In the beginning there was Crytek. Crytek, in its infinite wisdom, saw fit to create a game world that would combine solid first-person shooter mechanics and humble even the mightiest of PC, and it was good. Not perfect, y’know, but good. But as with many a once PC-exclusive franchise, the appeal of making their game multi-platform was too strong and thus Crysis 2 was born as a project for the gaming masses. Many a PC gamer and Crysis fan was upset by this news; at the very least, hesitant to let excitement stretch too far as multi-platform titles have tended to give PC the shit end of the stick in the past.

For Crysis 2, though, the multi-platform approach to game design has actually benefited the direction of the franchise, for the most part. But more on this later.

Crysis 2 throws you into the Nano-charged combat boots of Alcatraz, a newcomer to the series, as you battle your way through a war and virus-torn New York City in a semi-sandbox world. While certainly sufficiently grandiose in how it ultimately plays out, those with a loose understanding of the events of Crysis and Crysis Warhead will be the ones scratching their heads in parts. The often nuanced references to the plot of the initial game can create more questions than solutions; then again, I haven’t played either Crysis game since late 2008, so that might have something to do with it.




Even though there’s a ‘2’ and not a multi-platform-friendly subtitle after the ‘Crysis’ brand for this game, it’s more or less a self-contained story that doesn’t require you to have played the initial games or even read their plot descriptions on Wikipedia. This is great for newcomers and those who have completely forgotten what happened in the original games, and the story is clearly more aimed at them than returning fans. Because of the rather stringent review guidelines of what I am and am not allowed to talk about in regards to plot, I’ll leave it there; suffice it to say, there are some genuinely intriguing twists and more than a few epic cinematic moments. The campaign length is also worth the price of admission.

There are two sides to the aforementioned multi-platform approach to Crysis 2’s game design: the pros of having to rethink a control mechanic for a limited-button controller and the restrictions of sandbox scope versus prettiness because of console hardware limitations. The pro side is honestly a Crysis godsend. Gone are the days of a Nanosuit that requires you to use your mouse wheel to pick a specific power on the fly at the expense of others; now a lot of them can be used in tandem. You are, however, restricted to choosing between armour or stealth/Predator-like invisibility as your core abilities, but beyond that you can mix and match as you see fit.

Sprinting faster, jumping higher and/or turning on Nanovision can all be done in conjunction with armour or stealth abilities (or independently), but all come at the expense of your Nanosuit’s power. This recharges fast enough when not in use for it to not become annoying or act a deterrent for frequent use, but the more you use your powers, the more juice you’ll be draining. Invisibility uses minimal power if you’re stationary or moving while crouched, while sprinting will have your battery depleted in no time. Armour is a little more forgiving, but as soon as you start taking hits, you will lose large chunks of energy.

The greatest thing about this new duopoly of Nanosuit power dynamics is the situationally reactive potential it offers to any firefight. Testing the boundaries of this dynamic combat structure, I tried multiple approaches to various sections of the game. I Nano-sprinted through certain sections, leaving enemies in my wake, others I snuck through with invisibility on, never raising the alarm or killing an enemy. While these examples are hardly ideal tactics for first-person shooter fans, it’s impressive to know the option is still there.




More excitingly, though, were the sections of gameplay where I stuffed up a stealth approach. Crysis 2 implements a visor into the Nanosuit that not only lets you survey the battlefield and tag enemies, it also encourages you to highlight suggested paths and tactics. Your suit will announce that there are tactical options available and bringing up the visor allows you to survey and highlight them. This makes it easier to spot things such as extra ammo and weaponry; a stealthy approach through the sewers, or a handy ledge grab that will have you above your foes in the perfect position to rain lead on them.

Many times I tried a stealth approach but ran out of suit juice and was spotted by an enemy, or made a sound that garnered their unwanted attention. Regardless of the why, unlike other games, this did not constitute a failure in any way, shape or form. It simply meant that it was time to switch to armour mode or sprint to a better position and start dropping baddies. And the inverse is also true. If I found myself outnumbered and/or out-gunned in any particular section, I could find cover, turn on invisibility, relocate and have at them from a different vantage point.

Speaking of cover, there’s a semi-intuitive cover system that detects if you’re near horizontal or vertical cover and lets you pop up/out accordingly; and it actually works most of the time.

The massive number of incursion points may be a whole lot more limited when compared to the vastly open nature of preceding titles such as Far Cry and Crysis, but it ultimately works in the context of the cityscape slugfest.

Throw two very different enemy factions into the mix and things get a whole lot more interesting. You’ll be fighting human soldiers who have some impressive AI prowess, using cover, lobbing grenades, calling for backup and generally working as a team to try and bring you down. The aliens, on the other hand, are far more aggressive, making use of parkour-style movements once they spot you in an attempt to get up in your grill and dish out some devastating melee damage. Only the occasional AI stuff-up and odd physics error stopped both factions from being worthy combatants.




For the record, I finished the campaign on the Xbox 360 and it was an incredible game on that platform. Even the prettiness factor was still fantastic by console standards, and while I can’t comment on the current hullaballoo about PlayStation 3 versus Xbox 360 graphics, CryEngine 3 translates the series faithfully to our controller-wielding brothers and sisters. Obviously, being a Crysis game and a first-person shooter, it is still best played on the PC and, thankfully, Crytek has paid a decent amount of respect to its roots.

