Crysis 2. Gamer Review.

Crytek is back with its sensationally popular creation to bring the gaming world on its knees with the latest installment of the worldwide benchmark standard, Crysis. The old one being the revolutionary head of outrageous gaming graphics, Crysis 2 has some extremely big shoes to fill. The latest crytek engine is said to bring improvement to the already impressive engine used in Crysis 1. The long awaited sequel is finally out! About a little bit over a month ago. But anyways, that's not really important. You play as Alcatraz, a US marines soldier who unwittingly was able to acquire the new nano suit in a way that would spoil something in the story but, yeah, moving on. With this nanosuit, you are able to survive and adapt to situations that normal humans can't overcome. It may enhance your speed and strength, adapt to form a highly resistant piece of armor, or it may render you invisible to your foes. You'll be fighting against humans who are after the suit's technology and the cephs, highly agile and heavily armored calamari like extraterrestrials, who are mounting an all out invasion of earth. The suit has hidden special properties which allows it to be the saviour of mankind and is best left unspoiled .

While the plot might seem cliche with the whole alien invasion storyline, the whole gameplay experience makes the journey an action packed thrill ride that's bound to have you playing for hours. The suit is what makes the plot tick since almost everyone wants the suit, prompting the whole hidden suit properties situation which makes the suit essential for thwarting the ceph invasion. It only shows that a simple plot will still rock when it is epicly orchestrated.

The graphics on this thing is absolutely on another level when compared to majority of first person shooters that litter the market. Even on my outdated medium budget GPU (an Nvidia 9600GT), I was able to run this video card frying monster at medium settings with only noticable loss of frame rates at extremely action packed situations and graphic intensive cut scenes. Simply put, you can't compare this kind of graphics with anything else currently IMO. I read from all the critics that this Crysis might be sloppy when it comes to the rendering of the many objects of crysis, but I seriously think they're just prioritizing rendering high quality objects that are meant to be associated with the big metropolises, and not that of the previous jungle themed Crysis. Seriously, didn't even notice until I read that thing. I saw the console versions of Crysis 2 when I was in Singapore and damn, you console people should seriously get a change of hardware and release the next generation consoles already. Console Crysis 2 is one hell of an ugly baby that should be beaten with a stick. All the juicy details were simply gone, and that made Crysis 2 look very dull and ordinary.

Unlike most first person shooters, Crysis 2 allows you to pick your fancy of strategies. Whether you go all stealthy and break everyone's neck and slit their throats or, maybe, going out guns blazing and ego rockin' like Rambo, You decide. And with Crysis 2, there are almost an innumerable amount of possible routes you may handle a certain scenario with, since the game has an open type of system which seemingly gets rid of the scriptedness of many FPS campaigns. You get to be creative with your approaches. Whether you run enemies over with a powerful kick to the many heavy interactable objects in game, or you run around and confuse the enemy, leading them into traps of your own, the possibilities is quite long, and thankfully, enjoying your efforts are definitely worth it. The weapon customizing option is another sleek way of upgrading your weapons on the go, which allows you to adapt to the various challenges the campaign pits against you. Another amazing thing which sets this game from the rest is the refreshingly lengthy yet equally epic campaign gameplay time. It roughly took me around 12-15hours to finish it on the hard settings. When you compare that to the usual 5-6hour Call of Duty campaign, this one definitely seals the deal.

As much as this might be a very very good game, a very big downer is the lackluster AI. Let's face it, Crysis 2 AI are so dumb that enemies, it's either they're are too blind even though you're there in front of them day dreaming or they're too retarded that they're facing walls during a firefight just begging to get messed up from behind. But I'll be honest, there are definitely some situations that their dumbness may have helped me pass certain trickier levels where free kills definitely make the difference. Other than that, running up to me just to get slit by a single key press, isn't too flattering.

If you're a gaming enthusiast who enjoys action packed fire person shooters, then Crysis 2 will definitely be a part of your list of must play games. But if you aren't, I suggest you still give it a try to understand why Crysis 2 is so popular and treat yourself to some very advanced and polished 3D graphics. Bring on, Crysis 3! Spare my video card, please!

Rating: 8.5/10