Real talk with Jutsu: Crisis 2
So my experience with this game is my 9 hour play through of it on the hardest difficulty "Post human warrior." And in just that 9 hours I have inferred this indisputable truth, Crisis is the shit. I'm not being hyperbolic when I say that, this game is all that and a bag of chips, it's the real deal so to speak. If you enjoy the power fantasy shooter where you're a lone super soldier against impossible odds, the sort of gameplay that founded the shooter genre, or even just a fan of shooters, this game is absolutely for you. This game stands as the single, unquestionably finest solo campaign shooter experience I've ever had. Let me explain.
The bad: Yes, there are in fact certain aspects of this game that aren't perfect. But they're so few and insignificant that I'll get it out of the way first.
- The damn checkpoints: Personally I've never been a big fan of checkpoint systems, checkpoints almost always have quirks and this game is no exception. In this game the checkpoints are sometimes too damn far away, it can be really unforgiving at times. And considering that this is coming from a guy that loves playing games on their hardest difficulty and loves difficult games, know that this is a legitimate gripe. It's not so much the difficulty, as you can feel like a lot of your time has been wasted when you spend 30 minutes meticulously taking out every enemy just to get dropped by one you missed right there before the next checkpoint.
-Enemy spawning in warzones: While some of the more slow paced and stealth oriented sections demonstrate wonderfully crafted challenges that are clutch and usually generate enemies a fair enough distance away that you can tag them with your super visor and get a chance to react to them and take the initiative it's not perfect. On occasion, much more so in the full on war sections you'll walk into a new area with your visor already up just to have enemies spawn right near you well inside what would've normally been your visors range. The reason this is bad is because it forces you to react to situations that under the normal rules of the game could have been entirely circumvented by your super suits badass visor mechanic. So it fucks with your immersion and makes you deal with an annoying situation, which takes you out of the immersion a bit.
-Random cut scene quick time events: This is as nitpicky as it gets. You go through the game and you get used to triggering wonderful cut scenes where your super suit is saving you from eminent death or something outside your control is happening. But for some reason, which is entirely beyond me, occasionally during certain cut scenes you're suddenly expected to click buttons, usually while you're ogling at said cut scene. These quick time events could have been easily absconded with and only serve to take away from the immersion.
-The alien tanks, pingers: I'll say it flat out, fuck pingers. They are hands down the most egregious offender of my checkpoint complaint, they break the flow of the game, their AI is near clairvoyant and on the hardest difficulty take a stupid long amount of time to kill unless you've got a ton of c4 explosives on you.
The good: As easy as it would be to say "everything else!" I would much rather go into detail about it, because I feel like I owe it to this game to discuss why I love it so much.
-The combat: To put it simply, it's so good. Your super suit heals you automatically over time, and regenerates energy which you use to activate its abilities when your not using abilities for a few seconds. Activating cloak and armor mode becomes second nature and both are immensely satisfying. Especially considering the game oft presents challenges that can be solved a plethora of ways, which puts it upon the player to decide how they want to solve it. Even then, by the end of the game you will feel like an expert and most likely will have used every style of combat to solve certain situations. Whether you're using a silenced pistol to ghost your way through human soldier installations "Cell" or armoring up and ripping through alien scum "Ceph" with a fifty caliber machine gun. It all feels good, all of it. From using grenade launchers to doing tactical shooting with your visor marking system and an assault rifle.
-Game flow: Wow, I know most of my complaints in the negative section of the game touch on game flow, but those flaws are only apparent because this game is smoother than silk. I caught myself transitioning from chapter to chapter and realizing that I've simply lost track of time, this game pulls you in by the balls and takes you along for the ride. It's been so long since I've played a one player game that I had to make a decision between continuing on, or fighting every fabric of my being and leaving the game to sleep. For the most part the transitions from checkpoint to set piece to chapter feel seamless. With the exception of one chapter in particular where your character becomes conscious again after a short nap, presumably brought on by the exhaustion of once again slipping his ticket past the grim reapers hole puncher, courtesy of the nano suit. You awaken from your slumber to realize stakes have been raised. But I'll let it slide, because it still felt like the next natural progression for the game.
