Crysis 2

Crysis 2’s main character, Alcatraz, has a serious drinking problem. He’s not an alcoholic, if that’s what you’re thinking. Instead, the problem is that one sip of tequila is apparently enough to render him permanently incommunicado. Crysis 2 starts with Alcatraz on a submarine, blearily looking around at the other members of his squad and listening to how they’ve been tasked with rescuing one Dr Gould from a mysteriously diseased New York.‘Alcatraz isn’t much for talking right now,’ one of your comrades awkwardly announces to the rest of the cabin. ‘He had a bit too much tequila last night.’It’s the understatement of the century. Alcatraz must have been cutting his tequila with acid and lime, as that one binge has rendered him permanently mute.

 Quite why Crytek chose to attract attention to your character’s silence in this way is confusing at first. If Alcatraz is capable of speech then why doesn’t he explain his situation to Gould when the two finally do cross paths? Why doesn’t he object when he’s mistaken for the enigmatic commander of the original game, Prophet, and hunted because of it?

The reason, simply, is that silent protagonists in sci-fi shooters are very fashionable at the moment. They have been ever since Valve first put a different mute in a different suit of high-tech armour and made him fight a different race of aliens of differently mysterious origins in a different ruined real-world city. Crysis 2 is nothing if not fashionable; different enough to stand out, but familiar enough that it fails to throw up any genuine surprises. Crysis 2’s core features trace their ancestry back to other titles, from the infuriating and nonsensical silence of the lead character in the singleplayer, through to the level-up system of the multiplayer.

This isn’t in itself a bad thing, however. Crysis 2 may build itself on the fashionable foundations laid by other titles, but it occasionally offers up some architectural flair of its own. Unlocking Prophet’s hidden flashbacks, for example, not only partially circumvents the problem of relating backstory to a silent protagonist, but is also interesting enough to make you want to search for collectibles.

The main plot is a different story though and isn’t hugely accessible for those who haven’t played the original game. A scrambled video intro paints a confusing picture of New York as a quarantined city overrun by a mysterious infection, with the rumour of alien invasion on everyone’s lips. Somehow though, official military organisations are utterly absent and only Crynet’s hermetically armoured soldiers remain; everyone but the figureheads in gas masks. Alien craft are regularly seen crashing in to skyscrapers, but your ill-fated squad still initially regard their mission as a training exercise.

It’s sad to see that Crytek hasn’t fulfilled promises it made regarding the choice of location too. When questioned by cynics and sceptics over why the action had moved from an actual jungle to a concrete one, Crytek’s recurring reason was that it wanted to give real impact to the story; to make the drama feel real by basing it in recognisable places.

In actual fact though, there’s limited evidence of this beyond a few token gestures. Instead, most of the firefights take place in nondescript alleys, skyscrapers and office buildings. No tragedy is presented as the Statue of Liberty burns and the script doesn’t summon grim resolve as characters rampage through Grand Central Station. Instead, the cast seem to disregard the ruined city for the most part, even as they pick their way through diseased inhabitants.

We, meanwhile, fall back to our original assumption; that the surrounding skyscrapers offer a convenient way to limit the view distance with minimal polygons.

Crysis 2 Console Review

It’s clear that, in terms of graphics and performance, Crytek has had some issues balancing Crysis 2 atop of the Xbox 360’s six year-old hardware – and the key word there is definitely balancing. There are places where Crysis 2 looks nothing short of phenomenal. There are others where it verges on unacceptable.

First, the good news. Not only are the levels impressively large, but Crytek also seems to have learned a lot more about how good play-spaces should be designed since Crysis. Each level tends to feature at least one large arena where players have a number of choices about how to tackle enemies. Tactical options are then flagged in an optional viewing mode, so if you’re having trouble then you can get some new ideas without having them automatically shoved down your throat.

The routes between these larger arenas are a lot more linear and there are times when Crysis 2 can feel more constrained than it actually is as a result, but this breeds a sense of variety into the action that we came to appreciate. The vehicle sections are still mediocre at best, if only because they strip players of their Nanosuit powers, but linearity isn’t bad in and of itself.

Many of the scenarios and fights that Crysis 2 puts you up against are nothing short of awe-inspiring too. Crytek might not have taken advantage of everything New York offers on a narrative front, but in terms of explosions and setpieces, Crysis 2 is stunning. Bridges collapse while you cross them, skyscrapers tumble around you and more than once will you be plummeted from cloud to street level in seconds.

