The Xbox-exclusive Crysis 2 demo is out on 360 - and the early verdicts are coming in thick and fast.
Twitter is ablaze with gamers giving their early reviews and, as you may expect, they're something of a mixed bag.
Here's a handful:
"The Crysis 2 controls sucks balls as always, that kills every new fps. Only a 60fps game like COD will do it for me" @davexphoto
"Crysis 2 is the best-looking multiplatform game, so far. It even rivals a lot of 360 and PS3 exclusive games, graphics-wise! Amazing!!" @theplotlessplot
"I dunno about Crysis 2, feels abit meh." @ Ve3tro_Reece
"Just played the Crysis 2 demo. It's fun but the pop up is the worst I've seen on a 360 so far." @CharlieGrimes
So, a fair few grumbles, combined with some outlandish praise - particularly for the game's visuals (which were never really in doubt).
But forget the Tweeters of this world. Let us know what YOU think. Have you downloaded the Crysis 2 demo? What are your early thoughts?
Comments
51 comments so far...
gogo65uk on 25 Jan '11 said:
I had a quick stab at it at my brothers place about 30 minutes ago (in 2D and 3D) the graphics weren't too bad at all but the 3D wasn't as much of a benchmark as gobs**te at crytek said it was. The animation looks pretty poor though to be fair.
mogel94 on 25 Jan '11 said:
Its still loading for me after 2 hours now, looking at this it probably isn't worth it
edit; Worth it definately, even if finding a match takes a while. Also for some reason it reminds me of Crackdown if it were made by the Killzone developers
a3HeadedMonkey on 25 Jan '11 said:
Yeah, it's pretty good.
pmantis on 25 Jan '11 said:
Yeah its getting pretty good. Been playing it for about an hour so far and the best thing so far has been the nanosuit powers. The graphics are nothing special, or the 360 version is pretty medicore compared to the others.
hollywood111 on 25 Jan '11 said:
Cue PS3 fanboys lying that they have playd it & its nothing special... ohh & they are not gonna get it & Killzone 3 will be better!! FTFW!!!>11..... c0cks.
Conkers on 25 Jan '11 said:
I've just played it, thought it was absolute toilet. Halo Reach, for me, is a million times better than this
JFC2294 on 25 Jan '11 said:
I started playing after having to wait 2 hours to download i started playing had nice look the graphics seem to be alight multiplayer feels like cod with superpowers unlike crysis 1 multilayer and i found to easy just use stealth and and a shotgun
Imaduck on 25 Jan '11 said:
Honestly, I think it's utter s**t. The weapons are horrible. Hitboxes and inconsistancy in killing suck. Melee is better than any of the guns......... We had one guy with strength I presume, or maybe not. But anyways, he just ran in circles stealthed and 1 hit killed everyone with his pistol over and over and over. If you saw him, he sprinted and 1 hit meleed. Um what? The "power" weapons are insane. The turret thing is like automatic and 1 hit kill .........
I honestly don't know what the hell they were doing. They succeeded in ruining the Scar, making the controls even clunkier, combat even worse and abilities less useful and more clunky. They basically did the total oppoiste of what they needed to do.
Sorry Crytek, but damn, what the hell were you thinking? Anyways Crysis was never about multiplayer.
kirankara on 25 Jan '11 said:
Mheh, not sure yet, still doesn't seem as good as bc2 halo reach or blops to me. Controls seem off to me and I'm sure hit detection bit off too. Doesn't seem a world beater to me, just a halo wannabe crossed with cod, and no real distinct identity or aspects that set it apart.
Anarion on 25 Jan '11 said:
Isn't it obvious? FPS and console, bad combination.
sibear on 25 Jan '11 said:
Wow! Not seen any issues like that. Found the controls to be pretty smooth and easy. I haven't come across any balancing problems. It looks good, not great but good. I thought it played too fast at first but persevered and slowed my game down and it got easier. I like it but I don't know if it would hold my attention for long without seeing other game types. For being on top of a building the map is a great design.
Imaduck on 25 Jan '11 said:
Anarion don't be so tunnel visioned. It's not the console's fault, the mechanics are clunky. Some games are easier to control on consoles.
StokedUp on 25 Jan '11 said:
what was that all about?
shogunreaper on 25 Jan '11 said:
Don't see why they didn't release this on the psn aswell. Guess they are trying to make the 360 version look superior.
kirankara on 25 Jan '11 said:
How did u turn this into a fan boy war.??? Games not great and I own both systems and don't think I'd care if I was ps3 owner about this game at all. Kz3 can't be any worse than this game.
