Can you imagine a crysis 2 with mind blowing, directx10/11 powered visuals? A crysis 2 with a story that continues where the first crysis left off, where you continue playing as Jake "Nomad" Dunn, instead of killing off the best characters the series had to offer. Where you have a nanosuit that is truly more powerful than before, with armor as default, along with power mode (with sprint as fast as the first game) and cloak as it should have been. Where you can prone, lean, grab enemies and hold weapons at the same time, and still ledge grab and slide. You would be able to quicksave and normal save, as well as see a picture of the game you want to load and customize the game fully (like changing color of HUD, customizing crosshairs, customizing graphics, etc.). You would be able to drive civilian vehicles and taxis instead of just kicking them around, and you could still drive in first person. You would still see your arm reach out as you pick up weapons and ammo, as well as more of the world around you because the field of view would actually be decent. And all this could at least partly still take place in one of the greatest cities in the world, New York. This is what I expected from Crysis 2 (because crysis 1 had almost all of the above for those who havent played it), and this is why I am so terribly disappointed in this incredibly average game. Truth is, this is crysis 0.5, if even that. This game has really turned me off on gaming for awhile, at least for games from crytek. I'm seeing a pattern here, crysis 1 was epic and visually outstanding, crysis warhead was just okay with its annoying long third person cutscenes and visually not quite as good, and now crysis 2 is just completely awful in every way. So, so disappointing.

I really wish that the above description is what I got.

Crysis 2...the biggest gaming disappointment of the century.

This game is straight up better than Crysis 1, which sold like **** for how good it was, which was biched about more than this one is-- and which disappointed more people than this one has.

The few, few people who actually stuck with Crysis 1 multiplayer are the only ones complaining. If more people agreed with you, you would have gotten the sequel you wanted-- but thats not the case.

This is the sequel that is better to most people.

As I loaded Crysis 2, I was trying to keep my expectations in check. I mean, after all, only a few games (and movies) have had an equally or even more successful sequel. Now I know that Crysis departed from Far Cry in story line and added the Nanosuit, but it kept the large area, open game play that just made other games seem like an old video game. Go here, do this, go here too, do this too--in that order.

The story in Crysis was told skilfully via both game play and short cut scenes. You didn't know about the aliens up front, your concern was the scientists and NK forces. There were a few mysterious events placed that added to the tension (remember when the side of the mountain came down?). But as you went through the game, it was up to you to get to the story. You could drive around the coast, sneak through the woods, swim, or nab a boat. Vehicles weren't restricted to the road, and you could drive them off of a cliff if you so desired.

So I waited for Crysis 2 to load. Then the game starts...and I'm a grunt in a helicopter. Wait--wasn't I in a nanosuit in Crysis? Oh well, maybe they are doing the intro from another perspective. As the into drags on I finally meet Prophet. Now Prophet has this big mystery around him - where did he go when he was abducted in Crysis and how did he integrate alien tech with ours? Well the answer to that question was a resounding "don't care" from Crytek. There is Prophet and he's got the alien measles and he rescues me. He puts his suit on me--WTF?????? Dude, you are dying because of some alien disease, and you put our stuff on me???

So now I am in the Nanosuit. Cool, I go for the cloak and it works, I go for strength mode, and WTF??? What happened to the nanosuit? Was it broken? Couldn't you work on, say, the story line? It reminds me of when we had all sorts of bugs in Crysis, and their first patch added a sound so you could hear that you hit your enemy. WTF???? We had guys like Longpoke sky walking and dropping dozens of explosives on us and they wanted hit sounds...

Ok, so I decide to try out the new suit. No suit shortcuts. But I get to kick a Honda around. Ok, that is cool. I get to a point where I want to go through a glass window, and I can't break it. WTF???? I can kick a Honda Accord like it's a soccer ball but I can't break a glass window? Well, this is just part of the ride. After all, I'm not really playing a game, I'm just pressing keys at the right moment. I don't eve have to worry about ammo. FFS, some big huge ammo bear walked around the whole map and shat out ammo boxes. Oh, and there is a grenade bear in there too.
So the story seems to have almost nothing to do with Crysis. Crysis sort of fell backwards once you got to the aliens. It went from open-ended to roller coaster, but it wasn't too bad, and the landscapes were huge. Crysis 2 falls off of a cliff backwards into the Grand Canyon of roller coaster rides. I mean, I shot down a helicoper and waited. Another one came and I shot it down. Then another, and another. WTF??? I guess you want me to move on eh? "Roller Coaster of love...yeah...yeah...yeah"

So I'm walking along and all of the sudden "Suit override" WTF??? Is this a movie or a game? I mean, I am the one playing right? Then I get to see some guy talking to some lady. I overhear him say he wants to kill me. No problem, I'm about 20 feet from him and I have a rifle. One shot and problem solved. WTF??? I can't do anything but watch. So I'm a trained grunt but I just stare at a man who orders his troops to kill me? WTF???

Well graphically it's ok but does not seem earth shattering. With the downtown New York locale, I was expecting to be able to go down one block, climb up the side of a building in my best King Kong impression, shoot out every window just because I can. Or can I? NOPE! I remember playing a similar game under similar circumstances. What was it called? Oh yea, HALO. So I'm now playing Halo...I mean Crysis 2, and can't do almost anything that I could in Crysis, nothing that made the game ground-breaking and fun. I wanted to give them a "Warm Idaho welcome." NOPE.

Man, I can't wait for the real Crysis 2 to come out...

@Tanker99 I agree with a lot of your thoughts in your post. The single player campaign definitely does not give this series what it deserved after the first game. I recently just finished the first game in preparation for C2 release. All I could think about was how awesome it would be to have the same free-roaming style of play, but instead of a jungle, the game is in NYC. What a tremendous disappointment.

The story is somewhat bogus as well. I'm not a huge single-player enthusiast, but I was just hoping for something a bit better. Giving the first game the sequel it deserved.

Like many others that are less than happy with the way Crysis 2 has strayed from the originals, I will continue to play it at least for a while. The multiplayer is somewhat fun, with many annoyances. It does seem like crytek went out of its way to create a clone of CoD. It's definitely not the greatest game I've ever played, but it's fun for the most part. Hopefully, a lot of the game-breaking issues get fixed soon.

@Tanker99
that was probably the best crysis2-SP review i've read so far..

Sure the multiplayer is nice, but they really screwed up on the campain...

I'm extremely happy with the game, but, the OP did bring up some things I would have liked in this game:
An arm grabbing weapons and ammo, customizable HUD color, and 1st person in the few vehicles I drove (I understand the game doesn't really need that many vehicles though). Also...I want the female voice back for the nano-suit, I never liked the creepy cyborg voice. Give us the ability to mod and I can at least fix the first 2 myself.