Generic sci-fi shooter with simple and monotonous gameplay. Unworthy of being called "Crysis 2".
Crysis 2 is very linear compared to its predecessors (Crysis and Crysis: Warhead). There are often few options other than "fight enemies with armour mode on" and "enable cloak and sneak by", both of which get boring fast and feel underwhelming.
The main feature of Crysis 2 that was pressed was the new version of the nanosuit. It comes with different modes to its predecessor: the cloak main mode which allows you to sneak by enemies or stealthily get up behind them and stab them. There's also the armour mode, which allows you to absorb a few bullets and explosions while playing. You're also given nanovision (a heat-seeking vision which allows you to see enemies that are cloaked or in the dark) and a tactical visor which allows you to highlight enemies and ammo caches from a distance. You're also given the ability to sprint and punch things hard and send them flying, although these are hardly powers.
Even though these powers may sound awesome, they're really not. Due to a very limited amount of suit power, cloak will only last a few seconds if you're moving. So, you'll often find yourself ducking behind cover and not being able to get to the enemy while cloaked, so you'll likely just avoid fighting them alltogether (which isn't good in a FPS). Armour mode allows you to absorb maybe 40 bullets before running out of energy. As with cloak mode, you'll end up hiding to recharge and not actually using the suit power as it was intended. Nanovision and power punches/kicks have few uses and you probably won't use them often. As sprinting requires so much energy, you probably won't use shift either.
Suit powers in the original Crysis games allowed you to feel like a superhuman and allowed you to pull off awesome feats. In Crysis 2, suit powers feel underwhelming and are more likely to make you feel like a kid in a special suit. Due to the weakness of the main suit powers, Crysis 2 fails to break the generic mould of moving cover-to-cover which is seen in almost all shooters these days, which is disappointing.
The enemies are also poor. This is partly due to poor design but also due to horrific AI. Enemies are often easy to walk up to and grab, even when you're uncloaked. Humans seem better scripted than aliens and will use cover to their advantage sometimes, but they're still easy to kill. Aliens are screwed up though. Grunts will jump all over the place and spaz out at cover points. They'll often charge into you then stare at you when you get back up and afterwards as if they don't know what's going on. They're also often accurate from any range and can see you when you're cloaked. Larger aliens are also dumb, walking around back and forth in clear paths.
The boss battles are also poor. most of the time you're just fighting a pinger as a boss, and they're simple to kill with enough rockets. Pinger battles get boring and predictable fast. The final boss battle is also terrible, and it's probably the worst I've ever seen. Compared to the 400 ft long alien battleship you fight at the end of Crysis, it feel like Crytek's giving you the finger.
Weapon customisation could be better, too. You'll often not find or need to customise your weapon, partly because you will often be changing weapons for others as you run out of ammo, but also because it's often not necessary as simple weapons can kill most enemies except for tough aliens, and there's always C4 or JAW's around to kill them. The best weapons in the game are also very uncommon and you won't find ammo for them. Suit customisation is also strange and unneeded, as most of the time you don't need them as cloaking barely improves. The nano-catalyst thing also makes little sense. Pouring alien sludge into your suit gives you power? What.
The story isn't much better either. It is terribly predictable, especially the ending. It explains so little and makes you wonder what's going on and why. The characters are generic and uninteresting. One of the characters even says that they'll explain what's going on "later" and Nathan Gould's explanatory speeches keep being interrupted. Crytek's waving that finger again.
The graphics are nice, as is to be expected. However, they feel more-or-less the same as Crysis' graphics, just in New York. The physics have been scaled down massively and things aren't as destructable as they should be. However, a lot of settings that are normally available for PCs aren't there, and there's no DX11 support. There's a lot of console references, such as the "adjust your TV setting until you can see this man" at the start.
The sounds are probably the best part of the game. most of the sounds are great and the echoing effects are awesome. The soundtrack is also good, but nowhere near as good as Crysis Warhead's soundtrack was.
Finally, multiplayer feels uninspired and is very generic. It feels more like Halo: Reach or CoD than what it should be. When I heard that the guys who made Timesplitters were making the multiplayer component, I was excited, but instead I found a mediocre generic shooter multiplayer.
In conclusion, Crysis 2 isn't what it should be. The gameplay is monotonous and linear. The new suit is a disaster: it makes you feel like a child instead of a superhuman. The graphics aren't nearly as good as they should be, considering that the series is (was) known for being at the peak of technical excellence. The story makes you wonder a lot and a lot of questions are left unanswered. (what happened after Crysis? Why has everyone forgotten Lingshan except for Gould and Prophet? What happened to Psycho and Nomad? What happened to North Korea? Why is New York infected? Why is the US letting a private firm lockdown Manhattan? Why are the Ceph in NY different to the Ceph in Lingshan? What happened to the alien tech from Lingshan? Why's there no gauss rifle?). Crytek does show you footage from Crysis, but doesn't explain any of it. They're waving that finger, again.
This is a decent sci-fi shooter for consoles and generic audiences. This is a terrible shooter for anyone who's played Crysis/Warhead, for PC gamers and for anyone who was hoping for something different. Crytek seems to have dropped the innovation and creativity that Crysis was. Crysis was about playing the game how you wanted to. It was about being free for a lot of the game. It made you feel superhuman and important. Even the characters and story were better in Crysis, and those were nothing special. It seems that Crytek has abandoned innovation and instead gone for mainstream shooters. It's a shame to see that such a magnificent game that was a representative of what a true PC game should be has been succeeded by this console-ported disappointment. Don't get me wrong: this would be a good shooter if it was the first in a series, although it would be eccentric. It's made a lot worse simply by the fact that it's Crysis' successor.