Zero Punctuation: Crysis 2

[RobfromtheGulag]

I recall Yahtzee's praise of the spaceship for Crysis 1, and it was weird because that was hands down my least favorite part of the game. In fact, whenever I play Crysis 1 nowadays I typically get to that part and call it a day. Missing out on a short primarily turret based escape mission and running around a cramped Carrier are worth missing if I don't have to navigate that completely unintuitive ship.

Anyway, pc power is preventing me from playing Crysis 2, but I look forward to it. It's a shame Prophet died, but then he had all the character of a potato chip, so I guess it's alright. That's probably why they switched to Psycho for Warhead. But then his accent got a bit obnoxious so they'll probably kill him off too, who knows.

Crysis was also paced well (warhead a tad less so), so I'm glad to hear the trend is continuing. I actually liked the quieter more open ended early levels as opposed to the more linear stuff that came further on down the line.

Also a shame (or not) that they didn't balance stealth. It was OP as anything in the first games, and apparently remains such. I beat Crysis 1 and Warhead both without killing anything not listed specifically in objectives with just the stealth function.

 

[Marik Bentusi]

Put a smile on my face, entertaining as always.

I was actually surprised by the overall positive attitude throughout the review, Crysis 2 seems to have been a huge disappointed for everyone else and their cat (in the reviewer landscape anyway).
I haven't played any Halo title, but many a reviewer compared the new aliens to Halo ones for example. But maybe you didn't include it because we were already expecting hearing such things. You hipster you.

I can't agree on two things tho:
1) The main character's tragedy. I mean I was positively surprised by that bit of the plot twist, the whole "Dead Man Walking" part, as well as that part later when you find a guy in a test tube, but it didn't have all that much emotional impact rather than being interesting and a refreshing twist from the whole superhero/supersoldier thing. I mean I can imagine how the protagonist could feel, but he could also be a jackass that just doesn't give a shit and I for one find it just interesting (and fun to play).
2) (if you read this, read this to the end) While there are numerous parallels to HL2, I think one of the most important parts was very different at the core, the storytelling. Crysis 2 was much more conventional and delivered in mission-sized pieces whereas HL2 just "flows" better for me. But maybe it's also just because of the setting that Crysis 2's story comes off as more conventional and generic. I mean, imagine HL2 being set in New York. Would change a few things for me.
So yeah, I only partially agree on that one. I can see where you're coming from tho.

Thanks for your work.

 

[Xanadu84]

A good review. Through my Yatzee hate-filter, Ive interpreted this as fairly glowing recommendation. And I enjoyed it to. I am refreshed that he didn't call it a brown and grey shooter because that's what he decided it would be before playing. I was wrong about that prediction, and I tip my hat to you Yahtzee.

Id celebrate by going to play Crysis 2 but, lets be realistic here...Portal 2 was just released.

 

[Zing]

Hmm, I guess I'll rent it on PS3...considering they don't seem to care about PC gamers anymore anyway.

 

[Marik Bentusi]

New York is a popular target because [...]

Guy from Germany reporting in. From my perspective, New York is a important city, but just as important as about every other capital city of big known countries around the globe and I personally get tired of games taking place in the same city over and over again. There's nothing inherently wrong with doing that, but when considering the possibilities you have...

NY may be important, but I have no emotional connection to it whatsoever. It would be the same if any other major city was affected, that even holds true for Berlin. So while it wouldn't matter to me which big city they pick, I'm uncomfortable with picking the same one again and again because it gets repetitive - but I guess it's easier to "write what you know", many developers have done NY before and such doing concepts is altogether easier. Doesn't make it better for me tho.

It's true NY has a lot of popular landmarks not only known by natives, but people all around the globe, but just keeping on riding this horse means that won't change in the future and we won't get to see landmarks of other cities. And to be honest, despite me knowing those landmarks, I have no emotional connection to their destruction just because it happens. Assassin's Creed 2 and counting does it better with their ingame dictionary that is both informative and fleshes out the world with a bit of snarky humor.

Groovy. I was a bit skeptical that it would just turn out as another 4-hour-exlposion like black ops but now I guess I'll check it out.

And I'm dying to see Yahtzee take on Homefront, which I'm pretty sure incorporates one HalfLife-ish "OmgLookAtAllThisDeathWarIsTerrible" moment then tosses you a .50 cal and lets you loose on a wave of NK soldiers that are getting their faces melted off. Then it rewards you a high-five and a cliffhanger

Wait, how is Half Life about "OmgLookAtAllThisDeathWarIsTerrible"? Don't you spend almost the whole game kicking alien ass? I mean, it has its dark moments, but I didn't spot any "war is terrible" messages, more like "our oppressive alien overlord regime sucks" messages, if anything.

 

[rembrandtqeinstein]

Thought he'd rag on it more. Still, I preferred it to Crysis1... which is a bit weird, maybe due to my colour blindness...

WTF IS THIS?!

Check your keyboard dude.

[image src="http://lolpics.se/pics/11898.jpg"]

 

[BreakfastMan]

Pretty good episode. I especially liked the dig at PC elitists about halfway through the video.

..... why?

Because it was funny, and because he did it on a site with a good number of PC Elitists, which takes balls.

No... I mean whats the difference between a console and a pc elitist?

Because you are just being a console elitist.

Um... What? How did I give an indication that I am a console elitist? All I said was I liked a particular part of the episode, you asked me why, and I explained why I liked it. I never gave any indication that I thought of PCs or PC gamers as "lesser", nor did I try to lift console games up on a podium as inherently better. I just explained my opinion. Where exactly are you getting this from, and what exactly was the question that you originally asked me (since it seems I might have missed the point)? I think I am missing something here...

 

[Ramses the Third]

Yay!

 

[Marik Bentusi]

Um... What?

