Crysis 2
Encyclopedia
Crysis 2 is a first-person shooter
video game developed by Crytek
, published by Electronic Arts
and released in North America, Australia, and Europe in March 2011 for Microsoft Windows
, PlayStation 3
, and Xbox 360
. Officially announced on June 1, 2009, the game is the second main installment of the Crysis series
, and is the sequel to the 2007 video game Crysis
, and its expansion Crysis Warhead
. The story was written by author Richard Morgan. Another science fiction author, Peter Watts, was also consulted and wrote a novel adaptation of the game. It was the first game to showcase the CryEngine 3 game engine.
. The player assumes the role of a Force Recon Marine called Alcatraz. Similar to its predecessor, it provides freedom to customize weaponry and abilities. Crytek wanted to avoid making another game set in a true jungle environment (as were Far Cry
and Crysis
); New York City has been dubbed an "urban jungle". The urban atmosphere offers new options with relation to progressing and planning attacks. Players are able to navigate between floors and buildings, as well as a destroyed cityscape.
. CryNet Systems has been hunting Prophet to retrieve the suit, inadvertently pursuing Alcatraz, believing he is Prophet. The aliens seen in the original game have undergone a major redesigning, abandoning the ancient, tentacled exosuits seen in the first game for high-tech humanoid armored war machines that stalk Alcatraz through the ravaged New York City. Crytek has stated prior to release that their intention was to surpass the original game graphically and gameplay-wise while also having lower system requirements and also supporting true stereoscopic 3D
. More recently, with the release of the PC demo, it is clearly seen that the "minimum" requirements are what's required to run the game on "Gamer" settings at an HD resolution. The "Gamer" setting is changed to "High" in the final game, but for all intents and purposes it is exactly the same as before, and the game can be played at lower resolutions with hardware below the minimum requirements.
The new Nanosuit supports new and upgraded features. However, suit functionality has been streamlined; multiple modes can easily be used simultaneously whenever the user wishes. This is decidedly different than the first game, in which the suit was generally limited to a single mode at a time and multiple modes cannot be used simultaneously for more than a split-second. The first suit's Strength and Speed Modes have been combined into the new Power Mode, the suit binoculars function has been upgraded with an advanced Tactical mode, the Cloaking Device has been modified to allow increased sensory input and silent melee stealth kills and has been renamed to Stealth Mode, while the Armor Mode has been left more or less as is, with the exception of slightly restricted agility and an ever-decreasing energy level. There are two trailers, with one trailer showing the suit in a wire-frame state, the other showing the suit in a complete state. In-fiction, the suit is to feature many improvements over its predecessor, giving soldiers freedom to upgrade their suits based on their own style of combat.
PC Gamer
magazine published a preview of Crysis 2, showing a park and a destroyed city street with an alien device in the center. In the article's interview Crytek
hints at how the game will have "increased verticality" and will be set in a "new type of jungle".
Crytek confirmed to CVG that Crysis 2 would not use EA's online pass
system. "All we can say/confirm is that we aren't using Online Pass for Crysis 2", the studio said in a brief statement.
which has since been evacuated due to alien infestation. The game begins with news footage of a large outbreak of the "Manhattan" virus, a gruesome disease that causes complete cellular breakdown; civil unrest; and panic about an alien invasion by the Ceph, the tentacled, squid-like alien race behind the incident of the previous game, Crysis. Due to the breakdown in social order within New York City
, Manhattan
is placed under martial law
, and under contract from the US Department of Defense, soldiers from Crynet Enforcement & Local Logistics (or simply "CELL"), a private military contractor run by the Crynet corporation, police the chaos.
Force Recon unit is deployed into New York City by the submarine USS Nautilus
to extract former Crynet employee Doctor Nathan Gould, who may have vital information on combating the alien race. However, insertion goes awry - the Ceph destroy the sub, and Force Recon Marine "Alcatraz" is left as the only apparent survivor. Delta Force
Major
Laurence "Prophet" Barnes saves Alcatraz and is forced to kill himself in order for his Nanosuit to assimilate Alcatraz. A recording left in the suit reveals that Prophet had been infected by the Manhattan virus, and that Alcatraz is to finish Prophet's mission in his stead. Believing Alcatraz is Prophet, Gould soon gets in contact with him and asks him to meet up at his lab. However, CELL forces, led by Commander
Dominic Lockhart, target Alcatraz and label him as a major biohazard, believing him to be the infected Prophet. This forces Alcatraz to combat CELL troops throughout Manhattan as he makes his way to Gould's lab. The order to target Alcatraz also stems from personal reasons, since Lockhart is morally biased against the superhuman nature of Nanosuit wearers in general. While on his way to Gould's laboratory, Alcatraz collects alien tissue samples from a crashed Ceph dropship and a Ceph soldier, which cause strange reactions within his Nanosuit. Alcatraz eventually meets with Gould, who is initially hostile after learning that he is not Prophet. However the last suit recording of Prophet's message causes Gould to relent, prompting Gould to explain that the suit has been busy rewriting its own code after absorbing the Ceph's tissue, speculating that the suit was creating an antibody for the Manhattan virus. Gould and Alcatraz commit to further scans at a Crynet base on Wall Street
. They find out that Alcatraz was mortally wounded when Prophet rescued him, and that the Nanosuit is the only thing keeping Alcatraz alive. The scans are cut short when CELL forces led by Commander Lockhart and Lieutenant
Tara Strickland, daughter of U.S. Marine Corps Major Strickland from the first game, ambush Alcatraz and Gould.
During the middle of a prisoner transfer outside of the building, the Ceph attack the CELL personnel as a massive alien spire rises from underneath the Crynet building, releasing a spore-based bioweapon that kills most of the CELL troops in the immediate area. Alcatraz is left stranded and isolated for a period of time while dealing with a Nanosuit malfunction caused by the spore bio-weapon. The suit gets rebooted remotely by Crynet director and Hargreave-Rasch Biotechnologies co-founder Jacob Hargreave, a centenarian
who apparently had foreknowledge of the Ceph and had spent most of the previous century using stolen Ceph technology to design the Nanosuit to be used as a defense against the aliens. Hargreave directs Alcatraz to another Ceph spire to conduct an important experiment for him.
On the way to the spire, Hargreave reveals to Alcatraz that the Manhattan virus had been spread by the Ceph as a method to clear out the entire human population from Earth, comparing it to the previous century's BSE outbreak
. The Manhattan virus would cause all infected humans to eventually melt down into a liquidated mass of biological tissue, which could then be easily stored and disposed of. Upon reaching the alien spire, Alcatraz enters it to test whether the Nanosuit's systems can interface with the aliens' technology. The experiment fails, due to the Nanosuit not being powerful enough to ensure the insertion. In the meantime, the US Department of Defense rescinds the authority of CELL over Manhattan and deploys US Marines in their place under the command of Marine Colonel Sherman Barclay. They then attempt to drown the aliens out of lower Manhattan by ordering an air strike on the city's flood barrier
. Washed away by the resulting wave of water, Alcatraz is later found in Madison Square Park by a squad of Marines led by Alcatraz's squadmate Chino, who survived the submarine's destruction. The Marines enlist his aid in evacuating civilians to Grand Central Terminal
, the city's primary evacuation point.
Hargreave contacts Alcatraz and reveals that the Nanosuit is busy analyzing the alien tissue samples that Alcatraz had previously recovered and is currently rewriting its own code to interface with alien technology. He tells Alcatraz and his marine allies to take a detour to the Hargreave-Rasch building. There, Alcatraz is told to find a stabilizing agent in the bio-lab to facilitate the Nanosuit's analyzing process. However, rogue sections of CELL security in the building still slow down Alcatraz's progress. The Hargreave-Rasch complex is attacked by a Ceph "pinger" robot and is completely flooded, washing Alcatraz out of the building and leaving him unable to enter the bio-lab. Seeing that the cause is lost, Hargreave tells Alcatraz to regroup with the marines at Grand Central to help evacuate civilians. At the terminal, Alcatraz is reunited with Gould, who had apparently "escaped" Strickland, leading to the skepticism of Colonel Barclay. Knowing that Strickland is an ex-Navy SEAL, Barclay concludes that Strickland released Gould from captivity. Grand Central Terminal is overrun by Ceph forces, but Alcatraz manages to hold them off long enough for the evacuation trains to depart, and escapes the building's destruction.
