Crysis 2

The original Crysis was a beautiful thing. At its launch, it was leaps and bounds ahead of anything else on the market, and the highest level performance required the highest level price. Even now, a PC with the tech specs to run Crysis on the highest settings would cost you a pretty penny, especially if you don't know enough about PC's to build your own with random scattered parts you find on Newegg and in pawn shops.

Crysis 2 is even prettier. I might even claim that it is one of the most beautiful games of all time. However, style goes a long way. Like Okami and Limbo can wow players with a unique visual style, the opposite can also hold true: Crysis 2, in this stage, looked more like a beautified Halo clone than a game with its own established identity. You are this super-strong space soldier type that blasts aliens with a variety of futuristic guns, lobs glowing grenades at enemies that look a lot like hulking, armored Elites, and utilize turrets for shooting giant mechanical spider robot bosses. And, you can pull the turret off the stand and walk around with it when the action gets too hot for a stationary killing machine. Sound familiar?

There are two modes in the game: Stealth mode and Armor mode. In Stealth, you are the hunter, favoring speed over strength. In Armor, you are the hunted, and you can take much more head-on damage than your Stealth counterpart.

Stealth features heavy use of the active camouflage, which doesn't last too long but recharges very quickly. You also have Predator-style thermal goggles to sneak up on the baddies.

In Armor mode, you're a walking super soldier. You'll kick cars at enemies, or - if you're clever - you'll fill one with grenades before lobbing it at the enemy. This is pretty cool the first time you see it, but the lob-able cars seem to be in the perfect areas to land on the pre-scripted baddies. There's something to be said for interestingly placed enemies, but we also don't want them to be predictable. Maybe EA will do a Resident Evil-style "random enemy generation" thing to keep the spawn locations fresh? That'd be a great way to encourage replays.
That said, the immersion was great. When a huge explosion went off, you would lose your footing (although our hero did seem to fall quite often for being such a tough guy). When you punched something, it knew it got hit. You feel strong in your crazy space suit, while the Halo-esque sweeping orchestral music blares in the background.

I didn't play the first Crysis; my computer couldn't handle it. So, I don't know what it had to offer besides the ultra-high-end visuals. Crysis 2 is coming to PC, PS3, and Xbox 360 at the end of the year, so I'll finally get a chance to see if it's more than just a pretty face. So far, signs point to... maybe? If nothing else, there are far worse games to be similar to than Halo, the most popular of all space marine games.