Crytek may not run enough of these events together to create the breathlessness offered by other games, but the fidelity is astounding nonetheless; the work of seasoned special effects artists, if not ace directors.

There is bad news too, however. The frame rate drops that occur in the bigger battles, for example, may not define Crysis 2, but they still do significant damage – performance hits of this magnitude aren’t something we’re keen to tolerate. We found they showed up a lot when we mixed stealth and sniping tactics too, likely because of the large distances and fancy stealth shader effects.

It’s also clear that Crytek has taken far too many shortcuts in order to fit the full Crysis 2 experience on to consoles, in our opinion. Numerous little niggles, such as mirrored textures and static props, sap the spectacle of some of its power. It’s not uncommon to find cars with unbreakable windows, or bulletproof walls that are stubborn enough to shrug off bullet decals with ease.

Most of what wounds the game on the graphical front, however, is a simple lack of AA combined with a lot of low-res textures. Even at its absolute worst it would be unfair and melodramatic to claim that Crysis 2 looks bad, but it’s also impossible to hold it up as a pinnacle. It looks OK, but Crytek’s given up so much in its quest to make the CryEngine work on consoles at its original scale that it’s no longer as visually impressive as it once was.In some ways, it’s actually quite depressing. The original Crysis was so good-looking and hard to run that it attained legendary status on the PC, yet the sequel which was supposed to move the technology on even further, ends up looking merely middle of the road on consoles.It’s not all doom and pixellated gloom, however. In many ways, Crysis 2 is a far superior game to the original – especially when it comes to those big arena battles that we mentioned before.

There’s an amazing feeling of potential and power when you first emerge on to the roof of a skyscraper, sniper rifle and SMG in hand, looking down on a plaza full of enemies. It’s these moments that make Crysis 2 great, as you look around at the possibilities – snipe that guard there, jump on and crush that guy there, sneak up on him for a stealth kill…Then, when it inevitably all goes wrong and someone calls for reinforcements, you can kick a wrecked car out of the parking lot window and flatten the tank below. It’s not subtle, but it gets the job done – just like the streamlined controlled system for controlling your Nanosuit powers.

The simplification of the Nanosuit’s core abilities is easily offset by the new customisation options that are available through it, however. Crynet’s new Nanosuit can collect and merge with alien matter to upgrades, meaning that you now get points for every invader felled. Kill enough and you can unlock boosters for your stealth, armour and agility modes.Unfortunately though, while there are usually a lot of advanced tactics and customisation options available for you to make the most of, the sad fact is that they often aren’t really required. While the experience of playing Crysis 2 is mostly one of peaks and troughs – yay for huge levels, boo for the choppy frame rate – there is one aspect that’s near-universally terrible; the AI.

Strangely, the alien enemies – the Ceph – aren’t the problem, this time. Sizable juggernauts of steel and antipodal legs, the Ceph make for entertaining bullet sponges and the fact that you need to harvest their corpses can give combat an interesting edge occasionally. Instead, the problem lies with human enemies, who exhibit all manner of deviant behaviour – like trying to snipe with shotguns or jumping over concrete barriers again and again. Sometimes, they’ll just stand around while you noisily butcher their colleagues; others they’ll presciently sense you before you’ve even decloaked.

The obvious antidote to this terrible artificial intelligence is to venture online and play against some decent natural stupidity, obviously. Crysis 2 offers up some interesting new modes here – as well as some aesthetically brilliant maps which are overflowing with detail and clutter – but it honestly hasn’t been enough to hold our attention all that long. Invisibility and bulletproof armour at the touch of a button generally don’t make for a moreish multiplayer experience.

What we find we’re left with then is a game which regularly flits between extremes, both positive and negatives. Huge arenas balanced out by average graphics; impressive tactical potential balanced out by woeful AI; simplified Nanosuit powers contrasted with increased customisation options. Playing it we often found ourselves waxing between controller wringing fury (‘How did that enemy spot me?!’) and moments where we paused the game to sing its glory (‘Harry! I just kicked a tank to death!’).

Drawing a line through that to find the average, we’re forced to admit that Crysis 2 is an entertaining and exciting shooter – though also a stupid one. We had fun playing it and that’s provoked us to round the score up from the six we would have otherwise given it, but we don’t expect Crysis 2 to supply the longevity that the original game did.