PAX Prime ’10: Crysis 2 Impressions (From A Fancy Party)

September 1st was an exciting day for me. I woke up super-early to make a flight at Detroit Metro. I spent about fives hours on a plane going to my favorite city, Seattle. I began walking around the magnificent city, feeling all the excitement swell from the Washington State Convention center. PAX was the next day, and though it would only be my second time attending, I was attending as press. This meant, among other things, I was going to have an infinitely better time this year than last. It also meant I was to be allowed into swanky, games-media-only parties.

These are the events I’ve fantasized about, ever since I started writing about games. Though I may be a small fish in a gratuitously overflowing pond of games journalism, I would finally get to see what it meant to be someone respected for their views on a particular game. Not much mind you, but still. The first of these events was Thursday night (yep, Sept. 1st), when I went to the Urbane Restaurant and Bar to get my hands on Crysis 2.

I was originally confused when I got the invite for this gala event. Never once on Nukezilla have I talked about Crysis or its sequel. Hell, all I know about the original is that it’s an extremely pretty but generic shooter, focused around some sort of hyper-advanced body suit. I’d never played it before, mainly because I didn’t have a $2,000 PC gaming rig to even attempt to play it on. I accepted the invitation anyway, because, why not? If they’re going to give me free food and booze to sit and play a game, I’ll gladly accept it.

As Thursday night rolled around, I set out to find the venue. Which didn’t take long as it was being held in my hotel’s bar (oddly enough). I spent about five minutes staking out the scene to see just how crazy this thing was. It was not crazy. What I saw instead was a low-key affair with about 12 different Xbox 360s running the games and about 30 people interspersed, watching the action. This was drastically different from the glitz and glamour I was expecting. Regardless I finally went in.

Upon showing my credentials, I stopped by the food area. Holy hell did these guys have a nice spread: two kinds of flatbread pizzas, mac and cheese, chicken wings, onion rings, and pulled pork sandwiches. I was glad I hadn’t wasted any money on food that day and proceeded to fill myself with some of the best catered food I’d ever had. With my acquired vittles in hand, I sat down to watch my fellow journalists play the multiplayer component to the game.

Crysis 2 multiplayer has you joining one of two sides, the traditional Marines and bio-suited C.E.L.L. The demo had two different maps, each with a different gameplay variant. The first (and only, unfortunately) map I witnessed was the (gigantic and wide-open) Colin Hotel, the site of the demo’s deathmatch. Right off the bat I was astounded with how beautiful the game looked.

The problem with modern FPSs is a “brown factor”, where everything has to look like it was dipped in dime-store chocolate. The Colin Hotel doesn’t follow that scheme at all. Each room has a certain predominant color. The main lobby had metallic blue walls that went well with the reflective floors and waterfall. Then there’s a bathroom with stark white features, a main area (where a giant neon marquee had crashed through) with greens and reds, and… well, some brown areas, but still. The contrasting colors, on top of the top-notch graphics, make this look better than any other shooter I’ve seen on the 360.

Speaking of other FPSs, this game actually borrows a lot from them but adds its own flair. For instance I’m sure you, like me, marvelled at the water effects in Bioshock: how awesome it was to walk under a stream of water and have the water realistically applied to the screen. Crysis 2 does it better, with a more realistic effect. You might remember the V.A.T.S. system from Fallout 3 and the slow-motion death animations. Crysis 2 does it better, showing you dying at the hand of the exact bullet that kills you. It’s fairly cool after you die to watch the trajectory of that final shot that did you in.

Then there were times in the demo that I was astounded at how awful the game looked. Like many other shooters, when you’re hit the screen goes a little red and shows blood-like droplets on screen. Here those droplets were reduced to shoddy see-through images of “blood” that remain in your vision even when you die.

Then there are the windows that don’t so much shatter as they break in the exact same spot, no matter where you shoot it. On top of that the character models are so very, very boring. I couldn’t tell while watching (or playing) who was on what team, nor was I excited at the designs of the nanosuits, the main draw of the game (if the special edition bonus has anything to say about the suit). It was so off-putting to see these inconsistencies ruin an otherwise gorgeous game.

About 15 minutes into the event, I decided it was time to take advantage of the open bar and order a rum and coke. Though there was drinking at this thing, I was a bit confused as to the low level of excitement around. Normally when you’ve got a room full of people playing a shooter against each other, there’s hollering, name-calling, desecrations of other’s parental figures. Y’know, good natured jawing back and forth. None of that was on display. Was it because of the somewhat serious, journalistic mood of the night setting in on the reviews?

I’m guessing no, because it didn’t seem like anyone was their on behalf of Videogame Journalism. Aside from me (with a voice recorder), another gentleman recording his play through via properly positioned camera, and two others writing notes, it didn’t look like anyone here was working. In fact it seemed like the majority of people were here to get free food and drinks because a company told them they could. Sure, that’s why I was here, but I was also looking to get a story out of it. Maybe there’s some credence to our discussion on Friday.

Finally after my third (rather strong) drink, I snuck my way into one of the fancier chairs and began playing. At the start of each match you choose your class, which you do again each time you die. The six classes aren’t anything special, from Demolitions and Sniper to Assault and the stealthy Ghost.

Though, all of these classes can be considered “stealthy” due to a cloaking device available to every player. A stamina bar denotes not only how much time you can spend sprinting, but how long your body can stay cloaked. At first it seemed trivial; how can you have a competitive game when everyone can cloak themselves at will? In practice though it’s actually a really fun mechanic, something people will enjoy mastering.

Something completely trivial, though, was the game’s heat vision. When activated, rather than easily seeing your enemies, things become harder to see, as everything with a heat signature stands out vividly. There weren’t any sections that warranted its use, but maybe they’ll add darker levels in the main game that do.

The weapons selection was pretty bare bones, with a main weapon and sidearm available for each class. Most are bland weapons you’ve seen a million times before. Then there’s things like the Volt, basically an electrically-charged autoshotgun (my favorite of the demo). Also of interest is the melee weapon situation. Each class’ melee is different, with some using a knife, and others just using the back of their rifles.

My favorite part of the demo was seeing all of the things that set this game apart from other shooters, almost making it a first-person platformer. If you press crouch while you’re running, you can slide along the ground. It’s pretty effective when running from someone, but I was a little disappointed that you couldn’t pull off John-Woo-like shooting actions; you’re static while sliding. I as also quite amazed when my character did a ledge grab. I can’t think of the last FPS that had your character actually reach out and grab a ledge before they fell.

As the night progressed and people started getting their drinks (the waitresses were terribly slow), I started to see a party atmosphere develop. People actually got into the game and began having fun, due in part to increased “lubrication” in their systems. I now understood why my drink was so damn strong; I think they were actively trying to get us drunk. At least on my part, it worked.

All in all, I had a pretty nice time at the event. Sure, it wasn’t the naked-women-walking-around-handing-out-coke-type event I was expecting but it did give me time with a game I thought I’d never get to play. I also think it was a great learning experience; I finally got to see what these review/preview events are like. And the game wasn’t half bad either.

There are some graphical kinks left to work out, and a lot of the game just seems middling, with gameplay mechanics other games have already perfected. I do have to give it credit for doing some surprising things, and I’m definitely going to at least check out Crysis 2 when it comes out this March. I’d like to thank EA and Crytek for putting on a very nice event, and for feeding a somewhat starving journalist. Oh, and for getting me drunk. Can’t forget that.