Crysis 2 Review

[Herbert1405241469 0]

I just finished the single player campaign for Crysis 2, clocking in at 12 hours. Originally, I was going to buy this at BestBuy, but the sales associates couldn't find it, so I ended up purchasing it on Steam.I was hoping this game was going to pick up right where Crysis 1 left off, but they didn't. They instead had you play as someone new and gave you the story between the two games in the form of flashbacks, which I am personally getting tired of. They never even explain what happened to the character you play as in the first Crysis... This loses all sense of being EPIC. Because it's like a completely different story/game, rather than a continuing story arc like the Half-Life series.The game feels like the love child of Half Life 2 and Call of Duty. The game is highly cinematic and over the top with a combination of cutscenes and in-game events that happen while you watch. The problem, though is that you feel like you're playing Half Life 2 and Call of Duty 2, rather than a Crytek open-world game. The levels are rather large, but after all is said and done, they are very linear with only a few side areas to explore and are more on the rails like Half-Life 2 than the original FarCry or Crysis. I just played Prototype right before this, so I was used to running from one side of Manhattan to the other. And having to funnel through buildings in an obvious set path was just something I wasn't expecting after all these years of development from Crytek.The good:- Game played smoothly on a GeForce GTX260, which was 2-3 years old on High settings. I then tried it on a GeForce GTX 580 on Extreme graphics mode and runs very smoothly- The nano suit functions were simplified and easier to use- Nano suit upgrades- Most of the game is very cinematic and well directed. It balances live-action events happening in-game to cutscenes that the player has no control over. It's balanced just enough so it doesn't get annoying for doing more one than anotherAnd now, what bugs me:- The game was terribly "consolized" in the fact that everything was stripped down and simplified. Us PC gamers are used to having control over graphics settings like setting AA and whatnot, but for Crysis 2, all we see is 3 "preset" graphics quality settings: High, Very High, Extreme. I hate that... When a video game is released exclusively on PC and becomes a success and then get's "dumbed down" for consoles for the sequels.- When trying to access the suit functions using the hotkey and mouse, there were times when nothing would happen, and I'd start getting shot at because I couldn't cloak- The suit upgrades are achieved by killing aliens. Now, this is both good and bad. The good, is that the suit gets better as you play, but the thing that bothers me is that this method forces you to kill aliens! It completely eliminates those of us who just want to strategically stealth our way through the levels because it encourages run/gun gameplay- Considering the game takes place in a wide open city, the levels themselves are generally very linear with a few side areas for exploring- Multiplayer is 'meh'And another thing, the collectibles... Why the hell would a guy in a nano-technology bio suit (with no pockets) shooting alien invaders want to stop mid fire-fight and pick up a "souvenir." The rewards for finding these things isn't even worth it. You get some low-res concept art >.< I can see they were just trying to add replay value, but it's not realistic and takes away from the immersion.Overall, the game is very big and fun, but having a 12 hour campaign with touch and go multiplayer does not warrant the $60 I had to pay for this game. There's no real replay value because the levels are so linear I don't really want to go through it again to "try different paths" or techniques because there's generally only 2 ways to go, either run/gun or stealth/sneak. The "rewards" for exploring are pictures of concept art and aren't really worth going back for.Wait till the price goes down a bit for this one.