So, after much anticipation, yesterday I bought Crysis 2 (for the PC) and after playing a decent chunk of the single player game, I have to say that I'm a bit disappointed.
First of all, the game's configuration options have been dumbed all the way down to absolute subnormal levels. I'm all for making things easier to use, but this is a total joke. In the original game (and the warhead sidequel), you had a simple selector to choose the overall detail and, if you wanted to tweak, an advanced button that gave you controls over many individual aspects of graphics and physics, from model LOD to postprocessing and so on. All that has been taken away and replaced with a "choose your spec" selector with just five options. On the plus side, choosing the highest setting "extreme" still runs completely fluidly on my now cannot-be-called-extreme configuration.
Next there are the player controls. There's no option to go prone, so no crawling through undergrowth or laying flat on a rooftop to minimise your profile. Gone are several of the nano suit options (strength and speed), instead they kick in automatically when running or force jumping.
The gameplay has been, in my opinion, severely compromised relative to the first game and on two fronts. First, you just feel like you are on rails, going from one completely scripted encounter to the next. The freedom to explore, find and complete objectives in various orders seems absent, yet this was a major attraction of the original game. Secondly, and even more irritatingly, the save game option has vanished. You are now forced, it seems, to play to checkpoints. I absolutely do not care what console gamers are used to or have to put up with, but this is
totally inexcusable for a PC title. There is absolutely no gameplay advantage to being forced to forego your progress because you haven't made it to the next checkpoint before you have to go out, have dinner or do whatever. Also, there's absolutely no joy in being forced to repeat it all when you come back. Quite why they felt it was in any way an improvement on the original game's save mechanism (auto save at checkpoint, user save at any time) is totally and utterly beyond me. On the plus side, there are more weapon variations and you can get various upgrades for your suit.
Next up, and somewhat controversially, there are the visuals. Don't get me wrong, Crysis 2 looks beautiful. The soft shadows are smoother than the original and the global illumination effects are very nice indeed. However, the first thing you notice upon crouching behind any wall or picking up any random object is that the overall texture detail is a lot lower than the first game. I'd have to estimate that textures are 1/4 the resolution (that is to say, half the resolution in each direction) compared to the first. Secondly, the detail textures that seemed to adorn every item in the first game seem to have no counterpart here. Also, many of the player animations, particularly picking up objects have gone. Perhaps I'm alone in this, but I thought that having to physically collect items and seeing your hand reach out and take them was a nice touch. All the "realism" in the graphics seems moot when items and ammunition magically teleport from their resting location to your hands.
Lastly, the physics has been toned down considerably compared to the first game. In some respects, it probably helps, but the degree to which objects are affected by things like nearby explosions has been greatly reduced. Gone too are the player interaction with the immediate environment. Then sneaking through bushes, twigs and leaves no longer flex out of the way.
I know that a lot of engine sacrifices were made to get it working on game consoles but I don't see why any of those limitations should have been carried over to the PC version.
The game is still perfectly good, but it doesn't give me anything like the same wow factor as the first did when I played it back in 2007.
Still, at least Portal 2 is living up to expectations so far