-Environments and levels: I'll say it, I'll just say it. This game is RESPLENDENT, the environments and level design are simply gorgeous. Now normally I don't think graphics or appearances make a game, but with the game play in tow this game makes me happy in my pants. There's so many moments in this game where you take a break from wrecking havoc on your enemies and simply admire the sheer spectacle. If that wasn't enough the levels really feel like they were crafted with care, only once did I fall victim to a bad glitch and it didn't happen during combat. This games levels are very tight for a shooter game, some of the best I've ever played.
-The nano suit: Awesome. This is what the game is about, right here. I cannot express with words exactly how badass this suit can make you feel. The nano suit brings the power fantasy to this game, whether you get your kicks from being invisible, super strong or unstoppable. It manages to do all this while still maintaining the illusion of realism, so that the fantasy isn't broken. While the visor gave me some trouble, utilizing the suits mechanics become second nature and said mechanics are satisfying to the extreme. You don't feel like just another helpless schmuck with an assault rifle, you feel like the lone hero. The suit is humanities magnum opus and the only reason you survive to the end of the game is because of it and your abilities to use it.
-Game flow and nano suit continued: At the beginning of the game you play through a short level as a normal marine, to teach you the basic movement controls and to set up the story. This also gives you a sense of your frailty as a normal human. As the game progresses it gradually teaches you all about the suit and it genuinely gives you a good feel for what it's like to be inside the nano suit. I remember a segment at the beginning of the game where you're walking through an abandoned factory and you have to jump across a collapsed walk way. As a normal human it would be extremely difficult, but when you do it in the suit you clear the jump with ease. Simultaneously teaching you how to power jump and what the suit can do at the same time, without breaking game flow. This is just one example of many, this goes on as the game progresses. While there's plenty of situations where you're in full control of the outcome, there are plenty of times where the nano suit is the difference maker. Like when you get tackled out of a fifth floor window, end up landing on a storage container and survive. Or when you have no choice but to get down from a building by activating armor mode and dropping sixty feet.
-Tactical shooting: Crisis keeps the brainless mowing down of enemies to a classy level. During combat you'll find yourself assessing the situation and using many of the tools at your disposal to solve the problem in front of you. Keep in mind though, I did play it on the hardest level of difficulty. But still, more often than not I found myself actually thinking about what to do, fully engaged in the game. At times I would realize with the weapons I had I needed to just uncloak, armor up and shoot it out, because maintaining a stealthy visage would be impossible. But at those times it was a tactical decision instead of simply slaughtering the enemy. During combat you may use stealth, armor, nano vision and visor all during the same shoot out. Armor mode can give you the toughness you need to get you out of situations cloak mode can't and cloak mode can allow you to change positions when you're pinned down, instead of playing assault rifle wack-a-mole. And it all feels really good.
-Tactical shooting continued, the guns: There's a fairly wide variety of guns, the list is small enough that you can get comfortable with you're selected favorites, but large enough to keep it from getting boring. What's most noteworthy is the attachment system, basically whenever you pick up a version of that weapon with an attachment, you keep that attachment and by just holding a button you pull up a menu in real time that let's you apply any of those attachments to any weapon that attachment applies to. Picked up a brand new pistol off of a dead Cell soldier? You can quickly and easily slap on a silencer and a laser sight. It feels really smooth and it adds a lot to the game.
-Story: I've avoided mentioning the story a lot because I don't want to spoil anything. Let me just say it's really good and flows naturally. By the end of the game you feel like you've tackled an ordeal and when you're done literally crawling your way to the finish line, you feel accomplished. I can only hope you believe me that it's good.
The bottom line:
I could just go on and ON about this game.
This game is spectacular and if you're computer can handle it and you're a fan of one player shooter experiences, you should absolutely play it.
10/10 as good as shooters get.