Due to the hasty and incomplete evacuation from Grand Central, Alcatraz is then tasked with defending a secondary evacuation point at Times Square
, when another alien spire rises from the ground. By this time, the Nanosuit had finished processing the alien spores, and Alcatraz manages to enter the spire, allowing his Nanosuit to interface with it and re-purpose the spores to be lethal to the Ceph. This causes a cataclysmic self-destruction of the Ceph in the area, and apparently removes all traces of the biological warfare agent. With the evacuation from Times Square complete, Hargreave instructs Alcatraz to make his way to Roosevelt Island
. There, Alcatraz is told to infiltrate a Crynet complex named "The Prism", where Hargreave resides. Alcatraz foils Commander Lockhart's attempts to ambush him, and kills the commander in the process. As Alcatraz makes his way through the island, he is suddenly captured by Hargreave, who wants the Nanosuit for himself so that he can finish off the Ceph personally. Hargreave then attempts to remove the Nanosuit from Alcatraz's body. However, the Nanosuit rejects its removal from Alcatraz since it had already completely assimilated with its wearer, revealing memories of Prophet's fallout with Hargreave in the process. Alcatraz is saved by Strickland, who reveals herself to be an undercover CIA operative, and was responsible for ordering Alcatraz's original mission to extract Gould. Strickland tells Alcatraz to capture Hargreave, but upon entering Hargreave's private office, Alcatraz instead sees Hargreave's body in a vegetative state. Hargreave reveals to Alcatraz that the entire time, his consciousness had been communicating through an advanced computer system, and that this had been the only way for him to communicate ever since he was injured in an encounter with the Ceph at Tunguska
. Hargreave gives Alcatraz a last Nanosuit upgrade, the "Tunguska Iteration", before the Ceph invade the island. Hargreave triggers a countdown timer for the self-destruct system of the complex, and orders the remaining CELL forces guarding the Crynet Prism complex to aid Alcatraz's exfiltration. Alcatraz barely escapes the massive explosion of the complex, which destroys much of Roosevelt Island and the Queensboro Bridge
. On the shores of Manhattan, Alcatraz reunites with Gould, Strickland and Chino.
Alcatraz is notified by Colonel Barclay that he has a 20 minute window to end the conflict with the Ceph before the US Department of Defense launches a STRATCOM Tactical Nuclear Strike
on Manhattan Island with little regard to collateral damage and nuclear fallout
. Alcatraz and his comrades make their way through the city toward the center of the alien infestation, and spot a massive alien "litho-ship" rising out of the ground beneath Central Park
, lifting a large section of the park into the air. With the peripheral aid of Gould, Strickland, and Barclay, Alcatraz assaults the floating section of Central Park and succeeds in making his way to the alien spire at its center, which serves as a massive dispersal point for the alien spore bio-weapon. He enters the spire, and his Nanosuit is able to repurpose the spire's bio-weapon to turn against the Ceph. The Ceph in the entire city becomes completely eradicated by self-destruction. After several days, the city begins to recover with the help of Gould, Strickland, and the US Military. Alcatraz, while unconscious, communicates with Prophet, whose memories, experiences, and personality had been stored in the suit. Prophet tells Alcatraz that, while the mission in New York is a success, their work is not yet over since the Ceph, who had been present on Earth since prehistoric times, had built constructs globally that were not only limited to New York and the Lingshan Islands. The Nanosuit then assimilates Prophet's memories into Alcatraz. Upon waking up in Central Park, Alcatraz receives a broadcast from Karl Ernst Rasch, the other founder of Hargreave-Rasch Biotechnologies, asking for his name. Climbing out of the crater, Alcatraz, speaking for the first time since donning the Nanosuit, responds, repeating the same phrase as Prophet, in the beginning of the game: "They call me Prophet."
which was lauded for its impressive visuals. German based studio Crytek Frankfurt which developed the first game is the lead developer of the sequel along with help from Crytek UK, formerly Free Radical. It is the first game using the new engine CryEngine 3. Crytek brought their technical expertise for the first time to consoles and seeks to uphold their reputation of creating some of the most visually impressive games. The PC version of the game is currently built on DirectX 9, with an optional DirectX 11 add-on. After long uncertainty and speculations inside the gamer community Crytek announced that they "are working to get the best out of DX11." Crytek looked to surpass the original Crysis, which is still a benchmark of PC graphical performance in 2011.
Crytek has claimed that Crysis 2 contains the best graphics in the history of video games. Nathan Camarillo said that Crysis 2 has the 'best graphics you've ever seen'. The studio also reckons Crysis 2 offers a "complete gaming experience like no other". Crytek boss Cevat Yerli
has claimed that the enemy AI in Crysis 2 is the most sophisticated in video game history.
Crytek’s Nathan Camarillo has declared that developers need to start churning out titles capable of scoring in the 90s if they ever want to be recognised in today’s competitive market conditions. Camarillo commented, "We're going to put out the best game that we can make and that's probably over a 90 rated so it's a fair statement to make." Camarillo went on to say that the need for review scores of 90% or more did not just apply to Crysis 2 and its FPS competition though: "I think you have to be 90 plus to make an impact in any genre now. The quality bar is so high and publishers and developers have put so much effort against high quality games. If you want to be recognised at all, regardless of genre, like anything you need to create the highest quality product possible and anything else is not going to get noticed." He has also said that today's FPS games need 'awesome multiplayer'. "I don't think it has to have multiplayer to have longevity and I think there's plenty of titles that don't have multiplayer that do quite well, but that's more of a genre specific decision. For an FPS game yeah you really have to have it unless you're a very unique kind of FPS depending on what your delivery platform is and what market you're going into." he said. Camarillo still believes that Crysis 2s multiplayer is completely unique, "It's different from other FPS games in that you are this ultimate super soldier that has the ability to cloak at any point in time, so it's different than modern military shooters, it's different to Halo
. You have the manoeuvrability, you're in an urban environment, you can jump, you can slide, you can climb. There's so much you can do in that first-person experience that the other multiplayer games don't offer."
In May 2010, Epic
's Mike Capps said he was surprised people could take Crytek seriously as a cross-platform engine company given it had yet to release a console game. In January 2011, Crytek CEO Cevat Yerli, responded with saying that no other engine could have delivered Crysis 2 and that CryEngine 3 could handle "pretty much any other game", but claimed that its rivals Epic Games’s Unreal Engine
could not handle Crysis 2.
The Limited Edition of Crysis 2 is available at the same price as the regular game, but in limited quantities. It comes with bonus experience points to "immediately boost the player up to Rank 5, giving access to all the preset class loadouts", a digital camo weapon skin for the SCAR, the "Hologram Decoy" attachment for the SCAR, and unique in-game platinum dog tags.
The Indian Version, on pre-order, also includes the Threat Tracer Suit Module (Early Access), and, on buying from the EA store, a gold dog tag and desert camo for SCAR.