The graphics and sound are incredible on PC, yet, strangely, the main Crysis selling point (i.e. the visuals) is stunted by an apparent console mentality of user-friendliness. You can set your graphics to High, Very High or Extreme and that’s about it; there are no in-game options for customising your graphics further. This is doubtlessly a welcome addition for any PC gamer not looking to do the trial-and-error dance of tweaking settings to find that perfect balance between prettiness and smoothness, but is a strange omission for the hardcore PC crowd who may be wanting to own a rig that they could claim to be a ‘Crysis 2 killer’. You can force anti-aliasing and the like from outside the game, but it’s a bit bizarre that this all-important Crysis legacy has been left by the wayside. At least it alt-tabs in and out of the game like a champ.

Unfortunately, adding further fuel to the fire of the negative side of the console mentality, the options menus between single-player and multiplayer are symbiotically linked: changing controls or graphics in one mode is reflected in the other. While my PC is capable of playing the campaign smoothly on the Extreme graphics setting, I still prefer to drop things down to Very High to ensure the smoothest possible online experience. It’s annoying that I have to switch back and forward when juggling between the two. Controls are also bizarrely limited in that you can only bind a single key/mouse button to a command.

Again, this may be a matter of personal preference, but I like to have my melee bound to a keystroke and a mouse button. Furthermore, any FPS gamer that likes to use left-Control for crouch will most likely want to unlearn that habit because of how the (badass) slide mechanic works. Left-Shift defaults to sprint, but to slide you have to hold sprint and crouch at the same time; basically this equates to all-round clunkiness if you’re trying to hold left-Shift and left-Control simultaneously.




Getting into a multiplayer game is a bit of a nightmare, too; although, I’m willing to put this down to initial teething problems and players focussing on single-player before multiplayer. What I’m not willing to forgive is the CD key problem I encountered that initially wouldn’t let me play online. The game tells you to ‘Please enter a valid serial code including dashes.’ The problem is, when I did this, it gave me ‘Serial already in use’ errors whenever I tried to join a server. A quick Google search revealed that the apparent solution is to ignore the dashes and ensure you enter the serial in lowercase letters only. That solution worked for me but left me scratching my head as to how their instructional text could be so misleading.

The afore-griped-about console mentality rears its ugly head again by forcing players to wait in servers until an adequate number of players join before it kicks off. While this isn’t necessarily a terrible thing in theory, what it does is creates a divide between full and empty servers, where people seem to be unwilling to join an empty server and wait long enough for the necessary numbers to join so a match can start. We first-person shooter games are not renowned for our patience, but at least there is an abundance of locally hosted dedicated servers for PC. Ranked servers were the least populated in my multiplayer time with Crysis 2 and the presence of so-called tips such as ‘Try to maintain a high kill-to-death ratio’ were laughably confusing as to why they were even included.

Despite the odd server connection timeout, once I was actually in a game, Crysis 2 multiplayer is a mostly solid experience. Although technically there are six play modes, the modes from the demo -- Team Instant Action and Crash Site -- still seem to be the most populated. And why not; the team deathmatch and ever-shifting King of the Hill game modes work really well to showcase what the game’s got and also act as the initial training ground play modes before they’ll let you jump into the big league.

You’ll earn experience for kills that will let you level up and access additional classes, as well as custom slots that let you personalise your pwnage. Think CoD and you’re pretty much there. The greatest selling point is the Nanosuit, though, and the combat enhancements it offers in firefights. There may be a flight of stairs in front of you, but you can jump up and vault over the ledge. Sprint away from incoming fire or throw up your armour in a shootout to gain an edge. Rushers are complemented by fast sprinting speeds and the Nanosuit armour, while snipers and campers can throw on invisibility and lay in wait for the ultimate shot. Best of all, you don’t have to stick to one play style or the other as these powers are available to you from the word go, carrying over the dynamic approach to combat from single-player to the online foray. Better still, the ever-present killcam that forces you to watch your demise before respawning, lets you know exactly how you died and where from, dissuading campers from pitching their tents for too long and allowing ample opportunity for revenge killing.




It wasn’t long before all players I fought with/against were adapting to the new Nanosuit-powered options, which really do go a long way to separating this from being just another Call of Duty clone. Headshots devastate (even when in armour mode), weapon accuracy is greatly affected at mid-to-long range if you’re using the wrong weapon for the job and sliding around a corner for a stylish kill is always memorable. The maps are diverse in appearance and design, with many flanking opportunities that will keep you on your digital toes at all times, with some favouring snipers and others giving an edge to rushers.

I did, however, experience sporadic connection dropouts and, while the ping was excellent, it was frustratingly negated at times by the strange abundance of international players with high pings. Getting dragged back around corners to your death is never fun. There is also an odd sound synchronisation bug that consistently occurred on the killcam and hit registration felt off at times. Getting shot through multiple solid objects was both frustrating and rewarded spray-and-pray play styles, while dead enemies remain physical game-world objects for a time, meaning you have to run around instead of over them. That goes a long way to messing up the flow of moving around the battlefield.

Ultimately, many of my gripes with the PC version of Crysis 2 are fixable in subsequent patches and there’s enough of a robust core there to reward persistent players. Crytek has done an admirable job of walking that fine line between a multiplatform experience and giving PC gamers some love, and I can’t wait to get back into the online fray.