Crysis 2

NOTE: This review pertains to the retail Xbox 360 version of Crysis 2

MAXIMUM STORY
To say that Crysis 2's campaign story is bad would be an understatement of sorts. It's not just that it's a bad story overall but the way it's told makes it that much worse. I would give a synopsis of what transpires but the fact is that at a certain point my brain put up some sort of protective measures that prevented my from absorbing any more of the poisonous stupidity Crysis 2 was injecting into it. The best I can go with is "Aliens invade New York. Are you a bad enough dude to save it? Also: government conspiracies and telegraphed betrayals" The delivery of the overall arc is extremely disjointed. The main character, Alcatraz, suffers from a bad case of the silent protagonist pitfall, "Do everything that everyone says no matter how stupid or nonsensical it may be!" Along with that, there is so little focus in the direction of the storytelling that at times you go back to fix things that haven't happened yet. The game hits a small stride of good levels around act 2 when there's a distinct lack of human presence over 3 or 4 levels. This does not last long and soon you're back to wanting to mute your TV as a defense mechanism to trudge through the last third of the game. I wish I could give a better impression of the story but the effort required would, frankly, not be worth it. Sometimes the best way to describe a turd is "It stinks."

MAXIMUM VISUALS
It's no big secret that Crysis and top-notch graphics are almost synonymous. Crysis 1 was notorious for being the game that would crush feeble systems and elevate those whos PCs were found worthy to god-status among the dank neckbearded of the unwashed internet masses. Crysis 2 is no exception. Starting with the not-so-great, CryEngine 3 has some minor performance issues on the Xbox 360. Framerate dips, clipping issues, and texture pop ins are frequent occurrences in both campaign and multiplayer. Additionally, the shortcuts that Crytek takes to squeeze everything onto the Xbox 360 are sometimes evident in certain low resolution textures or geometry. Luckily, these issues are minor aesthetic ones at their worse and take almost nothing away from the whole package, which is very impressive. I'd argue to say that Crysis 2 is the most technically impressive game to be released on the Xbox 360 as of yet. Sure, the art style may be generic with a few exceptions, but the sheer power that it's applied with will leave you open mouthed at times. Of particular note are the environments. Crytek does little to shy away from scale and it pays off. The impressions of New York City you get and the perspectives that it's rendered at give the whole city a scope that makes you believe you're really fighting in Times Square and Central Park. Lighting and other ambient water and particle tricks give some soul to the city and help to deliver some stunning visuals. Unfortunately there is not a whole lot of variety in the environments but again, this is a minor complaint. Comparisons are inevitable so I'll try and squash one right here - Crysis 2 does not look as good as Killzone 3 but it comes damn close.

MAXIMUM AUDIO
Crysis 2's audio package is almost bipolar at time. The music score is understated within the game itself but when enjoyed separately it's quite good. Sure there are some of the typical sweeping scores of any action game ever made but there are also some standout subtle pieces and the main theme will get stuck in your head - it's quite good. I wish the same could be said for the rest of the audio. Foley effects are average, but don't lend much to the feel of the weapons. Particularly, there is a distinct lack of bass in the guns that take some of the "oomph" out of them. Concurrently the voice acting in Crysis 2's campaign ranges from bad to terrible. I'd venture to guess that majority of their voice acting budget went to Ed Burns' character and at his best he was still 'Ed Burns as Ed Burns'. There is a pronounced volume of 'Bro-ness' in Crysis 2 that was also present in Crysis 1. At times this 'bro-ness' gets so out of hand that I would actually get mad at the characters for being so dumb that it was hurting my brain. Imagine if the cast of jersey Shore did an off Broadway stage production of Independence Day and you get an impression of the level of fail we're talking about here. None of it is compelling at it serves only to detract from an already poor story.

MAXIMUM GAMEPLAY
Crysis 2's gameplay is it's biggest strength by far. On the surface it plays like any modern shooter released post-"Modern Warfare". Click left stick to sprint. Hold left trigger to aim down sights. Sound familiar yet? The big difference with Crysis 2 is the inclusion of the Nanosuit and it's associated powers. Pressing LB or RB will send the Nanosuit into either armor mode or cloak mode, respectively. Armor mode gives you increased damage resistance and cloak mode gives you a refractive camouflage ala Predator. Use of these modes drains your suit's energy as does sprinting and power jumping. Balancing between power, armor, and stealth while managing the economics of your suit energy determines the flow of the gameplay and when it works it works very well. Pre-planning strategies is essential before you upgrade your suit and break the game. That leads me into the downside of this whole deal. The situations you are put in during the campaign force you to avoid playing how you want to. At times you are forced to address a situation using only stealth or face instant death thanks to the unbelievably cheap AI with it's laser binocular vision and superhuman hearing. Fortunately you can upgrade your suit's stealth mode to a point where you can literally stealth through the entire game without killing any of the minor enemies. Cool? Yes. Fun? No. Luckily, the Nanosuit is a blast to play with in multiplayer.

MAXIMUM MULTIPLAYER
Do you like call of Duty? Do you like super-suits? Do you like vaporizing dudes with orbital laser strikes? If you answered yes to any of these questions you should give Crysis 2's multiplayer a go. For more in-depth analysis read a "Black Ops" review and replace every occurrence of the word "Vietnam" with "The Future".

MAXIMUM CONCLUSION
We strive to avoid considering any  prejudice in a subjective review; however, sometimes the dissapointment is grave enough that it becomes an inevitable factor. In the case of Crysis 2 it's both the potential for gameplay greatness and the crushing mismanagement of it in it's campaign that make it such a disappointment. At times it feels like the designers were so focused on their scripted events and the delivery of their story (both of which fail to impress on any level) that they forgot to deliver on the parts that are supposed to be fun, ending up with a mediocre campaign experience all around. That being said, if you are looking for a solid multiplayer shooter that puts an interesting twist on the Call of Duty formula then by all means, try Crysis 2.