There is a very easy way of looking, without prejudice, into yourself in order to see the truth about your opinion of a singleplayer game.

There are games that you're playing, and at some point you're thinking: "Damn, I wish this thing would end already".

This means that the game svcked, because if you're bored and feel like you've done everything important, enough times, and the game still goes on... the SP was bad. Atleast for you.
This was how Crysis 2 was for me.

Then there's the "Aww yeah" right at the end followed by a "Aww man! Why'd it have to be over already?!"
This means the game was good, and worth buying and playing.
This was how for instance, Red Alert 2 was for me.

There's still, the ultimate game that will make you go "HOLY CRAP, THAT WAS AWESOME" at the end, thinking back on all the good, the scary, the tough parts. It will make you think of how you were lurking somewhere in the beginning, assessing the situation and then doing what you wanted to do in order to make things right. This has been a perfect game, for you.
This is what Crysis 1 was for me.

So how did it come to this? From a game that was simply breathtaking, exciting, beautiful etc. to a linear singleplayer that you only played because, I mean come on you bought the game.. you should atleast play it once through.

In Crysis 1, there seemed to be several different ''mini crysises'' that were all better than the entire C2 singleplayer. The inside of the alien ship was one. When you got to drive tanks across the field was also completely different. Sometimes you busted up the place with guns, sometimes you snuck in and threw DUMPSTERS at your foes with strength mode. You'd be amazed by the epicness of the crumbling mountain far across the distance, thinking: " Holy ****, ALIENS, we're SCREWED, AWESOME". And later on, boom, everything is ice, and later again, you're on a CARRIER. Sneaky, VTOL, tank, alienship, carrier, jungle, town, bridge.. so many different aspects.

So much with Crysis 1 singleplayer is so god damned epic. So why isn't C2 SP epic?
Because it isn't really anything. Compared to C1, the suit is dumbed down, your options are dumbed down a LOT. The story is VERY dumbed down, and to make matters worse, it's changed. FOR THE WORSE.
No more being overwhelmed by blue shiny flying aliens, gunning them down because you got caught. Just a bunch of weird red aliens that were visually impressive, in the trailer.
Most of the C2 singleplayer was all the same. Go there, kill stuff on the way. Collect stuff for your suit, oh look, more aliens. The ''tank'' alien, the pinger, was a complete waste of time. It was ANNOYING to fight it, not hard. The exosuits in C1 however... damn, that was something!

So. Before this turns into a novel, for anydev reading this. For your humanitys sake, don't screw C3 up like you did C2. It was horrible, the MP too. Why am I still playing it? Because it's barely more amusing than BF3.

tl;dr: READ IT

This man speaks wise words.

Crysis 2 didn't have the tank level or the VTOL level, those were fun :/
Especially that level in Warhead where you get that jeep with the autocannon

Oh god the jeep with the super cannon thing that explodes helicopters in a couple hits.

That was super fun.

http://games.on.net/article/15494/Learning_From_Our_Mistakes_Cryteks_Rasmus_Hjengaard_Talks_Crysis_3

Maybe they hear us? But then again I don't think we'll ever see something on the scale of C1 ever again. I don't think even Crytek knew what they had with Crysis.

It's all in the details..

Yes, Crysis 1 was amazing.
But Crysis 2 was also amazing but in a different way.

Crysis 2 was amazing but in a very non-interactive way which is what a game is really all about as an entertainment medium.
There was a lot of hand holding and while the game was captivating it merely played out as a movie. Not as immersive as the first Crysis.

I hate the blue flying aliens.... Gimme a Pinger with some C4 on his back any day!

Crysis 2 was amazing but in a very non-interactive way which is what a game is really all about as an entertainment medium.
There was a lot of hand holding and while the game was captivating it merely played out as a movie. Not as immersive as the first Crysis.

Oh yeah, immersion. The first crysis was so immersive, I played it through in the middle of the night and I was pumped ****. Many of the cutscenes were just so jaw-dropping, I often thought to myself "damn, this looks like I'm really Nomad".

There was nothing like that in C2, it felt too remote, too much like I was watching something instead of BEING THE WEAPON.

A nice thing in Crysis 2 were the cut scenes between the levels, imo.