The Nano Edition of Crysis 2, which was only available through pre-order, includes the Limited Edition copy of the game in a Steelbook case, an 11" statue of Alcatraz posed on top of a New York City taxi, an art book, and a Nanosuit backpack "modeled after the in-game super suit." The Nanosuit backpack is large enough to accommodate a 17" laptop. As of September 26, 2010, the Nano Edition was made available for pre-order on the EA website for a $149.95 price tag but was sold out before March 2011. After the game's launch, those who preordered the Nano Edition had their shipment delayed. EA gave the affected customers a 75% off coupon and later a free digital copy of Crysis 2 Limited Edition as compensation.
launched a multiplayer demo of Crysis 2 on January 25, 2011. Crytek announced that the demo would only be available until February 4, 2011. The demo was exclusively on the Xbox 360, for Gold members to download, although on January 27, Crytek confirmed that there would be a multiplayer demo for the PC. The demo featured the maps Skyline and Pier 17, as well as two multiplayer game modes to play: Team Instant Action and Crash Site. Team Instant Action puts two teams against one another in a team deathmatch style, while Crash Site has players defending alien drop pods like control points. Within hours of its release, thousands of complaints were reported after numbers of players were met with disconnects from games, crashing during loading and, oddly, a temperamental incompatibility with the Xbox Wireless WiFi adaptor. Crytek issued a statement telling players it was aware of "technical issues" with the Xbox multiplayer demo of Crysis 2, and managed to fix most of the issues in time for the PC demo. Some bugs still exist as of the current trial build but are mostly if not entirely visual and do not noticeably affect game play.
Speaking at an EA event to PlayStation Universe, Crysis 2 producer Nathan Camarillo said PlayStation 3 gamers "can probably hope for one". "We want as many people to play Crysis 2 as possible," he added. "I can't say anything too specific ... we haven't announced [the demo] yet." Camarillo went on to say there would be no difference in quality between the PS3 version of Crysis 2 and the Xbox 360 one, which had seen a pre-release demo. Crytek released the first footage of Crysis 2 running on PlayStation 3 on February 24, 2011. The end of the video confirmed that a multiplayer beta is on the way for the system, but no date for the PS3 beta was announced.
The second Crysis 2 multiplayer demo was released on March 1, 2011 on both the PC and the Xbox 360, with a PS3 demo launching "soon". Among bug fixes from the first beta, the map 'Pier 17' was added to the Xbox version and extended to the PC version. PC gamers have commented on Xbox 360 remnants in the PC demo version, such as the prompt to "press start to begin" or to "adjust your TV settings" when configuring the game brightness. It has also been reported that the PC version would not be released with support for DirectX 11, which will instead be implemented with a patch "later on". On April 8, 2011, Crytek announced – still without marking delivery date – that a DirectX 11 patch was being worked on.
On March 15, 2011, a multiplayer demo was released on the PlayStation Network, featuring both of the maps featured on the Xbox 360 version of the demo, being 'Pier 17' and 'Skyline'. On March 18, it was removed from the Store and the servers were shut down due to server connection delays. Crytek stated they have "identified the root cause and have decided to close the PS3 demo ... to ensure all issues are resolved when the game launches next week", as their priority is to "ensure that the final product is flawless at launch."
on February 11, 2011. Online reports indicate that the leaked beta is a partially functioning developer's build compiled on January 13, 2011 that includes the entire single-player campaign and multiplayer component, but contains numerous bugs, is plagued by frequent crashes, is only partially completed with many placeholders and textures missing and has graphical options that are limited to DirectX 9 high, rather than the very high settings and DirectX 11 which are expected in the retail game. [even after the retail launch, the game still only supports DirectX 9 and there are still only 3 graphical presets, though these have changed their names from the beta and the PC multiplayer demo, from Gamer/Advanced/Hardcore to High/Very High/Extreme]
Crytek released a statement saying they were "deeply disappointed" in piracy, which "continues to damage the PC packaged goods market." Some reviewers remarked that Crytek's statement was strange, considering that no PC demo of the game had been released yet, and moreover, the source of the leaked beta was almost certainly an internal employee (rather than pirates). On February 14, 2011, Crytek released a statement by Cevat Yerli that stated that despite their disappointment caused by the leak incident, Crytek is overwhelmed with the support they have received and they can assure the community that PC gaming is very important to them now and in the future.
Crytek producer Nathan Camarillo called the Crysis 2 game leak a "really ugly version" that the studio did not want people to see:
package, titled Crysis 2: Retaliation, was announced on May 10, 2011. The 'Retaliation' DLC features four new multiplayer maps - Park Avenue, Transit, Shipyard, and Compound. It was released on May 18, 2011 for the PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 and costs US$9.99
On June 14, 2011 a second map pack entitled Decimation was released for the Xbox 360 and PC. It included five new maps (5th Avenue, Chasm, Plaza, Prism, and Apartments) as well as two new weapons (FY71 Assault Rifle and the Smoke Grenade). Decimation was released onto the PlayStation 3 platform on June 28 in North America and June 29 in Europe.
and Lorne Balfe. A new rendition of the song entitled "New York, New York" by Grammy nominated artist B.o.B
was used in the launch trailer.
There have been four official releases of the soundtrack to date. Three albums are available in digital form (via iTunes
and Amazon
): The Original Videogame Soundtrack, released on the game's launch date, with 15 tracks; Be Fast!, released on April 26, 2011, with 16 tracks; and Be the Weapon!, released on June 7, 2011, with 17 tracks.
The most complete version, consisting of two CDs
and 46 tracks, was released on April 26, 2011 under La-La Land Records.
and Crysis Warhead
, as well as Crytek
's acclaimed debut title Far Cry
.
One early review of Crysis 2 was published by Official Xbox Magazine
, which gave the game a 9/10. According to the magazine, it was the multiplayer that tipped the balance. It describes the online experience as "some of the most exciting, angry and satisfying action you'll ever have". The sheer spectacle of the single player campaign also left OXM impressed, and the magazine said the game's Nanosuit "is both massively empowering and intelligently balanced by the need to manage its energy levels".
Gamereactor
reviewed all versions simultaneously and awarded the game a 9/10, noting that "its design is an exciting contrast to the jungles of the original, and New York is filled with destroyed landmarks, ruined neighbourhoods and the beauty of disaster that Cevat talked about. The amount of detail is insane, and the effects are incredible." On the other hand, the reviewers criticized the story, noting "the dialogue often feels over the top and the characters feel flat and uninteresting. Crytek have clearly been inspired by Half-Life 2
, but they never even come close to Valve's league despite their high ambitions." They concluded that "it would simply be a shame not to call this the best action game so far this year."
A review for the PlayStation 3 version only was published by Official Playstation Magazine
, which gave the game a 8/10. OPM calls Crysis 2 "excellent - technically strong, visually outstanding and full of welcome fresh ideas." OPMs main gripes are with the shooter's "bungled" opening section, and their view that it takes several hours of "persisting" through "a thorny, poorly signposted and indifferent shooter" until Crysis 2 really kicks off. "Developer Crytek has a deserved reputation for pushing gaming hardware to the brink, and its debut work on PS3 is first-rate," it says. "It doesn't just look good, it looks different. The Manhattan mix of crooked concrete spires and green urban spaces is refreshing after the relentless dark khaki backgrounds of Call of Duty
and Medal of Honor
."
The Telegraph
considered that the game heavily borrowed from the Call of Duty
shooters, being much more scripted and linear than Crysis
, calling the game a "walled in" experience. The Telegraph also criticized the enemies' "utterly atrocious" AI, "problematic" sound, and "uninspiring" multiplayer.
GameZone
gave the game an 8.5/10, stating "With plenty of in-game collectibles in both the multiplayer and single-player modes, as well as solid multiplayer gameplay options, players will find plenty of bang for their buck, and the stunning power of the CryENGINE needs to be seen to believed."
Unlike the original Crysis, which allowed the user to extensively change various graphical settings, Crysis 2 provides drastically fewer options. However, advanced settings were added in patch 1.8 and previously announced DirectX 11 support was also added in a patch, along with high resolution textures. The high-res texture upgrade can be used in either DX9 mode or DX11 mode (the graphics card must have 768 MB or more video memory), but can only be enabled on 64-bit operating systems.
As of June 30, 2011 over 3 million copies of the game have been sold across all platforms.
