Reviewed: Crysis 2

New York City gets the shit beaten out of it roughly every 18 months of average.  If it's not a catastrophic environmental event (tsunami, asteroid, earthquake) it's something else entirely (population-killing virus, Godzilla, that thing from Cloverfield, the 8th season of "24.").  You'd think by now, people would ease up on the old gray bitch, but no, EA and Crytek dusted the old punching bag off for another round with "Crysis 2."

There are a lot of great aspects of "Crysis 2 (C2 from here on in... one thing that's NOT great about the game is it's name... which never really gets explained.... maybe they say something in "Crysis 1" but I dunno... never played it.)" one of which, as just parenthetically mentioned, is you don't need to really know what happened in the first game to enjoy the full aspects of the sequel.  The game starts off with a long cut scene, a submarine, US Marines getting blown to hell, and a "super soldier" wearing a biologically-enhanced "nano-suit."  There's something about an alien invasion in the middle of Manhattan that looks like it borrowed heavily from the "Halo" franchise, and you soon take control over the nano-suit and go on a merry gun-blasting time throughout NYC.

Or do you?  The suit comes in three interchangeable flavors to "suit" your needs at any given time.  You can go "stealth mode" which is akin to what the Predator does before he swoops in a kills a former Governor, an "armor" mode which essentially allows you to "tank" around a level, taking and dolling out tons of damage, and a "power" mode which is more or less sentient, as you use it's "powers" at all times, whether you're jumping extra high to grab a ledge, sliding for cover, heaving heavy objects or doors open, etc.

But these powers come at a price.  You have an energy meter that will deplete based around your usage of a given commodity, ie, you can only stay "cloaked" or armored for so long (not very long at all, actually) and you can only sprint, run, slide for so long as well.  This feature is a nice "budgeting" aspect that goes beyond ammunition and explosives consumption you don't seen in many First Person Shooters.

Plot-wise, the game is long but too spread out.  The campaign mission runs a deep ten or so hours (unheard of in the modern FPS, with most shooters clocking in around the 6-8 hour mark).  Half-way thru the single-player I was shocked to learn that the game wasn't in it's closing stages, that I still had four or five more levels to play.

However, I cared little about the characters, as they all seemed one-dimensional and interchangeable.  A scientist, corporate billionaire, military contractor, military members and a secret agent round out the cast you interact with the most.  Again, nothing too crazy here, as I played the game mostly with the sound down.  I couldn't hear the dialog, and I didn't really care.

Given that the use of the suit's "powers" are what drive the game play, the developers silently urged players not to just run and gun thru the levels (quick side note: the levels do seem a bit linearly-designed; any jaunt down a side street will bring you face to face with rubble and debris making it impossible for exploration.  Kind of a let down for the game being set in such a fantastic locale), but instead to observe and plan out a tactical approach.  Usually, from a high ledge overlooking a plaza, you'll be prompted to switch to a "tactical" view and mark objectives and enemies before engaging.  By doing so, your marksmanship is greatly improved, as are your chances of survival.  As I found out more than once, dropping in without first assessing the given situation is typically folly.

Visually, the game is stunning, fast out-pacing anything that's currently available for FPSs.  The animation, set design and frame rates are all top notch.  The use of rich colors and graphics really stand out, and I only experienced a few glitches during the campaign pertaining to environments not displaying in time for my character or enemy NPCs walking thru walls.  Given the length of the campaign and the sheer beauty of the game itself, I can let these small instances slide.

However, there are more, detrimental glitches that should be noted: the enemy NPCs are suffering in the AI department.  Crytek made big promises regarding how advanced the enemy AI would be when the game rolled out.  I was disappointed to find that the enemy NPCs were essentially mindless zombies that would roll out in waves.  Yes, they'd take cover, retreat, advance and flank, but so do the enemy NPC in just about any FPS game made since 2007.  Often times I would simply cloak, move to the left or right, wait a few moments, and then slide in behind for a "stealth kill."

Also, I found that in later levels, enemy NPCs would be stuck in a "wall walk" that is, walking forever into a piece of scenery at the edge of a map, unable to navigate around it.

So-called "boss battles" were challenging however, as you experience your first major boss, a multi-legged, spider-looking tank turret called a "pinger" roughly a third the way thru the campaign.  The objective is to out-flank the pinger and attack it's rear, however, the bluddy thing can see you even when your under your cloak, making flanking nearly impossible.  You'll fight three of these monsters throughout the campaign, but strangely enough, not at the end.

No, the final "boss battle" involves your character systematically taking out four cloaked "cephs (the derogatory name of the enemy alien.  It made me think of the "Prawns" from "District 9")" of more elite training.  I found that if I simply stayed back far enough with a sniper rifle and explosives, these were of little threat to me.  As I stated above, the lack of intelligence shown by the NPCs, made picking them apart very little of a challenge.

As for the multiplayer, I was glad to notice how there seemed to be more emphasis on the single-player experience from the developers, especially in a day-and-age when the focus for developers and gamers is the online play.  Game types in C2's multiplayer are akin to any you'd find in any modern FPS, including Team Deathmatch, Free-for-All, Capture the Flag (called something different here) and a Domination-type game. 

What makes Crytek's take on FPS multiplayer is the level of customization one can play with.  For beyond just outfitting your customized character with a loadout of various weapons and equipment, the game will skew towards your style of play.  If you like to stay cloaked, you'll earn more "stealth" points than "power" or "armor" and vice versa.  These points can be spent on upgrades that are class specific (meaning, you can't use points you earned via stealth on armor upgrades, etc).  While there's an assortment of weapons and equipment that can be unlocked as you progress in level, the real treat is fine-tuning your character by how you play the game.

Altho, with the cloaking ability, I'm finding the Team Deathmatch and Free-for-All matches to be camper-friendly, as more players are inclined to hide in corners of the maps and snipe or wait for players to run by before shotgunning them to death from underneath their cloaks.

The maps come in two sizes, I'm finding: big and small, or what might be more accurate, too big and just right.  Maps like Pier 17, Skyline and Statue are really too big, with too much shit in the way to be fun playing a TDM or FFA match.  As you sprint out to battle, you'll likely be cut down by a well placed sniper across the map.  This rings familiar with my experience playing EA's other shooter from last year "Medal of Honor."

The smaller maps are just the right size, and both types offer multiple levels of engagements, from underwater to roof tops, the set design is very true to the campaign aspect of the game but not cookie-cutter, unlike other shooters where multiplayer maps are essentially just crudely cut chunks of actual levels you just played in (looking at you, COD.).

All in all, C2 is a breath of fresh air after spending 6 months grinding away at COD: Black Ops.  While there's an occasional sour note, "Crysis 2" is certainly an opus that makes up for EA's recent under-performing FPS offers.