Feature Type: Hands On

The original Crysis on PC was one of those titles that came along and blew away the competition, setting the bar for future releases. This wasn’t for its standard of gameplay, however, but its unparalleled graphical fidelity. Being one of the first titles to properly take advantage of DirectX 10, it stunned PC gamers around the world with its environmental detail and stunningly realistic dynamic lighting, such as some genuinely breathtaking sunshafts through tree branches, for example.

This visual orgy didn’t come cheap, though, as it brought even relatively potent gaming systems to their knees, mine included (a graphics card upgrade sorted this out, thankfully). Furthermore, despite the generally positive critical reception, some players complained that perhaps too much of Crytek’s focus was on the graphics, with other aspects of the game a bit lacking. The campaign was relatively strong, to be fair, although not massively long and with some inconsistent AI. In my opinion the multiplayer component was the weak point, with a fair amount of ambition but perhaps not enough polish.

The mode had large maps and interesting game types, but I always found it a little clunky, unfocused and imbalanced. My experiences would range from enjoyment to boredom or frustration. Crysis 2 is on the horizon for Xbox 360 and PS3 this time as well as PC, and a multiplayer demo has just been released, exclusively on 360 for now though. The question is, is the multiplayer of the second iteration largely the same, or is it in fact a ‘far cry’ from the original?