Crysis 2

I'm genuinely upset.

I just finished playing this game and it was great... Right up until the end. I was playing it whilst talking to someone, I looked away from the screen for about 5 seconds, looked back and I had completed it. I don't think I've ever been so disappointed by a game ending. I feel like a parent who just caught their son doing drugs for the first time. I'm not angry... just disappointed.

But before I start crying and pushing toddlers over let's talk about the game in general.

My friend asked me a simple question today, "How's Crysis 2?"

I replied with: "Good, different, it's not really Crysis 2..."

The ideals of Crysis have stayed but almost everything else has changed. The suit is different (more on that later) the characters (bar one) are different, the alien enemies are completely different, it's a confusing concept. The game hasn't gotten worse because of this, but it does feel as if Crytek have just made another game using the Crysis brand whilst changing everything.

Let's start with the suit. This they at least have an explanation for the change, the Nanosuit 2. Upgraded! Except that it's tactically worse in almost every way to the first suit. Gone are the days where the suit's normal state is Armour mode and the player can choose to switch to Speed, Strength and Stealth mode. The suit has been streamlined. Now your normal mode is 'Delicate Flower' and you can change to either Stealth or Armour mode. This has greatly affected the combat philosophy of the game. You are no longer the powerhouse you were in the original game, the game concentrates on hit and run tactics (as the helpful text told me EVERY TIME I died (which was a lot at various parts of the game)). Armour and stealth modes drain energy passively and Armour mode gets drained rapidly when you're under fire. You can no longer just wait for your energy to regen whilst sucking up bullets like porridge, cowardice is more than embraced in this game.

When I first started playing the game I fucking hated it. I'm a giant man, I liked wading into combat and tearing apart things with my hands to make up for my abject inferiority in life, I could no longer do this. I'm ashamed to say I rage-quitted a few times at the beginning. The only reason I kept failing so horrendously was that I was playing the game wrong. I've gotten lazy in FPSes, I'm used to running around in cover, shooting things, hiding and generally being a passive observer (Curse you Call of Duty franchise!). I kept on forgetting to actively use my suit's capabilities just relying on the standard suit settings (Curse you Original Crysis!). The first game got to the point that the armour mode was the best mode, so you just spent all your time in it and forgot that you had a nanosuit altogether. Crysis 2 wants you to be in control of everything you do, including your suit, so by playing this game without using the suit to your full advantage you're essentially playing with a handicap.

I then embraced the suit, constantly shifting between armour mode and stealth mode becoming the digital equivalent to a Mongolian Horseback Archer (I don't care how fucking cheesy that sentence is Colrum, it's staying in). Crysis 2 is the thinking man's FPS. Rather than just running through a corridor and shooting whatever came near me, I spent time thinking about my approach, flanking, silently killing enemies, distracting them, ocassionally just powerhousing through and sometimes avoiding enemies altogether. The whole time I spent playing I was constantly stressed out, at first I thought this was a bad thing, it wasn't until I quit the game that I realised I was craving that stress.

Onto the aliens! They confused me immensely. They still have the same cephalopod heritage but have disgarded their floating bodies and tentacles for a more humanoid form, possibly to make the transition of assimilation a more personal event, how kind of them. The original game went slightly down hill when the aliens were introduced (the space ship section of Crysis is possibly the least fun I've ever had playing a computer game), they were dull and repetitive, only redeemed by the epic last hour or two of the game.

The new aliens, are terrifying. They're very intelligent, darting around and flanking you. The first time I fought them I nearly had a panic attack. Crytek have done an excellent job at making the game feel like cinematography, I don't mean the same way that the Call of Duty games have attempted to, by making a film with the occasional shooting between scenes. Crysis 2 makes you feel like you're actually in the action. I'm not sure what they've done with the motion blur in the new engine, but every movement looks natural. Explosions are amazingly detailed. Your vision blurs out things that aren't in focus and when something dashes through your view the engine manages to show enough detail to scare you, whilst also keeping the suspense.

Unfortunately, Crysis 2 has also gotten on the Call of Duty bandwagon that most FPSes seem to be clinging to these days. It's been dumbed down from the first game in a few very fundamental ways. To add a bit of spice to this review I'm going to add a feature!

Badger's Top 3 Ways Call of Duty Has Ruined the FPS Genre in Recent Years (Eg. Modern Warfare Onwards!)

1) Videos of Action

I don't know what the trend of this is in recent years. Videos of your character killing things, from the first person perspective. Call of Duty does it all the fucking time and Crysis 2 has some of it too. Taking your hands off the keyboard and watching your character start killing things is completely arbitrary. I've spent the time up until this point doing it alright, I'll be continuing the actions right afterwards, why can't I do the action? It's a flaccid attempt to make computer games into films. We don't need to see a hero do things. We're supposed to be the hero, let me dream ok!

2) Quick-time events.

ARGARHGGHGHGGHGHERAHRGAHGGHHH! That is a literal representation of what I feel about quick time events, especially in FPSes, especially completely pointless ones that serve only to "build tension", ESPECIALLY ones that just make you crawl by pressing "Left Mouse button, Right Mouse Button". Crysis has stolen these directly from the Modern Warfare games, and they were shite in them too. There are a few occasions where you have to apply your own defibrillator, which I think is a generally fucking crazy idea, by pressing the space bar over and over again. The awful ending to this game involves a quick time event.

3) The Idiotic Character Who is CONSTANTLY BETRAYED

Ok, so this is a bit of stretch, but I needed three, it's not just CoD that does this, but FPSes recently have had a trend of everyone being a treacherous cunt, then having the switcheroony, so the cunt was actually good! The main character for Crysis 2 is a fucking moron. He's just the epitome of an American grunt, never thinking for himself, just takes order and runs around and does what he's told. Apart from when I was hunting about, not thinking about the storyline, I felt like a supporting character of the game. The character has no leadership at all. Fair enough, he's got a bad case of Gordon Freeman syndrome, being that he doesn't say a word for the entire game, but he's such a follower it's unbelievable. There's one section of the game where you're hunting a bloke who has just betrayed you, you corner him, he says "Ok you got me, now here's a syringe... why don't you take it?". You immediately jam the fucking thing into your chest and essentially pass out. The first game made you feel like you were the main character and a hero, this games storyline fails to do so.

The storyline in general makes little sense. You're thrown into the game, where everthing has changed from the first, some confusing things happen and you just sort of run with it. Enemies become friends and revert back so quickly that it's pointless getting attached to any of them. The only character that was genuinely interesting  helps you and hurts you so much, I felt like I was in a domestically violent relationship.

However, these CoD like tendencies are easily overlooked by the fact that the game is amazingly fun and interestingly diverse to play. It is a different, fresh approach to FPSes that was desperately needed in the current market. Coupled with a very fun multiplayer (if you can access the fucking thing) Crytek have brought out a bloody good game.

They just need to learn how to fucking end the bastard things...