Crysis 2 was a game I originally played back when it came out mainly due to the positive reviews from websites I watched at the time. It seemed like a weirdly intriguing game. It is an enjoyable to play in the moment but it's nothing I consider truly great. It even slowly got me into playing stealth games due to it being an FPS and how cloaking gives you the ability to play it that like the former without needing experience points and buying skills that many games that have you play in different play styles would do before and after. I wasn't super into FPS games like I am now and being exposed to something like this was pretty cool. You got armor mode, fighting aliens and different branching options unlike the CoD games at the time so in spite of being inspired by that series, there was enough to make it different.
It is strange how I have beaten the game multiple times over the years but still just think it's "solid" but nothing more. Upon playing the game again, I have come to realize that Crysis 2 is the gaming equivilant to a solid action movie that can make you think at times but is ultimately meant to be comfort food something like Escape from New York or Con Air.Level design is easily the biggest point of contention when compared to the first game. You don't have the vast open tropical island of the first game. It's either linear shooting galleries like a CoD campaign or wide open squares that connect with a level exit at the other side of it. There is no sense of you going through this vast open area where you getting past guard checkpoint after checkpoint.
There are no secondary objectives and the tactical options are slight branching off paths with some advantages to get leg up over enemies.
At the same time, considering Crysis 2 was on consoles with games like Deus Ex Human Revolution releasing months later, it is rather impressive that there is a 7th gen multiplatform FPS that even gives you more leeway to tackle objectives compared to how CoD was slowly becoming more infamous for how scripted it's campaigns were. The suit powers also made it stood out.
What also help that most of the time is that stealth is a viable option. It isn't deep by any means but within the context of an FPS game where it's about an alien invasion, I'm surprised I'm able to play a good portion of the levels of at all just by using the cloak and going from cover to cover.
There is one unfortunate elephant in the room and it's the AI. It wasn't well remembered even for it's time. Playing it now, it's easy to mock the game for how stupid enemies can act and how their pathfinding can have them run around in places or even walking into walls or obstructions. It's pretty amusing to see. Games like Splinter Cell Blacklist would have far more believeable enemy behaviour but that would release 2 years later. It can also get erratic when you don't get a clear indicator if you are in a guard sightline, you decloak and get spotted. What saves this however is that you can recloak, change position and enemies will have a hard time trying to tell where you are. Line of sight when seen is easy to break, none of that hivemind AI which makes stealth more viable. There is also a stealth kill that is satisfying to pull off.
Compare this to say the Assassin's Creed games releasing prior to Unity and even after, stealth in Crysis 2 can feel more refined and doable by comparison. There is crouching and a cover system here
There are a lot of lots of lengthy shooting galleries against the Ceph midway into the game unlike Crysis 1, shooting aliens actually feels decent enough especially with gooey splash they make upon killing them. It's also great that you can stealth kill them from behind which adds a little more depth. It is scripted like a CoD campaign but considering the alien invasion context, the loud bombast and the fact it takes place in a real city can give the game a feeling of being in a playable version of War of the Worlds. These sections do last can go on for a little too long but there is a fantastic level with "Eye of the Storm" that follows up on that goes back to the wide open boxed sneaking rooms so there is solid pacing in this campaign.
The story isn't going to be thought provoking but it does feel competently presented unlike the first game. Cutscenes provide enough context for levels, characters are decent in the moment and there is even a solid attempt at creating attachment to the villian with Jaccob Hargreave where he helps Alcatraz and the player by extension before betraying you later making it feel unfortunate that it happened. There's is some interesting recontextualized callbacks to the first game with him and Prophet.
Alcatraz can't talk and silent protagonists being the way they are makes me question why Nathan Gould never asks or demands for him to talk early game with the whole mystery that Prophet is dead.
Overall, Crysis 2 is solid action movie in video game form and that's fine.
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