Crysis 2 Review

Clever AI and grandiose open levels allow you to play at your own pace. The outstanding experience is marred by AI bugs and poorer scripted levels.

Posted by Ben Thomas on April 4, 2011 - 6:01am EST

The game lets you flank enemies in cloak, take a sniper position from above, borrow a vehicle, take a mounted weapon or just go guns blazing. Enemies will hear your cloaked footsteps but you can move through distant cover spots to avoid patrols. Armor allows you take serious damage, more than the prequel, making you feel like a one man army. If you use the powers incorrectly, shooting in cloak for example, energy drains and you are extremely vulnerable. This balance between superiority and danger is great on Veteran difficulty. Sadly there usually isn’t much room to take vehicles far so they tend to be more useful as gun emplacements. The visor helps plan your moves when you approach a combat area, what happens next is up to you.

Don't expect a full recovery from this virus

You are the gameplay designer in Crysis 2. You decide when it’s time for stealth kills, when to sneak through patrols, when to snipe or when it’s time to just shoot anything that moves. On higher difficulties stealth is much easier than guns blazing but both are rewarding. My preference was to move through the front lines cloaked taking out a few lone stragglers. When I was sure I knew where all enemies were I would begin my aggressive attack from behind. It didn’t always go to plan. Sometimes a sniper rifle was needed to punish a CELL solder who had mounted a gun emplacement. Other times I would attack to disrupt enemy patrols and hide to watch their reactions. Not all the levels leave the options up to you, with some unnecessarily trying to script action with Marine allies tagging along. In one section I was having difficulty with the AI soldiers so decided to just sneak past them without firing a single shot.

The AI is undoubtedly the biggest strength and weakness in Crysis 2. Usually the AI is incredibly adept throughout battle making suitable adjustments to your actions. They spot dead bodies and move to investigate the area. They dart quickly away from thrown grenades and know where rockets have been fired from. If they see you they will move to your location and scout around looking for your hiding place.

The ground based Ceph operate in a similar way to the humans but they are far more aggressive and much more nimble in the multi-tiered areas. The Ceph also have a shockwave that brings you out of cloak if you are nearby. They tend to scout further and are usually better at anticipating where you are. Some of the Ceph really make you work for your kills. The AI does have a range of real issues that occur even on Veteran difficulty.

Why hello there my red eyed alien friend.

AI routines have problems spotting you, climbing on objects, respawning and even seeing through solid walls. Early on enemies could see through objects that should have blocked their view. More than a few times the AI would get stuck, walking against a wall or object, trapped in a loop broken only by player interaction. Some CELL soldiers, and even Marines, respawned into the battle right in front of my eyes. Times Square had particularly horrendous respawning in a sealed off subway entrance. Humans also liked to climb on objects during battle or even group up unnaturally. Occasionally enemies would just stand still instead of going on their patrol routes. The experience would be almost perfect if the AI maintained the relatively high standard. The problems don’t end with the AI though.