First-person shooter
First-person shooter is a video game genre that centers the gameplay on gun and projectile weapon-based combat through first-person perspective; i.e., the player experiences the action through the eyes of a protagonist. Generally speaking, the first-person shooter shares common traits with other...
video game developed by Crytek
Crytek
Crytek is a German video game company founded in 1999 by three Turkish brothers: Cevat, Avni and Faruk Yerli. Crytek's main headquarters are in Frankfurt, Germany, with five other studios in Kiev, Budapest, Nottingham, Sofia and Seoul. The company is best known for developing the game Far Cry and...
, published by Electronic Arts
Electronic Arts
Electronic Arts, Inc. is a major American developer, marketer, publisher and distributor of video games. Founded and incorporated on May 28, 1982 by Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer games industry and was notable for promoting the designers and programmers...
and released in North America, Australia, and Europe in March 2011 for Microsoft Windows
Games for Windows
Games for Windows is a brand owned by Microsoft and introduced in 2006 to coincide with the release of Windows Vista. The brand represents a standardized technical certification program and online service for Windows games, bringing a measure of regulation to the PC game market in much the same way...
, PlayStation 3
PlayStation 3
The is the third home video game console produced by Sony Computer Entertainment and the successor to the PlayStation 2 as part of the PlayStation series. The PlayStation 3 competes with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles...
, and Xbox 360
Xbox 360
The Xbox 360 is the second video game console produced by Microsoft and the successor to the Xbox. The Xbox 360 competes with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles...
. Officially announced on June 1, 2009, the game is the second main installment of the Crysis series
Crysis (series)
Crysis is a science fiction first-person shooter video game series developed by German developer Crytek and published by Electronic Arts. The series revolves around a group of military protagonists with "nanosuits," technologically advanced suits of armor that allow them to gain enhanced physical...
, and is the sequel to the 2007 video game Crysis
Crysis
Crysis is a science fiction first-person shooter video game developed by Crytek , published by Electronic Arts for Microsoft Windows, and released in November 2007. It is the first game of a trilogy. A separate game entitled Crysis Warhead was released on September 12, 2008, and follows similar...
, and its expansion Crysis Warhead
Crysis Warhead
Crysis Warhead is a science fiction first-person shooter computer game developed by the studio Crytek Budapest, Hungary, and published by Electronic Arts. Crysis Warhead is a stand-alone expansion game and does not require Crysis installed to play...
. The story was written by author Richard Morgan. Another science fiction author, Peter Watts, was also consulted and wrote a novel adaptation of the game. It was the first game to showcase the CryEngine 3 game engine.
Overview
Crysis 2 is a first-person shooterFirst-person shooter
First-person shooter is a video game genre that centers the gameplay on gun and projectile weapon-based combat through first-person perspective; i.e., the player experiences the action through the eyes of a protagonist. Generally speaking, the first-person shooter shares common traits with other...
. The player assumes the role of a Force Recon Marine called Alcatraz. Similar to its predecessor, it provides freedom to customize weaponry and abilities. Crytek wanted to avoid making another game set in a true jungle environment (as were Far Cry
Far Cry
Far Cry is a first-person shooter video game developed by Crytek Studios from Germany and published by Ubisoft on March 23, 2004, for Microsoft Windows. Far Cry sold 730,000 units within four months of release. It received positive reviews upon release...
and Crysis
Crysis
Crysis is a science fiction first-person shooter video game developed by Crytek , published by Electronic Arts for Microsoft Windows, and released in November 2007. It is the first game of a trilogy. A separate game entitled Crysis Warhead was released on September 12, 2008, and follows similar...
); New York City has been dubbed an "urban jungle". The urban atmosphere offers new options with relation to progressing and planning attacks. Players are able to navigate between floors and buildings, as well as a destroyed cityscape.
Campaign
The player assumes the control of a Force Recon Marine named "Alcatraz", who gains ownership of the Nanosuit 2.0 from Army Delta Force officer Laurence "Prophet" Barnes, who returns from the original CrysisCrysis
Crysis is a science fiction first-person shooter video game developed by Crytek , published by Electronic Arts for Microsoft Windows, and released in November 2007. It is the first game of a trilogy. A separate game entitled Crysis Warhead was released on September 12, 2008, and follows similar...
. CryNet Systems has been hunting Prophet to retrieve the suit, inadvertently pursuing Alcatraz, believing he is Prophet. The aliens seen in the original game have undergone a major redesigning, abandoning the ancient, tentacled exosuits seen in the first game for high-tech humanoid armored war machines that stalk Alcatraz through the ravaged New York City. Crytek has stated prior to release that their intention was to surpass the original game graphically and gameplay-wise while also having lower system requirements and also supporting true stereoscopic 3D
Stereoscopy
Stereoscopy refers to a technique for creating or enhancing the illusion of depth in an image by presenting two offset images separately to the left and right eye of the viewer. Both of these 2-D offset images are then combined in the brain to give the perception of 3-D depth...
. More recently, with the release of the PC demo, it is clearly seen that the "minimum" requirements are what's required to run the game on "Gamer" settings at an HD resolution. The "Gamer" setting is changed to "High" in the final game, but for all intents and purposes it is exactly the same as before, and the game can be played at lower resolutions with hardware below the minimum requirements.
The new Nanosuit supports new and upgraded features. However, suit functionality has been streamlined; multiple modes can easily be used simultaneously whenever the user wishes. This is decidedly different than the first game, in which the suit was generally limited to a single mode at a time and multiple modes cannot be used simultaneously for more than a split-second. The first suit's Strength and Speed Modes have been combined into the new Power Mode, the suit binoculars function has been upgraded with an advanced Tactical mode, the Cloaking Device has been modified to allow increased sensory input and silent melee stealth kills and has been renamed to Stealth Mode, while the Armor Mode has been left more or less as is, with the exception of slightly restricted agility and an ever-decreasing energy level. There are two trailers, with one trailer showing the suit in a wire-frame state, the other showing the suit in a complete state. In-fiction, the suit is to feature many improvements over its predecessor, giving soldiers freedom to upgrade their suits based on their own style of combat.
PC Gamer
PC Gamer
PC Gamer is a magazine founded in Britain in 1993 devoted to PC gaming and published monthly by Future Publishing. The magazine has several regional editions, with the UK and US editions becoming the best selling PC games magazines in their respective countries...
magazine published a preview of Crysis 2, showing a park and a destroyed city street with an alien device in the center. In the article's interview Crytek
Crytek
Crytek is a German video game company founded in 1999 by three Turkish brothers: Cevat, Avni and Faruk Yerli. Crytek's main headquarters are in Frankfurt, Germany, with five other studios in Kiev, Budapest, Nottingham, Sofia and Seoul. The company is best known for developing the game Far Cry and...
hints at how the game will have "increased verticality" and will be set in a "new type of jungle".
Crytek confirmed to CVG that Crysis 2 would not use EA's online pass
Online pass
In the video game industry, an online pass is a form of digital rights management for video games with online functionality. Online passes are commonly in the form of a single-use serial code found in a game's manual . Although they are used to unlock content for a game, online passes are often...
system. "All we can say/confirm is that we aren't using Online Pass for Crysis 2", the studio said in a brief statement.
SDK
A free CryENGINE software development kit was released on August 17, 2011. It is exactly the same package used by Crytek for creating their games and Crytek have stated that any updates to the commercial engine will be mirrored in the SDK. It comes with C++ code access, content exporters (including LiveCreate real-time pipeline), shader code, game sample code from Crysis 2, script samples, improved Flowgraph, and asset example. A separate, specific Crysis 2 editor, similar to the Sandbox Editor from Crysis 1, was released in early July 2011.Characters and setting
Crysis 2 takes place in 2023, three years after the events of the first game, in a destroyed New York CityNew York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
which has since been evacuated due to alien infestation. The game begins with news footage of a large outbreak of the "Manhattan" virus, a gruesome disease that causes complete cellular breakdown; civil unrest; and panic about an alien invasion by the Ceph, the tentacled, squid-like alien race behind the incident of the previous game, Crysis. Due to the breakdown in social order within New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
is placed under martial law
Martial law
Martial law is the imposition of military rule by military authorities over designated regions on an emergency basis— only temporary—when the civilian government or civilian authorities fail to function effectively , when there are extensive riots and protests, or when the disobedience of the law...
