It's good but is it great?
With the power of the nano suit at your disposal, Crysis 2 delivers a great shooter experience that many others in the genre lack. It provides a myriad of different ways to approach situations in the game and make the game play diverse so that the player will be engaged for the entire campaign. By making itself different experience than the other shooters on the market, Crysis 2 is a must have for fans of the genre looking for something that adds some diversity to a saturated genre.
In Crysis 2 you play as a marine named Alcatraz who is on a mission in New York city in the year 2023 to save Dr. Nathan Gould from impending danger. On the way, Alcatraz and his squad mates are attacked and left to die on the harbor where Prophet saves you and drags you to an undisclosed location as you lay unconscious. Prophet is wearing a nano suit that provides him with super human abilities. From there Prophet gives you his suit and you continue the mission that Prophet was given. The story of Crysis 2 was an okay story that used a lot of set pieces to tell the story. I would have preferred to have the story more interwoven into the game play itself but the way the story was told in Crysis 2 did an adequate job. Alcatraz is a silent protagonist and because of that, we only learn of those around him and nothing of him. The characters aren't very fleshed out and are just your typical characters in a shooter. From the scientist to the loud mouth general, Crysis 2 hits many points that typical shooters have. The story does allow for future Crysis games so let us hope that maybe there could be more interesting characters in future titles.
The game play of Crysis 2 is what makes it stand out in a very crowded shooter genre. The shooting feels very typical of any other type of shooter with a mix of Call of Duty and Killzone feel for the guns. There are a decent amount of guns in Crysis 2 but the game doesn't encourage using them (save the sniper) and most of the time I ended up using the same assault rifle I had started with. What makes the game play different is the use of the nano suits abilities. With abilities to use armor to take more damage in a firefight and cloak to stealth past unsuspecting enemies to either kill them or just sneak by them, Crysis 2 allows for more than 1 way to approach a situation. Neither abilities shift the balance of the game which makes anyway you approach the game a fun one.
The multiplayer game doesn't differ from others that are out today but because of the nano suit abilities, make it a little more interesting than that of Call of Duty or Killzone 3. The multiplayer is a typical affair where you start off the match with a set of weapons and skills and as you win matches and kill opponents, you gain experience and gain access to more weapons and skills. Kill streaks are handled a little differently in this game. Every time you kill someone, they drop a dog tag that you must collect and the more you collect the better the reward for the streak.
Crysis 2 enters a flooded genre but brings a lot to the table for those looking for a new shooter to scratch that genre itch. With a good multiplayer that is different from those available and a campaign that will give a good time, I recommend Crysis 2 to those who are looking for a different perspective on the shooter genre.
