There can be no doubting that Crytek's sequel to their PC game is a beautiful piece of work. I don't think I've ever played a videogame with such amazingly complex and stunning vistas, and this standard is maintained throughout the game. The scene where a building collapses right next to you has to be seen to be believed.
The background story to Crysis 2 is standard Alien invasion guff and strikes me as desperately similar to fellow sci-fi shooters of this generation such as Halo and Gears of War. Where Crysis 2 eclipses these two great series, however, is with its variety.
The USP of Crysis 2 is the suit: it's a powerful, flexible bit of kit, and fittingly drives the story. Boasting a number of useful abilities, it gives the player the chance to evaluate different tactical options throughout the game, meaning you really do play it your own way.
The key abilities are cloak mode and full armour. Strap one of these babies on and for a short time you're either invisible or practically impervious. Of course there's a catch: both abilities use a lot of energy (especially whilst moving) and running out of power at the wrong time can be extremely unfortunate for you and the main character, Alcatraz.
Other powers include advanced jumping and running speeds, a nifty night vision and a useful trick of being able to power kick and punch enemies. Naturally the weapons in the game are also of vital importance with the usual range of shotguns, machine guns, pistols and rocket launchers. In another addition, each has it's own variation of sight (or fire mode) that can be easily adjusted in game and the suit itself can also be upgraded. Collecting nano energy left by dead Ceph aliens is your currency and this eventually unlocks some neat additions to the suit's powers.
Alas, Crysis 2 does indeed have some of the reported graphical glitches, which were nonetheless infrequent enough not to hamper my enjoyment of the game.
But overall I found it to be a playable, exciting, tense shooter and, yes - whisper it quietly - I think it's better than Halo Reach.
You can pick this up pretty cheap these days, too. I might add it to my ridiculously large XBox 360 'to play' pile. Currently: Skyrim, Darksouls, Gears of War 1 and 2, L.A. Noire, Vanquish, Virtua Fighter 5, Lost Planet, Just Cause 2. And that's just the discs. I've got plenty of XBLA games lined up too! :D
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