
	Platform Playstation 3 Genre Shooter Publisher Electronic Arts Developer Crytek ESRB M (Mature) Released March 22, 2011

- Excellent campaign with an interesting story (though it's not always easy to follow) - Stunning visuals - Solid online play

- Some occasional bugs with the visuals and AI. - No cooperative campaign - Checkpoints are few and far between

Review: Crysis (PC) Review: Call of Duty: Black Ops (PS3) Interview: Crysis Warhead Post Mortem Q&A
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Crysis 2

Score: 8.5 / 10

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The original Crysis was released back in 2008 during my last year of University. Back then you’d be lucky if you owned a PC that could even run the game at its full settings or anywhere near the full systems. And a console version? Forget it. Whatever developer Crytek used to get this great looking sequel on a console, probably magic, makes me wish they worked the same kind of magic to bring the original to consoles.

If you haven’t played the first game you won’t be lost by the game’s story. Crytek has left the island jungle and has come full circle to the sprawling urban center of

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New York City in the year 2024. The city has been hit by a mysterious alien virus and is under martial law. On top of that tensions are brewing between private security contractors and the US Military. With numerous events happening at the same time, almost like the television show 24, the game’s campaign can be difficult to follow. The game tackles some important themes

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happening in today’s world including the rapid expansion and extension of the military industrial complex.

You play a member of the US Marines named Alcatraz who dons a Nanosuit, which gives you a tactical advantage over your allies and foes. The Nanosuit comes equipped with the ability to become invisible to enemies, increase your health and come crashing down on top of enemies with overpowering aerial attacks. You feel like a machine on the battlefied. And this is where Crysis 2 really shines as you can approach battles in a variety of ways. This makes for a very open experience and you can play through the same level or section of the game and yield different results depending on which route or tactic you choose.

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The Nanosuit (which also can be upgraded) also allows you to scan for ammunition and tag enemy positions and has thermal sights. You’ll find yourself frequently watching enemies from an elevated position or roaming dark areas and this is truly where the ability to tag enemies or view enemy heat signatures really comes to full effect.

New York City provides a perfect battleground for Crysis 2. So much of the environment can be interacted with, down to picking up objects and using them as weapons against enemies.

There’s a good variety of daytime and nightime levels and outdoor and indoor environments Since you're playing as a marine you encounter both human and alien enemies and sometimes find yourself in the middle of a battle between the mercenaries/military and the alien forces. You’re sometimes unsure of exactly who to shoot at or whether you should avoid the firefight all together. It’s moments like these that make Crysis 2 great.

The game’s single player suffers from some strange graphical glitches and enemy AI behavior. The enemies for the most part are extremely intelligent and challenging to fight, but I sometimes found enemies simply standing there not recognizing me a few feet from them or running into walls. Other times I would pick-up enemies only to have them disappear and then reappear. These problems creeped up a few times in the campaign but did not totally ruin the experience.

Another gripe is the game’s checkpoint system. There simply are too few checkpoints throughout the single player levels and it’s common to find yourself dying only to play over a large swathe of the level again.

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At around ten hours, Crysis 2 features a fairly lengthy single player experience. It’s a welcome change from other titles in the genre which have been watered down to 5 hour experiences. Crysis 2’s entire campaign is enjoyable and the later stages of the game are really where the game shines.

Crysis 2 also features online play. All online players have the ability to use the nanosuit to the same extent as the single player campaign. The online play is enjoyable but it suffers from balance issues. Certain classes such as snipers seem to dominate most maps. Crysis 2 also features a rank up system similar to Call of Duty whereby you level up and unlock new items. The customization options are also fairly deep when it comes to choosing your game rules/types, weapons and nanosuit abilities. The online play is fairly deep and will keep your attention for sometime provided the balance issues can be worked out.

Crysis 2 is an excellent first person shooter and delivers a different experience than what other titles in the genre are currently offering. "Have it your way" is really the name of the game and whether you love frantic shooters or stealth based games, Crysis 2 has a little of everything.

- Siddharth Masand

(April 19, 2011)