It seems to have become common practice to talk about what Crysis 2 doesn’t do. Certainly, we at the Newb Review could follow suit… ah, what the hell, let’s do it. Crysis 2 is a game that doesn’t (at time of writing) support DirectX 11, it’s a game that is far from bug-free, a game that doesn’t deliver world-changing AI, and a game that, at its core, doesn’t make much, if any, narrative sense. What you’re left with following such a salvo of detractions should be little more than a failure to deliver on the game’s grandiose intentions; the ruins of an FPS to contrast with the gleaming cityscape architected by the hype machine.

Yet the game that rises from the dust remains amongst the finest first-person shooters of this generation, and not simply because it’s one of the finest looking console games ever made. Read on to find out why.

In truth, I wasn’t expecting much when I sat down to start reviewing Crysis 2. After all, once the hype has died down, PC games have rarely translated well to their console counterparts without fundamentally reworking, handicapping, or lobotomizing the experience. My first hour or so with the game did little to change my mind. Certainly, the game looked stunning, but there was something ‘floaty’ about the experience. The bullet-sponge human enemies seemed to be soaking up far too many rounds for my liking, whilst my own super soldier felt fragile, vulnerable and not so super at all. Not a great combination.

A few hours further in however, and Crysis 2 had me hooked. Being of PC pedigree, this game demands head-shots, and provides the player with plenty of tools to go about getting them. Refreshingly, every weapon in the game is useful, albeit some are optimal at a very limited range, whilst others seem able to perform at almost any. Every weapon in the game is also customisable on the fly; with silencers, scopes, extended magazines and grenade launchers to be attached, switched and removed whenever you can spare the moments needed to do so. Acquiring a new modification will unlock it for the rest of the game, so it’s worth picking up that silenced shotgun for a moment, even if you don’t want to use it then and there.

The first hour or two was a bit painful to say the least.

You wouldn’t be much of a super soldier if you were reliant on firearms alone however. Like its predecessor, Crysis 2 puts the player in control of Some Bloke In A High Tech Suit, and this suit can be upgraded. Initially providing increased strength, durability and agility (kicking cars around is an early perk), your bread-and-butter abilities are a cloak and an armored shell. By the end of the game you can supplement these with a variety of additional toys, unlocked with what amounts to the blood of your alien enemies. Ranging from the ability to see through an enemy’s cloak to the ability to sprint and super-jump for longer, it’s a system that does well to empower you later in the game without crippling you at the start.

This range of upgrade options might lead you to believe that you can play Crysis 2 in a variety of ways, with the suit being customisable to support your approach. This is certainly true to an extent. Each area in Crysis 2 is a sandbox of sorts, and enables players to sneak up on unsuspecting enemies for stealthy melee kills, snipe from a distance or simply move from cover to cover, guns blazing. That said, there’s a definite ‘right way’ to play Crysis 2, particularly if you want to get through the toughest difficulty setting, and ultimately the suit augmentations are biased towards this style of play. I won’t spoil the discovery for you, but play like you’re Predator, and use your cloak and armour abilities in a see-saw fashion, and you’ll soon get the hang of things.

Play around and have fun with nanosuit abilities and you'll have A LOT of fun.

The artificial intelligence is inconsistent at best in Crysis 2. Enemies advance, flank, retreat and move to investigate suspicious noises or activity, but they will also hide on the wrong side of cover, run against walls, collide with each other and sometimes seem to perform a jittery dance on the spot. The Pingers – bipedal alien tanks – also have an irritating knack of facing you for a significant amount of time, irrespective of whether you’re cloaked. Particularly grating when their weak-point is on their backs.

Dodgy AI is supplemented by some glitchy moments of gameplay. Towards the end of the game, a bridge you must cross has enemies which spawn two at a time. I can tell you this, because every time enemies spawn, they flicker at the center of the bridge, before vanishing to wherever they’re actually supposed to be. A later moment had me reload and repeat the same combat set-piece four times before finally triggering the scripted event that would let me continue. Oh, and though not strictly a bug, welcome back to respawning enemies; a particular bugbear of mine that would be best left in games of the last generation.

Respawning enemies? Seriously? SERIOUSLY?

When Crysis 2 was in development, much of the hype surrounded the groundbreaking new approach to storytelling. Science fiction author Richard Morgan was employed to deliver a truly engaging story, and went on record last year to slam the narratives of other shooters, describing Modern Warfare 2’s plot as “Totally implausible”. If anyone doubted he could backup his words with better words, Crysis 2’s story can be summarised, spoiler free, thusly: The game places you in the role of a one-man-army named after a prison, who spends the entire game so chronically hungover that he’s rendered mute, and often passes out in pools of water. In this role, you must help the bastard lovechild of Gary Oldman and Rolf Harris work with and against an evil pensioner to save the world from an malign race of calamari who live under Central Park. Excellent work Richard.

Mercifully, the story can be ignored, even if the in-game cutscenes are unskippable. What’s left is a beautifully presented portrayal of Manhattan under siege; the environment becoming progressively closer to total devastation as you approach the climax. Even on a console, some of the views are breathtaking, and the sound design is excellent. Those who like to pause between combat to drink in the sights will find plenty to quench their thirst in Crysis 2.