, and under contract from the US Department of Defense, soldiers from Crynet Enforcement & Local Logistics (or simply "CELL"), a private military contractor run by the Crynet corporation, police the chaos.
Plot
A United States Marine CorpsUnited States Marine Corps
The United States Marine Corps is a branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for providing power projection from the sea, using the mobility of the United States Navy to deliver combined-arms task forces rapidly. It is one of seven uniformed services of the United States...
Force Recon unit is deployed into New York City by the submarine USS Nautilus
USS Nautilus
Four ships of the U.S. Navy have been named USS Nautilus. after the Greek derivative meaning sailor or ship which gave also gave name to a tropical mollusk having a many chambered, spiral shell; and the submersible in Jules Verne's novel 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.* USS Nautilus , a 12-gun...
to extract former Crynet employee Doctor Nathan Gould, who may have vital information on combating the alien race. However, insertion goes awry - the Ceph destroy the sub, and Force Recon Marine "Alcatraz" is left as the only apparent survivor. Delta Force
Delta Force
1st Special Forces Operational Detachment-Delta is one of the United States' secretive Tier One counter-terrorism and Special Mission Units. Commonly known as Delta Force, Delta, or The Unit, it was formed under the designation 1st SFOD-D, and is officially referred to by the Department of Defense...
Major
Major
Major is a rank of commissioned officer, with corresponding ranks existing in almost every military in the world.When used unhyphenated, in conjunction with no other indicator of rank, the term refers to the rank just senior to that of an Army captain and just below the rank of lieutenant colonel. ...
Laurence "Prophet" Barnes saves Alcatraz and is forced to kill himself in order for his Nanosuit to assimilate Alcatraz. A recording left in the suit reveals that Prophet had been infected by the Manhattan virus, and that Alcatraz is to finish Prophet's mission in his stead. Believing Alcatraz is Prophet, Gould soon gets in contact with him and asks him to meet up at his lab. However, CELL forces, led by Commander
Commander
Commander is a naval rank which is also sometimes used as a military title depending on the individual customs of a given military service. Commander is also used as a rank or title in some organizations outside of the armed forces, particularly in police and law enforcement.-Commander as a naval...
Dominic Lockhart, target Alcatraz and label him as a major biohazard, believing him to be the infected Prophet. This forces Alcatraz to combat CELL troops throughout Manhattan as he makes his way to Gould's lab. The order to target Alcatraz also stems from personal reasons, since Lockhart is morally biased against the superhuman nature of Nanosuit wearers in general. While on his way to Gould's laboratory, Alcatraz collects alien tissue samples from a crashed Ceph dropship and a Ceph soldier, which cause strange reactions within his Nanosuit. Alcatraz eventually meets with Gould, who is initially hostile after learning that he is not Prophet. However the last suit recording of Prophet's message causes Gould to relent, prompting Gould to explain that the suit has been busy rewriting its own code after absorbing the Ceph's tissue, speculating that the suit was creating an antibody for the Manhattan virus. Gould and Alcatraz commit to further scans at a Crynet base on Wall Street
Wall Street
Wall Street refers to the financial district of New York City, named after and centered on the eight-block-long street running from Broadway to South Street on the East River in Lower Manhattan. Over time, the term has become a metonym for the financial markets of the United States as a whole, or...
. They find out that Alcatraz was mortally wounded when Prophet rescued him, and that the Nanosuit is the only thing keeping Alcatraz alive. The scans are cut short when CELL forces led by Commander Lockhart and Lieutenant
Lieutenant
A lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer in many nations' armed forces. Typically, the rank of lieutenant in naval usage, while still a junior officer rank, is senior to the army rank...
Tara Strickland, daughter of U.S. Marine Corps Major Strickland from the first game, ambush Alcatraz and Gould.
During the middle of a prisoner transfer outside of the building, the Ceph attack the CELL personnel as a massive alien spire rises from underneath the Crynet building, releasing a spore-based bioweapon that kills most of the CELL troops in the immediate area. Alcatraz is left stranded and isolated for a period of time while dealing with a Nanosuit malfunction caused by the spore bio-weapon. The suit gets rebooted remotely by Crynet director and Hargreave-Rasch Biotechnologies co-founder Jacob Hargreave, a centenarian
Centenarian
A centenarian is a person who is or lives beyond the age of 100 years. Because current average life expectancies across the world are less than 100, the term is invariably associated with longevity. Much rarer, a supercentenarian is a person who has lived to the age of 110 or more, something only...
who apparently had foreknowledge of the Ceph and had spent most of the previous century using stolen Ceph technology to design the Nanosuit to be used as a defense against the aliens. Hargreave directs Alcatraz to another Ceph spire to conduct an important experiment for him.
On the way to the spire, Hargreave reveals to Alcatraz that the Manhattan virus had been spread by the Ceph as a method to clear out the entire human population from Earth, comparing it to the previous century's BSE outbreak
Bovine spongiform encephalopathy
Bovine spongiform encephalopathy , commonly known as mad-cow disease, is a fatal neurodegenerative disease in cattle that causes a spongy degeneration in the brain and spinal cord. BSE has a long incubation period, about 30 months to 8 years, usually affecting adult cattle at a peak age onset of...
. The Manhattan virus would cause all infected humans to eventually melt down into a liquidated mass of biological tissue, which could then be easily stored and disposed of. Upon reaching the alien spire, Alcatraz enters it to test whether the Nanosuit's systems can interface with the aliens' technology. The experiment fails, due to the Nanosuit not being powerful enough to ensure the insertion. In the meantime, the US Department of Defense rescinds the authority of CELL over Manhattan and deploys US Marines in their place under the command of Marine Colonel Sherman Barclay. They then attempt to drown the aliens out of lower Manhattan by ordering an air strike on the city's flood barrier
Flood barrier
A flood barrier, surge barrier of storm surge barrier is a specific type of floodgate, designed to prevent a storm surge or spring tide from flooding the protected area behind the barrier...
. Washed away by the resulting wave of water, Alcatraz is later found in Madison Square Park by a squad of Marines led by Alcatraz's squadmate Chino, who survived the submarine's destruction. The Marines enlist his aid in evacuating civilians to Grand Central Terminal
Grand Central Terminal
Grand Central Terminal —often incorrectly called Grand Central Station, or shortened to simply Grand Central—is a terminal station at 42nd Street and Park Avenue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States...
, the city's primary evacuation point.
Hargreave contacts Alcatraz and reveals that the Nanosuit is busy analyzing the alien tissue samples that Alcatraz had previously recovered and is currently rewriting its own code to interface with alien technology. He tells Alcatraz and his marine allies to take a detour to the Hargreave-Rasch building. There, Alcatraz is told to find a stabilizing agent in the bio-lab to facilitate the Nanosuit's analyzing process. However, rogue sections of CELL security in the building still slow down Alcatraz's progress. The Hargreave-Rasch complex is attacked by a Ceph "pinger" robot and is completely flooded, washing Alcatraz out of the building and leaving him unable to enter the bio-lab. Seeing that the cause is lost, Hargreave tells Alcatraz to regroup with the marines at Grand Central to help evacuate civilians. At the terminal, Alcatraz is reunited with Gould, who had apparently "escaped" Strickland, leading to the skepticism of Colonel Barclay. Knowing that Strickland is an ex-Navy SEAL, Barclay concludes that Strickland released Gould from captivity. Grand Central Terminal is overrun by Ceph forces, but Alcatraz manages to hold them off long enough for the evacuation trains to depart, and escapes the building's destruction.
Due to the hasty and incomplete evacuation from Grand Central, Alcatraz is then tasked with defending a secondary evacuation point at Times Square
Times Square
Times Square is a major commercial intersection in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, at the junction of Broadway and Seventh Avenue and stretching from West 42nd to West 47th Streets...