MANYOO4EVA on 25 Jan '11 said:
I don't believe any of the comments above saying it's crap as I've been following the game through development on gaming sites and in magazines who've actually played it and everyone of them says its great. The above comments are those of PS3 fanboys who are p*ssed that the XBOX is the lead console of the game and that there machine won't deliver a decent port cos of the PS3's bad technology.
Imaduck on 25 Jan '11 said:
Grow up Manyoo. I don't even own a PS3, I do own the original 2 Crysis games. The demo is pretty damn poor.
AoRpwna on 25 Jan '11 said:
I just spent 2 hours downloading the thing n wen I got into a match it froze at the loading screen, I turned my xbox off,turned it back on n searched for another match n the same thing happened. On the top of that it took ages to find a match, it's seriously p**sing me off!
sweatyBallacks on 25 Jan '11 said:
I played it and the graphics are f*cking sh*te.
No I'm lying I haven't played it.
sweatyBallacks on 25 Jan '11 said:
It's coming out on PS3 too you strawberry.
STE MO on 25 Jan '11 said:
Crysis 2 demo is like injecting Halo reach on steroids.
This is what I'd hoped for with reach but without the killstreaks.
Imaduck on 25 Jan '11 said:
Is it a Beta or a demo? That's what's getting me. Beta - ok cool, could be worse. Demo of full thing - oh crap.
kirankara on 25 Jan '11 said:
Clearly an idiot as I own ps3 and 360, and waiting aged for this , the reason u think it's rubbish isn't even about the graphics , it's simply as the controls are clunk and unresponsice, and the hit detection is way off . U can shoot people ten times and then die, the kill cam shows them hitting everything but u and u still die.
sinpher on 25 Jan '11 said:
The graphics and level design are amazing, but gameplay is mediocre. I have experienced few technical faults, only a problem with hit boxes. The actual gameplay, melee is over-powered, and I found that gameplay was too fast to involve any tactics other than run and shoot on sight. Spawns seem to be broken to the extent that being spawn killed can happen multiple times every game. Nothing new, but praise given to the level design, if the other levels are like this as I would expect, in the aspects of size and detail, it is sure to be a good game, but nothing special, unfortunately.
JD_Method on 25 Jan '11 said:
Liked the first game but wasn't too impressed with the demo. I think I would enjoy it a lot more with keyboard and mouse controls, and in single player. It had very good textures and lighting effects though.
alan666 on 25 Jan '11 said:
downloading it now
rick on 25 Jan '11 said:
I like it, cant wait for the full game.
On the first few plays I didn't really like the feel of the game and all the modules etc were a bit overwhelming. I had another revisit and took my time getting to know all the extras and really started to enjoy it.
Its really important to understand the armour and stealth modes as your game can live or die by them. I think they add a bit more strategy to the game.
I do find accessing grenades a bit of a pain in the neck but am getting used to it.
LoGAReTM on 25 Jan '11 said:
-.- didn't expect so many negative reviews from the ppl
well, we can't know who tried it for sure .... i'm still downloading 9 Hours to go....
one of my friends tried it and he liked it very much.
i'm not downloading this to just play it as a game ... it maybe gives u a feedback of what ur console can do cuz from where i'm standing this high graphic game on the land of the consoles is considered victory !
Codename21 on 25 Jan '11 said:
First impressions - it's an utterly pointless demo.
Controls are unfathomable.
Menus are utterly confusing.
Don't understand, how even with armour switched on I can be killed in 1 shot and I unload a full clip into someone with no affect...
Have only played 1 game so far. Got 0 kills and 7 deaths just cos I was trying to figure out what the hell to do.
The Skyline map is utterly confusing also.
....basically not a good first impression Crysis. Oh dear..
lordirongut on 25 Jan '11 said:
I'm underwhelmed.
The graphics are nice, but I really think the 360 has done better. The gameplay totally lacks polish, I thought it might have been just me but reading the internet it seems there are a lot of connection issues happening. It just lacked the pace and fun factor of Call of Duty or the polish and precision of Halo or Killzone. All in all, a poor showing.
monty_79 on 25 Jan '11 said:
The first 2 or 3 games I played were a bit overwhelming and I didn't know what was going on. After persevering with it, i thought it was pretty damn good. The level is interesting if a little small and it has nice graphics. I like the way you can create custom classes too.
Not sure if it is going to take me away from Battlefield BC2 as the online king. Will have to wait for a review but hopefully the single player is going to be class.
If any developers are reading this, someone please just release a brilliant campaign mode for an FPS. I'm not asking much, but nothing has come close the Half Life 2 or the original Halo, and these games are both almost 10 years old, now!
JD_Method on 26 Jan '11 said:
Alright, forget my last post. I'm actually rather enjoying this now. Crytek released a little tutorial video and after watching that and learning how to play properly it's actually quite fun. So check out the video and then come back and play it. You never know, you might like it.