Multiplayer

You’d be forgiven for thinking that you were playing a new episode in the Call of Duty franchise when you first play Crysis 2 online. The player cards are replaced with doglegs, still customisable with your nation’s flag, weapons are upgradeable and interchangeable through 5 custom class slots, challenges are presented for additional XP and maps can be voted for. Such levelling and unlocking of rewards presents the player with a scale of longevity that’s certainly equal to the market favourite. It remains to be seen if the Crysis lobbies stay as populated and attract the same interest as those of CoD, but at present finding a match is a smooth process.

In the multiplayer games themselves, the differences are similarly subtle. The perks and kill streak rewards in Crysis 2 are also lifted from Call of Duty, offering the usual 3, 5 and 7 kill enhancements. The custom perks to give your character an edge are about as original, and offer the same silent footsteps, faster aiming, and longer running boosts as Call of Duty with only a few omissions and extras. These perks are notably different from those available in singleplayer however.

At present all online FPS's seem to stick to a tried and tested formula, and Crysis 2 is no different.

The nanosuit’s, cloak and armour features define Crysis 2 as whole, and so it’s the nanosuit that sets the online experience apart. The ability to stealth defied my original skepticism by not being overpowered. Where I expected to be caught unawares by players who were literally invisible, I regularly spotted these shimmering sneaks and dispatched them quickly, favouring armour myself to outlast the firefight. Of course, occasionally these boys and girls papered my rock by getting the drop on me, and it was certainly an even fight. To be truly effective you have to master switching between armour and stealth as necessary, with the standout players able to know when to employ neither, instead using their suit power for a better melee attack, faster run and so forth. In any case, Crysis 2’s “if you cant beat ‘em, join ‘em” approach to multiplayer adds much to the game as a complete package and as a contender for the best shooter on the shop shelves.

Review Round-up

Graphics: 4.5/5 As is well documented elsewhere, Crysis 2 looks gorgeous, and is certainly amongst the best looking console games ever made. Unfortunately, such looks come with a price, and both 360 and PS3 version hide framerate drops with liberal motion blur. It’s also evident that the PS3 was not the lead platform, and has noticeably more pop-in and framerate drops than its 360 sibling, which do affect your appreciation. PS3 owners should deduct half a point from the final score.

Sound: 4/5 A well-scored soundtrack includes work by Hollywood favourite Hans Zimmer, and this was certainly money well spent. Satisfying combat effects and some decent voicework add to the experience – never has “Cloak engaged” sounded so cool.

Gameplay:3.5/5 Combining exploration and stealth elements with tactical action and a functional cover system, Crysis 2 offers one of the finest shooting experiences of this generation. Only a few glitches and some unfortunate AI prevent the game from scoring higher in this category.

Longevity:3/5 With the ability to carry-over your abilities and weapon modifications to successive playthroughs, the game rewards players who come back for more, albeit with reduced rather than increased challenge. There are plenty of collectibles to track down in singleplayer, and the usual host of multiplayer unlockables for those that perservere.

Overall: 4 out of 5

Flawed yet beautiful, Crysis 2 is an excellent singleplayer experience. Combined with multiplayer created by the team formerly known as Free Radical, it’s a tantalizing package for fans of the genre, and not one that should be missed. Crysis 2 walks so close to FPS perfection that at times its flaws seem all the more pronounced, but surely this is truly testiment to its strengths.

-Ash Tregay & Groark

The Newb Review were recently invited to play a preview build of Alice: Madness Returns, the first home console release from American McGee’s new development studio ‘Spicy Horse’. We take a look at what’s on offer from an American called American, a Chinese development team and a dark new take on an old English story. Curiouser and curiouser.

American McGee’s Alice took Lewis Caroll’s timeless classic and twisted it into a dark action-platformer for the PC. Combining straightforward melee combat with platforming elements and a nightmarish world, the original Alice received mixed reviews but soon gathered a cult following. More than that, it combined three of my teenage self’s most sordid fantasies: Goths, violence and cute girls with knives.

A decade on, and American McGee returns his attention to Wonderland to raise the stakes. Set, somewhat appropriately, ten years after the events of the first game, Alice: Madness Returns sees players once again delving into the fractured psyche of the game’s namesake. As any screenshot will testify, it’s a bit messy in there, and American seems set to make Tim Burton’s recent film look like an extended episode of Care Bears.

Two levels of Madness Returns are available in the preview build: the Mad Hatter’s Domain and the Queen of Hearts’ maze, and each has a different look and feel. The Mad Hatter’s domain is a steampunk world of gears, vents and cutlery-wielding goblins, whilst the Queen of Hearts’ maze is a labyrinthine garden, home to guards made from a combination of playing cards and the broken appendages of china dolls. Each level also played quite differently, with the Mad Hatter’s Domain proffering platforming and exploration to counter the Queen of Hearts’ more combat-focused challenges.

Alice Madness Returns will boast a variety of unique locales and gameplay elements to keep gamers hooked.

