Crytek invites a revolutionary masterpiece in Crysis 2

“Crysis 2″
5/5 Pitchforks
Released on March 22
PC, PS3, Xbox 360

Photo courtesy of Crytek Press Relations

It’s 2023 and New York City is in shambles. The Statue of Liberty’s dismembered arm lies crumbling in a crater, for not even its torch can pierce through the darkness brought on by devastatingly powerful aliens who swarm throughout this capitalist hallmark with a sole objective of annihilating mankind.

This is the cataclysmic setting in which players find themselves throughout the phenomenal experience that is “Crysis 2.”

Teetering on the edge of photorealism, the graphically surreal sequel follows the escapade of Alcatraz, a force-recon marine who is synergized with a cybernetic combat armor known as the Nanosuit 2, and his death-defying task of saving New York City from the terrifying grasp of an alien invasion and a lethal plague epidemic.

Within the first 10 minutes any hopes of a continuing storyline utilizing “Crysis’s” main character, Prophet, are dispatched by having the original cybernetic soldier adorn Alcatraz with the Nanosuit 2 and then promptly commit suicide.

Nevertheless, author Richard Morgan delivers a stellar, but slightly confusing, plot within “Crysis 2” that mainly focuses on the importance and power of the Nanosuit 2.

While the storyline is above average for a 13-hour-long first-person-shooter game, its immersion could have been vastly improved with more development of the Ceph invasion and Crynet organization.

For the first couple hours of story development, Alcatraz is tossed into the pit of a flaming New York City as he eludes the Crynet agency by skillfully slaughtering hordes of C.E.L.L. soldiers in order to rendezvous with conspiracy-loving computer geek Nathan Gould.

During these two hours campaign developer Crytek GmbH’s allure of creative violence is clearly signified with “Crysis 2’s” unique combat featuring the Nanosuit 2 and staggeringly brilliant artificial intelligence.

Unlike the typical first-person-shooter, Alcatraz isn’t able to pull a “Rambo” and attack his enemies head-on, expecting to survive unscathed. Attempting an action movie firefight results in an incredibly swift demise because every enemy works together better than the most polished military unit by quickly seeking cover, aggressively flanking Alcatraz and silently slipping behind him for disastrous coordinated assaults.

The only hope of survival is properly employing the powerful Nanosuit 2’s modules that bestow inhuman strength and speed, invisibility, and increased armor; however, regardless of what Nanosuit 2 ability is used, expect an enemy team to remain one step ahead of Alcatraz.

Luckily, New York City is an urban jungle made for the cybernetic war suit and provides a variety of explosive toys and destructible cover necessary to turn the tide against perhaps the most impressive artificial intelligence in video game history.

However, even though the enemies are incredibly intelligent, once dead they still on occasion partially glitch into walls or hover in mid-air.

Despite the AI’s frustratingly impressive fighting abilities and occasional bug, several exploitable weaknesses appear by thinking outside of the box.

A personal favorite is turning invisible and throwing three gasoline-filled barrels into a crowed roadblock of seven C.E.L.L. infantry. Once the enemy unit deployed small squads to search for who threw the barrels, I attach C-4 to a taxi cab and then kick it from the top of a parking garage directly in front of the opposing forces, shoot the car’s fuel tank, and watch the glorious explosion of elimination.

Best of all, this action is doable in the multi-player as well.

Multi-player developer Crytek UK, the team formerly known as Free Radical who is recognized for the “TimeSplitters” series, created the best combative first-person-shooter multi-player available by incorporating the best aspects of the “Battlefield,” “Call of Duty,” and “Halo” franchises.

Every player is adorned with a Nanosuit 2 with most of the abilities found within the campaign, which allows everyone to have a unique combat style and revolutionizes the combative first-person-shooter environment.

A player who prefers assimilating with New York’s towering scenery as a sniper may choose to cloak, sprint and then climb to higher ground for the best possible vantage point, making Swiss cheese out of adversaries along the way. While perhaps someone prefers the personal connection of close-quarters combat will activate the sprint function, grappling rails and performing incredibly epic parkour feats until he or she is close enough to fire a well-placed slug into the target’s head.

Nearly every problem found within the previously released multi-player demonstrations has been fixed. The final product does, however, leave the maximum armor function feeling a bit underwhelming, leaving players to rely more upon stealth before engaging in combat.

The game features 12 very well made multiplayer maps, five unlockable preset and custom load outs, six different game modes, 20 Nanosuit modules, 50 ranks and 200 dog tags.

