Crysis 2 Review

Crysis 2 Review

It’s not all doom and pixellated gloom, however. In many ways, Crysis 2 is a far superior game to the original – especially when it comes to those big arena battles that we mentioned before.

There’s an amazing feeling of potential and power when you first emerge on to the roof of a skyscraper, sniper rifle and SMG in hand, looking down on a plaza full of enemies. It’s these moments that make Crysis 2 great, as you look around at the possibilities – snipe that guard there, jump on and crush that guy there, sneak up on him for a stealth kill…

Then, when it inevitably all goes wrong and someone calls for reinforcements, you can kick a wrecked car out of the parking lot window and flatten the tank below. It’s not subtle, but it gets the job done – just like the streamlined controlled system for controlling your Nanosuit powers.


The simplification of the Nanosuit’s core abilities is easily offset by the new customisation options that are available through it, however. Crynet’s new Nanosuit can collect and merge with alien matter to upgrades, meaning that you now get points for every invader felled. Kill enough and you can unlock boosters for your stealth, armour and agility modes.

Unfortunately though, while there are usually a lot of advanced tactics and customisation options available for you to make the most of, the sad fact is that they often aren’t really required. While the experience of playing Crysis 2 is mostly one of peaks and troughs – yay for huge levels, boo for the choppy frame rate – there is one aspect that’s near-universally terrible; the AI.

Strangely, the alien enemies – the Ceph – aren’t the problem, this time. Sizable juggernauts of steel and antipodal legs, the Ceph make for entertaining bullet sponges and the fact that you need to harvest their corpses can give combat an interesting edge occasionally. Instead, the problem lies with human enemies, who exhibit all manner of deviant behaviour – like trying to snipe with shotguns or jumping over concrete barriers again and again. Sometimes, they’ll just stand around while you noisily butcher their colleagues; others they’ll presciently sense you before you’ve even decloaked.


The obvious antidote to this terrible artificial intelligence is to venture online and play against some decent natural stupidity, obviously. Crysis 2 offers up some interesting new modes here – as well as some aesthetically brilliant maps which are overflowing with detail and clutter – but it honestly hasn’t been enough to hold our attention all that long. Invisibility and bulletproof armour at the touch of a button generally don’t make for a moreish multiplayer experience.

What we find we’re left with then is a game which regularly flits between extremes, both positive and negatives. Huge arenas balanced out by average graphics; impressive tactical potential balanced out by woeful AI; simplified Nanosuit powers contrasted with increased customisation options. Playing it we often found ourselves waxing between controller wringing fury (‘How did that enemy spot me?!’) and moments where we paused the game to sing its glory (‘Harry! I just kicked a tank to death!’).

Drawing a line through that to find the average, we’re forced to admit that Crysis 2 is an entertaining and exciting shooter – though also a stupid one. We had fun playing it and that’s provoked us to round the score up from the six we would have otherwise given it, but we don’t expect Crysis 2 to supply the longevity that the original game did.

Score Guide