Tuesday night I picked up Crysis 2 despite the fact I didn’t find the demo particularly appealing. The positive reviews and comments saying that the final game was much better than the demo swayed me towards the purchase. My first impressions of the game are still not very favorable. I find the gameplay to be challenging, but quite bland and repetitive. Crysis 2 feels like a shooter from years past. Maybe it is the abrupt beginning with an apparently mute protagonist that is throwing me off. Maybe it is because the story just feels so antiquated with a faceless person giving me orders with no real story to drive these decisions. I find that I have no emotion towards what is happening other than wondering whether I am infected with the deadly virus or not.
Gameplay wise Crysis 2 is pretty solid, the guns shoot straight and the enemies shoot back, but I still find the powers to be clunky compared to the first Crysis. In the pursuit of having a console version the powers don’t have the same visual impact that I found in Crysis. I have also noticed that Crysis 2 relies much more heavily on stealth this time round as the stealth mode on the nano suit lasts twice as long as the first. That is fine with me since I prefer the stealth route, but it makes the other abilities feel kind of worthless.
The enemy AI is pretty decent so far. They are dumb enough that you can easily kill them if you are patient, but smart enough to see you if you move close to them while you are cloaked. They also have pretty damn good aim at long distances with iron sights. Ammo drops are plentiful and so far I have never run out of ammo, in fact I pretty much have max ammo at all times.
Lastly, the visuals. Yes, they are great. Crysis 2 is a very pretty game and will run buttery smooth on consoles. For fear of retaliation from Lono at SarcasticGamer.com I will say this is one of the best looking games on any console, and may be the best looking to date on the Xbox 360. All kidding aside, this is a gorgeous game.
Is it worth the buy? Eh… maybe. After two hours I wasn’t in love with Crysis 2, in fact I had no emotion towards it one way or the other. I will continue to play on the hopes that it will draw me in. Stay tuned to EMZ for the final review of Crysis 2 coming soon.
