Crysis 2

Posted by Kevin in Articles, Console, Featured, Microsoft, PC, Sony, Windows | 1 comment

In a huge reveal, the latest Edge magazine has shown off some key features of the sequel to Crysis.

Some environments will be familiar

The original game was released to much fanfare. A game tasked with the job of “fixing” the PC game industry, from the inside. Developing a single title that would define a new era of both hardware and software evolution. Something like a coming of age for PCs at a time when consoles had made huge graphical leaps with tech demos of Killzone 2 and Halo 3.

Release sales were good, but sluggish compared to console game sales. Not helped by the fact that no one truly believed their PC could handle it. And what’s the point of owning such an amazing piece of software if you cannot take full advantage of it? This kind of thinking brought Crysis down from being a video-game worthy of the masses to a rather pretty technical demonstration of ones PC hardware prowess to boost e-penis scores worldwide. So while this happened, people who felt the game wouldn’t work on their systems (which was most people in the market) downloaded the title, much to the shegrin of the three founders of the parent company – Crytek – the Yerli brothers.

New York will play host to some mega, ultra-realistically rendered action

And so, Crytek and it’s 600 strong army of newly-acquired EA power set about rejuvenating their title, dedicating 150 people to Crysis 2. Not only have they tweaked and poked their engine, the second iteration will have a seamless port for the PS3 and 360. Why go to consoles as the PC saviour? Well, Cevat Yerli, one of the three founders and CEO of Crytek reckons PC gamers have no respect, and thus should expect games to migrate away to the oft-frowned upon consoles. Piracy is rampant on the PC. Many gamers will choose a life of piracy and good, technically superb, storytelling games then have to go through the rigors of online gaming, mostly rubbish on PC, unless they’ve been developed by Valve.

And so we come to 2010, a year when Crytek plan on releasing Crysis 2. This time, your Nanosuit has been upgraded. The model name is unassuming – merely revised to Nanosuit 2.0. Perhaps a throwback to the “web 2.0″ convention that never really took off. Three years after the initial Crysis took place (thus, in the year 2023) the aliens have migrated from the familiar tropical island we’ve been battling on for some time now, against both aliens and craftily-armed local military men. This time we’re on the all-too-familiar in such scenarios location of Manhattan.

“I Am Legend”, “The Day After Tomorrow” and other such disaster movies set in NYC spring to mind when seeing bits and pieces of information flow about Crysis 2. Except Yerli and his team of merry programmers reckon this will be a far more unique affair. Sure, the set pieces are the same – but the story and how the set pieces fall are unique. Or so we’re told. Executive producer Nathan Camarillo said: “Destruction and scarring of the environment: they’re universal themes that have been around forever. Our take will be unique. You’re not interested in the 55th floor of each building, but we want you to feel you’re surrounded. You have this freedom to explore these small pockets and go really deep on details, but seeing all of New York isn’t necessarily that exciting, and it’s not great for pacing or telling the kind of story we want. It’s a constrained freedom.”

Graphical fidelity will remain untarnished on console cousins

So the team are working hard on utilising the environment to tell the story. Interesting. Unique, in a way that Killzone 2′s story-telling was influenced by how the Helghast utilised their environment (namely the weather). Except this time, undoubtedly, the environment is destructible. At least in one shape or another.

Crysis was not the only release under that banner. Warhead was released thereafter as an add-on expansion, and took the player down a far more linear path. Some people bemoaned this, but I think it’s clear a lot of players enjoyed being given more bones to pick at in the game without being completely lost and spending incredible amounts of time wasting Nanosuit speed energy on running to/from locations. There’s only so much attempting to jump up rocks to get over a waterfall one can do before the game stops being good. The plan, according to Crytek, is to bring some of that linearity to Crysis 2, to better aid them to tell a more coherent story.

This will be a more accessible Crysis. It has to be, to adapt to the console market, but it also can’t lose sight of its core market. The people, like me, who fought tooth-and-nail against zombie monkeys in Far Cry, and desperately frustrated themselves with the original Crysis until eventually stumbling upon rocket launchers to destroy annoying nearby tanks. Sure, it was frustrating. Sure, you wanted to stop playing it. But my god you spent so much money on your system you couldn’t let it go. And the game rewarded you for your persistence. This is a kind of balancing act for Crysis. For the first time under the EA banner they’ll have a first-party big name publisher title. Not just a deal inked at the 12th hour to release their work. Now they’re big boys. Killzone 2 was made with 200 people. Crysis 2 will have 600, and 3 platforms (though that figure is arguably larger given the various configurations of PC needed to be catered to).