Nukezilla Review: Crysis 2 (PC/360)

This is the Nukezilla Review for Crysis 2’s Singleplayer Campaign. For time considerations, we didn’t play enough of the multiplayer mode to provide an honest opinion either way.

When approaching Crysis 2 I think it’s important to try and throw out all of your preconceptions about the Crysis legacy. Whether you’re a PC player or a console jockey, Crysis 2 is playable on your system of choice. Unless your PC is more than two years old, you should be able to play and enjoy Crytek’s latest release. I was able to run the game at what amounts to true 1080p on my desktop, which I built over a year ago for $600. If you’re playing the game on the consoles, aside from a reduced framerate, there’s nothing you’ll be missing out on. Now that’s all settled, let’s dive into the meat of the game so I can start elaborating on why I think this is a game you really need to play, like yesterday.

First off, Crysis 2 is a gorgeous game. If destruction, particle effects, shiny metallic surfaces and gooey alien splatter is your thing, you will be well pleased with the unrestrained spectacle that is on display here. I wouldn’t describe the visuals as photo-realistic, but the verisimilitude of New York architecture, futuristic weaponry, alien technology and subtle environmental effects combine to make the whole experience feel unified. The sound design and big orchestral score plays a huge part in grounding you in the urban jungle of a collapsing Manhattan with all the epic drama that entails. Each bullet, rocket, ricochet, explosion and ground pound resonates with all of the right tones to empower you as a post-human super soldier. When you choose to modify the nanosuit’s abilities from stealth to armor, you’re reminded of the change in tactics with an appropriate visual and auditory response. Bullets collide with a violent *tchink* when in armor mode, while your stealth mode is immediately drained when you fire a shot, beeping with urgency and alarm to emphasize your vulnerability.

Far from the isolated island paradises Crytek created with Far Cry and Crysis, this time around the city surrounds you and structures every encounter. Some players have complained that the designers have gone too far with this structure by offering players “tactical options” when viewed through a special visor, mapping the battlefield with yellow checkpoints for ammunition stockpiles and opportune locations for stealth or aggressive play styles. True, this is less emergent than Crysis 1‘s wide-open jungles, but for new players, these indicators can be helpful or completely ignored by those grizzled veterans out there. I found them helpful when I had difficulty with a particular encounter, but ignored them for the most part.

Speaking of encounters, I think Crytek have outdone Bungie’s famous 30-second philosophy, where they perfected 30-seconds of frenetic action combat in Halo: Combat Evolved and repeated that experience throughout the game (or an entire franchise, really). Here, the nanosuit ads levels of flexibility to your movement, enabling high jumps, grabbing foes, sprinting and an expanded armory of modifiable weapons and sub-powers. You really could play each encounter in Crysis 2 using a different weapon and tactics resulting in a completely different feel to each battle. However, just like with the Halo franchise, there’s more than one type of enemy to fight and each one has their own unique behavior and weaknesses. The human force emphasizes power in numbers and advanced weaponry and tactics such as flanking. The alien force favors their special abilities like leaping, frontal assault and massive armor, but they’re not nearly as clever as the humans, so stealth tactics can be used to hilarious effect.

By the end of the game, your suit will have been upgraded according to your own preferred play style. I put the lion’s share of my points into stealth which made the last few chapters of the game a little too easy as I snuck from enemy to enemy performing one-hit kills with infrequent breaks to recharge my energy. Of course, since this robbed some of the game’s tension I switched back to a more testosterone-fueled style where speed and armor were my weapons; think of a leaping ninja who can deflect bullets while wielding a light machine gun – it’s super effective.

Each level features layers of destruction, though none of them are player-controlled. One of my main complaints is how static the environment is when contrasted with the complexity of the scripted destruction all around you; this can be confusing and frustrating. Thankfully the game does a great job of pulling you through each level with new weapons and experience that allows for suit upgrades. This subtle bread crumb trail is a more effective motivator to continue playing through the campaign than the story.

I wish I could praise the game for weaving a complex tale of personal discovery, sacrifice and triumph against impossible odds. Considering the story arc for your character (Alcatraz – a silent US Marine), this should be the case. Unfortunately, the progression from each story beat to the next is so utterly confusing and unexplained that at one point my brain just shut down and focused on the action and the immediate task at hand. Even a Crysis super-fan should be confused with the gradual reveal of the plot and constant introduction of new characters and revelations. Once you’ve completed the game, the story remains secondary to the experience. Does it really matter who you are when your character never speaks or is developed as an individual or even why you’re fighting to save humanity from an alien menace? When the action is so compelling, the controls so responsive and the spectacle so impressive – no, I don’t care who/why/what/where/when.

The campaign is lengthy, running approximately twelve hours across dozens of separate missions. Each mission is bookended with an animated loading screen which enables the developer to jump from downtown to mid-town Manhattan and maintain story and location continuity. The resulting flow of the game feels like you’re jumping from landmark to landmark fighting mercs and alien invaders while the city’s streets crack open and buildings topple over in response. All of this sounds very superficial, but when it is experienced as a complete package the game does a fantastic job of making you feel like a badass fighting in the most dramatic environments possible. During the whole twelve hour experience, not one mission feels like superfluous filler, no matter how unexpected or branching it may appear at first glance.

Lest you think I’ve lost my mind with all of this gushing over Crysis 2, know that the game isn’t without its flaws. As I mentioned before some of the suit upgrades can make the game significantly easier and even break the difficulty. There are higher difficulty levels, but I played the game on Hard because it helped me learn the importance of using the suit’s powers. Despite all of this flexibility, sometimes I got myself into situations where I couldn’t think fast enough to survive an encounter. The game is pretty unforgiving at higher difficulties, but there’s not much down time as it quickly reloads your last checkpoint.

There is no save anywhere feature, so you’re limited to autosaving at checkpoints. This isn’t a deal-breaker for me because I used my frequent deaths as learning lessons, while others may flip the table at the notion of yet another concession made to a former PC-only franchise in the name of console friendliness. The settings on the PC version are super basic, so gone are the days of tweaking each individual graphic and sound options to get the most out of your rig. Crytek have promised a fix to this with a future patch, but for now they’ve simplified the detail options to only three different levels of image quality (or you could tweak the configuration file or download one of the many fan-made modification utilities as well; I won’t stop you). Finally, the story and characters don’t make a lick of sense. I gave up about half of the way through and learned to “love the bomb.” The last sequence is baffling in both how it is designed and the clear violation of the laws of physics, but I still had so much fun playing through to the end I forgave them their eccentricities.

Crysis 2 is a triple-A sci-fi action experience with cheesy dialogue, themes, villains and all of the spectacular destruction you could possibly ask for. Portal 2, this is not, but if you can ignore the noise all around you and focus straight ahead, you’ll have a smashing good time with Crysis 2.