city’s population. You play the role of Alcatraz, a Marine, and a part of a reinforcement squad on a rescue mission to extract a man with knowledge of the virus. You’re mission suddenly goes awry when an attack devastates your submarine, and the whole squad is gunned down by an alien gunship. A mysterious man rescues you, and saves you by fitting you his Nanosuit, and bears with you the responsibility of continuing his mission. The man reveals himself as “Prophet” from the first game, and your mission begins.

The game will take you on an incredible trip to the urban jungle of New York City, fighting your way through famous landmarks, as you uncover your real purpose, all the while being met by hostilities from CELL operatives and alien creatures known as Ceph.

Players of the first game will be familiar with the game’s story and antagonists, but if you’re like me who’s very unfortunate not having played the first Crysis, the story may seem a bit puzzling at first. It lacks the necessary filler to introduce new players to the universe of Crysis, particularly with the antagonists, the mysterious Ceph, in the beginning of the game. But the game makes up for it by providing flashback memories of Prophet, and through information provided in encounters with several characters as you make your way through your mission.

The game’s plot is quite slow to reveal itself, with the first few levels seemingly lacking some direction. With all the destruction surrounding you, how are going to significantly impact what’s going on? The plot then takes off when you finally meet the person you’re supposed to rescue, Dr. Nathan Gould, and reveals to you that your suit is somehow reacting to the Ceph’s alien tissue, or Nano Catalyst, and might hold a possible solution to the Manhattan virus, and the Ceph invasion. And from the middle of the game, you’ll see the plot escalate, using themes such as betrayal, and a revelation of a greater purpose.

I won’t spoil the ending, but the game’s conclusion was quite satisfying, seeing yourself as the answer to the whole alien invasion. With a climax somehow reminding me of the “microwave corridor” sequence of Metal Gear Solid 4, it somehow gave me a sense of awe and accomplishment. The game then ends nicely, also hinting to a third installment, and what we can expect from it.

Gameplay – 4.0/5.0

As a first person shooter, the game takes you to see the world in the eyes of Alcatraz. And donning the Nanosuit 2, you take the suit’s advanced technology and capabilities to its paces as you battle your way through CELL operatives and the Ceph.

Unlike its predecessor which has a sandbox style setup, Crysis 2 progresses by completing pre-designed levels. However, it still retains that certain level of freedom established by the first game in engaging objectives. Every now and then, your Nanosuit will provide you with tactical options on how you can proceed through a certain environment, wherein options can be flanking the enemies; sneaking your way through pipes and vents; or taking control of a vehicle just to name a few. Bringing up your visor will enable you to see these options, and also your surrounding enemies for you to assess the battlefield. You can tag them by pressing the “X / Square” button to keep them in your view and have a better understanding of their position relative to yours.

What I like about this game is that it doesn’t play much like other first person shooters out right now thanks to the Nanosuit as it provides plenty of opportunities for the player to kill enemies. You can activate the stealth feature of the suit, and sneak to the back of your enemies for a sweet stealth kill. Or you can bully your enemies and show them that bullets don’t hurt you by activating your armor mode. Be careful though, as activating these modes consume your suit’s energy, which will leave you vulnerable if depleted. Also, certain actions like the power jump and sprinting will also drain Nanosuit energy. This setup keeps players grounded to the idea that despite the suit’s advance technology they are still bound by the limits of the suit’s capabilities, so if you’re not careful, you can still die. As you defeat Ceph creatures, they leave behind Nano catalysts, which will enable you to customize your suit’s capabilities, may it be enhancing your stealth, or having the ability to see bullet trails.

Guns shoot realistically, with recoil affecting your accuracy. It does have that certain feel of weight, similar but not as much as Killzone’s. The guns you pick up can also be customized to suit your style. If you’re a stealthy type, you can put a suppressor to some of the guns, and if you need more accuracy, there a several sights that you can equip as well. However, note that not all guns have the same degree of customizability.

Enemies are varied, with human CELL operatives as your initial adversaries, but the vast majority of your bullets will be spent killing alien Ceph. You’ll encounter various Ceph incarnations, so be prepared and fully equipped. However, enemy A.I. are sometimes, well, stupid, as there are times that you’ll find them just running in place trying to get around a certain obstacle. Enemies also tend to just wait and shoot, and do not actively search your last known location, so you can always hit and run enemies.

