The original Crysis (2007) was little known, which is a shame. It was popular in diehard PC gaming circles but PC gaming itself was on the decline due to the advent of consoles and the disaster called Windows Vista. It was a brilliant game mostly because of the graphical fireworks, the enemy AI and the nanosuited gameplay. Despite receiving positive reviews and numerous awards it had few takers because of the graphic requirements.
Even better
Crytek has made a gem of a sequel: Crysis 2. It is not one of those point-and-shoot “Call of Duty” clones we have been seeing the past few years. Crysis 2 blurs the line between a brilliant FPS and a single person RPG, requiring you to think about your tactics before getting into a fire fight.
You play this Force Recon Green Beret called Alcatraz who, on the verge of death, is assimilated into a nanosuit in the midst of a battlefield called New York. The story involves complex concepts like transhumanism and cybernetics to go with the sci-fi setting in 2023, but nothing a casual gamer can't understand. Crytek, since it has made the game for three platforms, has tweaked the storyline so that you will still understand the tale even if you did not plat the first game and its parallel — Crysis: Warhead.
The gameplay has improved immensely. Like the first game, the player's abilities are augmented by the Nanosuit 2, a tactical military armour that can provide three modes, a battlefield awareness system and an AI to process data. You can switch between armour, strength, and cloak modes in real time unlike the first Crysis, which is simply more fun. Armour increases suit density to deflect projectiles, strength allows you to deal powerful melee attacks and adds more speed and spring to your step, cloak gives you the ability to perform silent melee attacks or slip through the battlefield unnoticed.
That does not mean you are a one-man army who can finish the job of saving the Big Apple by afternoon. This game features the most advanced AI in video gaming history. The enemies, CELL soldiers and the walking alien cephaloids from the first Crysis, can adapt resources and tactics like nothing you've ever seen. Occasional boss fights keep you on the edge. The weapons are both unconventional (Nuclear grenade launchers, Gauss rifles, Particle Beams) and practical (Assault rifles, shotguns, pistol) and are customisable (sights, scopes, silencers). The Nanosuit can be modified with mode specific modules unlocked during progress.
Technically sound
And I haven't even got to the graphics. The surprise is that they have made it better. Crysis 1 was as close to real life as possible in a jungle environment. C2 moves to concrete jungles which is nothing like the khaki, grey and yellow as in other shooters. The detail is awesome with a devastated New York City full of abandoned yellow cabs, crumbling buildings and the head of the Statue of Liberty in Central Park. The lighting is superb.
Crysis has achieved this level of detail in all three platforms and that is no mean feat. The PC version's graphics are the best and it has lower system requirements than the first game (What?! how?). Like modern shooters, there is a bundled multi-player mode which again departs from the run-of-the-mill multiplayer using the nanosuit's modes and customisation. It's more fun than Black Ops as you can experiment with numerous stealth and speed modes. The ranking system is very familiar and the match modes, too are similar to the CoD franchise. (Deathmatch-Domination, Capture the Flag-Capture the relay.). There are unlockable modules for the suit as your rank increases.
Downsides include rare enemies staring at walls as you stand near them and running into each other and bugs during multiplayer matches.
Crysis 2 was developed using Cryengine 3, the most advanced graphics engine yet.
Buy? Of course!
Price: Rs. 999
SIDDARTH SRINIVASAN, XII, DAV Public School, Velachery.
