AI

There were a few AI gitches in terms of path-finding we discovered on our first play, which didn’t happen again on play #2 at all. Ceph and Cell soldiers got stuck on a few environmental objects or in some cases walked off ledges and toppled to their doom. For the most part the AI is just excellent; it really works as part of a squad and makes good use of grenades, cover and concealment. It has 3 states, aware, combat and unawares. When they’re aware, they’re paranoid and they’re looking at your last known position. They’ll go into a search mode from this point on and attempt to track you, so it’s wise to relocate and move quietly using Stealth Mode.

In combat they’re actively trying to murder you and they’ll do a good job of it unless you evade, or kill them first. Ceph are especially good at taking you down quickly and it’s wise to use the suit’s agility to break their line of sight and keep your distance so you can hit and run.

There are a few more tricks the AI can do, but you’ll find those out as you play.

Sound

The weapons in Crysis 2 have their own unique sound, there’s not just one type of gun and all of them have varying audio attached. The environment sounds and the spot sounds in the game do a great job of bringing the atmosphere home and as you’re wandering the ruin of NYC you’ll hear various cues that make the invasion seem so much more real.

Music

There are a few talented composers involved with the game and none other than Hans Zimmer provides some of the best themes to Crysis 2. His music is the capstone that makes the soundtrack excellent. Haunting themes combine with staccato war-like undertones as the Ceph invasion continues with humanity’s last hope pinned on the Nanosuit 2 hero.

Voice/Dialogue

The voice actors in the game all do a great job with their characters, yours being a silent protagonist apart from the Nanosuit that gives you a few audio cues and has a robotic voice for when you change various suit modes and detect threats. The script and dialogue has a few stumbling blocks here and there but for the majority of the game its pretty good stuff and fits the theme nicely. It is much better writing than Crysis for example.

Multiplayer

There’s the usual suite of MP modes in the game, it has unlocks and character customisation. What you’d expect from a modern shooter, riffing off the successful Call of Duty model which in turn riffed off some of the previous shooters. You gain XP from battles and work as a team or against your enemies.

One of the more notable modes is a control/capture assault style mode where one team, low on tech and weapons has a Nanosuit and must hack servers whilst the others are armed to the teeth and must defend.

Overall the MP side of the game is pretty Ok; especially now they seem to have fixed some of the lag issues and server problems found at the start of its MP shelf life. It is fun using the Nanosuit in combat since it behaves like the SP version and provides you with some interesting tactical moments and opportunities.

It’s a worthy addition to the engrossing singleplayer side of the game.

We won’t make a drama out of a Crysis

It’s a good solid game with a lot of potential, the multiplayer definitely adds extra value and the game itself is good enough to stand with just the singleplayer, offering numerous replay opportunities to experiment with different Nanosuit Upgrades and play styles, going for a more gung-ho approach and trying out the armour’s higher levels of power and taking different weapon loadouts.

We say it’s highly recommended; it impressed us here at Games Xtreme enough to play it through a second time for the review and that’s a rarity.