'Holy ****' isn't a phrase you have much use for when you spend your days writing
about a five-year-old console. Once a console hits that grand old age, developers
typically know the hardware inside out, publishers know what the big franchises are
(and hence, where to invest their money), which all means that big leaps forward
simply don't happen.
Except nobody seems to have told Crytek this - because if you'd been in the room
with us when the German developer showed off the latest level of Crysis 2, Madison
Square, you'd have been witness to one of 360 gaming's true jaw-on-the-floor, holy
**** moments.
Yes, graphics should take a backseat to gameplay. But although there's
unquestionably a fine game behind those slick visuals, Crysis 2 represents such a
huge step up graphically from anything else you're likely to have played on the 360
to date, it automatically becomes your focal point when you first see it in action.
And all this from a studio that many of you may well never have heard of before, let
alone had much experience of its previous work. Hitherto now, Crytek, based in the
pleasant German city of Frankfurt, has focused exclusively on the PC, using the
platform's continually evolving hardware to craft ever more visually elaborate
first-person shooters.
This started with it's first poduct, Far Cry, and it's reputation for amazing
visuals was duly consilodated a few years ago witht the original Crysis. But
although Far Cry was subsequently ported to both the Xbox and 360 some years ago by
Ubisoft (with varying degrees of success), this is very much the first time Crytek
has attempted to make a console game itself.
Nevertheless, this relative inexperience with console gaming hasn't prevented it
from crafting one of the most impressive new shooters we've seen in a long time. The
passage of play we first witnessed, then played, certainly wasn't long - and being
the 360 version it wasn't running at the insane framerate and resoluton Crysis 2's
PC-exclusive predecessor was capable of shifting at - but it was enough to convince
us that, visually, this is a game that's another level up from the Call of Dutys,
Halos, and any other first person shooter you could care to mention.
The action kicked off on the edge of a crater. Rather than just being a generic
semi-spherical hole cut out of the ground and surrounded by buildings, it was clear
that Crytek has gone to incredible lengths to ensure everything looked and felt like
you were fighting in the remnants of a devestated city.
In some instances, you'll be moving along the old surface, now broken into slabs of
grass and tarmac that lay at jaunty angle to one another, or thrust into the air on
giant platforms or columns or earth and bedrock. At such points, it was possible to
see the stratified ground that was formally below the surface, with concrete steel
strengthening rods and foundations visible, along with rocks and earth and topped
with tarmac or grass. Other times, you'd find yourself picking your way past busted
up cars and over rubble, and there was even a collapsed segment of railway to
negotiate.
Look at the buildings either side and you'd notice that not only were they heavily
damaged, but you'd also see but you'd also see fires burning in the windows or very
convincing waterfalls cascading down their sides, presumably, from burst water
mains. A river of sorts was also flowing down one side of the area and puddles were
everywhere. Broken gas pipes protruded out of the now exposed ground, the gas they
once pumped into buildings burning as it exited their twisted, exposed ends. There
was even the crumpled remains of a destroyed elevated train track - included an
equally battered train on it.
Even the air and wind captured the sense of destruction perfectly. Walk past a clump
of long grass and you'd see and sway gently in the breeze, while embers and leaves
swirled in the air above and - in the case of leaves - could be subsequently found
floating in pools of water. Best of all, though, look into the distance and not only
would you see damaged skyscrapers with raging fires in them, you'd also notice a
convincingly brown haze from the smoke and dust such mass destruction would
inevitably have thrown up.
Perhaps most impressively of all, though, this barely covered a short portion of
the level - indeed, it's probably taken you longer to read about that segment than
it took us to finish it.
Amazingly, Crytek's CEO, Cevat Yerli, later revealed he was actually a little
disappointed by the demonstration his studio had laid on, claiming there were some
small graphical faults evident in the 360 build. Suffice to say, he must have had
sharper eyesight than us - because between the visual overload we were experiencing,
not to mention our attempts to focus on the gameplay, we didn't notice any of these
flaws.
Squaring the Single-Player
But Crysis 2 is more than just a pretty face, as there's some pretty impressive
gameplay lurking behind that oh-so-pretty visual facade. And once you start playing
the game, you'll promptly realise that it most certainly has the gameplay to match
those stunning graphics.
Given that you're pitched in the role of a super soldier, comparisons with the Halo
series are inevitable, and, to a certain extent, justified. The manner in which you
move about has the same weighty feel that a SPARTAN does. And likewise, you have the
usual ability to carry one primary and one secondary weapon at a time, as well as
using mounted turrets (which can be ripped off their mountings, Halo-style) and
drive vehicles.
