Jay’s Internet Log

Have you ever had a nightmare, then woken up just to fall back asleep and have a great dream? This is what it feels like to play Crysis 2 just a week after the atrocity that is the multiplayer portion of Homefront. Seriously, Homefront feels like you went out to dinner, ordered a roast duckling, but instead was served a boiled pigeon. I may sound harsh on Homefront, but I am very disappointed in a game that feels more like a beta build than a finished product. I’ll give it another try once KAOS patches what they think is wrong with it. I doubt it’ll be anywhere near to what I think but I’ll give them another chance.  Crytek knows how to make a solid game, and they do so without trying to one-up the big shooter names. Sure, Crysis 2 could be classified as a mix between Halo and Call of Duty, but it doesn’t feel like it’s aiming to take down either one. It plays wonderfully and is a lot of fun.

I originally purchased Crysis 2 on PC, and let me tell you that it looks absolutely amazing on that platform. The next day I picked it up on 360 because of a few things. First off, on PC the game requires you to input a code every single time you want to play. It’s a bug and there has since been an update to fix this, so hopefully it will work the next time I try. The real problem I have with the PC version though is that I can’t figure out how to use the mouse and keyboard for controls successfully. I have a Razer Onza hopefully arriving sometime today, so that should fix this for me, but I’m just not good with this type of control mechanism. It’s a personal problem, not one that Crytek has anything to do with. They’ve done a great job.

I’ve played the first few chapters in the single player campaign on both PC and 360, and about 4 hours of multiplayer on the 360. It’s a solid, beautiful-looking (on both platforms) game that has a lot of depth. Upgrades are well thought-out, and the sound is engineered masterfully. The designers really seem to know what FPS gamers want. The melee system works well and isn’t too over or under powered, I can have my tactical button layout, and there seems to be little to no lag whatsoever, even though signal strengths vary. It’s all just really well-made, and I’m glad to play a game that feels this way. Crysis 2 is the first game of 2011 that I feel has a “Game of the Year” feel to it, and I’m not even a quarter of the way through its campaign. The multiplayer is customizeable like most FPS games that release these days, but it doesn’t overdo it in suplerfuous customizeable options such as how I want my face to be painted up. If you like the taste of first person shooters, do yourself a favor and eat this duckling up.