Crysis 2

Aazealh

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Coming to the PC, Xbox 360 and PS3 at the end of the year. According to Crytek the game will be more beautiful yet have lower system requirements than the original.

http://www.gametrailers.com/video/gdc-10-crysis-2/63009

The setting this time is New York City, a big change from Far Cry and the first Crysis who both were on tropical islands. Crytek has promised that the urban environment would offer more freedom of choice, larger gameplay options and more tactical warfare, with for example the possibility to jump between floors and buildings and to destroy a lot of the environment.

Nomad returns as the protagonist and is now equipped with a new version of the nanosuit. Apparently he's not authorized to use it though, and will be hunted down by the government. That means more nanosuit-equipped enemies. :ubik:

Features of the new suit:

20% increase in energy storage
60x optical zoom
32% more strength
EMP shielding

Four modes:

Power mode - Enhanced speed and strength.
Armor mode - Energy is drained instead of health.
Infiltration mode - Footsteps are softened. An invisibility cloak can be activated (will drain energy).
Tactical mode - Weapons used by enemies identified, cause of death and names of corpses shown, items of interest highlighted.

Official Nanosuit 2.0 brochure: http://www.crynetsystems.com/files/NanoBrochure.pdf



They essentially merged the Maximum Strength and Maximum Speed modes together, which is simply fantastic. Guaranteed to be a LOT of fun. Let's see how Deus Ex 3 fares against this. :daiba:
 
Looking good! Let's just hope it's longer than the first titles. I finished Crysis in 11 hours and Warhead in 5. Well, I'll buy it even if it's short. :guts:
 

Walter

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Staff member
I don't need to tell you how excited I am for this. Crysis is one of my all-time favorite games. I'll be buying a new video card for this beast, even if it's not absolutely necessary.
 

Aazealh

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Staff member
New trailer: http://www.gametrailers.com/video/the-wall-crysis-2/64319

Excerpts from the IGN article:

http://pc.ign.com/articles/108/1082753p1.html said:
Building on the sandbox success of Far Cry and the original Crysis, Crysis 2 will allow players to overcome obstacles through a fluid mixture of stealth, speed, strength and shields. How you tackle each encounter will be entirely up to you and, based on the demo, it seems like you'll be able to switch back and forth fairly quickly between the different modes.

The nanosuit is one of three key areas Crytek is focused on. Cevat explains his intention is to make the use of the suit more accessible by reducing the layers of interface. This time around, for instance, you will have two basic modes, a hunting mode that emphasizes stealth and a tank mode designed for direct combat. In one you can sneak around invisibly, but in the other you can really soak up damage before going down. You can also activate a secondary mode that determines whether you want more power or greater tactical awareness.

So, for instance, you might opt for a stealth approach and also activate your tactical mode so you can spot the location of nearby enemies. If things get too rough, you can switch from tactical to power mode and use it to escape with quick running and powerful jumps. If that still doesn't get you out of trouble, you can switch your stealth mode to shield and rely on the suit's additional power mode to give you the muscle to really bash your way through any encounters. Once you've taken out enemies, you can switch from power back to tactical mode while still keeping your shield profile up and running. In this mode, you'll have greater awareness of where enemies are and be able to stand up to them in a direct fight.

This matrix, which allows for one of two styles and one of two modes, gives players four different options that they can switch to depending on the situation at hand. Upgrades which are available during the course of the game will even allow players to customize their suits for more specific types of play. It's all about adapting, engaging and surviving.

We saw a good bit of this in the demo level. It begins with the player standing high up in a damaged skyscraper, looking down at the Crynet guards on nearby roof below. Activating power and stealth modes, the player turns invisible and jumps down on the roof. Sneaking up behind an isolated guard, the player gets the option for a quick and quiet stealth kill. Pulling out a shotgun, the player takes a few shots at the other guards and quickly switches from stealth to shield mode to maximize his armor.

As he makes his way through the firefight, the player switches freely back and forth between stealth and shield approaches. When the last enemies are down, he switches off power mode and activates the tactical awareness mode. The tactical mode reveals rocket-armed guards on a nearby building, so the player switches back to power mode to quickly jump away from danger. Power mode also allows the player to pick up a gun mounted on the side of the building and use it as he would any other ordinary weapon.



The second big pillar of the sequel is the location of New York. Drawing on the concept of the "urban jungle," Crytek has created levels that have a much more vertical focus than those on the previous game's island. Given the city's ruined state in the game, there are also lots of opportunities for cover. Despite the move to a city setting, Crysis 2 remains a game that takes place mostly outdoors, so you won't be spending much time running in and out of buildings as you fight against the aliens.

Using New York as a setting also makes the game much more emotionally relevant to players. Where many players had to be told they were supposed to care about protecting the island, most will presumably already feel some initial motivation to save New York. The game's writer, Richard Morgan, even revealed that New York will be treated a bit like an actual character in the game with its own story arc and its own destiny. It is, in his words, the world's most iconic city, so it makes sense to use it as the backdrop for this latest story.

