Crysis 2 multiplayer demo, quick blast…

While I’m on the subject of game demos today, I might as well mention the Crysis 2 demo too. Sadly, it’s only a multiplayer demo, and really, who wants a fucking multiplayer demo of a predominantly single player game? I don’t care about leveling up my persistent character before I get the full game, I’ll do it when own the full thing. I want to shoot some aliens in Times Square first! Anyway, with my frustrated mini-rant over, read on for a quick opinion on the demo gameplay itself.

Despite my complaining about the demo being focused on the multiplayer instead of on the single player, I have to admit, I’m very impressed so far with the visuals and the gameplay, as far as a sequel to such an awesome original game goes. Though the controls are a little bit funny (jumping doesn’t occur until about half a second or more after you hit the button, making evasive maneuvers slightly too sluggish for my liking) the graphics are still very nice, and the guns look really cool, and feel like they really pack a punch when you unload a clip into somebody.

The most important thing we want to know about though are the super-suit/super hero powers that made the first game so damned fun to play. Now, I’m fully aware that most games water down certain aspects of single player content (Red Dead Redemption) to make it more appropriate for online play, so it’s probably just because of that – but all of the powers you get a hold of, at least at the very start of your online career in Crysis 2, have a very short period of activity. Hitting the cloak button will keep you invisible, but only for about 5-10 seconds, and if you run around or move at all you aren’t very difficult to spot. I know this because I killed a bunch of folks trying to sneak up on me, from the front. Idiots.

The other powers I had a blast with were the power armour ability, which increases your damage resistance (though in the frantic action taking place in multiplayer was almost entirely useless, as I didn’t feel like I took any more shots before dying the same amount of times as I was without it on), the super speed, which is essentially just sprinting quite fast, and only really good for trying to escape. But my favourite power, right after invisibility, was the jump-smash move (I forget it’s real name, but it makes no difference) which allows you, whilst in mid-jump, to hit the ‘B’ button, sending you slamming down into the ground, complete with your own mini-micro-shock-wave, killing anybody you hit in the process. It takes about a second too long to recover from though, and so if you do manage to pull the kill off, you are left vulnerable to attack from any other sucker who comes along and tries to get a dig in.

Obviously, I’m saving any judgment for when the game is released, but in all honesty from what I’ve seen in the demo, I can only hope that the single player gives the player a lot more freedom to take their time with stealth kills, or go absolutely nuts with the super jumps and super slam attacks (and hopefully, super throw-people-against-the-wall) against the pitiful weaklings who don’t all have suits just like you, like the chaps in multiplayer. Most of the fun for me will be knowing I’m playing as a bad ass, unstoppable mofo (yes, I said mofo) where the hundreds of puny men I get to mow down and punch into space will not be able to do a damn thing about it.

See trailer. Play demo. Go: