Crysis 2, is the long-awaited sequel to Crysis, the second game series from Crytek and supported by EA. It takes place 3 years after the first game, and is set in New York city. I’m not going to go into any more detail about the story line. There are plenty of other reviews out there if you want to read about the plot.

The game experience is very good, in my opinion it is better than the first.
Some effects have been improved since the last game, such as the reloading animation which helps make the whole experience seem more real. You can also grab hold of edges above you and pull yourself up walls and things, something that could not be done in the other game. There were some serious changes to the operation of the Nanosuit since the first game. A lot of features and default keybindings have been replaced. The suit by default has no mode, whereas the original idled in armor mode. The new armor mode must be actively engaged and draws suit energy, just like the cloak did in the old game (and still does). The Q and E keys used to lean left and right, and now are used to change the suit mode. Leaning is now done by approaching an edge of an object and when the HUD says so, holding right-click and moving the mouse left and right. You can also move up and down, something you could not exactly do before. The way that you hug the corner and wrap around the object is much more realistic and I really do like it better, however you cannot lean around every corner of every building, which is somewhat disappointing. The binoculars in the first game have been replaced by a new Tactical Mode of the Nanosuit, which helps identify and tag enemies, and also locate ammo, which is really helpful, and also retains the default B keybinding. The HUD also displays information about weapons and their features such as accuracy, rate of fire etc, so you have a little bit of knowledge about a new weapon before you go out guns a blazin’ . I’m not saying that everything is great. The first thing I noticed is that there is no health bar in the HUD. The only time you are notified of your health is when you are close to dying, and I like to know my health before re-engaging in a firefight, so that annoyed me a little. There is also no map or detailed objective list, only the minimap and a one line objective in the Tactical display. The night vision has been replaced with Nanovision, which is pretty much just a fancy name for infrared. Nanovision draws main suit power, rather than in the last game where it had its own energy supply.

In terms of gameplay, I found it very interesting and enjoyable. I will however say that the scenery is very gruesome and there is a lot more blood and gore in this game than the first game. Right from the start you are exposed to bins of bodies ravaged by a deadly disease outbreak. The carcasses are very well textured and the blood and flies add a great deal of realism. This game is not for the faint of heart.

The technical aspect of Crysis is what put the first game on the map, and the same goes for Crysis 2. The textures are very detailed, and the particles and physics, along with volumetric effects are very realistic. The sound engine works well with surround, and plays nicely with my Creative Sound Blaster, and the music is very good and well produced. The only very disappointing thing from the technical standpoint is that Crysis 2 runs on DirectX 9 ONLY!!! This game uses an older engine than the first game! This was a shock to me since I thought that the game would be utilizing the new DX 11 specification, which supports tessellation. Rumors say that a patch will be released some time in the future which enables DX 11, but until then we will have to suffer with the DX 9. The game also has no graphics settings at all. You pretty much select low, medium or high and that is it. There is no fine tuning settings like the last game.