I have the game, play a couple hours so far and some thoughts:
The Good
1. Guns feel good. Shooting is precise and well controlled, sounds are good. Weapon customization is like Crysis 1, press X to add parts. There could be more choices though. For example, barrels can only have silencers or nothing, why not add a different compensator for lower recoil? Why no more choice in hand guard mounts (Lasers, flashlights, pistol grips, etc)? Why are my optics choices arbitrarily limited? No ACOG/scopes on an assault rifle and the laser sight is obviously attached to the CCO optic (think a M68 style CCO with a integrated EOTech EOLAD-1V side laser mount), but when holding down right mouse, you zoom in on the laser instead of looking through the obviously mounted optic.
2. Movement is good. Walk speed could be higher, but thats about it. Jumping on a ledge, sliding, looking over cover, etc feels natural and opens up the world nicely. On the other hand, why are some things cover that you can lean over and some are not? A chest high concrete wall is ok for you to look over and fire from, but a chest high crate is not?
3. It does feel more theatrical and action packed than the first Crysis which could get dry at times. That is a plus.
The Bad
1. Level design borders on linear. There are may paths, but they all lead to the same place. It is good design, excellent use of vertical space especially, but you can't help but feel that it's all the same no matter what you do and where you go. It's basically go left or right around a building, or go under or over it. In the end, you take a short detour, but you still follow the same path 90% of the time with only short breaks where you get to decide what vertical level you want to move through.
2. It really holds you by the hand. Long parts are non interactive cutscene tutorials. Want to open a door at the beginning of the game? Watch a non interactive cutscene of your guy pulling off the handle and push open the door after pressing F. Look over a ledge? Hey let me put you in a non interactive cutscene of how the suit's binocular function works. 1 hour in and before a fight? Let me non interactively show you how armor and cloaking mode works. Really, really breaks immersion and throws you out of the game.
3. Why is everyone in a nano suit now? On top of that Nano suits are no longer special, it's just what everybody wears now. Remember the satisfaction of fighting Korean nano suits in Crysis, where it was actually a challenge? forget it, now nano suit guys are just fodder. Also, what the hell is Cell? Where is the US military? This is New York, why is it getting torn up in a gang bang between Cell v.s. Ceph(aliens) v.s. civilians without the military there? I am literally dropped into the game with no idea WTF is going on and why people are fighting and how this is any way is connected to Crysis 1/Warhead.
The Ugly
1. Graphics. This game runs about as quickly as Crysis 1/Warhead but looks much, much worse. Lighting is good, but textures are much muddier. This is extremely evident at the start of the game when you first see your character. On hardcore mode, your PC's uniform is extremely muddy and you can see the low poly count. It looks better later, but it's still easy to see that it's not Crysis level in geometry detail, texture resolution or wide open vistas with long sight range. Enviroments are small, cramped even and even with all this "help" it runs no better than Crysis 1, a game which rendered miles and miles of wide open terrain with detailed trees, water and character models.
2. Controls. I have the weird feeling mouse smoothing and acceleration are enabled. It feels a bit off and the there is no option to turn it off.
3. That brings me to the whole damn command line thing. Game files are encrypted, there is no Sandbox editor and most command line options are locked out. I mean there's not even an option to change graphical settings by yourself even if you wanted to edit command lines. It's basically a giant middle finger to the PC community.
Verdict
This game is fun. I've only played the single player so that's all I can talk about, but comparison wise it is better than Homefront's SP. The game story is less absolutely retarded, doesn't force ridiculous idiocy down your throat trying to either shock you or draw a very simple emotional reaction, but it is not as good as Crysis 1's. There is less suspense and absolutely less believability than the last game for sure. The Aliens when you first saw sneak peeks of them in early parts of Crysis made you feel like a man in a nano suit that is still vastly overpowered and helpless inspiring true fear and adrenaline. Crysis 2 aims much more at the superman spectrum of things. I am alone in a open war zone but I never feel like I'm in any "Oh S***" danger like in Crysis. Crysis 2 is simply easier than Crysis. I'm not talking about normal v.s. macho "back in my day..." difficulty, I'm talking about adrenaline pumping, suspense building difficulty and, oh no I have to superman and face roll another 20 CELL nano suit guys that don't feel any more epic than normal enemies should be in 2011 era military body armor difficult, there's just no longer a sense of spectacle and achievement when you put up these "dangerous" aliens and nano suit guys that are so much weaker compared to you (playing on my default difficulty for all games, Normal). Also AI is much worse in this game than Crysis 1.
Overall, I do regret paying $60 for this game. It's not bad, but not $60 good and I'm not the pickiest gamer in the world either. I felt like Dragon Age 2 was even just barely justified for $60 and I didn't mind many of the things others hated. 7.5-8/10 Crytek lowered the epic feel and quality of Crysis 2 compared to Crysis while locking you out of any sort of customization or control as a big middle finger to the PC community. It truly is closer in spirit and feel to Modern Warfare 2 than the open choice filled world Crysis 1/Warhead is. For $40, it'd be good, $50 would be pushing it unless you know you will want to get wrapped up in the multiplayer.
Buy
Wait
Pass
Edit: Here are some Extreme(Hardcore/Highest setting) screenshots.
1:
I understand depth of field on the legs, but look at the textures on the Marine's IFAK pack on the front of his kit. Also look at the low number of polygons used in this model.
2.
Again low geometry detail on the metal gantry thing, blurry textures on the wall and concrete, clipping of the stair railing model... just overall sloppy work.
3.
I'm not cherry picking shots to show this game off in a bad light. Whoever did the textures made a big impact in making the game look truly only average at best.
