» Fri Jun 03, 2011 10:20 am
-Sound (Excellent sounds and music, one of my favourite features of Crysis 2)
I do agree, the sound design was fantastic, both the music, which was (mostly) very fitting, and the sound effects. The guns sounded meaty, sounds changed suitably to fit the environment, and they were all accurately presented, allowing you to use sound as an effective means of gaining tactical information.
-Performance (Plays great on my GTX280, no studder at all. Excellent graphics, especially for DX9.
While I am kinda stumped as to why its not at least DX10 I am happy that the game looks as good as it does and play as well as it does and I didnt have to spend $500 on a new video card. It may not be DX11 but it looks really really good)
Although it certainly does run well, to me it lacked a level of depth. Frankly, the design was good, the graphics weren't. In parts this was enough, but there were all too many areas that just didn't look good enough. This was especially true if you decided to take a closer look at the environments. To a degree the high motion-blur actually made the graphics effectively look better, by preventing you from taking a close look at textures and the likes. The lack of physics felt very limiting, and sadly made me feel somewhat impotent; I liked being able to shoot down a tree if I wanted to hit an enemy, and in general effect the environment around me. Having played the game on post-human warrior, such things would've been very useful; but were not to be. Generally the dynamic aspects of the game have been removed.
-I really like the quick armor/cloak buttons (Q/E). Being able to go from Armor to cloak or vise versa without having to mess with the middle mouse button rotation menu was very pleasant.
I agree with this, it was a nice addition, although I'm not sure if I prefer only two main modes. Although it did mean that you could do a lot on the go; in response to my comment regarding dynamics, here crytek have gone one step forward, and then one back. In the original game, I always wanted to chain together modes, and do fantastic manoeuvres; sadly the somewhat clunky controls and reactions meant that this wasn't possible. Here this is integrated really well; I spent a lot of the game moving from cloak, to armour, to scaling a building, it was the most dynamic gaming experience I've ever had - mirror's edge came to mind for a short while when playing it, but this isn't the linear stylized game mirror's edge was, I'm doing this as my on-the-go tactics in what is essentially an arena. However, now I don't have all the dynamic reactions (which is what I was talking about in the last paragraph), to compliment this. In Crysis 1 your powers were fun, but their clunky-ness made them feel a bit underwhelming. Here the suit reacts fantastically, it's great fun to use your powers effectively, but the environmental scope is too limited.
-Storyline (I thought we were going back to the island to find prophet and team up with the KPA to fight the aliens. Where is Nomad, Psycho and Helena? What happened to Navy fleet Helena said was en route? Why do the Aliens look 100% different? How did Prophet make the Alien weapon work?)
The aliens don't look much different, it's just their exosuits that are different; it's the same looking alien that control the mechanised four-legged walkers, as those that control the large flying machines, also those that control bi-pedal mechs, as those that control smaller bi-pedal 'grunt suits'. Needless to say different tactics would be adapted in different areas, I would, however, liked to have see some flying aliens; whatever happened to all the ice? I'd say cut due to trying to get the consoles to run this...
I didn't dislike the story though. I thought it was exciting, and intriguing throughout. I also don't doubt that we'll find out about Nomad and Psycho at a latter point, I presume either they're at a different part of the world, or that they're dead. I don't have any real qualms with the story.
-Feel (Doesnt play like Crysis 1. Its too much like all other FPS shooters out there Halo, COD etc. This is one area Crysis 1 excelled at being different and better in my opinion, it was more life like. You can deffinately tell the game was made to run on consoles.
I really disagree, the game felt very good, and very fresh. Maybe it's the way you played the game, but for me it didn't feel a thing like CoD. Playing on post-human, running and gunning doesn't work at all, you really have to use the environment, especially at the latter levels. It's fast paced, but a long-shot more tactical, and far more varied. It isn't the same as Crysis 1, however it's still a clear spiritual successor. In some ways better, in some ways worse. I think the experience felt far more cohesive and atmospheric this time around.
-Small maps (very channeled feeling. I know its a city but they could have made the city huge and give you that Crysis 1 feeling.)
Maps were small, but there was a lot in each map, underground passages, buildings, ledges, vehicles on ledges that can be used as traps. In Crysis most of the big map was simply trecking around, and frankly you hardly used the whole environment, partially because it's not very convenient, but also because there wasn't much out there. This doesn't provide the same illusion of freedom, however I'd say each battle has been created with much more care and attention, allowing for better encounters.
-Removed power/speed mode. (while I think its a good idea to combine them I still think it should be a selectable mode like armor/cloak. C2 doesnt even really have a "speed mode" its really just sprinting.)
They're passive modes now, I'm not sure whether I like this or not. It does go a long way towards creating the suit-usage dynamics mentioned earlier though. On the whole, I think it does have its flaws, but is overall better than individual modes.
-Vehicles removed. (I like combined arms and to me is very important. Crysis 1 was not perfect but it was 100% better then Crysis 2. The game really is lacking in this area and a step back in my opinion)
I agree, I would like to see some more vehicles, they added a dynamic element in Crysis 1, it's a shame to see them go.
Final thought:
Combining the diverged storyline and the Feel of the game is what I really dislike about Crysis 2 the most. Honestly I dont think this game should be called Crysis 2 for this reason...it really killed it for me.
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A sequel does not need to be direct. To me it still felt fundamentally like Crysis, but it also felt fresh. I for one don't want the same old crysis just with a new set of maps. I want something exciting with some innovation. It's a shame that Crytek didn't get it completely right, some aspects were innovative, others were really lacking, and I'm finding it difficult to decide whether this was a step forward or a step backwards overall. Either way it's certainly near the mark set by Crysis. The game has its problems, but that didn't stop me from enjoying it.
As a small extra note: why was the game so short? 7 and a half hour on post-human, using a LOT of stealth.
I thought it would be a very hard level and that I had to fight a big final boss, but I could just stealth the entire level and run to the end. Only had to kill 4 cloaking aliens, which was very easy with the K-Volt. Those 4 are literally the only kills I've made in that level.
