Crysis 2

Crytek is back trying to match the success of their graphics show horse-cum-game, Crysis. This time, the game can actually be played on systems available right now and not ones that are just coming on to the market...several years after launch. They have simplified the engine a bit, but it still has large vistas and many ways to attack your foes. It just has one minor problem.

For most of the game...it just isn't all that much fun.

At the end, once your suit is powered up, you no longer feel like a woefully underpowered soldier. True, you quickly feel like a near-God, but once you have the ability to handle SOME punishment, the game becomes far more appreciable.

You play Alcatraz, a marine whose submarine is sunk and, while laying on the ground dying, is saved by the original game's protagonist Prophet who gives him the Nano-suit. You then end up in New York City where you help fight off the Ceph invasion while dealing with a military lockdown in the city dealing with a viral outbreak. The suit's abilities have been simplified to four main disciplines: power, stealth, armor, and nano-vision. All work pretty well. The stealth skills are a wee bit overpowered as you can simply cloak yourself, walk a bit away, and the enemies stop noticing that you are nearby. The armor can become really effective later in the game. The suit gives you plenty of ways to empower yourself and handle some incredibly difficult firefights.

Part of your suit's functionality is that it can point out several tactical methods to attack your foes. It usually has 2 or 3 different ways to approach the conflict...which is a huge help since you can choose the path of assault that most closely matches your play style. It is an exceptionally valuable thing as the enemies are tough. They will flank you. They will send others out to flush you out of hiding. They will try to get to the higher ground to better attack you. The battles are also not all that quick, so you have to plan out your plan of battle and stick to it for somewhat lengthy battles. The enemy variety is enough to not get boring, but it is not supremely robust. The AI is the one thing that really keeps the fights from being boring. The enemies will seldom take the same path to you and the fight, should you need to re-fight it, seldom unfold the same way, either.

You start off fighting soldiers, which is fine --- but it is when the aliens start to be introduced that the battles become memorable. There are three basic alien archetypes and all three work well together. The grunts seem to try and flush you out for the heavies and tanks to attempt to annihilate you. Your weapon load out, much like your enemies, start off being somewhat underwhelming, but once you get the more energy based weapons, the fighting is more enjoyable. Your explosives are truly powerful and your microwave and energy guns work remarkably well.

The suit is a powerful tool. Your cloaking skill is really effective. Your tactical view is immensely helpful. Your nano-vision is really useful when you are in a darkened area. Your armor can become more powerful and a real life-saver in tough battles -- but that takes a while to get there.

Visually, it is one of the more beautiful titles on the market if not the single most beautiful. New York City looks outstanding and the liberal usage of light avoids any attempts to play tricks and hide the flaws. The game is also colorful, which is sadly too rare these days. The levels are, admittedly, not as large as the ones in the original title --- but they are far larger than your average FPS nowadays.

All of these pluses make it all the more baffling while the game is so incredibly tedious early on. I can't even place my finger on it, but for the first 10 or so levels, the game isn't so much BAD as it is just, well, boring. Yawn-inducing. It is hard to care about anything. The story won't catch you and your battles with enemies won't feel like tactical fights but, instead, like ass-whippings that you have to try and find a way to weasel your way through. It is not enjoyable in a FPS to feel so highly underpowered. I can't think of another FPS where you feel so overwhelmed so often. The game is also buggy. Enemies will get stuck on the environment. They will run around in circles and not fight anybody. The AI, which is outstanding for the most part, will have the odd utter breakdown. It is a frequent enough problem that one must wonder why they didn't catch all of these bugs in testing. Perhaps they figured it wasn't a problem, and it is something that DOES hamper your overall enjoyment of the game.

If not for the first slightly-over-half-of-the-game boring part, this would be an easy perfect score. The ending of the game is terrific. It is a fun roller coaster ride. It is not overly easy, but you feel like you have the tools with which to combat the enemies. The environments are gorgeous and huge. The visuals are phenomenal. It really is great. I just wish it were more fun early on.