Altered
Carbon Broken Angels Yerli starts off by showing a series of technology demos; the main
takeaway is that Crysis 2 does look pretty snazzy (albeit slightly jaggy
on consoles), and that the best eye candy features, like diffused
lighting, are still PC exclusive. Afterwards, Yerli has executive
producer Nathan Camarillo show off a couple of out-of-context gameplay
sequences on the Xbox360 (which looks pretty damn good with a nice
framerate): the first where the player tackles on some Crynet Systems (a
Private Military Contractor that is mysteriously operating within New
York still) soldiers, and a later one where the player has to contend
with aliens.
What stands out in the first demo is how the nanosuit works now. In
Crysis, it had four modes: Strength, Speed, Armor, and Stealth. Yerli
points out that those are decent core abilities, but since you could
only use one at a time, that somewhat limited the gameplay. Sure, it was
possible to do stuff like quickly switch between Speed and Strength to
make yourself run obscenely fast towards someone and then smack them
with a superpowered haymaker, but it wasn't the easiest thing to do. So
in an effort to make things more fluid and intuitive (while still
rewarding skilled players with additional tactical options), the new
nanosuit now features two main modes: Armor and Stealth.
Yerli quips, "There are two things players tend to do: they either want
to hunt, or be a tank -- in other words, be like a 'predator' or a
'hulk.' So the two core abilities you switch between are either maximum
stealth or armor -- you are choosing between invisibility and
invincibility. And those are supplemented by Tactical and Power." The
Stealth mode works as expected: you're cloaked for a limited time (it
also seems like it drains power a bit slower than it did for Crysis),
while the Armor mode seems to completely negate damage on your health
for a short time (though, your energy drains obscenely fast when taking
fire). From what I can tell, it looks like Armor will recharge your
battery pretty fast when you're safe and still.
On Yerli's "supplemented" statement, those are other abilities that can
be toggled on/off even when using Armor or Stealth mode. Power seems to
be Strength and Speed folded into one ability -- Camarillo at one point
activates Power to make a grand leap across some rooftops while cloaked.
Tactical adds a whole bunch of information to your HUD, such as
detailed enemy locations, items, weapon fire, and so forth. So it looks
like, for example, you can either use Tactical and Stealth to map out
and sneak around effectively, or Stealth and Power to quickly strike
while cloaked.
As for the moment to moment gameplay, it looks like Crysis 2 will still
feature (to be overly alliterative) sandbox super-soldier shenanigans.
Crysis was at its best when it provided a map, an objective (usually
"get here" or "destroy this") and the freedom of approach. This first
demo looks promising on that front: The player (who is mistaken for
Prophet, the fellow who disappeared at the end of Crysis; Yerli wouldn't
confirm if you play as Crysis protagonist Nomad) needs to breach a
Crynet Systems security office, and the only exploitable entry point is
the roof of a nearby building. What Camarillo actually does is sneak
through and engage in a series of rooftop skirmishes; sometimes he uses
Stealth and silently takes people down, sometimes he uses Strength to
lift people and objects to toss them around, and sometimes he uses heavy
weaponry to mess up the destructible terrain.
When I ask Yerli, "did he have to sneak around the roof? Could he have
opted to drop down to street level, maybe take on jeeps and tanks down
there, and then scale the objective," he answers, "Certainly. In fact,
the important thing to notice about New York is that it's not just a
typical sandbox environment -- it also features a lot of verticality.
Nathan could have easily jumped down if he wanted to; the choice of
where and how to go is up to you -- elevation is now a part of the
sandbox."
After reaching the entry point, the demo transitions to "sometime later"
where the player gets captured by Crynet Systems -- only to have aliens
interrupt this prisoner transfer. Though, the aliens have changed in
the interim between the two games; instead of marine biology-influenced
creatures that float through the sky and shoot freeze rays, the aliens
are now bipedal foes who wield ballistic weapons. Yerli explains, "Okay,
the [new aliens] are related to the [original Crysis aliens] from a
fictional standpoint, but in terms of gameplay and behavior, they are
completely different. This is a reboot in gameplay terms. For one thing,
I wanted to make them more relatable -- so that's why they have two
legs. You can see two legs, and you have an idea of how it moves and
behaves. Making them two-legged also adds things like animations,
formations, and different A.I. tactics. You can now easily tell when
they're running for cover, and that makes them seem more intelligent as
opposed to when they just float around." Other details I notice about
the new aliens include that they use dropships (at one point, a
mysterious thing zips by, pods fall off of it, and voila, bipedal
aliens!), that alien structures simply burst through buildings, and
besides ones that run and wield machineguns, I briefly spot one that's
essentially a burly mechano-gorilla.
There's still plenty to see before Crysis 2's holiday release. Yerli
describes a "perks" system of sorts, where you can spend earned in-game
currency to add perks/unlockables to your nanosuit, and concludes,
"Everyone who finishes the game should have a slightly different
nanosuit than their friends." There's the multiplayer component that
Crytek UK (formerly known as Free Radical) is developing (Crytek
Frankfurt is still the primary team working on the single-player).
There's more of the supposedly-improved story. Heck, we need to see how
it looks on a fully-decked PC (and conversely, a modest one as well). At
least it's encouraging that the game does run on consoles without
looking too shabby, and that it's looks like it has more sandbox combat
rather than linear tunnel shooting. Now we just need to see just how
much "catastrophic beauty" Crytek puts into the game.
Originally published on 1UP .
