Crysis 2 - Xbox 360

What We Already Know

Crysis 2 takes players from the jungle environments of the first game and sets them down in New York City, which is under attack by aliens. You'll be using your enhanced Nanosuit, and lots and lots of guns to shoot at things and blow them up. With pretty graphics.

What We're Seeing Now

Well, we're seeing Crysis 2 through 3D glasses! Just when I was ready to say that 3D was an annoying fad (except for the Nintendo 3DS, which I love), this game comes along and blows me away with its 3D graphics. This game is seriously gorgeous in two dimensions, but the 3D is very impressive. Rather than going for the 3D that pops off the screen at you, Crytek is making Crysis 2 concave, meaning that the graphics appear to extend into the screen. Instead of shock value, they've gone for realism, and it's most noticeable when you're aiming down the sights of a weapon. You'll feel like you're looking through a window into the world of Crysis 2.

Thankfully, they've dialed down the requirements on the graphic cards, which Crytek hopes will allow a wider range of gamers to appreciate all the work that went into making things so pretty. The systems we were gaming on were powered by 2.6 GHZ Xeon processors, and a NVIDIA GeForce graphics card. Both the processor and the card have been around for awhile, and this wasn't a top of the line system, yet it still performed admirably and looked fantastic. I hate 3D that involves glasses, but I genuinely liked this. If Crysis 2 makes a 3D glasses-needing TV a believer out of me, my wallet isn't going to be happy.

Gamewise, Crysis 2 is much that same as both Crysis and Crysis: Warhead. The Nanosuit is back, although this time they're calling it the Nanosuit 2, but it has modes similar to the Strength and Speed mode of previous suit that are always turned on. However, Stealth and Armor modes are now activated with the knuckle buttons (if you're playing with the Xbox 360 Controller for Windows), and they both have the ability to be toggled into an Auto mode that switches on just as you're about to be discovered, or if an incoming round is about to deal damage to you. The Visor mode allows you to survey the landscape and tag enemies, with the familiar night vision and thermal vision.

Crytek has added non-scripted A.I this time around as well, and the enemies can see and hear you. They're non-systemic, which should allow for smarter things to fight. If that sounds technical, it means you'll have to avoid being spotted or making too much noise. If you don't adhere to that, you'll find yourself in a world of pain. Pain that the nanosuit thankfully eases. You'll also be able to seek cover from incoming gunfire, or in some cases use deployable cover that you can pull up from the ground. Sort of like a big metal plate you set in place.

The story plunks you down in New York City, where Grand Central Station is under attack. You'll have to fight your way inside as you try and find the source of the gigantic mortars pulverizing the city. You'll fight both inside and outside against varying sizes of foes, and there is a fortunate amount of powerful weapons inside the station itself, which you'll need when you face the enormous boss at the end of that area.

Crysis 2 is also coming to the Xbox 360 and PS3 consoles this time around, and it's also getting 3D support on both of those platforms. We played the Xbox 360 version, and after playing it on the PC, that was a bit of a letdown. Don't get me wrong, it's still a pretty game, just not nearly as pretty as it looks on the PC. The 3D works as well (it can be toggled on or off at will, just like on the PC), although it isn't nearly as sharp or defined. We chugged through some framerate and stuttering issues, as well as texture and object pop-ins. The levels are identical between the two systems, but you can't deny the graphics gap between the two.

Crysis 2 looks like it well be a must-buy title on the PC, but I'm still not sold on the console version. They have a few months between now and the November 18 launch date, so hopefully they can tweak some things for console players.