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| These streets will make you feel brand new. |
This year will see the first official sequel to that juggernaught of a title, with Nomad being taken off the island, and into the big city. That's right, it seems the aliens have invaded New York, and being the only person wearing a super-advanced nanosuit, it's up to you to stop them... or something like that. The actual details of the story are still under wraps, but what do know is that it's set three years after the events of the first game, and that there will be lots of plot twists and character tie-ins. Prophet should be returning as well.
Crytek's main goal here though, according to the talk we were given during our demonstration, is push the envelope of gaming technology. That's what they claim they did with the original FarCry and Crysis, and this is what they're going to do with Crysis 2. Integral to that is change of scenery from the jungle to the city, as Crytek believes that ultimately there's not a lot of variety in the jungle.
Taking the action to the streets of New York, whilst a big departure for them, will help make the story better they think. One of the key points to come out of this new idea was that, people need to connect not only to the character but also the surroundings. Ultimately, Crytek believed, people just didn't give two hoots about the jungle, but the Big Apple? Naturally you would have already seen the startling resemblance to 9/11, the biggest and only terrorist attack the US has ever suffered.
This potent imagery fits in with Crytek's new way of thinking. This is something that's recent, that may still burn at the back of people's minds, and so setting the game in such a place will help them engage with the story, and care about it more.
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| Hmm, one man vs. the world. I think I've seen this movie... |
Another integral focus is the nanosuit, and how it's evolved due to feedback from Crysis 1. 'Nanosuit 2.0' as it's called basically caters to the three main gaming styles that gamers developed for the first game - Predators, Assassins, and the One-man army. Using a combination of powers and extras you could use in the original, these distinct player styles helped focus the development of the new suite, so now they're are enhanced and easier to emulate.
The way Crytek have done this is to add a more official 'modules' system to the game. By unlocking a variety of different modules, you can enhance your suit in many different ways. The suit is going to become as customizable as your weapon from the first game, and will include all of the classic powers from the original, along with a few extras. The nanosuit is the core to the IP, so expect a lot of love and attention to go on it.
There was still no hands on opportunity available unfortunately, but we did get to see the developer play around with it. Combat still seems a bit clunky, but the environments are very interactive. You can pick up almost anything it seems and use it as a weapon. We got to see some of the modules in action as well, like stealth, but they seem to have a limited time span. It's unclear how linear or open the game will be at the moment, but I guess we can look to its predecessor for some guidance there.
Overall, it looked okay, but better yet, it looked promising. Even at this early stage, you can sometimes tell if a game is going to go places, or flop. I think we can safely say "so far, so good" with this one, although a lot can go wrong in a few months, or even a day. As always, you'll have to wait and see.
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| Combat has a lot of potential, but also has a fair ways to go yet. |
In hindsight, it may have been a slight mistake to boast on how Crysis 2 is going to push the envelope again when the code we were shown was only pre-alpha. Granted, it was Xbox 360 code (and they've already said how that will need to be scaled back a bit), but it didn't look like it was going to be pushing the envelope, and it was still using their new engine. With any luck, future code will start to really show off what CryEngine 3 can do.
We're still many moons from a more complete picture of what Crysis 2 has to offer, but already the hype machine is starting to churn. If the writer isn't slagging off other games, the looming shadow its predecessor will be a constant reminder of the 'standard' Crytek have to meet... and that's not even taking into account the competition. Concessions are already starting to come through though, for example the hardware requirements won't be as heavy, comparatively speaking. One thing's for sure though, you can tell that the team are really passionate about this, and really want it to do well. Passion doesn't always translate into success, but it's a start.