Even though “Crysis” still feels more at home on a PC, by pushing the technical limits of the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360, “Crysis 2” provides a wider audience of players with an incredibly rewarding campaign and remarkable combative multi-player that will awe players as a revolutionary adventure. Splicing “Crysis 2’s” fantastic gameplay with its surreally beautiful graphics sets this title up to be 2011’s game of the year.

Reach the reporter at tdmcknig@asu.edu

'Bulletstorm' excitingly redefines destruction

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Hands-on with "Rift: Planes of Telara"

Travis McKnight

|The State Press|

(Photo courtesy of Trion Worlds, Inc.)

“World of Warcraft” is the epitome of an online video game. It has millions of dedicated players, meaning its revenue is arguably insurmountable by competitors. However, a new game is directly challenging Blizzard Entertainment’s giant.

Developed by Trion Worlds, Inc., “Rift: Planes of Telara” is an upcoming massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) that is designed for experienced massively multiplayer online gamers and includes several unique evolutions to the online gaming scenario. With enough of a following behind “Rift,” it may pose a formidable threat to “World of Warcraft.”

In many ways, character creation in “Rift” is more analogous to a tabletop role-playing game than most other MMORPGs. “Rift” allows players to choose from four different base classes: Cleric, Mage, Rogue, and Warrior, each with seven unique talent specialization sub-classes.

By the time a player has acquired enough experience points to progress a character’s first eight levels, they have chosen three specialization sub-classes and are able to harmoniously play them all at once, creating a uniquely synergistic character.

After each level is achieved, the player is given two talent points to distribute as her or she feels fit between the multiple trees. However, once the character reaches level seven, only one point is given per odd level and two for every even level attained.

The story of “Rift” initiates with inter-dimensional time travel and planetary destruction. Two factions, the Guardians and the Defiant, are in dispute over how to save the world from an impending Armageddon by Telara’s supreme adversary, the death god Regulos.

For the seven hours I explored what “Rift” had to offer in its early adventure, I allied with the Defiant, playing a swift attacking Rogue with my sub-class talent specializations being Blade Dancer, Assassin and Rift Stalker.

One of the first things I noticed about “Rift” is the simplistic user-interface configuration. The game’s user-interface is well created, showing health and energy bars, combination points and status ailments hovering directly above the player’s character and target.

This allows more focus on combat and situational awareness than watching health bars and status modifiers does. Furthermore, at the low levels in which I played, “Rift’s” built in user-interface gives enough customization to avoid third party add-ons.

After the game’s introduction to character control, quests, looting, and combat, I was teleported back in time through a machine that fissured in the time-space continuum with the purpose of defeating Regulos.

Soon after my physics-defying journey ended, I noticed “Rift’s” golden attraction — tears between dimensions known as planar rifts. When a rift is opened, hordes of elementally inspired creatures whose purpose is the obliteration of Telara are summoned.

The best and worst aspect of the rift portals is their unpredictability.  I had logged out for thirty minutes when everything was peaceful, fairly green and sunny. Once I logged back in, a death rift gate had been opened in the sky only yards away from where I stood; lighting strikes flashed across the sky and hordes of enemies attacked the friendly non-player-controlled characters immediately surrounding me. Caught off guard by the sudden change and overwhelming opposition, I ended up meeting a hasty demise.

Once dead I was given the options of “Soul Walk” and “Respawn.” “Soul Walking” allows a player to merge with a character’s body after 15 seconds has passed; however, during this time lapse, players are able to walk as a soul to wherever they would like, spawning at their current location once 15 seconds has passed. Choosing “Respawn” transports a player’s soul to a spirit healer. At this point the character must run to wherever his or her body is rotting to continue exploration.

A welcome change to many MMORPGs is that the soul receives durability damage upon death instead of instead of armor and weapons. This reduces combat effectiveness by 10 percent each demise, but a healer can repair the soul for a fee. Overall, the healer’s fee is vastly cheaper than repairing individual inventory items.

With “Rift,” Trion Worlds, Inc. has effectively created a fun and worthwhile alternative to “World of Warcraft” and the slowly improving “Final Fantasy XIV.” However, “Rift” may befuddle many novice MMORPG players with its over-zealous class customization, complicated move rotations and rampant situational awareness experiences.

“Rift: Planes of Telara” is scheduled to release on March 1, 2011.

Reach the reporter at tdmcknig@asu.edu

Original 'The State Press' Article