, when another alien spire rises from the ground. By this time, the Nanosuit had finished processing the alien spores, and Alcatraz manages to enter the spire, allowing his Nanosuit to interface with it and re-purpose the spores to be lethal to the Ceph. This causes a cataclysmic self-destruction of the Ceph in the area, and apparently removes all traces of the biological warfare agent. With the evacuation from Times Square complete, Hargreave instructs Alcatraz to make his way to Roosevelt Island
Roosevelt Island
Roosevelt Island, known as Welfare Island from 1921 to 1973, and before that Blackwell's Island, is a narrow island in the East River of New York City. It lies between the island of Manhattan to its west and the borough of Queens to its east...
. There, Alcatraz is told to infiltrate a Crynet complex named "The Prism", where Hargreave resides. Alcatraz foils Commander Lockhart's attempts to ambush him, and kills the commander in the process. As Alcatraz makes his way through the island, he is suddenly captured by Hargreave, who wants the Nanosuit for himself so that he can finish off the Ceph personally. Hargreave then attempts to remove the Nanosuit from Alcatraz's body. However, the Nanosuit rejects its removal from Alcatraz since it had already completely assimilated with its wearer, revealing memories of Prophet's fallout with Hargreave in the process. Alcatraz is saved by Strickland, who reveals herself to be an undercover CIA operative, and was responsible for ordering Alcatraz's original mission to extract Gould. Strickland tells Alcatraz to capture Hargreave, but upon entering Hargreave's private office, Alcatraz instead sees Hargreave's body in a vegetative state. Hargreave reveals to Alcatraz that the entire time, his consciousness had been communicating through an advanced computer system, and that this had been the only way for him to communicate ever since he was injured in an encounter with the Ceph at Tunguska
Tunguska event
The Tunguska event, or Tunguska blast or Tunguska explosion, was an enormously powerful explosion that occurred near the Podkamennaya Tunguska River in what is now Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia, at about 7:14 a.m...
. Hargreave gives Alcatraz a last Nanosuit upgrade, the "Tunguska Iteration", before the Ceph invade the island. Hargreave triggers a countdown timer for the self-destruct system of the complex, and orders the remaining CELL forces guarding the Crynet Prism complex to aid Alcatraz's exfiltration. Alcatraz barely escapes the massive explosion of the complex, which destroys much of Roosevelt Island and the Queensboro Bridge
Queensboro Bridge
The Ed Koch Queensboro Bridge, also known as the 59th Street Bridge – because its Manhattan end is located between 59th and 60th Streets – or simply the Queensboro Bridge, is a cantilever bridge over the East River in New York City that was completed in 1909...
. On the shores of Manhattan, Alcatraz reunites with Gould, Strickland and Chino.
Alcatraz is notified by Colonel Barclay that he has a 20 minute window to end the conflict with the Ceph before the US Department of Defense launches a STRATCOM Tactical Nuclear Strike
Tactical nuclear weapon
A tactical nuclear weapon refers to a nuclear weapon which is designed to be used on a battlefield in military situations. This is as opposed to strategic nuclear weapons which are designed to menace large populations, to damage the enemy's ability to wage war, or for general deterrence...
on Manhattan Island with little regard to collateral damage and nuclear fallout
Nuclear fallout
Fallout is the residual radioactive material propelled into the upper atmosphere following a nuclear blast, so called because it "falls out" of the sky after the explosion and shock wave have passed. It commonly refers to the radioactive dust and ash created when a nuclear weapon explodes...
. Alcatraz and his comrades make their way through the city toward the center of the alien infestation, and spot a massive alien "litho-ship" rising out of the ground beneath Central Park
Central Park
Central Park is a public park in the center of Manhattan in New York City, United States. The park initially opened in 1857, on of city-owned land. In 1858, Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux won a design competition to improve and expand the park with a plan they entitled the Greensward Plan...
, lifting a large section of the park into the air. With the peripheral aid of Gould, Strickland, and Barclay, Alcatraz assaults the floating section of Central Park and succeeds in making his way to the alien spire at its center, which serves as a massive dispersal point for the alien spore bio-weapon. He enters the spire, and his Nanosuit is able to repurpose the spire's bio-weapon to turn against the Ceph. The Ceph in the entire city becomes completely eradicated by self-destruction. After several days, the city begins to recover with the help of Gould, Strickland, and the US Military. Alcatraz, while unconscious, communicates with Prophet, whose memories, experiences, and personality had been stored in the suit. Prophet tells Alcatraz that, while the mission in New York is a success, their work is not yet over since the Ceph, who had been present on Earth since prehistoric times, had built constructs globally that were not only limited to New York and the Lingshan Islands. The Nanosuit then assimilates Prophet's memories into Alcatraz. Upon waking up in Central Park, Alcatraz receives a broadcast from Karl Ernst Rasch, the other founder of Hargreave-Rasch Biotechnologies, asking for his name. Climbing out of the crater, Alcatraz, speaking for the first time since donning the Nanosuit, responds, repeating the same phrase as Prophet, in the beginning of the game: "They call me Prophet."
Development
Crysis 2 was announced at E3 2009 on June 1, 2009, and has been in development since 2007. Crysis 2 is the sequel to 2007's CrysisCrysis
Crysis is a science fiction first-person shooter video game developed by Crytek , published by Electronic Arts for Microsoft Windows, and released in November 2007. It is the first game of a trilogy. A separate game entitled Crysis Warhead was released on September 12, 2008, and follows similar...
which was lauded for its impressive visuals. German based studio Crytek Frankfurt which developed the first game is the lead developer of the sequel along with help from Crytek UK, formerly Free Radical. It is the first game using the new engine CryEngine 3. Crytek brought their technical expertise for the first time to consoles and seeks to uphold their reputation of creating some of the most visually impressive games. The PC version of the game is currently built on DirectX 9, with an optional DirectX 11 add-on. After long uncertainty and speculations inside the gamer community Crytek announced that they "are working to get the best out of DX11." Crytek looked to surpass the original Crysis, which is still a benchmark of PC graphical performance in 2011.
Crytek has claimed that Crysis 2 contains the best graphics in the history of video games. Nathan Camarillo said that Crysis 2 has the 'best graphics you've ever seen'. The studio also reckons Crysis 2 offers a "complete gaming experience like no other". Crytek boss Cevat Yerli
Cevat Yerli
Cevat Yerli is a Turkish computer game developer located in Germany who is the founder, CEO and President of Crytek. Crytek is an interactive entertainment development company founded by Cevat Yerli in 1997 - formally turned into a company in 1999. His brothers, Faruk and Avni, joined Crytek in...
has claimed that the enemy AI in Crysis 2 is the most sophisticated in video game history.
Crytek’s Nathan Camarillo has declared that developers need to start churning out titles capable of scoring in the 90s if they ever want to be recognised in today’s competitive market conditions. Camarillo commented, "We're going to put out the best game that we can make and that's probably over a 90 rated so it's a fair statement to make." Camarillo went on to say that the need for review scores of 90% or more did not just apply to Crysis 2 and its FPS competition though: "I think you have to be 90 plus to make an impact in any genre now. The quality bar is so high and publishers and developers have put so much effort against high quality games. If you want to be recognised at all, regardless of genre, like anything you need to create the highest quality product possible and anything else is not going to get noticed." He has also said that today's FPS games need 'awesome multiplayer'. "I don't think it has to have multiplayer to have longevity and I think there's plenty of titles that don't have multiplayer that do quite well, but that's more of a genre specific decision. For an FPS game yeah you really have to have it unless you're a very unique kind of FPS depending on what your delivery platform is and what market you're going into." he said. Camarillo still believes that Crysis 2s multiplayer is completely unique, "It's different from other FPS games in that you are this ultimate super soldier that has the ability to cloak at any point in time, so it's different than modern military shooters, it's different to Halo
Halo (series)
Halo is a multi-million dollar science fiction video game franchise created by Bungie and now managed by 343 Industries and owned by Microsoft Studios. The series centers on an interstellar war between humanity and a theocratic alliance of aliens known as the Covenant...
