Crysis 2 is a game released in 2011 by Crytek for the XBOX 360, Playstation 3, and Windows PC. I played the PC version with a Intel Core Duo 2.9 Ghz CPU, 4 GB of RAM, and a Nvidia GeForce 9800 GTX 512 MB video card.
Dislikes:
It annoys me that this game even bothers with the pretense of a story. It's basically a B movie with cardboard characters, science fiction cliches, and paint-by-numbers dialog. The ending made me roll my eyes.
Likes:
I think at some point every male runs around outside with toy guns pretending to blow up the bad guys with heavy ordinance. This game is a fantastic simulation of that fantasy. Crysis 2 basically plays like Halo, except that your armor suit is endowed with different 'powers' like speed, strength, and invisibility. Each battle lets you toy with your enemies using your superior abilities, creating many situations that are grin-inducingly macho and fun. The story might be idiotic, but this game made me feel like a superman. It was addictive as well, and made me think about playing it during my day-to-day routine.
The graphics are stunning. They remind me of the original Crysis, with a distinct 'you know it when you see it' look. I've yet to see a game engine out there that's quite as good as Cryengine 3. I'll list what made Crysis 2 look so good:
Motion blur – when things move in this game, they 'smear', as though caught on film with a limited exposure time.
Specular bloom – when you're in a dark room and step outside into the sunlight, your character's retinas are momentarily blinded, then slowly adjust to the light. Brightly illuminated surfaces 'bleed' light into the space around them, creating halos on buildings, cars, and rubble in a way that looks unusually realistic.
Shadows – the shadows are fuzzy and soft, looking better than those I've seen in most other games.
Noise – there's some kind of randomized color noise filter applied over the graphics in this game. It's a subtle touch I had to squint at my screen to notice but it somehow contributes to the graphics' appearance.
There are moments in the game when all of these effects combined with the movie-like art direction harmonize together, such as when I assasinate and alien up close, or throw a grenade and run for dear life, and my nervous system is momentarily 'overwhelmed' into accepting it all as real. Of course an instant later I snap out of it, realizing it's just a game and not a pre-rendered Industrial Light and Magic special effects shot, but these moments are thrilling and make me wonder what Crytek will come up with next for their games. I seldom play games just for their graphics, but they were so dang good in this game that it played a role in motivating me to play more.
Sadly my graphics card might be a little behind for this one, since it would shudder and freeze during really intense moments. It didn't bother me personally, cause I'm cheap and don't want to spring for a new card (I got the game itself as a $10 download on Amazon.com), but anyone thinking of buying the PC version should make sure your rig is powerful enough.
I enjoyed Crysis 2 and recommend picking it up if you want something short, intense, and fun.