Crysis 2 was so striking, in fact, that it took me a few minutes with the game to realize that something wasn't quite right with Crysis 2's controls on the 360. Eventually, it hit me: Crysis 2 on 360 has some seriously laggy controller response. While some of Crysis 2's control idiosyncrasies make sense - a delay between hitting the jump button and flying into the air makes you feel like a cyborg hurling himself upward - simple things like aiming and strafing just aren't as responsive as they should be. What breaks my heart is the theory that this might be tied to the preview build's framerate - if Crytek UK (formerly Free Radical of TimeSplitters and, uh, Haze fame) can tone the graphics down in multiplayer somewhat to get something that feels more responsive, it would be the right move, but it would still hurt my heart a little.
This wasn't the only issue I experienced; there's also a sense at times that the multiplayer sandboxes might be too much box and not enough player-sand for the max player count on consoles of 6-on-6. For team deathmatch (or team instant-action, as Crytek is calling it), this is fine enough, since players can only score when they encounter one another. But for objective type matches, like Crash Site (the Conquest style mode included in this week's demo), it takes what seems like forever to make it from your spawning point to the action when you die, which really kills the game's momentum. Of course, while precise PC player counts are still being finalized, I was able to cajole the word "more" out of Crysis 2's producer
Granted, Crysis 2 has a couple of months left before it hits retail, so this is hopefully something that can be fixed - and the control issues certainly weren't present in the PC build of the game I played a month ago. If Crytek can address the responsiveness problems in Crysis 2, the multiplayer could be something unique and cool. The nano-suit powers both active and passive lead to a range of combat options not found in other shooters. The constant need to switch from armor mode to stealth to speed requires quick thinking, and Crytek has done a great job of making suit abilities quickly accessible - and, easily mixed and matched, a particular problem in Crysis's last multiplayer release that the developers mentioned to me when I was checking out the game. With some luck, we'll all be power-stomping each other from rooftops when Crysis 2 releases in March.
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