Crysis 2 reviewed on PC by Allan Walsh

As a long time fan of Crytek I have enjoyed everything released by the developer so far. So I've been waiting with baited breath for Crysis 2 to come along and blow my socks off, but now the game is here I have some rather mixed feelings about it.

From the minute you install the game (which seems to take an age) and have your first perusal of the front end, something doesn't seem right. The dreaded "press enter to start" phrase flashes on a rather pointless screen and takes you to another with a few of the usual options displayed, but wait - where are the rest of the graphics options? Surely only being able to change the resolution and having a choice of high, very high and extreme settings is wrong? This is the PC version after all and PC gamers are notoriously twitchy about setting games up to the Nth degree.

You see, Crysis 2 runs on CryENGINE 3; Crytek's proprietary multiplatform engine and is apparently a state of the art achievement. That's okay for the lowest common denominators - in this case the consoles - but is a slap in the face for a someone with a gaming rig worth a small fortune who was expecting, at least visually, a step up from Crysis Warhead.

Now don't get me wrong - it still looks very good: gorgeous in fact, but you won't find many high resolution textures from the previous games, just ones designed for hardware with much less graphics memory than the average gaming PC. Crytek is certainly trying to muscle in on Epic's dominance of the market with Unreal Engine 3, and it shows.

But I digress. Let us start at the beginning. After a rather badly directed starting sequence (I found the majority of the flashback vignettes to be confusing drivel) you are dropped in to an interesting but rather slow series of events in New York that stay rather so-so for a good hour or two where you are up against a private security force. Gradually things start to pick up, both in terms of pace and graphical content and before long you are up to your nano-protected neck in alien gizzards.

Once the action hots up and you get used to the streamlined easier to use nanosuit you'll be sprinting through the brilliantly realised New York city. You'll be leaping around like an urban armoured acrobat, sneaking around in the dark with your nanovision heat sensing visor, sniping from on high, battling along the streets in armour mode with guns blazing or stealthily ending alien threats with an up close and personal knife to the neck. Nobody said saving the world could be done without getting your hands dirty but it can be fun.

Use of the suit's abilities seems much more balanced this time around and using stealth mode to sneak about isn't as easy as before due to the fact that moving too close to enemies whilst cloaked will cause them to investigate and possibly fire off a few rounds in your direction. Unfortunately the AI in Crysis 2 isn't always so intelligent and can suffer from many terrible gaming illnesses like stuck-in-sceneryitis to mood swings like I don't care if you're shooting me in the back, I'm not turning around to talk to you. At times there are so many people and aliens trying to end your life that you don't notice, or even care, if there is a glitch here and there.

As I said before, the graphics while not as detailed up close as I would like on the PC, are very striking, well designed and all run remarkably smoothly compared to the original Crysis. The sound is top notch, with a variety of great effects complimented beautifully by the sometimes creepy, sometimes rousing music. The main theme is outstanding and everything works well when the action hots up, getting the adrenaline flowing.

The physics work perfectly, allowing a nice level of detail when destruction rains down from all directions; the level of which rises as the game progresses, giving the player some amazing ruined vistas.

This level of graphical and physics related detail is also present in the very busy multiplayer levels. They really are very pleasing to look at. So much so that I found myself killed a number of times as I stared around at the maps. Each one is well designed and has a ridiculous amount of areas to hide and levels to snipe from. The verticality of the cityscape setting has been well used to bring a different aspect to the multiplayer battles and added to the nanosuit's abilities (which thankfully drain energy quicker online for a more even playing field) every fight is different, every corner potentially hiding a cloaked opponent.

I know many people will hate the changes Crytek has wrought (including no map editor for PC) but I suppose from a business standpoint it makes more sense to create a multiplatform game creation tool. At the end of the day, if you can play through the pain barrier, get used to the changes and get into the real meat of the game, both online and off, you will have a very rewarding experience. Playing in The Big Apple, however bruised it seems on the outside, is a sweet fruit that should be savoured instead of thrown away with the rubbish.

Crysis 2 is out now for PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.