The Good
1. Guns feel good. Shooting is precise and well controlled, sounds are good. Weapon customization is like Crysis 1, press X to add parts. There could be more choices though. For example, barrels can only have silencers or nothing, why not add a different compensator for lower recoil? Why no more choice in hand guard mounts (Lasers, flashlights, pistol grips, etc)? Why are my optics choices arbitrarily limited? No ACOG/scopes on an assault rifle and the laser sight is obviously attached to the CCO optic (think a M68 style CCO with a integrated EOTech EOLAD-1V side laser mount), but when holding down right mouse, you zoom in on the laser instead of looking through the obviously mounted optic.
2. Movement is good. Walk speed could be higher, but thats about it. Jumping on a ledge, sliding, looking over cover, etc feels natural and opens up the world nicely. On the other hand, why are some things cover that you can lean over and some are not? A chest high concrete wall is ok for you to look over and fire from, but a chest high crate is not?
3. It does feel more theatrical and action packed than the first Crysis which could get dry at times. That is a plus.
The Bad
1. Level design borders on linear. There are may paths, but they all lead to the same place. It is good design, excellent use of vertical space especially, but you can't help but feel that it's all the same no matter what you do and where you go. It's basically go left or right around a building, or go under or over it. In the end, you take a short detour, but you still follow the same path 90% of the time with only short breaks where you get to decide what vertical level you want to move through.
2. It really holds you by the hand. Long parts are non interactive cutscene tutorials. Want to open a door at the beginning of the game? Watch a non interactive cutscene of your guy pulling off the handle and push open the door after pressing F. Look over a ledge? Hey let me put you in a non interactive cutscene of how the suit's binocular function works. 1 hour in and before a fight? Let me non interactively show you how armor and cloaking mode works. Really, really breaks immersion and throws you out of the game.
3. Why is everyone in a nano suit now? On top of that Nano suits are no longer special, it's just what everybody wears now. Remember the satisfaction of fighting Korean nano suits in Crysis, where it was actually a challenge? forget it, now nano suit guys are just fodder. Also, what the hell is Cell? Where is the US military? This is New York, why is it getting torn up in a gang bang between Cell v.s. Ceph(aliens) v.s. civilians without the military there? I am literally dropped into the game with no idea WTF is going on and why people are fighting and how this is any way is connected to Crysis 1/Warhead.
The Ugly
1. Graphics. This game runs about as quickly as Crysis 1/Warhead but looks much, much worse. Lighting is good, but textures are much muddier. This is extremely evident at the start of the game when you first see your character. On hardcore mode, your PC's uniform is extremely muddy and you can see the low poly count. It looks better later, but it's still easy to see that it's not Crysis level in geometry detail, texture resolution or wide open vistas with long sight range. Enviroments are small, cramped even and even with all this "help" it runs no better than Crysis 1, a game which rendered miles and miles of wide open terrain with detailed trees, water and character models.
2. Controls. I have the weird feeling mouse smoothing and acceleration are enabled. It feels a bit off and the there is no option to turn it off.
3. That brings me to the whole damn command line thing. Game files are encrypted, there is no Sandbox editor and most command line options are locked out. I mean there's not even an option to change graphical settings by yourself even if you wanted to edit command lines. It's basically a giant middle finger to the PC community.
Verdict
This game is fun. I've only played the single player so that's all I can talk about, but comparison wise it is better than Homefront's SP. The game story is less absolutely retarded, doesn't force ridiculous idiocy down your throat trying to either shock you or draw a very simple emotional reaction, but it is not as good as Crysis 1's. There is less suspense and absolutely less believability than the last game for sure. The Aliens when you first saw sneak peeks of them in early parts of Crysis made you feel like a man in a nano suit that is still vastly overpowered and helpless inspiring true fear and adrenaline. Crysis 2 aims much more at the superman spectrum of things. I am alone in a open war zone but I never feel like I'm in any "Oh S***" danger like in Crysis. Crysis 2 is simply easier than Crysis. I'm not talking about normal v.s. macho "back in my day..." difficulty, I'm talking about adrenaline pumping, suspense building difficulty and, oh no I have to superman and face roll another 20 CELL nano suit guys that don't feel any more epic than normal enemies should be in 2011 era military body armor difficult, there's just no longer a sense of spectacle and achievement when you put up these "dangerous" aliens and nano suit guys that are so much weaker compared to you (playing on my default difficulty for all games, Normal). Also AI is much worse in this game than Crysis 1.
Overall, I do regret paying $60 for this game. It's not bad, but not $60 good and I'm not the pickiest gamer in the world either. I felt like Dragon Age 2 was even just barely justified for $60 and I didn't mind many of the things others hated. 7.5-8/10 Crytek lowered the epic feel and quality of Crysis 2 compared to Crysis while locking you out of any sort of customization or control as a big middle finger to the PC community. It truly is closer in spirit and feel to Modern Warfare 2 than the open choice filled world Crysis 1/Warhead is. For $40, it'd be good, $50 would be pushing it unless you know you will want to get wrapped up in the multiplayer.
Buy
Wait
Pass
Edit: Here are some Extreme(Hardcore/Highest setting) screenshots.
1:
I understand depth of field on the legs, but look at the textures on the Marine's IFAK pack on the front of his kit. Also look at the low number of polygons used in this model.
2.
Again low geometry detail on the metal gantry thing, blurry textures on the wall and concrete, clipping of the stair railing model... just overall sloppy work.
3.
I'm not cherry picking shots to show this game off in a bad light. Whoever did the textures made a big impact in making the game look truly only average at best.
Last edited:
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