My personal guess is that a) you're either on the "PC side" or on the "console side", b) finding it funny when someone makes fun of PC gamers puts you on the console side by default, c) how dare you?! (He's on the "PC side")

It's silly, but that's my guess.

 

[Aptspire]

Neat review, Yahtzee
and, don't worry, just one more day of dodging spoilers for you, until you get to try your hand at Portal 2
Hang in there!

 

[hypermage]

"...Inconvenient erections in a Calvin Klein advert..."

"...It reminds me of HL2 in a good way. Except without the powered suit... oh, wait. I mean except without the alien invasion... oh, wait..."

"I may be remembering that wrong."

Top quotes. Otherwise, I'm looking forward to the game giving my next tower upgrade a hernia.

 

[Gromril]

I'm suprised he didn't point out the glaring AI issues this game has. I frequently dont need to cloak because all the enemies are busy walking into walls and dumpsters.

Played through the campaign twice and Iv'e seen the ai behaving like that litrally twice, both on the second playthrough, so your either unlucky or exadurating

 

[figday]

good review, a fair one i suppose..
the half-life part..spot on
but i wished he played it on the pc instead of the hexbox. and btw has he played crysis 1 and warhead?

to me, crysis 2 is a love/hate game for me. it has its perks (combat is phun), but it also disappoints me in many aspects (nano powers, suit voice, GRAPHICS, linearity, less-realism, game features, etc).

good game, but imo, still inferior to the first ones.

 

[Zhukov]

Eh.

I just didn't have it in me to get excited about this game.

It's all very functional and competently executed but when all is said and done it's just yet-another-bloody-shooter. The story was a pile of arse sprinkled with techno-babble. The characters were paper-thin and utterly forgettable.

However, I do agree with Yahtzee regarding how Alcatraz was completely messed up and only being kept alive by the suit. That worked well.

Not well enough to carry the game though.

 

[kgpspyguy]

Great review,describes it perfectly.

 

[RedBaron19]

Huh, I thought he would review Portal 2....

Great review though!

 

[warfjm]

That last line seriously made me LOL.

 

[GrizzlerBorno]

I really like this episode. I think I'll put Crysis 2 back on the "To-Do" list after all. That just puts me at ......FIVE!! Jesus.

 

[Madara XIII]

I guess NOT setting a disaster movie in New York in this day and age would seem a little alien to me.

I also really enjoyed Crysis 2 more than I thought I would!

I'd agree with every one of Yahtzee's points here and I'd say it's an incredibly fair assessment, for a change! I used the throwing mechanic once and once only, blimey how pointless! Also, how useful is suddenly being uncloaked when you stealthily snipe someone? WTF Crysis 2? I was being stealthy, why punish me?

In the words of Oren-shi (Cottonmouth) from Kill Bill.

"You didn't think it'd be that easy did you?"

Secondly I can't believe I find myself liking this game as well....even if it is soley for the purpose of sticking it to the PC crowd...yes I know I'm an asshole, but when you constantly hear about how console gaming is too mainstream and low-brow I get very persnickety.



Haters Gonna Hate

<youtube=XJSkrF8nhxg>

 

[CrawlingPastaHellion]

What's up with all the bland shooters nowadays that have 5 enemy types at most? Seriously, enemy variety is pivotal to any game, especially a FPS. But here all you do is fight human troopers for the first third of the game. There are technically two types of human foes: your everyday trooper and a captain type that can call for backup, but that's the only thing they differ at, except skin type of course. The rest of the game mostly consists of fighting samey light aliens, an occasional heavy alien, and a rare boss fight consisting of either an AT-ST-Walker or a HL2 gunship. And yeah, a couple of cloaked super aliens that you fight right at the very end, making that outrageously expensive cloak tracker upgrade worthless, since you don't even need it as you can clearly see them in nano-vision (the local version of thermal vision, oh those pretentious cretins from Crytek)!

The plot is retarded, heroes and villains alike have weak introductions and their reasons are poorly explained. Half of the time I wasn't sure what the hell was going on, despite it being a really simple story. But that simplicity hides behind the massive rubble of unnecessary jargon, poetry and pathos, as if it were trying to be a Shakespearean tragedy. Dudes, let it go, yet another fall of NY is as much a background for a Shakespearean drama as I am a ballet dancer. It's not impossible to pull off, but very, very unlikely and will require a lot more effort put into storytelling that you at Crytek could ever possibly manage. Yes, and stop making that nano t-shirt the pivotal plot device, or as the internet likes to call it nowadays: a mega "MacGuffin" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MacGuffin]. The nano-suit is not a character, the only interest it evokes is purely academic, it's a freakin' tool for Pitt's sake! And the ending is completely, utterly and bastardly moronic. The only cool part I enjoyed about the plot was that the protagonist was in fact a walking zombie supported by the suit.

The game was also way too easy, I played it on the toughest difficulty setting and I can tell you: once you get an armor upgrade, the game becomes a walk in the park. Yes and later on when you acquire faster energy regeneration and reduced cloak energy drain, you can just run past most enemies unnoticed, eliminating the shooting aspect completely. There is another thing: half of the upgrades are completely useless, I will list them here: proximity alarm, air friction, air stomp, covert ops and tracker (plus that cloak tracker I already noted).

There are so many weapons in the game, yet you can only carry two main weapons at the time, which cuts the fun in using them in half.

I am mostly disappointed in one thing though: in earlier interviews with the Crytek guys they clearly stated it would be an open-world sandbox game with story events. When what we finally got was your typical "corridor" shooter. The corridors are spacey this time, but they're still corridors none the less.

I can only say two good things about this game: graphics are nice and shooter mechanics are solid, but really, did you expect anything less from a Crytek game?

Did I also mention this was a blatant HL2 rip-off?