Crysis 2: Remastered – New York Vacation

I was going to review the normal edition of Crysis 2, but as luck will have it, Humble Bundle had an awesome bundle filled with first-person sci-fi shooters for a really low price. The bundle included Crysis 2 Remastered, so, here we are. The major difference is the visuals, as everything else (at least from what I can remember) is exactly the same. Even the annoying tutorial messages that never let up. Yes, I know I can look around a corner with the left mouse-button, game! However, I have to say now already, with the new graphic rendering, Crysis 2 looks absolutely stunning.

Aliens!
While I think the narrative is awesome in a 90s alien-invasion bombastic movie sense, it can’t be denied that the story is a bit confusing. You are dropped down right in the middle, with the aliens already wreaking havoc on New York. Now with private mercenaries roaming the streets instead of the US military. That’s not all, you no longer play as Nomad from the first game. You are not Prophet either. But you take his suit, while he joins Raptor team in heaven. It’s so you can continue the fight in his high-tech armor, as an involuntary hero forced to take up Prophet’s mantle. It’s a bit of a what-the-hell-is-going-on moment, and probably even so for a veteran of the first two games. Like I mentioned in my review for the first Crysis, this comic is essential to understand parts of Crysis 2. What is also crucial, is having actually played the first game in the series.

While the comics bridges some things between the games, and tells the fate of certain characters, and what happened to the island, it does leave out important world-lore. This is stuff that can be figured out in-game by listening to radio stations, reading emails and such. Yet, I think it’s a mistake, because the setting is damn cool – in a corporate sci-fi dystopian way. Leaving it to chance like this is a waste, and it also makes large swathes of the game unclear. Why are you fighting these dudes? The book, Crysis: Legion, which is a retelling of the plot of the game, goes much deeper into the state of the world, and why the aliens are in New York. However, I wouldn’t suggest reading it before playing, since it will spoil the game. 

I do highly recommend reading my review of the book, though. In that review, I explain the state of things, without spoiling anything. Here is a primer: The aliens, which are the same from the first game, have underground bases all around the world, and by chance the next one pops up in New York. Mind, this is years later after the first incident. Prophet and crew are now independent agents hell-bent on destroying everything alien, and human-alike involved in the so-called “alien conspiracy”. New York is also suffering from a horrendous plague that turns humans into sludge, which makes the situation much worse by a small magnitude. The mercenaries part of C.E.L.L has basically replaced normal soldiers, as the world dove into a deep recession after the first Crysis event. Meaning, one huge specific corporation took over large parts of the government and military, thanks to its endless supply of money coming from the harvesting of alien tech. Yeah, this is not just New York from our world, this is dystopian corporate controlled New York, right in the middle of a storm of aliens and plagues. Pretty cool, huh?

Alcatraz
In Crysis 2 you play as Alcatraz. A regular marine, caught up in something much grander than himself. When approaching New York in a submarine with the mission of helping Prophet, you come under attack by the dastardly aliens. They massacre your team, but through some miracle you make it out barely alive thanks to Prophet saving your behind. However, Prophet is infected with the alien virus, and his time is up. He can no longer continue his noble mission of eradicating the aliens. So, it all falls on you, reluctantly. You see, while you were unconscious he crammed you into his alien armor, while blasting his own brains all over the floor, leaving you as the reluctant hero. While Alcatraz does not have the same dedication to the cause, or none at all, actually – I assume he finds some kind of obligation towards the man that saved him and takes over the task: Prophet’s mission is now yours.

I don’t think Alcatraz is a particularly good protagonist, seeing as he is the new boy on the block, and a mute to boot. A much better decision would be to go with Prophet, but as it is, it doesn’t matter too much. It’s just an oddity, considering the franchise already has cool characters to pick from. One reason for this could be to make the main character more relatable as a silent protagonist with no background – especially for new players, as he can act as confused as them. Then again, this story is messy already for someone new, so I’m not sure this decision helped to introduce anything. 

Beyond this mess, the plot is pretty cool, and has a nice sense of escalation. It starts rather low-key, with a few C.E.L.L murders and skirmishes. As soon as you encounter the aliens, the story becomes more involved and sinister. Whilst breaking skulls, you also get to follow the total destruction of New York. It has a sense of awe to it, like movies from the 90s when brutal city demolishment was all the rage. Think: Independence Day. New York itself becomes a secondary character to the story, which enhances the progression of the plot. Now, I wouldn’t say the story is anything extraordinary in itself, but framed in an alien invasion and the general chaos it sows, including the fascinating dystopian background, it does its job really well.

Mechanical differences
Crysis 2 maintains what was established in the first Crysis, which means you can probably read my review of that game to get a hum of the gameplay. However, it comes with four distinct differences. The first is the setting. The jungle of Lingshan Islands has been replaced with a jungle of its own: the concrete kind. Most think this setting was needed thanks to the limitations of the consoles at that time (Xbox 360). And while that can be true, I prefer an urban environment to the jungle. So this change suits me just fine. It’s not as expansive, though, as the combat is more or less confined to arenas that will be reached through linear corridors. These arenas are pretty big, and will allow for many styles of tactics – to sniping clueless mercs, to shanking aliens in the guts going full Sam Fisher.

