Crysis 2 Review (8/10)

"Oh, look at those graphics!" That was my first instinctive thought upon testing out Crysis 2, the sequel to a science-fiction game that famously broke hundreds of computers trying to run it upon its release in 2007. In all honesty, rating it has probably been one of the hardest decisions I've had to make this year so far: the visuals are absolutely stunning, the game-play is as tight as first person shooters have ever been and there's some great voice acting, but on the other hand there's nothing here to distinguish this from other FPSes, the enemy AI is shoddy at best and the plot employs every known sci-fi twist in the book to try and keep players interested, making for an unbalanced game that people are either going to absolutely love or absolutely despise. As I said, the storyline is just about as predictable as you can get, focusing on Force Recon Marine Alcatraz's use of the iconic Nano Suit to take on the human forces desperate to gain a hold of it and claim victory over the invading alien menace that threatens to spark Armageddon; admittedly most FPS games do lack oomph in their plots nowadays, but the likes of Bulletstorm (8/10) prove that you need to put some sort of heart and humour in now to shake things up, and Crysis 2 fails to do that on a major scale. But, oh...the graphics, how luscious they are. Environments, weapons, characters, they all look damn close to how they would if they existed in the real world (and some of them even do!) and for some people that near-perfect visual flair will be the sole reason to buy this. Trouble is, how do you choose between graphics and game-play? I know for one that if a title looks visually rubbish I'll be less likely to buy it, but ultimately I think the experience of playing should come first and so would advise you to give the demo a go first and see if there's enough innovation (there is a good deal of it, surprisingly, just still nothing massive) present here to sustain your interest in the FPS genre. If so, this is more than worth its £40 asking price; if not, fair enough.