Crysis 2 World Premiere Impressions
- Posted April 9th, 2010 at 14:10 EDT by Eric Blattberg
- 30 Comments
"Crysis 2 is the greatest product that is going to come out this year," promised David Demartini, General Manager of EA Partners. Demartini was touting Crytek's upcoming first-person shooter at EA's Crysis 2 World Premiere event last Tuesday, April 6. PSU was in attendance at the event, and while we think Demartini's statement may be a bit overzealous, we're happy to report that the sequel is looking extremely promising.
In Crysis 2, Crytek swapped out the lush jungle environments of the original for the crumbling, desolate city streets of New York City. “If the gamer cannot save New York, no other city will be able to be saved,” explained Cevat Yerli, CEO & President of Crytek. He feels New York is a place we'd want to protect in the face of an alien invasion, making it much more emotionally relevant than a nondescript island.
Now, the first Crysis is known for many things, but an emotional narrative is not one of them. Yerli himself recognizes that the original's story wasn’t up to the standard of the rest of the experience. To ensure the studio wouldn't make the same mistake twice, Yerli brought acclaimed science fiction and fantasy writer Richard Morgan on board as the game's Lead Writer. Morgan, an avid gamer as well as a successful novelist, sees "massive potential in games," but believes that such potential often goes unfulfilled.
In Crysis 2, Morgan promises an "emotional charge from the word 'go.'" Indeed, the game's introduction -- which we won't spoil for you here -- sounds extremely gripping. Morgan's creative vision will focus around three primary narrative threads: the narrative of the player, the Nanosuit, and of the city; the three become wrapped together and intertwined in various unpredictable ways throughout the course of the story. One important thing to note is that the character is essentially a blank slate, meaning if you haven't played the original game, you won't be utterly lost if you pick up Crysis 2.
Assuming that, if you're reading this preview, you're interested in the PS3 version of the game, know that the console versions aren't shoddy ports of the PC release. The three main areas focused in Crysis 2 -- highly interactive destructibility, the Nanosuit 2, and a visual style Crytek calls "catastrophic beauty" -- are all done justice on the consoles. The technology in CryEngine 3 that they're able to run on the PS3 and 360 is pretty astounding, actually. A quick run-down of some of the features that made the jump from PC to consoles includes dynamic time of day, color grading, blend shading, procedural destruction, integrated physics, procedural deformation, a dynamic cover system, and hit reactions. They're all on display in the following tech trailer from GDC 2010, just now officially released to the public, which means gorgeous HD video footage.
After the various speakers concluded, it was time for a real-time demonstration on Xbox 360. Before we go any further, know that due to the nature of CryEngine 3, the PS3 version will be virtually indistinguishable from the 360 version of the game. Anyway, continuing on, a developer grabbed a controller and began to play. The first of two scenes on display took place on Wall Street. As the character stepped out onto the edge of a dilapidated skyscraper, Crytek's version of New York City exposed the extent of its devastation. Between the sweeping orchestral score and extremely technically advanced, but also stylistically relevant graphics, we really felt a sense of the "chaotic beauty" that Crytek is aiming for.
After gazing defiantly at the gorgeous backdrop for an appropriate amount of time, the developer switched into action mode: literally. The Nanosuit, like in the first game, has different modes, but the mechanics ... (continued on next page)
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GreenIcedTea
- 9:28am EDT - April 9th, 2010
- 2
Looks like... any other fps to me, still think killzone2 has the best in fps game graphics.
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Mo-green28
- 9:53am EDT - April 9th, 2010
- 3
So
1.)it's another first person shooting game. Sigh
2.) Another game where the main character is by himself fighting off thousands of troops and creatures. sigh
Oh yea were in for a real treat with this one. Sigh
:(
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JackC8
- 10:05am EDT - April 9th, 2010
- 4
The graphics certainly look nice, and it's encouraging that they're bringing in an actual novelist to write the story. However, if they think I'm going to pay $60 to relive 9/11 - for entertainment purposes - they must have a screw loose. I think it's in extremely poor taste to try to make money off other people's suffering.
Hopefully the finished game won't leave the same impression that the trailer did.
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mondofish
- 10:33am EDT - April 9th, 2010
- 5
these crytek guys have so far said two things that just dont go together "setting a new graphical standard on ps3" and "360 and ps3 version will look identical"
so its gonna look like a game that can be made on the 360...but its gonna blow all other ps3 games away and set a new standard...hmmm i dont think so!
but if i block out these foolish statements i will say that the game look alright..it looks like a first person shooter..like so many others lol
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extermin8or
- 10:40am EDT - April 9th, 2010
- 6
wtf r u on about? whn have they mentioned 9/11, i think it clearly stated ALIENS!
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GunTeng
- 12:30pm EDT - April 9th, 2010
- 9
The one thing that really drew my attention to Crysis (1) was the immense scope & detail of the forests.....Im sad that they will not be in Crysis2.
But I think its great that a PC game of this caliber has made it to console. Sure, it doesn't do anything differently for the FPS experience & relies on gimmickry (suit) for depth of gameplay.....but what it does, it does extremely well. And its coming to console from PC.....need I say more?
I do have my concerns whether some identified issues will persist in Crysis2....physics issues involving tanks unable to climb small slopes (they slip & slide), unable to break small trees (they get stopped dead) etc etc. Of course, these scenarios will unlikely present themselves in Crysis2, but it was an issue that detracted from areas of Crysis.
Im also wondering if they have maintained the leam/peek function.
We have already seen idiotic MW2 drop the function in a bid for mindless gaming and we have seen Socom drop the function in a bid for static & more linear gaming........so where does Crysis stand with this?
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mikeghtmare
- 1:36pm EDT - April 9th, 2010
- 11
@4... you mean like all the WWI and WWII games and all the middle east games, and all the cold war based games, ... you probably don't get to play anything these days, LOL ;)
It's a good thing there are sport games and fantasy games.
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JackC8
- 2:51pm EDT - April 9th, 2010
- 12
I'm talking about the posters with the pictures of missing people on them, which is something that was shown very often in the 9/11 coverage, and this is very obviously meant to evoke those memories and emotions in order to make a buck.
Hard to believe anyone could miss that. But, I guess I'm used to talking to adults.
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XSpikeThis will permanently ban this user and delete all associated comments. This action is irreversible, are you SURE you want to do this?!
