As many of you know, the Crysis 2 multiplayer demo for PC finally went live early this morning. Having had some time to play through the two maps and game modes available as well as grab all the unlocks, here are my thoughts.
To preface, the Crysis 2 multiplayer is nothing like the original's. While not a lot of folks played the original Crysis' multiplayer it was nonetheless highly innovative and somewhat ahead of its time with an unprecedented level of weapon customization and a rather unique control point system called Power Struggle involving capturing resource points to fuel development of super weapons and vehicles for use in taking more points on the extraordinarily large maps.
Crysis 2 is nothing like this. Crysis 2 takes the nanosuit system of the first as well as a more refined and stripped down version of the weapon loadouts, adds the new nano modules (think of them like perks), adds character persistence (with an XP based unlock system), downsizes the maps quite a bit, caps matches at 6v6, and brings back more traditional modes of play such as team death match (called Team Instant Action) and a slightly modified king of the hill (called Crash Site where each hill is a crashed alien pod that only lasts for a short period time before it explodes before a new one is dropped in a random cycle of preset locations). From what we've learned thus far, these two modes seem to be the only ones announced. I would hope for there to be more, or more specifically for there to be a refined version of Power Struggle, but I won't be holding my breath.
Moving on to the more pertinent matters at hand though, the combat and nanosuit integration are quite solid. The guns felt powerful and natural to me and the action fast paced. Some have drawn some comparisons to Call of Duty in terms of the feel of play, but I'd have to disagree. While the fast paced arcade like combat is somewhat reminiscent of the more recent Call of Duty offerings, the combat feels on the whole far more responsive in my opinion and the nanosuit abilities offer fairly drastic changes in play when compared to your more run of the mill shooter arena.
Going along with the nano abilities, the maps shown, Skyline (a large garden and helipad atop New York skyscrapers) and Pier 17 (a ruined harbor next to a seaside mall) allow for a surprising amount of movement and exploration. I'd often find myself sprinting and jumping from roof to roof or climbing up buildings to gain a better vantage point from which to survey the battle or simply to gain the upper-hand in a dangerous game of cat and mouse.
The small team sizes, while at first a little odd, actually work quite well in the arenas Crytek has built. The lower number of players really allows for intimately brutal skirmishes across the varying landscapes of each map. A small scale battle between two or three players will often breakout from a chance encounter in a claustrophobic hallway and then spill out into the open as the combatants seek cover or escape. This dynamic flow of battle combined with the nanosuit powers allow for some fascinating battle scenarios.
With regards to the nanosuit powers, you are given three basic modes: Power (default; lets you sprint fast, jump high, etc.), Stealth (cloaks you while draining energy), and Armor (gives improved damage resistance while slowly draining energy). Each mode relies on a limited energy reserve shown in the bottom right of the HUD. It is highly important in play, especially in multiplayer, to ration your energy appropriately and know when and where to take a break to recharge (standing still or walking in default Power mode recharges energy at a normal rate while crouching seems to increase the recharge rate *EDITOR'S NOTE* We at Sheet 10 refer to this effect in games as "Black Magic Crouch" *END NOTE*).
Smart use of your abilities and unique combinations thereof can really make or break your multiplayer experience. I strongly suggest getting know the ins and outs of each mode and learning to quickly switch between them as needed to help you get a feel for all the possibilities afforded to you by the powers. Being able to quickly switch to Armor to survive an ambush in a small hall and then to Power to leap through a window onto an adjacent rooftop and then to Stealth as you stalk your pursuers on your terms is key to player success.
Aside from the basic nanosuit modes you can unlock and upgrade nano modules for each mode, letting you equip one for each mode. The modules available in the demo seem to act more as perks than true augmentations to your abilities. Such modules available for unlock lower the rate of energy drain for Stealth or Armor mode, quiet your footsteps, increase reload time, reduce recoil, alert you to nearby enemies, or give you more ammunition, among a number of others to be included in the full version. Depending on your style of play these modules may prove more useful than others or simply be nice luxuries to have in a pinch.
Beyond the module system the weapon customization has returned in Crysis 2, albeit with a more limited selection in the demo. You can unlock and use four different of weapons: the Scar Assault Rifle (default weapon), a semi-auto sniper rifle, an automatic shotgun, and a machine gun. While each guns feels unique and formidable, I personally stuck with the Scar for the most part as it fit my style of play better than the others. Along with each gun you can unlock a sight and an under-barrel attachment (as well as a barrel modification but those were locked in the demo).
While the sights are more or less what you'd expect, the under-barrel attachments are far more interesting in terms of gameplay. The one available on the Scar is a decoy hologram, which allows you fire a hologram of yourself running or standing stationary in the direction or place you fire it. At first sight the benefits of such a diversion become plainly obvious. More than once I found myself duped into attacking a decoy while the real enemy dispatched me from a wholly unexpected direction. Once I got my hands on the unlock it became very clear that this was the sort of tool that's easy to use but difficult to master and definitely one that will surely change the way you play the game.
And as you are surely dying to know, the game looks quite good. On PC its clear from the menu that the demo is a console port (it defaults to the lowest resolution, asks you press start to get to main menu, has an aim-assist option and no ability to customize graphical settings beyond choosing one of their three presets), but Crytek really did their work on optimizing their new Crytek 3 engine for the PC. Running an old Intel Q6600 Quad-Core and an AMD 5770 for graphics, it default my preset to Advanced (Gamer is low, Advanced is medium, and Hardcore is high). On just Advanced the game looked amazing and ran as smooth as butter. Changing it down to Gamer had a noticeable reduction in quality but still was far from an eyesore. Cranking it up to Hardcore resulted in a drop in framerate and some nice new details but I was more than contented with my results on Advanced. While it may go a little overboard with motion blur, visor effects, HDR and head bob I nonetheless found the demo to more than live up to its namesake.
On the whole I have to say I was surprised and impressed by the Crysis 2 PC Demo. I wasn't expecting much after hearing about lack of Power Struggle from Crysis 1 and various rumors from the earlier Xbox 360 demo that it played more like a cheap Call of Duty ripoff than the original. I am happy to report most of my worries were wholly unfounded. While the lack of more advanced game modes is disappointing, the new persistent system they are pushing and excellent map design should more than make up for it. However only time and the full version of the game will tell how much staying power its multiplayer actually has.
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