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We are in an age where most first person shooters live or die based on their multiplayer credentials. It's wrong, I know, but Crysis 2 not only delivers with a decent multiplayer, but also a lengthy and impressive single player campaign. However, it's not without its faults.

As we knew from the various screenshots and footage before release, Crysis 2 looks amazing. It’s easily one of the best looking games I've seen on a console. Allies and enemies alike are very highly detailed, environments are expansive and the water effects are great in most areas. That said there are some waterfall areas that when approached are just, shall we say odd and look a bit flat. The lighting in particular is very nice, during daytime portions of the game you can almost feel the heat of the sun upon your face (with your visor open of course), which in-turn makes the missions in the dark more tense. Daylight seems to make enemies have the eyes of hawks though; they will be able to spot you from what seems like miles away. This is annoying, yet doesn't detract from the experience too much.

Gameplay wise, Crysis 2 uses the standard FPS controls, and the guns are fairly typical of the genre. The game sets itself apart by giving the player a Nano-suit, which allows abilities such as invisibility and enhanced-armour, not at the same time though; it allows players to approach each mission with a number of different options. Players can advance silently with stealth, picking off enemies one-by-one, or go in with all guns blazing, stopping only to recharge the nano-suit’s energy, which runs out pretty fast, so fast in-fact that it could get infuriating for some. You’d think with such high-tech equipment, they would slap a solar-panel on the suit's head or something. The suit also allows players to ‘tag’ objectives, weapons and enemies on their map. Often tactical options will become available, and thus be displayed on your HUD; you will be shown areas where a certain ability should be used, or where an ideal sniping spot may be. Well this is what it tells you. I myself found this option pretty pointless, but you may find it helpful.

Enemy types don’t vary much throughout the game unfortunately, so once you find a tactic that works for you, you will end up sticking with it for the entire game's length. Personally, I played through almost the whole game using just my stealth, only switching to armour-mode when I was pinned down, which to be honest didn't happen all that much. The maps are large enough that sneaking around and popping behind cover is actually a viable option, which is good, because the game’s difficulty curve really is all over the place. Because there are so few enemy types, the difficulty is based on the number of enemies. This is not really a bad idea, and it does progress well at times, but there are quite a few instances where the game seemed to be easy then became a lot harder in a matter of moments. The game does introduce larger boss type enemies throughout different areas, but you will find the game simply throws the same enemy at you over and over until it becomes no longer a real challenge, more of a chore.

The human enemy AI doesn’t help matters much either. You will find enemies switch from mega-alert-sensitive death-machines to stumbling idiots. In one particularly intense firefight, I was running from cover, making a futile attempt to dodge enemies who seemingly had the sniff on me from everywhere. I ran into a room to grab ammo when I spotted an enemy soldier running against a wall. He didn’t even notice me until I had unloaded half a clip into his back; meanwhile, other enemies saw right through the whole “invisibility” thing I had going and proceeded to pump me full of lead from a block away. Frustrating? Yes, very. Alien enemy AI is certainly a significant improvement over the human enemies however, with them leaping around buildings and attempting to flank you.

As far as story goes, there isn’t one really. You start the game on a submarine just outside New York, which inevitably gets attacked as soon as one of the Marines on board makes a statement about there being no military activity above. You get rescued by a mysterious soldier and pulled ashore. There, you are given a high-tech nano-suit, courtesy of the hero from the first game, I think that's who he is anyways. After all, it’s a console sequel to a PC-only game, which I never played, so a quick plot summary of the first game would have been nice, but it was not to be. So, you’re now thrown right into the middle of a story with no real context. As such, new players to the series like myself will probably feel a bit lost throughout the campaign. The game doesn’t offer a whole lot of closure either, and it certainly leaves room for a sequel. While Crysis 2 probably could have had a tighter and more accessible story for us Crysis newbies, it doesn't really detract much from the overall single player gameplay which, despite its frustrations, is lengthy, absorbing and highly satisfying.

That being said, let’s get to the multiplayer. Crysis 2’s multiplayer consists of the typical game-types spread over a variety of maps. Players can customize their soldiers, including choosing different ‘suit modules’ that affect different aspects of your suit such as stronger armour, or less recoil. Levelling up does not take much time, as experience is easy to come by. The experience system in Crysis 2 does set it apart from other big-name shooters. Players gain overall experience that helps them level up by kills, sure, but they are also given experience based on how much they used the suit’s abilities. You can level up in 3 specific areas: armour, stealth and power. Also the suit adds a great dynamic to the traditional deathmatch mode. Walking around in the open uncloaked is usually a bad idea, and if you happen to get shot without armour it’s over. This leads to having to plan ahead and conserve your energy use throughout the match, often leading to some very tense moments when you have to take on multiple enemies all of a sudden. I found that if you encounter more than one enemy at a time on your own, you don't stand much of a chance. So unless you’re one-on-one, 90% of the time you will die. Or maybe this is just down to my poor FPS skills.

There isn’t too much variety in weapons, they all handle the same really. While this does mean that players will invariably become more accustomed to their gun, it also means that unlike a Call of Duty-type game, it really isn’t worth picking up another player’s gun to change things up because 90% of the time everyone is just using the basic machine gun. For Call of Duty players the killstreak system will be a welcome feature - the way in which it is implemented will not be. Players cannot choose which killstreaks they want to use; rather, they are specific to each map. Killstreaks are awarded at three, five and seven kills, but only once you've collected the downed enemy’s dogtags, a mechanic that will no doubt infuriate new players. There is nothing quite as enraging as having gunned down a number of opponents using energy wisely and pinpoint aiming, only to be taken out from behind by some other guy across the map before you can collect your killstreak. Dogtags remain on the ground for a very short time after you die, but given the size of the maps it’s really not worth it to trek across the map to pick them up. Again, this is frustrating - however it must be said there is a perk you can unlock to grant you the dogtags automatically upon an enemy kill.

At the end of the day Crysis 2 is an excellent FPS and easily one of the best available on consoles. The levels are huge and the single player enemies are unique to the genre if extremely repetitive. The weapons do lack in variety, but this is definitely rectified by the number of attachments that you can equip at any time.

To sum up, the story is non-existent and almost irrelevant - it will make no sense to newcomers to the Crysis series like me. But all-in-all, despite its frustrations and faults, Crysis 2 really is a great game, and the positives outnumber the negatives by some distance.

Crysis 2 Gets An Official Game-Pad 8.5/10