Darkwaknight on 26 Jan '11 said:
Really dissapointed!! Sniper rifles take 3 hits to kill WTF???? mele is overpowered and laggy as (although demo fogive this) Graphics are ho hum!! certainly no where near the single player and the suit powers and controls just seem like a poor COD copy (echoed by the kill streaks being MW2 ripped).
All in all an genuine materpiece of an original (Single player) game has had a high profile sequel brought out with a Mw2 MP added in on speed!! they say imotation is the biggest form of flattery but this more like a bootleg copy!!
Crysis is NOT MW2 so why try, make a Multiplayer game that is more to the type. like the Splinter Cell MP using stealth and shadows, allowing the mass speed or power or cloaking to be countered by the other team more i.e. Cloak = heat Vision, Speed = Counter moves and so on. This is more like the boss stormed into the Development room last year and went Give Modern Crysis 2 online and boy they delivered.
Will wait till the full game comes out and more MP games are shown and reserve judgment till then but early signs not great!!
altitude2k on 26 Jan '11 said:
Have to say I'm rather disappointed. The graphics are pretty good, but not as good as the trailers we've seen. I'd actually say they were on a par with the latest CoD engine, which I'm surprised by given Crytek's track record for engine-building, and their chat about how good their engine is. And don't give me any of that "it's a beta" rubbish...I've never played a beta where the final release looks noticeably better. I'm hoping that the graphics in the campaign are a lot better, though, which they should be in a more controlled environment.
And speaking of CoD, that's pretty much what the experience felt like - which to me is disappointing as I was hoping for something different to most other games. Sure there's plenty of armour toys, but there was a distinct lack of feedback from the controls, like the floaty feeling you get in CoD. Shooting people was also like the CoD feeling you get that's like shooting through polystyrene.
It's just my taste, I reckon, because I never got on with the shooting gallery that is CoD multiplayer. But for me, the campaign will have to get some serious praise for me to consider this a purchase now.
The Sandbag on 26 Jan '11 said:
I really enjoyed it! It needs some fine tuning (such as fixes to the texture pop up, that was kinda bad) but otherwise, just make it a bit more of a smoother experience.
craiglackenby on 26 Jan '11 said:
I thought it was ok, nothing special, the graphics are probably MW1 or Bad Company 1. I can certainly say they're not better than Uncharted 2 as some douche at Crytek said, he actually said Crysis 2 looked better than Uncharted 2 in it's alpha stage ROFL
Here's another one, "Unreal Engine couldn't handle Crysis 2" 
If Crytek got off their high horse and maybe got on a Blackpool donkey with a shot of steroids then people would take them more seriously, but going round making the bold statements they keep making they need to really deliver. I'm sure the SP looks better but I don't think it blew many (if any) console exclusives out the water in alpha stage
The tech demo's they showed early on don't represent a game being played on 360 or PS3, not without AI and explosions or even MP. Speaking of mp I think BC2 and Dice's Frostbite engine p**s all over Cryengine3, for a start Crysis has 12 players with ok graphics, laggy controls and suit powers... BC2 has 32 players pretty decent graphics, quads, jeeps, Tanks, Helicopters, Jet skis AND fully destructible environments. Now you tell me what is so special about Cryengine3, it's no where near what they make it out to be hence 9/10 people are not satisfied with it.
I'm going to play it more and see if I can actually get the 7 kill streak, so far I've got 5 and that was stealth mode camping with the shotty
sonic_uk on 26 Jan '11 said:
Best multiplayer demo I've ever played. I'm surprised at how well they've managed to map all the controls onto the pad, and they just, work. Good job. The graphics are top notch with some beautiful effects thrown in, and look as though they push the 360 to its limits. It's nice they left the ranking system and early upgrades in there so there is more of an incentive to keep playing beyond initially trying out the demo gameplay, and I can see myself playing this until the full game comes out. As for this...
Tell that to the thousands/millions of people(including me)who happily play Fps on their consoles every day. And why are you commenting in a 360 demo thread if you love your PC so much? Sour grapes perhaps? (sigh) I knew this thread was destined to be invaded by the snobbish Elite before long.
Black Mantis on 26 Jan '11 said:
I had a quick go and thought it was ok. I'm not really a fan of Shooter MP modes, just the campaign. The graphics are great and the controls were fine as well, just hope the campaign turns out well.
kaptainkiely on 26 Jan '11 said:
I played a few games last night this is my opinion.
im used to cod a lot so this was strange at first but after a while controls not too bad.
graphics to me looked very unpolished i expected a lot better tbh
took a while to find a game but this is a demo so wont judge too much
BUT THE MELEE CANT FOOK OFF!!!! ruined the whole game for me last night after dying like 5-6 times in a row from it i turned it off may give it another chance today.
bit of a let down tbh
spinoir on 26 Jan '11 said:
Really enjoying it. Takes the best bits of cod and Halo, mashes it together nicely. From Halo you have the shields,cloaks and jumping(which is exaggerated the longer you hold the jump button down), but all at a cost of power management.
