--Spoilers Below--
This is one sequel I was looking forward to. The end of the original Crysis left me wanting more with the game ending on a cliffhanger. Crysis Warhead helped tide me over and gave me some awesome moments to play through. Upon seeing the first gameplay footage of Crysis 2 however I became quite skeptical in the games ability to live up to my expectations.
The change from jungle to urban environments I'm fine with, a change is as good as a rest as they say, and I don't think I'd want to replay the original Crysis just with better graphics in a sequel. But suddenly we're not fighting the blue squid-like floating aliens from the first that freeze you with ice-rays, no, now it's red aliens in robotic suits firing lasers.
So upon starting the game and a brief introduction I see a familiar face - Prophet, one of the characters from the original, yay. Two minutes later he's dead; and with no sign of Psycho or Nomad I'm starting to wonder if this is a sequel at all. I'm some new faceless, voiceless random marine who is luckily the exact same height and weight as Prophet as to fit into his suit perfectly.
Ignoring the story for the moment, I'll talk about the gameplay. A little ways in your tasked with dispatching three soldiers, the first three you come across in the game. The weapons you have at hand are the starting pistol (thanks Prophet) and the Scarab machinegun. Excellent I'll just attach a silencer to my pistol and take them out all sneaky like. What? Oh I can't. Why? Because the game hasn't told me I can yet.
Ok so I'll sneak up and kill this guy, turn around and blow away the other two with my machine gun while bullets ping off my armored suit. It's worth mentioning at this point that I'm playing on whatever the hardest difficulty is that's available at the start of the game. I sneak up, pop one man in the head, turn around and fire at the remaining two scared soldiers only to then die. With full suit energy I should add. Why? Because the game hasn't taught me about Armor Mode yet and it isn't activated by default.
Fast forward and there's a brief "here's how you can turn invisible. See, that man didn't see you." cutscene followed by later a "press Q to enter Armor Mode. We'll then shoot at you so you can see it working". Fast forward again and you finally pick up a silencer and the game teaches you how to modify your weapons. I understand that people playing this on the consoles will not have played the original but perhaps a "Have you played Crysis before" option upon starting a new game would have been nice and those who have would have all the suits abilities available from the word go?
I don't want to dwell on the graphics too much, we all know it's a fantastic looking game, one of the best looking games on the consoles, but I feel the PC version could of looked even better. DX11 for a start, and with some questionable textures, especially when zoomed in, I can't help but wonder what the game would be like if it had stayed a PC exclusive.
The game also feels like it has lost some of the freedom the first had. Gone are the wide open areas where you can choose how you want to attack it and draw out enemies. Debris and police blockades block you everyway you turn, funneling you from killzone to killzone. I don't expect the entire city to be open to play in, but the game goes from linear tunnel to small open area with a few low walls, boxes to jump over and if your lucky a building or two to enter, back to linear path taking you to the next area to fight in.
One big issue related to this is your suit. First a positive - being able to upgrade your suit. Being able to customise your suit to your playstyle by upgrading it via alien DNA I found to be a good touch. The downside being, I decided to save up for a 10000 upgrade to the suits Armor Mode and ignored the cheaper stealth options or those which made I had more control in the air when falling. I also ignored upgrades which meant I could see stealthed enemies, deciding to save up for the most expensive upgrades hoping that they must be the most powerful too as they are the most expensive.
The thing is, by getting 100 points per kill from the basic enemies, I couldn't afford the most expensive upgrades until right near the end of the game, the final hour or two. And by then I had so many points there was really no need to ignore some upgrades to save up for others. A prime example of this being the final three enemies in the game are stealthed assassin aliens worth 5000 upgrade points each. Killing all three bags you 15000 points, enough for the most expensive upgrades. Finally, quicker energy and health recharge. Finally, a more durable Armor Mode. Now just to walk through this doorway to hopefully face the the last boss or.... oh. It's the end of the game. Why give me 15000 uprade points if I don't get the chance to use my newly bought upgrades?
Staying with the suit one thing that annoyed me w- Tactic Options Available. Oh thanks suit. Your so helpful, pointing out how I should play the game. "You could snipe this guy, or use this turret, or flank them via this route..." Seriously suit, be quiet, stop telling me how to play the game.
I know all I've done in the last few paragraphs is moan, but it's only because I had such high expectations for this game. I expect the first game but better, that isn't what I got. After fighting your first tripod alien big baddie thing, there is nothing else new in the game to see. No new enemies, no bosses and only a couple of new weapons from that point on.
The game is OK, it's solid, there are no game breaking bugs, it's polished. It kept me entertained to the end even if it did become very repetitive. I just expected more possibly but every aspect of the game other than the graphics, is either as good as the original (and Warhead) or worse other than the upgrade options for the suit, but as I've mentioned even that has issues.
Here's hoping for Crysis 3 eh!
YouTube’s members ‘Digital Dreams’ and ‘Jose cangrejo’ have shared some videos, showcasing Pascal Gilcher’s Reshade mod – which adds Ray Tracing/Path Tracing effects – in some really old games such as Star Wars The Force Unleashed, Crysis 2, RAGE and Resident Evil 6.
I'm still learning how to look for the differences. At first I was focusing on shadows for some reason but I don't think that changes much, is it reflections that change?