Graphics – 4.5/5.0

Crysis 2 is one of the best looking games out there so far, and this is where Crysis 2 shines. What’s really striking is the realistic lighting and textures which make this game come to life. Light has a certain amount of glare; sparks fly from live wires; water flows beautifully; your visor gets wet whenever you get into contact with water; characters are very detailed; a plethora of objects littering the environment; and bullets shattering pretty much any surface. These are just few of the visual effects that you’ll get to see in this game. Thanks to the Cry Engine 3, the game is rendered beautifully with very convincing effects and textures, and a very high degree of detail.

What certainly impresses me most is how they were able to create a stunning and surreal image of a war-torn and plague ravaged New York City. Images of crumbled buildings, infected citizens fleeing in the subways, Lady Liberty’s head on a river, and the natural flora seemingly meshing with the urban jungle definitely gave me goosebumps. Some of the levels feature intense degrees of destruction, often times shaping the level, such as bridges crumbling, resulting to debris and dust which obscure your vision. Watch out for the last level, wherein Central Park is raised high above the ground by the Ceph – shocking, and beautifully terrifying scene to watch.

There are a few quirks I’ve seen though. Sometimes objects do not render immediately, so sometimes I get surprised when I see bottles magically appear before my eyes. Also, there’s some amount of ghosting in moving objects, but not so much to ruin gameplay.

 

Sound - 4.5/5.0

Thanks to an impressive soundtrack, the game evokes a strong feeling of despair and devastation to enhance the feeling of immersion in the setting. A mix or orchestral and electronic music somehow alludes to the imagery of organic flora meshing with the towering New York buildings.

Sound effects are pretty convincing so the environments and objects will sound pretty much the way you expect them to behave. This goes hand in hand with the game’s impressive graphics in delivering a deep and rich gaming experience.

Multiplayer – 4.0/5.0

Crysis 2’s multiplayer is fun, and integrates some features already familiar to FPS gamers. But what makes Crysis 2’s multiplayer feel unique is the use of the Nanosuit, oftentimes resulting to a devastating effect. Players can sneak behind the backs of enemy players for a cloaked stealth kill, or endure firefights with armor mode.

The same degree of customizability of the Nanosuit and the weapons found in the single player are also brought into the multiplayer, which keeps the experience fresh. And it is engaging in the sense that you’ll have to rank up in order to unlock other game modes, guns, attachments, and Nanosuit customizations.

A unique and challenging killstreak reward system is in place to reward excellent gamers. Each map has a fixed set of killstreak rewards, and to activate the reward, you must collect the dogtags from your fallen victims. The more you kill and the more dog tags you collect in a single life, the better the rewards.

Familiar modes will be available for play including Team Instant Action, (team deathmatch); Instant Action (Free For All); and Crash Site, a game mode wherein each team must hold a position for points until a new position is revealed. Other game modes are unlocked as you rank up further. Note that in private matches, all the game modes are available for play.

I just have a few qualms regarding the multiplayer. It’s hard to find a game with a solid connection, especially on my US PSN account. I only get 1-2 bars connection, but still stable enough to play a good round. I tried switching to my Singapore account, but apparently I couldn’t find any games at all with the said account.

There are no offline modes, so no 4 player parties here folks.

Lastly, I’m quite disappointed seeing how they fell into the “perk system” and “kill streak reward system” band wagon, as this certainly makes the game feel like you’re still playing a Call of Duty title. But thanks to the Nanosuit system, the game is kept grounded to the mechanics of Crysis.

Overall – 4.1/5.0

Clocking at around 10 hours for one playthrough of the single player campaign, and endless hours more in the multiplayer, this game will certainly keep you engaged. The story was good but it is only held back by an initial lack of direction, and a lack of backstory for new players, but from the middle to the end, it’s one hell of a ride. Multiplayer is varied, engaging and fun, and despite a lack of originality in some of its elements, it still feels unique to Crysis 2.

As a plus, it doesn’t have the Online Pass system implemented by other EA titles, so if you’re planning on buying this game, and selling it a while after, don’t fret as there will be plenty of buyers out there. Currently, it retails for Php 2,100 in the Philippines in Datablitz stores, and Php 1,600 - 1,800 from second hand sellers. And if you have a nice 3DTV setup, Crysis 2 has 3DTV support for both the PS3 and Xbox 360.

Overall, if you’re looking for some really sweet eye candy and a fresh first person shooter experience, then Crysis 2 is a game for you.