Unfortunately, the team isn't quite willing to talk about the specifics of the story and they aren't likely to reveal many of the surprises or twists in store. Richard likes to present the story to the player like a freefall, forcing them to cope with danger without exactly knowing what's going on. To that end, he would say that the Crynet security forces aren't necessarily the bad guys. The player will find himself in opposition to them, of course, but their separate agendas might line up from time to time as they both fight back against the alien invasion.

The third and final piece of the puzzle is highly interactive destruction, which was amply demonstrated in this street level firefight. Grenades and bullets are whizzing through the air and stonework and steel are exploding all around you. Not only does it make for an outrageous spectacle, but the smoke and fog it kicks up seems designed to keep the view distances from getting out of hand on the long straight streets of Manhattan.

When asked if PC gamers need to be worried that the performance ceiling on the consoles will set a lower limit on the PC presentation, Cevat said that the team is fully committed to taking full advantage of the PC's expanded graphics power.

Nothing too new but it sounds good so far. Crytek seems to be doing all the right things. IGN's description of the suit's primary and secondary modes is not all that clear but I like the idea of a more streamlined yet also more customizable approach to the suit. It also looks like they'll put the Maximum Strength mode to better use than they did in the first game, which is always good. Lastly I think the Crynet forces will make for a better enemy force than North Korea was in the first game. Much more morally ambiguous and has more potential than the stereotypical evil general.
 

Aazealh

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Staff member
Shane said:
Personally I was a little let down by the first game. This one is looking far better though.

Would you mind elaborating for the sake of the discussion? Personally I never could finish Far Cry because it just got too boring to me around 2/3 of the game. On the other hand I was disappointed that Crysis was so short because I really had fun with it. It wasn't perfect but as far as single player FPS experiences go it doesn't have a lot of competition.
 
When I was playing it, it felt more like a tech demo than a game. It was gorgeous to look at yes, but I felt like they put all their effort into visuals rather than plot and gameplay. This is likely due to my own play style but I really didn't utilize the suit much. I used speed just to get from point to point faster when a vehicle was not available. Never used strength except for those parts where you had to. I used stealth a few times but I never found a way to incorporate it into the way I play. I exploited this bug a lot that would let you fire another tranq shot right away because I just got bored of the game. I ended up only beating it for the sake of finishing it. I liked Far Cry up until the whole mutant thing. I didn't like Far Cry 2 much.
 

Walter

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Experimenting with the suit's abilities was the best part about Crysis though. That's like playing through Half Life 2 and using the gravity gun only for "those parts where you had to."

The graphics are pretty, sure, but that's not why I love Crysis. I like using maximum strength to leap into trees, then sit there and wait for a group to pass, then drop down in stealth, grab one of them by the neck, switch to maximum strength and throw him into his buddies, knocking them all back 20 feet like Korean bowling pins :ubik:

Also awesome is maximum speed jumping on top of a building, then landing with a maximum strength punch through the roof, collapsing and killing everyone inside. Or, of course, the classic super punching helicopters out of the sky.
 

Scorpio

Courtesy of Grail's doodling.
I'm replaying Crysis right now as I had never finished it before and this run-through has been much more fun than my first. I'm using my binoculars to tag everything from a distance and then I figure out how to creatively cause mayhem with my various suit powers. Really, my only gripe is that sometimes I think of a fun and efficient plan for killing a group of enemies and the game bugs and one or two of the guys can see through my stealth from any range. Seems people on various turrets have thermal infrared vision or something. But even regardless of that I'm having a great time.
 

Aazealh

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Staff member
Shane said:
When I was playing it, it felt more like a tech demo than a game. It was gorgeous to look at yes, but I felt like they put all their effort into visuals rather than plot and gameplay. This is likely due to my own play style but I really didn't utilize the suit much.

I think it's because you didn't experiment with the suit, yeah. I mean the story's definitely not the game's strong point, but when it comes to the gameplay you really have a lot of possibilities. You can approach locations from various directions, choose to pass through enemy lines without being detected or blow everything up, and beyond that the suit allows you to do a lot of crazy shit. I mean I even defeated an enemy by throwing a frog to his face once.
 
Walter said:
Experimenting with the suit's abilities was the best part about Crysis though. That's like playing through Half Life 2 and using the gravity gun only for "those parts where you had to."

The graphics are pretty, sure, but that's not why I love Crysis. I like using maximum strength to leap into trees, then sit there and wait for a group to pass, then drop down in stealth, grab one of them by the neck, switch to maximum strength and throw him into his buddies, knocking them all back 20 feet like Korean bowling pins :ubik:

Also awesome is maximum speed jumping on top of a building, then landing with a maximum strength punch through the roof, collapsing and killing everyone inside. Or, of course, the classic super punching helicopters out of the sky.

...whoa. I actually had no idea you could do all of that. If I can get my copy back from my friend's place, I'm giving this game another chance.
 
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