After playing through the somewhat tongue-in-cheek Bulletstorm, Crysis 2 comes as something of a culture shock as it’s the complete opposite. This is one very serious first-person shooter full of gravitas and without an ounce of humour. That’s not to say it’s not impressive though, because it is. Here’s my take on the single player action.
Before I get to the story let me just say that this is one of the best looking FPSs I’ve ever played on a console. On the PS3 the game looks almost photo-realistic when your submarine is hit by a mysterious missile which floods it and prompts an immediate escape. Once you surface by a crumbling New York and get shot at by aliens your life is saved by a guy called Prophet when he puts you in his Nanosuit forged from alien technology. Of course, everyone thinks you’re still this Prophet guy which means humans who want that Nanosuit and aliens alike all want your blood.
It’s a good thing then that this suit isn’t only useful for attending fetish clubs. It comes packed with a host of augmentations that give you the edge in combat. The main ones you use will be cloaking and armour. Turning invisible uses your suit’s energy when moving and activating armour means you’re more durable against bullets and big explosions. The suit also has a visor which lets you scan things from a distance and plan your battle strategy – something Crytek have borrowed from Far Cry and its sequel.
So what’s to stop you turning invisible and just flanking everything? Well, if you want to get more powers such as seeing tracers on bullets, increased control when falling or silent footsteps, you’ll need to collect points from downed alien enemies which you can then spend on these upgrades. It’s a nice touch which adds an RPG element to the game.
When it comes to shooting things there are lots of weapons to choose from. Pistols, scoped weapons, rifles, shotguns are all there along with heavy weapons such as bazookas, grenades and C4. They really pack a punch and the crackle of gunfire in open areas sounds really authentic.
There are a couple of things that let the game down and unfortunately I get the feeling these could have been fixed with a bit more time. On the PS3 the game does feel like it chugs along a bit. The frame-rate doesn’t skip, it just slows down and makes things feel a bit sluggish. It’s also very buggy with enemies walking on the spot, dying in mid-air and objects floating and tethering to random places. All these things serve to eject you from what is, along with great music and graphics, a very immersive FPS.
There’s no denying that Crysis 2 is a very good FPS and with multiplayer utilizing the powers of the Nanosuit, you should get a different experience online if you’re bored of shooting people in Call of Duty. It gets an excellent 8 out of 10.
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10/10 graphics. 3/10 Gameplay