. You have the manoeuvrability, you're in an urban environment, you can jump, you can slide, you can climb. There's so much you can do in that first-person experience that the other multiplayer games don't offer."
In May 2010, Epic
Epic Games
Epic Games, Inc., also known as Epic and formerly Epic MegaGames, is an American video game development company based in Cary, North Carolina. Its most recent success has been the Gears of War series of games, although it is also known for its Unreal Engine technology. It is the parent company of...
's Mike Capps said he was surprised people could take Crytek seriously as a cross-platform engine company given it had yet to release a console game. In January 2011, Crytek CEO Cevat Yerli, responded with saying that no other engine could have delivered Crysis 2 and that CryEngine 3 could handle "pretty much any other game", but claimed that its rivals Epic Games’s Unreal Engine
Unreal Engine
The Unreal Engine is a game engine developed by Epic Games, first illustrated in the 1998 first-person shooter game Unreal. Although primarily developed for first-person shooters, it has been successfully used in a variety of other genres, including stealth, MMORPGs and RPGs...
could not handle Crysis 2.
Retail versions
On August 17, 2010 EA announced that there would be two special editions of the game.The Limited Edition of Crysis 2 is available at the same price as the regular game, but in limited quantities. It comes with bonus experience points to "immediately boost the player up to Rank 5, giving access to all the preset class loadouts", a digital camo weapon skin for the SCAR, the "Hologram Decoy" attachment for the SCAR, and unique in-game platinum dog tags.
The Indian Version, on pre-order, also includes the Threat Tracer Suit Module (Early Access), and, on buying from the EA store, a gold dog tag and desert camo for SCAR.
The Nano Edition of Crysis 2, which was only available through pre-order, includes the Limited Edition copy of the game in a Steelbook case, an 11" statue of Alcatraz posed on top of a New York City taxi, an art book, and a Nanosuit backpack "modeled after the in-game super suit." The Nanosuit backpack is large enough to accommodate a 17" laptop. As of September 26, 2010, the Nano Edition was made available for pre-order on the EA website for a $149.95 price tag but was sold out before March 2011. After the game's launch, those who preordered the Nano Edition had their shipment delayed. EA gave the affected customers a 75% off coupon and later a free digital copy of Crysis 2 Limited Edition as compensation.
Multiplayer demo
EA and CrytekCrytek
Crytek is a German video game company founded in 1999 by three Turkish brothers: Cevat, Avni and Faruk Yerli. Crytek's main headquarters are in Frankfurt, Germany, with five other studios in Kiev, Budapest, Nottingham, Sofia and Seoul. The company is best known for developing the game Far Cry and...
launched a multiplayer demo of Crysis 2 on January 25, 2011. Crytek announced that the demo would only be available until February 4, 2011. The demo was exclusively on the Xbox 360, for Gold members to download, although on January 27, Crytek confirmed that there would be a multiplayer demo for the PC. The demo featured the maps Skyline and Pier 17, as well as two multiplayer game modes to play: Team Instant Action and Crash Site. Team Instant Action puts two teams against one another in a team deathmatch style, while Crash Site has players defending alien drop pods like control points. Within hours of its release, thousands of complaints were reported after numbers of players were met with disconnects from games, crashing during loading and, oddly, a temperamental incompatibility with the Xbox Wireless WiFi adaptor. Crytek issued a statement telling players it was aware of "technical issues" with the Xbox multiplayer demo of Crysis 2, and managed to fix most of the issues in time for the PC demo. Some bugs still exist as of the current trial build but are mostly if not entirely visual and do not noticeably affect game play.
Speaking at an EA event to PlayStation Universe, Crysis 2 producer Nathan Camarillo said PlayStation 3 gamers "can probably hope for one". "We want as many people to play Crysis 2 as possible," he added. "I can't say anything too specific ... we haven't announced [the demo] yet." Camarillo went on to say there would be no difference in quality between the PS3 version of Crysis 2 and the Xbox 360 one, which had seen a pre-release demo. Crytek released the first footage of Crysis 2 running on PlayStation 3 on February 24, 2011. The end of the video confirmed that a multiplayer beta is on the way for the system, but no date for the PS3 beta was announced.
The second Crysis 2 multiplayer demo was released on March 1, 2011 on both the PC and the Xbox 360, with a PS3 demo launching "soon". Among bug fixes from the first beta, the map 'Pier 17' was added to the Xbox version and extended to the PC version. PC gamers have commented on Xbox 360 remnants in the PC demo version, such as the prompt to "press start to begin" or to "adjust your TV settings" when configuring the game brightness. It has also been reported that the PC version would not be released with support for DirectX 11, which will instead be implemented with a patch "later on". On April 8, 2011, Crytek announced – still without marking delivery date – that a DirectX 11 patch was being worked on.
On March 15, 2011, a multiplayer demo was released on the PlayStation Network, featuring both of the maps featured on the Xbox 360 version of the demo, being 'Pier 17' and 'Skyline'. On March 18, it was removed from the Store and the servers were shut down due to server connection delays. Crytek stated they have "identified the root cause and have decided to close the PS3 demo ... to ensure all issues are resolved when the game launches next week", as their priority is to "ensure that the final product is flawless at launch."
Leaked Beta
A beta version of the game dated from January was leaked on multiple torrent sitesTorrent file
A torrent file stores metadata used for BitTorrent. It is defined in the BitTorrent specification.Simply, a torrent is data about a target file, though it contains no information about the content of the file. The only data that the torrent holds is information about the location of different...
on February 11, 2011. Online reports indicate that the leaked beta is a partially functioning developer's build compiled on January 13, 2011 that includes the entire single-player campaign and multiplayer component, but contains numerous bugs, is plagued by frequent crashes, is only partially completed with many placeholders and textures missing and has graphical options that are limited to DirectX 9 high, rather than the very high settings and DirectX 11 which are expected in the retail game. [even after the retail launch, the game still only supports DirectX 9 and there are still only 3 graphical presets, though these have changed their names from the beta and the PC multiplayer demo, from Gamer/Advanced/Hardcore to High/Very High/Extreme]
Crytek released a statement saying they were "deeply disappointed" in piracy, which "continues to damage the PC packaged goods market." Some reviewers remarked that Crytek's statement was strange, considering that no PC demo of the game had been released yet, and moreover, the source of the leaked beta was almost certainly an internal employee (rather than pirates). On February 14, 2011, Crytek released a statement by Cevat Yerli that stated that despite their disappointment caused by the leak incident, Crytek is overwhelmed with the support they have received and they can assure the community that PC gaming is very important to them now and in the future.
Crytek producer Nathan Camarillo called the Crysis 2 game leak a "really ugly version" that the studio did not want people to see:
Downloadable content
The first post-launch downloadable contentDownloadable content
Downloadable content is official additional content for a video game distributed through the Internet. Downloadable content can be of several types, ranging from a single in-game outfit to an entirely new, extensive storyline, similarly to an expansion pack. As such, DLC may add new game modes,...
package, titled Crysis 2: Retaliation, was announced on May 10, 2011. The 'Retaliation' DLC features four new multiplayer maps - Park Avenue, Transit, Shipyard, and Compound. It was released on May 18, 2011 for the PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 and costs US$9.99
On June 14, 2011 a second map pack entitled Decimation was released for the Xbox 360 and PC. It included five new maps (5th Avenue, Chasm, Plaza, Prism, and Apartments) as well as two new weapons (FY71 Assault Rifle and the Smoke Grenade). Decimation was released onto the PlayStation 3 platform on June 28 in North America and June 29 in Europe.