As for the combat, there seems little in the mechanics of Madness Returns to surprise fans of the genre, but what it lacks in innovation it makes up for in charm. A hobby horse that functions as a warhammer, a teapot grenade launcher and a pepper-grinder gattling gun form the backbone of Alice’s arsenal, supplemented by remotely detonated bombs in the shape of a white rabbit and her signature butcher’s knife…sorry, ‘vorpal blade’.

Weapons must be used in combination to take down Wonderland’s more complex adversaries, and each can be upgraded by spending teeth that Alice collects on her travels. Presumably she does some moonlighting as a tooth fairy. Combined with Alice’s multi-jump, a new ability to vanish in a cloud of butterflies to teleport through enemies, and an invulnerability function billed as Hysteria Mode, Madness Returns promises a range of options to keep the combat feeling fresh.

Aside from the obvious appeal of invulnerability, activating Hysteria Mode has a dramatic impact on the visuals. Draining the colour from Alice’s vibrant nightmare, her dark costume becomes a bright white and her timid face distorts into a smile. Suddenly the girl seems to take true pleasure in carving up her enemies.

What would an Alice game be without her signature knife?

Beginning in her trademark blue and white, Alice herself goes through a number of wardrobe changes as the game progresses, ranging from a jet black dress to red and white striped tights. These changes appear to be wholly cosmetic, but are a nonetheless welcome means of keeping the character model from becoming drab or overly familiar.

Alice: Madness Returns seeks to quell the clamour of voices that have cried out for a sequel to the cult classic original. From what we’ve seen, it certainly stays true to American McGee’s vision of Wonderland, and has all the more impact in crisp HD visuals. Whether there will be enough substance to support the eye candy remains to be seen, but we’re certainly optimistic.

Alice: Madness Returns is released on PC, Xbox 360 and PS3 on June 17^th. Look out for our full review at newbreview.com, coming soon.

- Ash Tregay

They of course bring you the usual shenanigans including the changes in price of Xbox Live, Nintendo’s DSi and DSi XL, GAME’s brand new downloadable service and the sad demise of games publisher Atlus.

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Whilst the popularity of Pokémon has certainly dwindled in recent years, in the Western world at least, The Newb Review thought we’d send out tom01255 to take you, our beloved readers, on a trip down memory lane and try to explain just why Pokémon Yellow was so great.

Let’s begin with something of a contentious statement. Pokémon Yellow is the epitome of handheld gaming. Forget about Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars, Super Mario and even Tetris. Yellow combined a compelling story and intuitive gameplay mechanics, but the underpinning idea; that of reinventing bug collecting as a worldwide phenomenon was so Japanese kitsch, it really shouldn’t have worked. But massive sales have shot the Pokémon franchise way beyond that of other titles; topped only by the Mario franchise in terms of absolute sales figures.

The idea of catching and exploiting various creatures should have presented the vulgar rebirth of a cock-fighting mentality. But the overwhelming charm of each species and the emphasis on love and respect for Pokémon in order to succeed (a notion that falls short when you consider the game doesn’t allow you to particularly mistreat your Pokémon – it would have been nice to beat Bulbasaur is all I’m saying) gave players a subtle moral message that is missing in a world where shooting people in the face is often touted as the height of gaming prowess.

Don't ask what Ash is doing with his other thumb

The gaming premise is simple; you battle creatures one on one, knocking opponents out to achieve victory. Winning battles grants experience, which increases the strength of your Pokémon, and capturing more powerful Pokémon bolsters your team. Strategy is introduced with the use of elemental abilities. Each move and Pokémon is categorised by element, with fire beating grass, water beating fire etc.

Sure, try to burn a water pokemon, that'll work wonders... Moron

If you haven’t ever played Pokémon Yellow, I urge you to rush out and get a copy right now. Later generations of the game convoluted the game’s structure with overly ambitious night and day mechanics and a tag team structure that is needlessly confusing and bars new players from the franchise. The bare-bones battling with a choice of four moves for each of your creatures is all you need, and the added strategy of carrying only six Pokémon at any time means you really have to think about the situation you are about to encounter and which Pokémon to take.

Ok, so the game can be beaten relatively easily if you grind through to level cap your Pokémon, but doing this isn’t in the spirit of the game. By adding your own challenge, either by seeing how fast you can complete it, or trying to get the lowest level Pokémon possible into the Hall of Fame at the end of the game, Yellow presents as tough a challenge as anything out there.

Personal hygiene isn't his strong suit but "Mankey" is a bit harsh

The game roughly follows the narrative of the animated series, with Pikachu unwillingly following you in the beginning and slowly appreciating you as a trainer more and more throughout the story. Whilst Red and Blue offered a choice of three starting Pokémon, Yellow forces Pikachu upon you. But you have the opportunity to attain the three starting Pokémon from various people on your journey.

When you get to the ship in game, let your Butterfree go and wipe the tear from your eye as you do so. Sure, you lose a strong Pokémon that has taken hours to raise, but I guarantee it will make you genuinely happy. Not only have you given Butterfree the freedom he so craved, you’ve helped strengthen him to survive in the wild. Gaming doesn’t get more beautiful than this.