There. Now that you've gotten a glimpse of what Crysis 2 looks like, let's talk a little about it. You may have figured out that the game is set in New York City, which is a far cry (ha!) from the wide-open tropical islands of Crytek's previous two games. Crytek swears that swapping in an urban jungle instead of a real one won't hamper the sort of combat sandbox gameplay the company is known for. Rather, they're saying it will simply add an aspect of verticality to that formula, since you'll be bounding up on top of skyscrapers every time you pop "maximum power."
EA and Crytek showed off a short demo of the game in (where else) New York recently, which included two short segments of combat. The first had our currently nameless, Nanosuit 2-powered hero stalking the mercs of the PMC Crynet Security near their command post on Wall Street. Since New York has been ravaged by offworld assault, Crynet has moved into town to accomplish goals Crytek isn't talking about yet. But it seems like they're counter to yours, since you have to, you know, kill them. The game's writer, novelist Richard Morgan, describes your relationship with Crynet as "volatile but changeable," so maybe you'll team up with them by the end. But from what I saw, Crynet was keen on putting a stop to the player's operations for whatever reason.
It seems like Crysis is going for a more populist approach to designing Crysis 2. Where the first game gave you four Nanosuit powers--strength, speed, stealth, and armor--this sequel is sort of min/maxing on the powers Crytek thinks the most players (especially console players) will want to use. Those are strength and stealth, which you can buff up to maximum to take enormous leaps, go invisible and sneak up on enemies, and, yes, pick them up by the throat and hurl them like ragdolls. It seems like speed and armor have been relegated to the role of supplemental powers, though this time you'll be able to upgrade your suit's power and abilities in the categories you choose. So you could end up finishing Crysis 2 with a very different Nanosuit from mine.
The demo's second segment: aliens. But not the Matrix-looking flying squid of the first Crysis. These guys are bipedal, armor-plated, and packing big otherworldly machine guns. This segment was pretty brief, with the player running around a parking lot, hiding behind cars and other cover, lobbing grenades from a launcher at these guys, who seem both agile and sturdy enough to take a lot of punishment. Stealth didn't seem terribly effective, since the first stealth kill the player tried here merely pissed off the alien he used it on, after which his cover was blown and it was on. But maybe you'll be able to upgrade your stealth to the point where it will be useful on the aliens. These guys seemed to rain down from the sky in some sort of drop pods, and at the end of this brief sequence, a heavy enemy hit the deck and used some kind of area-of-effect pulse weapon to instantly drop our hero to the ground. There's a really cool-looking video distortion effect when you go down, but that was the last I got to see of the game.
Let's not beat around the bush: the demo EA showed was running on 360, and the PC version of Crysis 2 was nowhere in sight. That's not to say the PC version isn't coming day and date with the console ones, or that it won't still be the best-looking version of the game, but there's no doubt Crytek is focusing hard on consoles. The game didn't seem to take a huge hit to image quality on the 360--look at the screenshots and you'll know it's certainly a fine-looking game--though it also wasn't the eye-popping visual revelation the first Crysis was two years ago, and the frame rate in this early build was a little dodgy. But it is early, since the game isn't coming until around the end of the year. I suspect I'll want to play it on the PC, assuming I don't need to buy a new video card for it, but I'm sure the console versions will be a fine option for people who just want to put in a disc and play.
For plenty more on Crysis 2, including Richard Morgan's comments on why most game stories are terrible and why Crytek founder Cevat Yerli really wanted to make a console game, check out this interview.
114 Comments