Soundtrack
The Crysis 2 Original Soundtrack was composed by Borislav Slavov and Tilman Sillescu with the help of Hans ZimmerHans Zimmer
Hans Florian Zimmer is a German film composer and music producer. He has composed music for over 100 films, including critically acclaimed film scores for The Lion King , Crimson Tide , The Thin Red Line , Gladiator , The Dark Knight and Inception .Zimmer spent the early part of his career in the...
and Lorne Balfe. A new rendition of the song entitled "New York, New York" by Grammy nominated artist B.o.B
B.o.B
Bobby Ray Simmons, Jr. , better known by his stage name B.o.B, is an American rapper, singer-songwriter and record producer. He is currently signed under the labels of Grand Hustle Records, Rebel Rock Entertainment, and Atlantic Records. His debut single "Nothin' on You" reached number one in both...
was used in the launch trailer.
There have been four official releases of the soundtrack to date. Three albums are available in digital form (via iTunes
ITunes Store
The iTunes Store is a software-based online digital media store operated by Apple. Opening as the iTunes Music Store on April 28, 2003, with over 200,000 items to purchase, it is, as of April 2008, the number-one music vendor in the United States...
and Amazon
Amazon.com
Amazon.com, Inc. is a multinational electronic commerce company headquartered in Seattle, Washington, United States. It is the world's largest online retailer. Amazon has separate websites for the following countries: United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Japan, and...
): The Original Videogame Soundtrack, released on the game's launch date, with 15 tracks; Be Fast!, released on April 26, 2011, with 16 tracks; and Be the Weapon!, released on June 7, 2011, with 17 tracks.
The most complete version, consisting of two CDs
Compact Disc
The Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively, but later expanded to encompass data storage , write-once audio and data storage , rewritable media , Video Compact Discs , Super Video Compact Discs ,...
and 46 tracks, was released on April 26, 2011 under La-La Land Records.
Reception
Crysis 2 received critical acclaim from critics. The reviewers praised various graphical attributes as well as the empowering Nanosuit, but criticized the linearity of the gameplay in contrast to its open world predecessors, CrysisCrysis
Crysis is a science fiction first-person shooter video game developed by Crytek , published by Electronic Arts for Microsoft Windows, and released in November 2007. It is the first game of a trilogy. A separate game entitled Crysis Warhead was released on September 12, 2008, and follows similar...
and Crysis Warhead
Crysis Warhead
Crysis Warhead is a science fiction first-person shooter computer game developed by the studio Crytek Budapest, Hungary, and published by Electronic Arts. Crysis Warhead is a stand-alone expansion game and does not require Crysis installed to play...
, as well as Crytek
Crytek
Crytek is a German video game company founded in 1999 by three Turkish brothers: Cevat, Avni and Faruk Yerli. Crytek's main headquarters are in Frankfurt, Germany, with five other studios in Kiev, Budapest, Nottingham, Sofia and Seoul. The company is best known for developing the game Far Cry and...
's acclaimed debut title Far Cry
Far Cry
Far Cry is a first-person shooter video game developed by Crytek Studios from Germany and published by Ubisoft on March 23, 2004, for Microsoft Windows. Far Cry sold 730,000 units within four months of release. It received positive reviews upon release...
.
One early review of Crysis 2 was published by Official Xbox Magazine
Official Xbox Magazine
Official Xbox Magazine is a monthly video game magazine which started in November 2001 around the launch of the original Xbox. A preview issue was released for E3 2001, with another preview issue for November 2001. The magazine is bundled with a disc that includes game demos, preview videos and...
, which gave the game a 9/10. According to the magazine, it was the multiplayer that tipped the balance. It describes the online experience as "some of the most exciting, angry and satisfying action you'll ever have". The sheer spectacle of the single player campaign also left OXM impressed, and the magazine said the game's Nanosuit "is both massively empowering and intelligently balanced by the need to manage its energy levels".
Gamereactor
Gamereactor
Gamereactor is one of Northern Europe's biggest game magazine and Gaming sites that covers video- and computer games as well as mobile phone-games and indie-titles. It started in Denmark in 1998 by Morten Reichel and Claus Reichel - first years under the name Gamez.dk. The Magazine and Online...
reviewed all versions simultaneously and awarded the game a 9/10, noting that "its design is an exciting contrast to the jungles of the original, and New York is filled with destroyed landmarks, ruined neighbourhoods and the beauty of disaster that Cevat talked about. The amount of detail is insane, and the effects are incredible." On the other hand, the reviewers criticized the story, noting "the dialogue often feels over the top and the characters feel flat and uninteresting. Crytek have clearly been inspired by Half-Life 2
Half-Life 2
Half-Life 2 , the sequel to Half-Life, is a first-person shooter video game and a signature title in the Half-Life series. It is singleplayer, story-driven, science fiction, and linear...
, but they never even come close to Valve's league despite their high ambitions." They concluded that "it would simply be a shame not to call this the best action game so far this year."
A review for the PlayStation 3 version only was published by Official Playstation Magazine
PlayStation Official Magazine (UK)
The Official UK PlayStation Magazine is a now-defunct magazine, launched in November 1995 to coincide with the launch of the PlayStation console. It ran for 108 issues, with the last hitting news stands in March 2004. The first issue sold 37,000 copies...
, which gave the game a 8/10. OPM calls Crysis 2 "excellent - technically strong, visually outstanding and full of welcome fresh ideas." OPMs main gripes are with the shooter's "bungled" opening section, and their view that it takes several hours of "persisting" through "a thorny, poorly signposted and indifferent shooter" until Crysis 2 really kicks off. "Developer Crytek has a deserved reputation for pushing gaming hardware to the brink, and its debut work on PS3 is first-rate," it says. "It doesn't just look good, it looks different. The Manhattan mix of crooked concrete spires and green urban spaces is refreshing after the relentless dark khaki backgrounds of Call of Duty
Call of Duty
Call of Duty is a first-person shooter video game developed by Infinity Ward and published by Activision in 2003. It is the first game in a series with the same name. The game simulates the infantry and combined arms warfare of World War II. The game is based on the Quake III: Team Arena engine...
and Medal of Honor
Medal of Honor (2010 video game)
Medal of Honor is a first-person shooter video game and remake to the original Medal of Honor. Developed by Danger Close, a team within the EA Los Angeles studio, and DICE, it is the twelfth installment in the Medal of Honor series and was released for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360...
."
The Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph is a daily morning broadsheet newspaper distributed throughout the United Kingdom and internationally. The newspaper was founded by Arthur B...
considered that the game heavily borrowed from the Call of Duty
Call of Duty
Call of Duty is a first-person shooter video game developed by Infinity Ward and published by Activision in 2003. It is the first game in a series with the same name. The game simulates the infantry and combined arms warfare of World War II. The game is based on the Quake III: Team Arena engine...
shooters, being much more scripted and linear than Crysis
Crysis
Crysis is a science fiction first-person shooter video game developed by Crytek , published by Electronic Arts for Microsoft Windows, and released in November 2007. It is the first game of a trilogy. A separate game entitled Crysis Warhead was released on September 12, 2008, and follows similar...
, calling the game a "walled in" experience. The Telegraph also criticized the enemies' "utterly atrocious" AI, "problematic" sound, and "uninspiring" multiplayer.
GameZone
GameZone
GameZone is an American multiplatform video game website. GameZone's daily coverage includes reviews, previews, news, hints & cheats, and editorials. Additionally, GameZone offers downloads, a child-targeted website and in association with GameStop, hosts GZGameShop, an online retailer...
gave the game an 8.5/10, stating "With plenty of in-game collectibles in both the multiplayer and single-player modes, as well as solid multiplayer gameplay options, players will find plenty of bang for their buck, and the stunning power of the CryENGINE needs to be seen to believed."
Unlike the original Crysis, which allowed the user to extensively change various graphical settings, Crysis 2 provides drastically fewer options. However, advanced settings were added in patch 1.8 and previously announced DirectX 11 support was also added in a patch, along with high resolution textures. The high-res texture upgrade can be used in either DX9 mode or DX11 mode (the graphics card must have 768 MB or more video memory), but can only be enabled on 64-bit operating systems.
As of June 30, 2011 over 3 million copies of the game have been sold across all platforms.