Where it differs from halo..... your not trying to gun down a f**king team of gummie bears and it doesnt take half a day to drain a players shield!
From cod it has good xp system, which whilst not as deep, it seems more focussed than cods. Also has a good amount of unlocks, attachments and perks but fewer weapons. Obviously being a beta it has some connection issues and problems when trying to find games but hopefully these issues will be dealt with.
The melee does need sorting, but the slide is sick.
nolim on 26 Jan '11 said:
I very much got the impression that it didn't really know what it wants to be, on one hand it wants to be a squad based shooter in the vein of BFBC2 except it doesn't bother with proper squad mechanics and the suit powers upset any 'realistic' feel, on the other hand it wants to be Halo with its armour powers, except without the pace and frantic action that game provides. Add to that the lack of Vehicles and it's all starting to look a bit half hearted.
TOKEN on 26 Jan '11 said:
Until i play the single player game its hard to comment on graphics,as online can loose effects and textures and with C3 already for the making your not going to get the best Crysis 2 could of been.
For me im ready for xbox 720 because the 360 still use's DVD's its old spec and im feed up of seeing rehash after rehash with little or nothing new to offer.
The 2 big games for 360 i would say at this point before 720 is Battlefeild 3,DUST 514 which will carry on into 720.
spaced73 on 26 Jan '11 said:
graphics good,plays like a quake game,which is not my type of shooter.
Bryanee1983 on 26 Jan '11 said:
When it works it works well. I've had a good few games and using the camo/amour takes some getting used to but when you get the hang of it it becomes alot more fun. But the controls arent great, the aiming needs sorting as does the horrible input lag.
I also hope they sort out the servers before release.
liveswired on 26 Jan '11 said:
Point one - its online beta, two months from release -
Point two - of course online graphics won't be as good as in single player - but look at the wider picture - gamers are playing in large interactive environments unlike COD etc. Consoles aren't as powerful as PCs.
Point three - so what if the look speed isn't super quick? I absolutely loved Killzone 2!
Point four - this is cripling the 360 and will show how much better the ps3 is!
Bryanee1983 on 26 Jan '11 said:
lol - Couldnt keep the last fanboy comment to yourself?
kirankara on 27 Jan '11 said:
The fanboy comment was just daft lol
Ps3 and 360 versions will be similar but with differences.crytek said that the cryengine 3 runs better on both consoles in various respects , according to strengths of each console . Anything that's alpha transparency heavy or uses shaders, the 360 will be stronger as it outperforms ps3 in this respects . Ps3 outperforms it in other ways .
Unless they can sort out lag and controller input lag, it's a steaming turd on both consoles though , at least in mp.
I own both consoles and would ideally get it on ps3 though as prefer the dual shock over 360 controller
Imaduck on 27 Jan '11 said:
Why are some people convinced that the PS3 absolutely eats the 360 on all grounds? They're basically equal from memory. The PS3 has a little more of x and the 360 a little more of y. The PS3's key advantage is the blu-ray. A half decent PC would eat them both, literally. So what the hell is the point in this stuff, remind me?
It's not about what it has, it's about what people get out of it and how accessible it is.
kirankara on 27 Jan '11 said:
Answer, is because people believe what they want to believe I think. 360 fanboys are equally as bad and have no understanding half the time as to why ports don't turn out well traditionally on ps3 , and think it's cause consoles rubbish, when in reality it's due to cost and effort in optimising multi format titles on two very different architectures. Ps3 was designed to use spus to do hard work and minimise gpu use, and 360 has powerful gpu, so when they just throw it all at gpu, ps3 port ends up sucking.( black ops is great example as they had to reduce resolution and frame rate too hit as their wasn't bandwidth available to maintain these )
Ps3 in theory has more power in some regards(not huge amount more and still has it's weaknesses too ), but only exclusives usually get best out of ps3 as they supported by Sony and it's finest devs and plenty of money .
afunk on 27 Jan '11 said:
ive been looking forward to this demo, however ive only managed to join 1 game as the game just freezes on the loading screen and i have now given up even trying. as for the 3D, it looks ok, but there is so much ghosting/crosstalk it is annoying. ill give it a try on ps3 when it comes out, but up to now i am not too impressed, i feel a single player demo would have been a better choice. roll on the kz3 demo next month:)
PS3_fannyboy on 1 Feb '11 said:
Hmm, I do remember the devs saying they were getting more out of the PS3...
Hence, if the 360 version is good then I'll be holding high hopes.