I liked Crysis 2. From the moment the game finishes its installment and prompts you to select the ‘new game’ option, you embark on an exquisitely orchestrated graphical journey that sets out to continue with the unfolding of Prophet’s Journey.

 Without disclosing too much of the game, I will tell you this: the game looks and sounds fantastic, setting the right mood for duking it out in the urban jungles of New York in your new Nano powered suit. The controls are pretty much what you would expect from a FPS shooter, but I would have to argue that for a PC game, I found it more relaxing when played on a Xbox controller. The way the game looks and feels seems so natural that when playing the old one you go like “why didn’t they do this one in the first place?”

 The story is action-packed with minimal loading time between the several missions our new hero undertakes and the small “prizes” along the way that should at least steal smile from you if not more. The game offers pretty much what it was intended to offer: a sequel to an epic tale of a regular soldier given extraordinary powers to perform in a sci-fi setting.

 But as so many of us expected, the game not only provides an epic tale but also massive amounts of online fun with different game setups that gamers got to love and enjoy. The thing that sets it apart from other FPS shooters is, unfortunately, it’s only unique feature, the Nanosuit. In addition, besides offering the suit along with an arsenal of firepower, you unlock new perks and parts for both the suit and your weapon of choice.

 What this all boils down to is a minimum of 8 hours of standard gameplay plus another 50-80 hours online dedicated to unlocking all the content. The fun never ends, and each time you play, you may uncover new things that you might have overlooked when racing to overcome the challenges of the game.

The subtle but noticeable improvement related to the difficulty settings is the level of AI awareness and response; now don't imagine that playing it on ‘easy’ will turn your enemies into target practice but if you really want to challenge your player to use the full range the weapons and suit provides, you will have to go higher than normal settings. For a quick run through the story with minimal resistance go for easy setting, but for the full experience of what the game has to offer you might incline to raise the bar higher than normal.

 One of the drawbacks of Crysis 2 is the mere lack of attention to character development in the sense of…well, you have a hero and you have a story, but your character never plays an actual part in the story; the latter just unfolds before him with no actual perspective of becoming the main character of the game, thus making it difficult for the player to connect with (at least to some degree). The second and last drawback of the game would have to be the small hiccups that attentive players will notice when going after the baddies, but overall, it doesn’t take away from the game.

  As a closing note addressing to the graphical die-hard fans out there, keep in mind that with the upcoming patches for DirectX 11, players will get immersed in an enriched graphical environment that brings the player a little closer to what we expected from the graphical behemoth that was Crysis in 2007.

 Overall, the game accomplishes what it was supposed to do; it is the sequel of an epic game that leads to massive amounts of fun, both online and offline.