The much awaited Multiplayer Demo for Cryteks upcoming FPS Shooter “Crysis 2” has been released today for the PC. Crysis 2 is the sequel to 2007’s highly successful FPS “Crysis” and 2008’s “Crysis: Warhead” which set a whole new standard for graphics.
The original Crysis was exclusive to the PC but required high hardware requirements to run on decent playable settings. Crysis 2 is a Multiplatform game which will be released simultaneously on the PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 on March 22nd, A Multiplayer Demo for Xbox 360 has already been released previously.
The Beta build of the game was also leaked on the PC a while ago which dealt a big blow to Crytek but still the hopes for Crysis 2 are very high and their response to the leak was that the Beta comes with a lot of bugs and those who’ll play it will ruin their experience in the final build of the game. And that despite the leak they are dedicated to serving the PC community in the future and won’t let this leak hinder their hopes for future games on the PC.
You can download the Demo here. Its 1.56GB in size.
Impressions:
The Start of the game shows a long briefing on the different Maps and Mode playable in the Demo and also a little intro to the Nanosuit 2.0. After that you’ll be taken straight to the login panel where you can create and login to your account (Managed by GameSpy). It took a while to create the account maybe because the server’s were under heavy load. But login in time was short and from there you can see a list of dedicated servers available and also filters which work really well.
There’s In-Game Chat and Voice Chat is also available and keys can be assigned to both of them from the control menu. The pings were fine and were not a huge hindrance on my online experience.
Gameplay:
Crysis 2 Demo has two gameplay modes to offer, One is the Instant Team Action (Team Deathmatch) where teams of 6 vs 6 players will be put up against each other and fight their way to score the most kills, and the first team to reach a fixed number of kills will be the victor.
The other game mode is Crash Site (Capture and Hold) where Alien drop ships will land on random locations and teams will have to fortify near them to obtain the objective while fighting against the other team so they can’t secure the drop site. There are two maps available in the game, Skyline which is based on the rooftop of a huge building with indoor areas too and the other map is Pier 17 which is an outdoor map with limited cover areas.
The game offers unlockable items and weapons which you can unlock by points obtained after you level up. There are only a limited number of weapons to be unlocked in the Demo against the full arsenal at your disposal which will be available in the final game.
The NanoSuit 2.0 offers two combat modes, one is cloak mode which is best for sneaking and other is armor mode which can be used when in tough situations or between an intense fight scene. Among other new additions to the game you can now perform a “slide kill”, which can be performed while running this lets you shoot enemies while you are sliding and it gives you a better chance of survival in games, this is almost the equivalent of “drop shotting” in Call of Duty. And last but not least the "Power punch" which can deal a MASSIVE AOE (area of effect) damage to enemies within the radius of the hit this is a great weapon to combat objective campers or targets unaware of your presence and you want to show off your skills (or just plain humiliate your friend).
The multiplayer has a lot to offer but one thing which is lacking in Crysis 2 is the ability to change the suit mode from the mouse through the circular menu In Crysis 1, that was one of a kind switching mode though the new game also offers a similar type of customization menu but the mouse control was better in my opinion. Hopefully this will be in the final game and will be available for the Multiplayer and Singleplayer.
Graphics:
Graphics is what Crysis has always been about and the new game won’t disappoint you in terms of the visuals it has to offer, although the demo runs in Direct X9 but still it offers some of the best visuals you’ll ever see in a PC game. You can just imagine how the final build will look which will support Direct X11. Considering that the BETA is running on lesser tuned graphics we can expect a much more enhanced and polished look in the final game, while the current graphics are VERY impressive the final game will definitely look more stunning if not breathtaking.
The game offers limited graphical configurations with only a handful of options to set the game graphics on “Basic” – “Gamer” – “Advanced” or “Hardcore” settings and of course the usual option to choose screen resolution and V-sync.
The frame rate was averaging in 40-50 on 1920x1080 and Hardcore settings on the following setup:
• Intel Core i5 750 @ 3.7Ghz
• Silicon X Power 4 GB DDR3 Rams
• MSI Geforce 1GB GTX 460 Cyclone Oc’ed
The setup is pretty decent if you look at the specs and is enough to run the game on 1080P but as the final build will come with DirectX 11 so the FPS may take a huge hit and we will have to lower the details in the final review. I also noticed that there was little to no difference in Advanced and Hardcore graphics settings.
The new CryEngine is very well optimized and Crytek has said that the new engine will give a huge performance boost even with the even lowest end of hardware. So this time unlike Crysis you won’t need an SLi / Crossfire setup to play the game on optimal settings and neither will you have to sacrifice graphical options for framerate. The new CryEngine is simply marvelous while the PC and the console version will use different versions of the CryEngine Crytek has made it official that the PC version will be the best looking from all the platforms.
Screenshots:
No review is complete without the pics so we took a couple of screenshots showing the real capability of CryEngine3 and the visuals it can provide in the new game. Every screenshot is 1080P HD and you can view them in fullscreen by clicking on them:
Conclusion:
While being a demo the game has a lot to offer, with Loads of rooms for weapon customization so that you can customize your weapons to your liking for use on the battlefield, great graphics, 2 very interesting game modes and the power of the Nanosuit in the multiplayer this is definitely a game I am looking forward to enjoy.
The Demo is a must download for FPS fans and it can also prove useful in benchmarking your PC and see of its capable to handle the next gen graphics which the CryEngine 3 has to offer.
6 vs 6 teamplay was a hit for the gamers but it ain’t such a big issue hopefully the size of teams will definitely be increased to accommodate larger teams for larger maps along with the multiplayer of the game you can also enjoy the Visuals and the uniqueness of the gameplay.
The Nanosuit 2.0 can turn the tide of battle within seconds at any time of the game, whether it’s the beginning, the end or even mid way through a match the nanosuit will definitely help turn the tables in your favor once you learn how to use it properly, with amazing powers such as the sneak mode ability and in combat armor mode you can save yourself from the even the toughest of situations. Wearing the suit really does have its advantages and this is the unique thing about this game which no other FPS has to offer hope fully we can expect a fantastic multiplayer game from Crytek in the final game.
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Further Reading