But it doesn't take long to dawn on you that Crysis 2 is far more tactically
involving than Reach or any of its illustrious predecessors. The key to this is the
Nanosuit, whose influence on the game shouldn't be underestimated.
Basically, this gives you super soldier-like powers, executable via the left and
right bumpers. In the section we played, one beefed up our armour, meaning we could
absorb significantly more damage than we'd normally be able to endure, while the
other enabled a cloaking device that made us invisible to the naked eye - and both
were tied to a rechargeable power meter.
And obviously, both had a very noticable effect on the gameplay. Stealth is perhaps
the most exiting of the two, enabling you to sneak past enemies to obtain a better
tactical position, while the armour comes in handy when you're tired of sneaking
about and feel the need to really get stuck into battle.
Crytek's aim with the nanosuit is the make it such an integral part of the game, to
the point where the suit assumes the same importance as you'd expect a key character
to. Indeed, if it all goes to plan, the German studio is optimistic that you'll
actually end up missing it when you do eventually tire of Crysis 2 and try to play
another shooter - and certainly, from what we played it looks to be on course to do
just that.
Nor did we find our character short of any tradition athletic prowess, being able to
not only jump and run, but also clamber up onto ledges - and with the levels
themselves designed to work vertically as well as horizontally, that can come in
handy in a world where stairs and ramps have usually been reduced to rubble.
The other intriguing aspect is the 'choreographed sandbox' concept Crytek is
applying to the single-player events. If all goes according to plan, this will give
you both the freedom to explore tactical possibilities offered by a relatively wide
area, while offering the intensity and direction of a single-track, set-piece-led
shooter. And backed up by some tough AI that forces you to use your Nanosuit's
properties effectively, it didn't take long before we could see the culmination of
this - and the results were incredible.
And a brief skirmish at the start of the level, we were then thrust into a wider
zone with more enemies. Not only did this area look different to the one preceding
it (looking more like the ravaged ruins of a busy city square than the remains of a
small inner city park), the openness of its area offered various tactical
possibilities.
The most obvious was direct attack, using the mounds of rubble and a handily placed
military truck for cover, with the latter doubling up as an ammo dump - which was
handy, given that the enemies would eventually see you.
The other option was to stick to the high ground by going either left or right,
flanking your foes. Go left, and you'd eventually find a couple enemies in need of
dispatching before you could then rain down death on the enemies in the middle of
the crater below; while taking the route on the right would either lead you up into
the lower floors of a skyscraper, where you'd find a sniper rifle, or to a nearby
army ammo dump with a mounted heavy machine gun - perfect for butchering your alien
foes.
Not that any of the three routes was particularly easy, of course. A stealth approach
might have enabled us to get to where we wanted to go relatively safely, but once
we were there and the enemy had clocked this, they'd intelligently use cover to
protect themselves.
A couple of battles later and Madison Square showed us yet another side of Crysis 2:
its slower paces, incredibly tense stealthy side. Essentially, this required us to
pick through the ruins of the ground floor of a towering building, then beneath the
dusty remains of a collapsed motorway bridge.
To begin with, we were presented with the opportunity to sneak up behind an enemy
and dispatch them with a silent kill, before bumping off his mate in turn in a hail
of bullets. However, after progressing onward underneath the bridge, it became clear
that it might not be wise to engage every enemy you encounter - particularly when you
find yourself in a thick dust cloud and are unable to see more than ten inches in
front of your own face.
Fortunately, the thermal imaging mode helped greatly here, enabling us to see where
our foes were from their heat signatures - although picking our way out of there was
certainly a haphazard pursuit.
The final segment of play Madison Square had to offer came in the form of a driving
section, played out against another predictably stunning backdrop. Jumping in the
Crysis equivalent of a Humvee, our task was to drive along a crumbling section of a
highway precariously hanging over the edge of a stunning scene of destruction,
weaving between the protruding segments of road and the smoldering husks of
burnt-out vehicles.
With enemies aplenty to run over and a clear path through (and even a replacement
vehicle positioned roughly halfway through), comparisons with Halo were, again,
inevitable. But unlike comparable sections in Bungie's series, Crytek had the
forethought to use standard driving game control maps and a very grippy handling
style, resulting in a much more controlled, intuitive driving experience.
It certainly wasn't the longest level we'd ever played, but the sheer amount of
variation Crytek has been able to pack into that relatively brief passage of play
was nevertheless highly impressive and it bodes extremely well for the full game.
ali više volim kad su kompletniji-obučeniji što mi daje veću kreativnost u rasturanju neprijatelja-vanzemaljaca.
