It’s been a couple of years since the first Crysis made a splash with its cool looking nano-suits, large open world setting, amazing visuals and most importantly – ludicrous system specs.
The rather large 1.8GB multiplayer beta was released to the world yesterday and we got our hands on it in the hopes of coming out the other side impressed with what we played. We jacked it up and jumped straight in to see what all the fuss was about.
To start off, let me say that Crysis 2 does look pretty spectacular from a visual point of view. Not only are the menus slick and stylish, the in-game graphics feature some beautiful effects that range from light flares and invisibility cloaking to detailed textures and sweet looking motion blur. Is it the best looking game we have ever played? No, but it sure does have its very strong moments.
I do however wish that the online menus and lobby systems worked as well as they looked, but I can’t really blame Crytek for this one because it is a beta after all.
We managed to get into some games after a few issues here and there with the matchmaking but once we were in, everything was smooth sailing.
The gameplay in Crysis 2’s multiplayer can be best described as the lovechild between Call of Duty’s well-established controls system mixed together with the “weighty” feeling of Killzone 2. I happened to like the COD layout as well as the feel of Killzone 2’s gameplay, so I was pretty happy with that side of things.
What makes Crysis 2 more than just another shooter clone is of course, the fancy-schmany nano suits. By using available energy in your suit, you are able to do some pretty cool tricks like cloak yourself, launch into the air or activate additional armour strength. It really is all about energy management though, as each funtion drains energy.
The mixture of nano suit abilities and the more weighted shooter elements of Crysis 2 definitely give the game its own personality, one which feels solid and enjoyable to mess around with. Its familiar enough for any gamer to pick up instantly yet different enough to not feel like another rehash of a winning formula.
In terms of netcode, Crysis 2 performs almost identically to titles like Halo Reach, Bad Company 2, Modern Warfare 2 or Black Ops – so if you already play those online (either with local buddies or on international hosts) then you pretty much already know what to expect.
In all truth, Crysis 2 wasn’t really that high on my hype-o-meter for 2011 (I blame the fact that I have seen New York in WAY too many games at this point) but after playing the beta I have definitely been bitten. Truth is also that even though the multiplayer felt solid, I’m looking forward to taking the feeling of the gameplay and experiencing it in a solid campaign the most, so here’s hoping that the single player doesn’t disappoint.
Video: Gamingbolt
Last Updated: January 26, 2011
