I have always read from discussions and reviews of this game how badly the "console-ization" of the gameplay detracted from it but had never experienced the game myself. Turns out, people were correct for criticizing this game at the time. I can't imagine what the super fans of the first game felt when they finally got their hands on this.
Crysis 2 is set a couple of years after the first game ends and continues with the big question "what's up with all these alien guys?". Turns out they are all over the world! I'm going to be honest, I wanted to comment on the story more, but I can barely remember anything as I was so bored by the end.
Now look, there is nothing wrong with linear games, I don't have a strong preference one way or another. If a game does linear or open well, I'll like it. But think a bit about what you actually do here: You are fighting two sets of enemies for the entire game, CELL soldiers (humans) and alien guys. These two sets have a couple of notable enemy types, but most of the mooks you gun down are just hitscan grunts that punish you for peeking out of cover while you lay rounds into them. There is just not a lot to this; some of the suit powers return from the first game (Armor, "Speed", and Cloak), but neither the arenas you fight in, nor the guys you shoot demand anything special from you. You CAN cloak and sneak up on one dude, take them out, then sneak over to another guy and so on, but then you're just taking way more time than is necessary to clear out areas. Cloaking, ambushes and hit and run tactics just don't feel worth it here, when in the first game you have a lot of foliage and terrain to break line of sight and re-engage. You could also go guns blazing using armor mode in the first game, but you were slow and exposed and enemies were generally smarter. In Crysis 2, armor mode has no real downside since you have to plow through enemies all the time anyway. Situations do not depend on much beside what weapons you have with you and even then, it's only a choice between short- and long range.
The gameplay just doesn't ask much of you. In my opinion, tons of first-person shooters from this generation and the next suffered from this thing where devs had to design encounters in linear games in a way that most people can get through them eventually, accounting for all kinds of skill and experience levels. The principle is completely fine, of course, I don't care for keeping people from finishing a game and letting only skilled people beat it, but I suspect that most people that played this casually will not be able to recall most encounters since you most likely just gunned everything down quick. There is a fine balance to encounter design where you want to streamline things so people can enjoy themselves, but surely you need to throw people some curve balls to make people try new approaches and engage with all of the elements of your combat system.
Still, I would not call the game "bad", it’s just very disappointing to me. The game does have very strong art direction! Maybe a little too gritty, but I liked the whole "disaster movie" thing they went with, even though I prefer the pretty landscapes and global illumination tech of the first game. Oh and the sound direction is really cool. I liked that a lot, actually. It's nice as hell.
I finished it in around 8 hours on hard mode and I can't say I recommend it. I tried to like it, man. I really tried.
Crysis 2 is set a couple of years after the first game ends and continues with the big question "what's up with all these alien guys?". Turns out they are all over the world! I'm going to be honest, I wanted to comment on the story more, but I can barely remember anything as I was so bored by the end.
Now look, there is nothing wrong with linear games, I don't have a strong preference one way or another. If a game does linear or open well, I'll like it. But think a bit about what you actually do here: You are fighting two sets of enemies for the entire game, CELL soldiers (humans) and alien guys. These two sets have a couple of notable enemy types, but most of the mooks you gun down are just hitscan grunts that punish you for peeking out of cover while you lay rounds into them. There is just not a lot to this; some of the suit powers return from the first game (Armor, "Speed", and Cloak), but neither the arenas you fight in, nor the guys you shoot demand anything special from you. You CAN cloak and sneak up on one dude, take them out, then sneak over to another guy and so on, but then you're just taking way more time than is necessary to clear out areas. Cloaking, ambushes and hit and run tactics just don't feel worth it here, when in the first game you have a lot of foliage and terrain to break line of sight and re-engage. You could also go guns blazing using armor mode in the first game, but you were slow and exposed and enemies were generally smarter. In Crysis 2, armor mode has no real downside since you have to plow through enemies all the time anyway. Situations do not depend on much beside what weapons you have with you and even then, it's only a choice between short- and long range.
The gameplay just doesn't ask much of you. In my opinion, tons of first-person shooters from this generation and the next suffered from this thing where devs had to design encounters in linear games in a way that most people can get through them eventually, accounting for all kinds of skill and experience levels. The principle is completely fine, of course, I don't care for keeping people from finishing a game and letting only skilled people beat it, but I suspect that most people that played this casually will not be able to recall most encounters since you most likely just gunned everything down quick. There is a fine balance to encounter design where you want to streamline things so people can enjoy themselves, but surely you need to throw people some curve balls to make people try new approaches and engage with all of the elements of your combat system.
Still, I would not call the game "bad", it’s just very disappointing to me. The game does have very strong art direction! Maybe a little too gritty, but I liked the whole "disaster movie" thing they went with, even though I prefer the pretty landscapes and global illumination tech of the first game. Oh and the sound direction is really cool. I liked that a lot, actually. It's nice as hell.
I finished it in around 8 hours on hard mode and I can't say I recommend it. I tried to like it, man. I really tried.