Crysis 2 is all about the suit - not so much the man behind the mask but the awesome nanosuit that he's wearing and the bonding he has with it.
You play Alcatraz, a marine close to death after being caught up in the alien invasion of Earth. You are rescued inches from your death from a guy in an awesome-looking suit. And before you can understand what is going on, you are thrusted into the middle of an invasion with the nanosuit.
The story takes place in and around New York. It's slow to get into, and it's not until about four levels in that you start to see the aliens appear. Kill them, and you collect nanosuit currency, then you can start to upgrade your suit.
The game plays like a typical shooter but wearing the nanosuit makes it more enjoyable. The nanosuit runs off energy and just about everything you do drains energy from it.
Stealth and armour are controlled with the bumper buttons. Armour gives you extra protection and stealth makes you cloaked. Each drains energy at different rate.
Power is active all the time and represents your other moves like sprinting, jumping and ledge-grabbing. Sneaking up on enemies and executing quick kills is very satisfying. Or you can simply grab them and use them as a shield for a bit of added protection. You are able to pick objects up and use them as a melee weapon or a projectile weapon.
Luckily, the game gives you the tools to help make it easier to approach the enemy in different ways. Using the up and down on the d-pad allows you to use thermal imaging and a targeting system that allows you to mark enemies, ammo, weapons and points of interest to your hud so you know where everything is at all times.
The only niggle I had with the controls was the equip grenade command being a double tap of the Y button, when the Y button is already used to swap weapons.
Some levels during the campaign felt a bit broken. Fighting in a destroyed city may sound like a cool idea - and most times it is - but there are some areas, such as destroyed roads, collapsed buildings and rubble, that can be very tricky to navigate.
The multiplayer is good fun and has its own mix of game modes.
Most game types require you to unlock them as you level up. Free-for-all and death match seem to be by far most popular.
Each player has a nanosuit which can be upgraded with different modules. The way you play will determine how fast you level up in each area. Choose to go stealth and sneak around and your stealth xp will go up faster. Equip a machine gun and turn on armour and your armour level will rise faster, unlocking cooler modules along the way.
There seems to be a decent following online for Crysis 2 so getting into games is not a chore.
There are plenty of Kiwis online to play with but no region lock, so getting an American host is not uncommon.
Crysis 2 takes a different step in the FPS genre and it works well.
The campaign has great story and is a good length, and has a new game option that carries over all your upgrades from your last play into your next. This makes playing on the harder difficulties worth trying for lesser hardcore FPS gamers out there.
Multiplayer had me hooked from the start, and I found it hard to put the controller down. It just felt very different from more popular titles, such as Call of Duty and Battlefield Bad Company.
Crysis 2 gets two thumbs up.