But Crysis 1 .. oh damn, sweet old times.
I remember Power Struggle, and I remember the **** awesome singleplayer .. I **** love Warhead too <3
Crytek made Crysis 2 soooooooo different - and that's really sad.

I hate the blue flying aliens.... Gimme a Pinger with some C4 on his back any day!
You kidding me?

The only, real flying alien was the scout, troopers were more or less ground soldiers, so were the Hunters.

But really, I prefere the blue, ultra complex machinery, the sounds, the feeling and, of course, the ice...

I'd love to have a return of a hunter, instead of a pinger, and ice, instead of fire...

The most important thing for me for singleplayer games is immersion, Crysis 1 did a VERY, VERY good job at immersion, i had moments, indeed in the alien cave, where i was staggered by the complex surroundings, didn't know where to go, and i was thinking about how they would want to take this thing out.

I liked the Crysis 2 gameplay better, yet the plot wasn't as good as Crysis 1, i missed CHOICE, and i missed vehicle action. The part with the tanks, that makes you know that this is WAR, and you are the key of winning it. In Crysis 2, i felt i was just send to random spots doing random things until the end i had to go in this random thing to end the campaign. I wasn't a character, i was a pawn of the plot.

I liked both for their own reasons.

Crysis for just about the same reasons as most. Large environments, pretty jungle, etc. Really made you feel like an independant nano-soldier who had to figure out your own tactics to tackle a problem. Also liked how semi-automatic didnt count as a weapon modification lol. One thing that I didnt care for was how soon they revealed the alien enemies. I felt like they showed them too many times before finally revealing them in the alien ship level. Another thing I didnt really care about was Nomad. Personally he just never really did much for me as a character. I know some people prefer Nomad voicing his opinions as opposed to Alcatraz being a silent protagonist but that's just me.

Crysis 2 I liked for physicality of the movement and I had a good amount of fun even though it was tightly corridored at times. Like the OP said, the game seemed to drag at times, but I was rather interested in figuring out Hargreave's angle on things. I always liked his character. A sort of quasi-benevolent/malevolent key figure in the game. One thing I wished was for the relationship between the player and Nathan Gould to be a little more fleshed out (or carried out). I always felt like when the CIA chick came into the game, the focus was split between the two of them and a little of the relationship with Gould was lost.

Cant be done dude!

Open world with freedom vs closed lame consoleworld with cloak to end the game without shooting!

2 totally different games

C2 compares pretty well to the other recent shooters on the market at the moment, they are all pretty much copying the same formula for big sales.

It just doesn't hold a candle to C1, for all the reasons given by the OP

One very telling statisic (if you could get it) would be:

Amongst people who owned both C1(PC) and C2:

No. of times you replayed C1 SP

No. of times you replayed (+ plan to replay) C2 SP

No. of times you replayed C1 SP

No. of times you replayed (+ plan to replay) C2 SP
Honestly I'm not sure which SP I prefer but I have replayed C2SP more than I have C1SP. The zero gravity level inside the alien ship was probably the most boring level I've ever played. I liked the action in Crysis 1 but TBH the "freedom" was merely an illusion. The best way to play Crysis 1 was to follow the objective arrows in a straight line and play the whole game in armour mode. Warhead was a lot better but the cutscenes are too long.

Amongst people who owned both C1(PC) and C2:

No. of times you replayed C1 SP

No. of times you replayed (+ plan to replay) C2 SP

Played part 1 and 1,5 numerous of times with total different gameplay

Didnt even finish part 2!

nuff said!

Yeah, I replayed Crysis 1 several times, and still feel the urge to do so. Played c2 through once.

Crysis 2 was amazing but in a very non-interactive way which is what a game is really all about as an entertainment medium.
There was a lot of hand holding and while the game was captivating it merely played out as a movie. Not as immersive as the first Crysis.

I wouldn't say amazing, but Crysis 2 was at least interesting as an interactive movie. The only problem is that I prefer to be responsible for how things happen, instead of having it dictated to me; hence my preference for the original. Crysis 1 was linear, sure, but the only thing not under your control was the objective; everything else was entirely down to you.

I replayed crysis 1 probably just over 10 times. I replayed crysis 2 zero times. There are good elements in c2 that I would love to see in c1 so perhaps c3 will accomplishe this.

Double post ftw.

SP-wise, the good elements in C2 were pretty much the handling of the weapons, etc.