Crysis 2

Back when my computer was the staple of my entertainment system, Crysis was used as the benchmark for my computers performance; actually, this was pretty much the case for all "Hardcore" PC Gamers. As a game, Crysis was decent, with a large and generally open-world environment for the player to explore and experiment.
 
I've been looking forward to Crysis 2 for quite awhile. I didn't except a huge graphical leap, especially since I was going to play the 360 version, but I was expecting a high-quality visual showcase for the 360 that didn't drop below 30 FPS; I also hoped that the setting, story-telling, and gameplay would drastically improve over the original. Well, I can say that out of all of those hopes, the setting is definitely more interesting. . .
 
The biggest problem I've had with Crytek's games and engines doesn't deal with performance but with the quality of AI. Crysis 2 unfortunately suffers from the same AI issues that plagued other Crytek engine games, most notably Far Cry 2. Human AI will consistently act in hilarious, stupid, and frustrating ways. The AI will run in circles, run into walls, get stuck on other AI, throw grenades at each other, and every once in awhile will get confused and actually kill another AI; the AI will also have the tendency to see you when you're hiding behind a wall from hundreds of feet away even though your view of them is completely obscured; other issues exist such as when going from cloaked, to uncloaked, and back to cloaked again, the AI will many times ignore you or search the area for a few seconds and then completely forget you're there. These issues are frequent and are a detriment to the game and your gameplay experience.
 
Visually, Crysis 2 is inconsistent. I've seen some people claim this to be the best looking game on any console. I'm going to have to disagree. Framerate issues are a major problem; I've experienced massive framerate drops going from around 30 FPS to at the maximum, half of that. There are other frequent issues related to inconsistent texture resolutions, inexplicable pop-in (why do bottles pop-in to your view when you are a few feet away, was that so hard to render?),  and a somewhat irritating bloom effect on par with that of Halo 3. There are some instances when I thought the game looked great but overall, it's not on par with games like Killzone 2 or 3, Uncharted 1 or 2, Heavy Rain, or even Black Ops and Bad Company 2.
 
Gameplay has been streamlined from the original. You basically have two powers, stealth and armor with a few modifications you can acquire from killing enemy ceph. I found upgrading your powers to be almost pointless as once you learn how to use, and basically exploit the AI through stealth, upgrades are meaningless. During my session I craved for an upgrade system similar to Crackdown. Hmm.. . first person crackdown? Someone make that game!
 
The games setting is condensed into what's almost a linear series of paths, but Crytek left in some open-world influences. There are sections of the game where I didn't shoot a single enemy and stealthed my way through; there are vantage points to snipe, boxes to take cover, and several other ways to make it to your next objective. However, the game isn't open-world in the sense that you can travel anywhere. The story starts off pretty slow and the settings and locales get better over time, leading up to an extremely anti-climatic ending. I would say that the story is an improvement over the original Crysis but the limited environments are detriment, and limit the potential experiences the player can enjoy.
 
While there are some great moments in Crysis 2, I experienced so many inconsistencies, oddities, and irritations that those great moments needed to come more often. If you are a 360 owner, I would definitely give it a rental but it's not worth the $60.