I never had the pleasure to play the original Crysis but I spied it from a distance purely because I knew my computer at the time didn’t have the chops to run the game. When Crysis 2 was announce, I immediately took notice and paid close attention to the progress as little by little details came out with promises of gorgeous graphics and improved gameplay – Crytek has even gone as far as to say that Crysis 2 will have the best graphics in video game history complete with bold statements about having the most sophisticated AI in the history of games.

So how does the game stack up to such talk? Thankfully – Very well.

The game takes place 3 years after the original title with player sin the role of a Marine by the name of “Alcatraz” who inherits the suit from it’s previous owner Prophet who was being hunted down by the corporation Crynet. When Alcatraz dons the suit and ventures into the big city, he’s mistaken for Prophet and becomes the target. The story of the alien infestation of New York City is told through cut scenes, intel debriefings from multiple characters during gameplay and the loading scenes that shows GPS mappings to display the upcoming level requirements.

The story is pretty well broken into 2 parts with the 1st half focusing on learning how to use the suit properly and fighting with a PMC by the name of ‘Cell’ who is tasked with bringing the Nanosuit back to their employer. The 2nd half focusing on the fight against the alien invaders and helping to evacuate some of the survivors still within the city limits.

The Nanosuit has a wide range of capabilities. Using the NanoVisor the player can tag enemies and even zoom in and view multiple tactical options to get from point A to B. Nanovision is essentially Infrared that comes in quite handy during some of the darker and smoke filled levels. The suit is upgraded by killing alien enemies and assimilating their DNA and buying upgrades. NanoArmor is exactly as it sounds, the suit build a protective barrier around Alcatraz which comes in nice and handy when falling from a tall building or when the shit really hits the fan. There’s also a camouflage ability that proves to be insanely useful because it bends to the surroundings allowing the player to move with relative ease through the levels to be undetected. Super high jumps and extremely fast running were all there too. Each of the abilities use up power that recharges after a short time.

The gameplay is standard First-person fare with a real focus on stealth which I found to be interesting. I actually made it through some levels without really needing to fire my weapon. I quite enjoyed sneaking up behind enemies and stealth killing the bad guys. I found the range if weapons to be sadly lacking but there was more than enough ammo and grenades. The AI was decent but nothing that I would call extraordinary. In fact, on a few occasions I found them to be a little too aware of my location because it seemed that as soon as my camo wore off, they knew exactly where I was and opened fire on me sometimes from an excruciatingly long distance.

I still don’t have a system capable of pushing out the graphics that the new CryEngine can display so I played it on a console, and I have to admit that I was quite impressed with everything I saw. Some of the explosions were simply brilliant – One of which involved a building coming down and another had a leak of gas coming out of a car and igniting on the ground as the flame snaked it’s way to the car before exploding in an impressive manner. The environments are huge and feature multiple paths to get to the end of the level.

I took a quick peek at the multiplayer but due to time constraints and the weekend ending, I haven’t yet had the chance to give it a run because the single player campaign had be hooked. Time permitting, I’ll be in there next weekend. In total I would say the campaign took me about 7hours to finish and could probably be done quicker if someone was motivated enough and knew what they were doing.

Pros:

• Beautiful graphics – Times Square looked awesome
• Smooth animations
• Sharp controls felt responsive and precise

Cons:

• Enemy AI was a little annoying at times
• Not enough weapon variations

Feed Your Console gives Crysis 2 8 out of 10