The second thing is the streamlining of the suit. Strength and speed has been removed, and integrated into the two remaining modes – armor and stealth, and of course, shift for running fast. I don’t mind this too much, as I had trouble keeping them separated in the first game. Too many buttons for my old, tired brain. That’s not to say simplifying is good, yet, it makes the suit function much more handily in combat, since you only have to focus on two buttons. Q for soaking up damage, and E for going into predator mode.

The third change is the aiming system, which for a PC player is a bit of a hit or miss. When you crouch behind something, you get prompts now for leaning. With the right mouse button, you can take a peak around obstacles. It can be useful, but playing on PC, it’s just an unnecessary addition as it’s easy enough to just press the crouch button/or letting go of it, depending on your settings. What makes it frustrating at times (beyond that keyboard leaning has been removed) is when you are readying your weapon with a right-click standing close to a wall. The game sometimes forces you out in combat by having your character lean out, when you just wanted to prepare a shot. It happens fairly often. Many times I just wanted to take a quick sidestep to hose down a bad guy, but now my character shifts his view on his own. I wish this was something that could be turned off. It’s probably a useful control system on console, but on PC, it’s a pain in the butt occasionally.

The fourth difference is that you now can upgrade your skills by collecting alien DNA from dead extraterrestrial foes. I didn’t use, or unlock that much, since many of the additional unlocks just adds more clutter to the UI. For example, one unlock shows where the tracers come from. It just becomes visually messy, especially in the already hectic combat that easily gets cluttered due to FX. I did save up for the improved stealth, which made my guy into a sneaking beast. With that upgrade, the stealth energy lasted for a long time. It made it possible to stealth through whole levels without much need for rest. This is funnily enough canon to the books. While the suit operator engages in plenty of combat in the novels, skulking about is the primary tactic, as the aliens in the book are much more threatening and deadly.

Blasting
As said, when it all comes down to it, the fundamentals stay the same, and frankly, the shooting feels great. At least on normal. I’m unsure about the harder difficulties, if those settings add any form of health bloat, but on normal, most aliens, and men die satisfyingly fast. When you are not sneaking around, the combat is hectic, but in a good way, since for the most time you control the pacing. You can, for example, always find a good hiding spot to re-enter stealth mode again. My preferable style is to sneak around and take out unsuspecting victims from the shadows, until I fail, or it’s no longer possible to do so. Then everything goes with usually a very loud outcome. There are also a ton of different weapons, and additions for these tools of destruction, like under-barrel shotguns, silencers and such fun goodies. Crysis 2 has a nice variety, and it was always fun to stumble upon a new tool. The microwave gun comes to mind. Cooking squid aliens in their own metal armor is highly effective, let me tell you.

Looking good
New York has never looked better. I always thought Crysis 2 looked great, but now in the remastered version, it has reached new heights. It runs surprisingly well too. So, on the visual level, and the general presentation, it sure is a pleasure for the eyes. The only issues come from the animations, and the AI breaking down occasionally. Some animations are oddly janky, which is very noticeable in the cutscenes. Arms will be flailing and characters will make awards turns. It does not drag down the presentation that much, but it’s noticeable. Another problem, which is probably not animated related, but it affects it, is that the AI at times gets stuck on the environment. It looks terrible, and removes from the immersion. It happens way too often to be easily overlooked, sadly.

It becomes particularly bad compared to the otherwise cool and extensive combat animations. Both men and aliens move fluidly through the landscape. A really awesome thing is the amount of death and wound animations for human actors. You will see them clutching their neck after getting shot, or crawl around on the floor after being knocked over by a shotgun blast. Stuff like this adds a lot to the immersion level, but seeing messy movement and weird AI removes a lot too. For the most part, though, it remains fairly high. Music, and voice acting is also top-notch all around. The theme for the game is very potent. It adds a sense of dread, and horror to the atmosphere, while at the same time playing up the militaristic tone. Excellent tune.

Conclusion
Despite being a sequel that was “consolized”, it’s still a great continuation that progresses the exciting story of the Crysis franchise. One of the main ingredients for my liking of the title, beside the fun gameplay, is the cool near-future sci-fi setting. It’s bleak enough, just in the right ways, especially if you come into the game after reading the novels that go deep into the background lore. A mistake was to leave much of this to the books, as one of them is straight-up the plot for the game. However, if you pay close attention when playing, you can form a picture in your head about the dire state of the world. Do I recommend it? Of course. Yet, it must be mentioned that it never reaches its full potential, thanks to the protagonist, some control annoyances, and other things mentioned in the review. It loses half a skull in pure entertainment value because of this. Now the question remains: will Crysis 3 fare better, and be the true return to form? Those that live will see!

Thanks for reading.

/Thomas