Hello community,

I just completed the Campaign in Crysis 2 and would like to submit my thoughts, as i've been relatively quiet in the forums thus far. Instead of simply, i dunno, complaining about the game i played it through first.

I'm very pleased to say i purchased the Limited Edition boxed version legally and thoroughly enjoyed the Campaign, though of course i had my gripes. I feel it satisfyed many of my Sci-Fi FPS needs and i haven't come out of a game feeling it was so fresh, since i think i played Halo:CE. I very much liked the art design and visuals, although in places lacklustre when compared to Crysis 1 at full throttle (high res texture pack needed kthx?). I was hoping, like many, for dx11 out of the box. All i can hope is for a patch in the coming weeks to add some kind of improvements here. BioWare did it with Dragon Age II, high res texture pack for PC, an EA studio. Why not CryTek? Would like to see more graphics options.

One of the things i am VERY pleased with CryTek about, is their thorough understanding of how important a good quality and emotive soundtrack makes or breaks a game. Martin O'Donnell from Bungie has proved this MANY times over. Crytek not having such an enigmatic music department, their inclusion of the wonderful film-soundtrack composer Hans Zimmer, was spot on. A flowing, orchestral theme with jagged interludes and deep running riffs echoes hauntingly in the background amongst a bleak and shattered New York setting. Lovely!

The Story. *slight spoiler warning, nothing significant* Ahh, here i have ups and downs to comment. Firstly, the story as it stands, great! It seems to get lost along the way however. Also, what happened to Psycho and Nomad? They survived Linkshan? So where are they now? This never, in fact, even gets touched upon. However, Prophet features throughout Crysis 2, his backstory, events since C1 and current goings on at the start of the game. Don't worry, it's not clear cut. What happened to the rest though, is somewhat murky. Perhaps CryTek's just not used to sequels, tbh they've never made one before? There needed to be some clarity here but we never got it, sadly. There are also some significant plot holes. For example, why do the Ceph no longer care about being out of armoured shells/out of freezing liquid nitrogen environment? This never gets explained. Oh well :/

The quality of product: Fair, but buggy. The game itself feels very well optimised, very well made. However some bugs are beyond belief, such as vanishing stats (Nano Catalyst?!) and the well known MP hack-a-bility. I'm sure CryTek however will patch these game-damaging problems, i have faith that far.

So when all said and done, is the PC version a console port mess? No, definitely not. Has the PC version suffered consolification? No, KB & M work lovely still, no obvious leftovers, lag free input, well designed HUD/menus etc. Is the game buggy? Yes, but strangely so. Overall the game feels extremely polished, but some bugs have manifested that i cannot fathom got missed in QA tests. Entire stats just going missing, regularly and for most users? Oh dear. Will CryTek fix up the game over the coming weeks? Yes i have little doubt they will, the amount of complains of the troll variety are completely unwarranted but i've grown accustomed to such immaturity online :/

Verdict? I'd give the game around 88%. It's not a 90%+ game, not by any stretch in it's condition now. But god, is it good. Crytek's got a lot to learn, but i'm sure those lessons are currently being thrown across the boardroom table in the post-release executive gathering