THERE are moments in Crysis 2 when despite being surrounded by gunfire, explosions and angry aliens, you can’t help but stop and admire the breathtaking surroundings.
Those moments are usually pretty brief because any inept dallying is dealt with in fairly ruthless manner by your opponents, but Crysis 2 is a game that demands your attention.
Unusually it’s a console sequel to the stupendously successful PC title Crysis. The original was famed for it’s visual splendour and it’s an area that Crysis 2 doesn’t fail in.
The game is a first person shooter set in the midst of a New York city which has been turned into a plague-ridden battleground.
The city’s inhabitants are suffering from a terrible disease while mercenaries battle to contain it. The task is made doubly difficult thanks to an alien race which is also waging war on all concerned.
You play as Alcatraz, a one-man wrecking machine thanks to his nano-suit, which allows the player a variety of different methods of tackling any given level.
That’s one of the finest elements to the Crysis experience, the fact that although the levels are linear they still allow you a number of different ways to get to your goal.
The suit’s abilities are specifically designed for this purpose.
You can use stealth to make yourself invisible, you can jump to obscene heights, sprint unreasonably quickly or use the old favourite, thermal vision (although Crysis calls it Nano-vision).
All these abilities mean you can approach each section of the game differently although when all else fails you can still return to the good old ‘all guns blazing’ tactic to see you through.
Your suit abilities are carefully balanced with an energy bar that drains as you use each one. They all last fairly long while used independently but if you decide to snipe someone while invisible you’ll see the power drain pretty sharpish.
Crysis not only looks fantastic but it plays extremely well.
In fact I’d go as far as to say it’s the finest first person shooter available on the console. The story line is good but on occasions could provide a few more revelations, and there are few characters you actually care about but the actual single player game is top notch.
The multi-player is just another string to Crysis 2’s bow and although there are some balance issues with the suit’s powers there’s enough to keep any Call of Duty fans going well into the next Activision fix.