It is supposed to be simulating how light actually works- so yes if light is reflecting off a surface accurately it should show reflection or an effect that matches what you are looking at in the environment. Next time you play a game look at a puddle of water there may be just a "baked" in texture that if you aren't paying attention seems like it is reflecting but it isn't. I would say though if the light is reflecting more accurately I would think that would give more accurate shadows as well.
I am still not 100% sold on it- it looks okay but I can't get over the hardware price jump for better reflections..
While games won't look immensely better, it opens up more possibilities overall. Understandably, the price jump is huge. But, that can be said for being at the forefront for any new technology. I'm currently using a 2080ti and while I've played a few games that enable it, the gpu also plays everything else incredibly well so it's not like you're buying this tech for ONLY that option. Enthusiasts will pay top dollar to check out the newest things, but this will eventually become an everyday consumer and by then they'll have optimized and become a lot cheaper.
Ray/path tracing can be used how the developer wants it to be. Tracing can be used to calculate shadows/lighting, reflection and even audio, where audio waves are calculated on the bounce off material types to simulate enviroment and echos accuratly.
Should also keep in mind that this ray/path tracing system is different and less accurate option from Nvidias RTX branded type. McFly's is a reshade that layers over the top of the game and therefor the quality will vary drastically. For example you can see nice reflection in the Star Wars demo here but it then introduces colour clipping with the light saber. On a video of GTA 5 for example it was incorrectly projecting a reflection of a red car onto the road which caused a very faint red glow on the ground around the car.
If you want to see a good example of a game developed with ray tracing reflection and lighting in mind then you could look up the youtube video of "Control - Exclusive E3 RTX GAMEPLAY Trailer".
It supposed to add more realistic light Not actually more light effects and explosions
I hate to say it but I’m fine with fake lights, shadows, reflections. I just kind of like the effect, it’s also great it saves resources for other things.
I’ve been checking out some original Xbox games on x360/x1x and the engine has fake light streaming in through a stained glass window, and I love it even though I know it’s not real time lighting. Heck it even shifts as I move about.
I’ve about convinced my self rt and hdr just doesn’t work for me. Before hdr I would even complain damn why are the headlights killing me they are so bright.
I notice most frame rate, then jaggies, then resolution; with the last two interchangeable depending.
Other day watched an enthusiast rave over 4k and the poor guy was in 1080p. I played the same game the night before and thought wow this is clean, I wonder if it’s 4k, but knew differently and I thought wow even resolution is not always important. The next day he apologized and was surprised he could be fooled.
How come the lightsabers don't give off any light? Even in the EA star wars game the guy uses it to light up a dark cave. I guess if it is using frostbite it will support rtx cards.
Jum Jum from Unleashthegamer writes: We gathered the best real setting games we could think of if you’re looking for something in a familiar location to soothe your thirst for real-world games.
The sequel to one of PC's most celebrated exclusives went multi-platform, with a huge impact to CryEngine technology and the core make-up of the game. Join Alex and John for an extended chat about what the title meant to them, how the console versions stacked up and how CryEngine evolved for multi-platform development.
Crysis 2 was the beginning of EA's influence on Crytek. Not only was the multiplayer full of bugs at launch (still has today) but the entire game both SP and MP was redesigned to cater to the call of duty crowd. 3 kills - UAV, 7 kills, overhead gunship, etc.
Agreed with the sentiments of the video. Can consoles at the time run Crysis? Technically no. Unless ~14fps is acceptable as "being able to run Crysis." Other games at the time, KZ2/KZ3 ran (locked 30fps) and look much better (albeit horrible FOV). Result of a first party engine tailored made for the hardware, and an engine made with compromises to get a game to "run" on consoles, and at the end of the day gimp the PC version leaving Crysis 2 feeling... lacking. DX11 patch helped though, but no getting around that weak AI.
This game was okay I guess, but paled in comparison to the first game. The multiplayer was a better experience, but the single player didn't really feel right to me. I also didn't like the music that they went with in the game, I found it to be kind of annoying. I was so disappointed with the single player campaign, that I didn't even bother with the 3rd game.
You make some pretty invalid points such as complaining that they give you a lot of nanacatalyst right at the end of the game. This is because the suit upgrades carry over from one playthrough to the next.
Also how is it a downside that YOU decided to ignore some of the stealth upgrades and went for the ones you percieved to be better? Surely in a real world situation you would have to pick and choose what you think are going to be the best. Your in a fricken alien invasion for crying outloud, do you expect them to give you everything you need to max out everything?
Also do you not think it is realistic that the suit would have to teach you how to use its many functions? You are a soldier who has never worn a suit before, how are you supposed to just know everything the suit can do? Sure it could have given you the tutorial earlier but time to sit around isn't something you have in Crysis 2
Other than that, it ain't a bad review.
As a console gamer who never played the first Crysis the story didn't worry me but then it also didn't engage me much either. I like your comment "I'm some new faceless, voiceless random marine who is luckily the exact same height and weight as Prophet as to fit into his suit perfectly." that's a good point I didn't think of :P
Seems like the PC version is quite a lot better than the console ones though, as they have broken AI and tons of glitches as well as framrate issues, I wrote a review for the PS3 version if your interested
Christina Hendricks is the only valid argument you need
alots of problems in crysis 2 , but i never look at the problems , i just play , crysis 2 is a great game , it's fun and have good campaign , the multiplayer is fun but alots of problems in it ..
worth playing if you want my advice , but if you are really get bored of games like my brother then you shouldn't buy it , just wait for games like uncharted ...
Single Player is garbage the most unmemorable sp ive played!!!!!