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PlatformOVERALL
Xbox 3608.70
Overall 8.70
I'm not quite in the mood to write a full review so I'll keep this fairly short.

Crysis 2 is the very definition of a solid single player shooter. Rock solid in fact. It's not a stop and pop shooting gallery game but an older and better style Halo super soldier affair.

The first thing to praise is the awesomesauce visuals, some of the best I've seen on the 360 even if some of the textures are a little low resolution. The framerate performance is almost perfect, with only a couple of minor barely imperceptible judders during the whole game.

Indoor areas are a little bland.

So C2 adopts most of the staples of your modern videogame shooter - most Halo controls and regenerating armour are there. The two weapon mechanic is there, the only thing really missing is the easy quick fire grenade option.

The opening few hours of the game hardly inspire, if you've played The Conduit, you'll know that feeling of boxed in genericness fighting generic aliens. It doesn't help that like in Black or Red Steel for instance the bad guys can shoot you from 50 miles away, leaving you looking at a pin prick in the distance and wondering where you are being shot from.

The game gets noticeably better around about a Halo 2 esque bridge section where upon you are graced with your first scoped weapon. Now you can actually fight back on an even keel and start dropping fools with a vengeance.

The boxed in city streets landscape which failed to inspire is then replaced by much larger destroyed city scapes and the human enemies are replaced by more Metroid/Halo-esque looking enemies.

Then the game becomes a solid and satisfying ride to the end.

As someone who never played the first game the story is poorly explained in terms of familiarising me with the events of the first game. All you really know is that you are a super soldier with a mans voice in your head guiding you to different bits where you shoot at aliens.

But regardless, its still a good game. The controls are exceptionally well worked, with some of the best dual analogue controls I've ever seen. There is a handy lean mechanic which works from around corners and for peeking over cover and everything works solidly.

The only real problem with the game is personality, every part of the game you play feels like a pastiche of other games you have played. Here is a Halo part, here's when it feels like COD, here's where it feels a bit like Half Life 2.

This pervades throughout the entire game, leaving the game with no real identity of its own, which is a shame.

Even with this weakness, they deliver a solid run and gun shooter which is much better than the COD style stop and shooting gallery approach. With a few unique ideas and scenarios, Crysis could be top notch.
Posted by gamingeek Mon, 30 Sep 2013 15:44:05
 
Mon, 30 Sep 2013 16:51:05
I am going to copy paste your review when I finally play this game. Great job.
 
Mon, 30 Sep 2013 21:09:07
I thought you played it? I remember you saying that you were playing the best graphics you'd ever seen?
 
Mon, 30 Sep 2013 21:10:08
I played this because of Edgecrusher, thanks for pimping it. Will pick up Crisis 3 eventually too.
 
Mon, 30 Sep 2013 21:32:10
Good review man. You'll really like Crysis 3 too.

Is there any way to can get the 1st game? You'd be surprised how different it is.
 
Mon, 30 Sep 2013 22:04:41
I want it, it depends on whether I get a new HDD or a cheap new slim 360 on an offer.
 
Mon, 30 Sep 2013 23:02:51
I tried it to see how 3d looked but I just played it for a few minutes.
 
Wed, 02 Oct 2013 11:18:52
Ah right.
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