Crysis 2

A Game Review, by Josh

Crysis 2 is the sequel to Crysis, made by German developer Crytek. I haven’t played Crysis 2 in multiplayer mode yet, so this is a review of the single-player campaign. It’s a first person shooter, in which you assume the role of a U.S. Marine called Alcatraz. You get to wear a Nanosuit that gives you armor, stealth, and power (strength and speed).

Crysis 2 takes place in 2023, three years after the events of the first game, in a post-apocalyptic New York City. Tentacled, squid-like aliens have infested the city. Supposedly the aliens have also unleashed a deadly virus, and your first mission is to rescue a scientist who can find a cure. However, by the end of the game the virus is no longer mentioned. Besides the aliens, for some reason you also have to fight human soldiers.

Although the developers wanted to avoid making another game set in a jungle environment, in this case New York City is an “urban jungle.” You can navigate between floors and buildings, as well as through a destroyed cityscape; but you’re not free to roam wherever you want.

Crysis 2 was released on March 22, 2011. According to Wikipedia, over 3 million copies of the game had been sold across all platforms as of June 30, 2011. But at the beginning of 2012, PC Gamer reported that Crysis 2 was the most pirated PC game of 2011 with 3.9 million downloads.

Today you can purchase Crysis 2 on Amazon for less than ten bucks. I had put off buying Crysis 2 because I thought it wouldn’t be very good after reading certain reviews, plus I didn’t like that it was “dumbed down” for Xbox rather than made for PC. But I couldn’t resist getting Crysis 2 at the low Amazon price, and I was pleasantly surprised to find that I liked it.

The story is a little hard to follow, but it has lots of fast-paced action and a great soundtrack so it’s fun to play. The graphic quality isn’t as good as Crysis, but it’s better than most games. The game’s biggest fault: after battling my way through the city, I expected more of an exciting climax – the ending frankly left me scratching my head.