Crysis 2 Remastered (NSP, XCI) ROM + v1.3.0 Update

Crysis 2 Remastered is a first-person shooter video game developed by Crytek, published by Electronic Arts, and released in North America, Australia, and Europe in March 2011 for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360. Officially announced on June 1, 2009, the game is the second main installment of the Crysis series, and a sequel to the 2007 video game Crysis, and its expansion Crysis Warhead. The story was written by Richard Morgan, while Peter Watts was consulted and wrote a novel adaptation of the game. It was the first game to showcase the CryEngine 3 game engine and the first game using the engine to be released on consoles. A sequel, Crysis 3, was released in 2013. A remastered version, titled Crysis 2 Remastered and following in the steps of Crysis Remastered, was released in 2021 for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Windows, and Xbox One, also bundled as part of the Crysis Remastered Trilogy compilation.

GAMEPLAY

Crysis 2 is a first-person shooter. The player assumes the role of a Force Recon Marine called Alcatraz. Similar to its predecessor, it provides freedom to customize weaponry and abilities. Crytek wanted to avoid making another game set in a true jungle environment (as were Far Cry and Crysis); New York City has been dubbed an “urban jungle”. The urban atmosphere offers new options for progressing and planning attacks. Players can navigate between floors and buildings, as well as a destroyed cityscape. The player assumes the control of a Force Recon Marine named “Alcatraz”, who gains ownership of the Nanosuit 2.0 from Army Delta Force officer Laurence “Prophet” Barnes, who returns from the original Crysis. CryNet Systems has been hunting Prophet to retrieve the suit, inadvertently pursuing Alcatraz, believing he is Prophet.

The aliens seen in the original game have undergone a major redesigning, abandoning the ancient, tentacled exosuits seen in the first game for high-tech humanoid armored war machines that stalk Alcatraz through the ravaged New York City. Crytek stated before release that they intended to surpass the original game graphically and gameplay-wise while also having lower system requirements and supporting true stereoscopic 3D. The new Nanosuit supports new and upgraded features. Suit functionality has been streamlined; multiple modes can easily be used simultaneously whenever the user wishes. The first suit’s Strength and Speed Modes have been combined into the new Power Mode, the suit binoculars function has been upgraded with an advanced Tactical mode, the Cloaking Device has been modified to allow increased sensory input and silent melee stealth kills and has been renamed to Stealth Mode, while the Armor Mode has been left more or less as is, except for slightly restricted agility and an ever-decreasing energy level.

CHARACTERS AND SETTING

Crysis 2 takes place in 2023, three years after the events of the first game, in a war-torn New York City which has since been evacuated due to alien infestation. The game begins with news footage of a large outbreak of the “Manhattan” virus, a gruesome disease that causes complete cellular breakdown; civil unrest; and panic about an alien invasion by the Ceph, the tentacled, squid-like alien race behind the incident of the previous game, Crysis. Due to the breakdown in social order within New York City, Manhattan is placed under martial law, and under contract from the US Department of Defense, soldiers from Crynet Enforcement & Local Logistics (or simply “CELL”), a private military contractor run by the Crynet Corporation, police the chaos.

PLOT

On August 23, 2023, a United States Marine Corps Force Recon unit is deployed into New York City to extract former Crynet employee Doctor Nathan Gould, who may have vital information on combating the Ceph, the alien race that is trying to destroy humanity. However, the Ceph sinks the submarine transporting the unit, killing everyone but Force Recon Marine “Alcatraz”, who is left mortally wounded. Delta Force Major Laurence “Prophet” Barnes saves Alcatraz and kills himself to allow his Nanosuit to assimilate and revive Alcatraz. In a recording, Prophet reveals that he had been infected by the Manhattan virus, and asks Alcatraz to continue his work against the Ceph. Believing Alcatraz is Prophet, Gould contacts Alcatraz and asks him to meet up at Gould’s lab. CELL forces, led by Commander Dominic Lockhart, attack Alcatraz, believing him to be the Prophet.

On his way to Gould’s laboratory, Alcatraz collects tissue samples from the Ceph, which cause strange reactions within his Nanosuit. Alcatraz meets with Gould, who becomes aware of Prophet’s death, and explains that the suit has been rewriting its code after absorbing the Ceph’s tissue. He speculates that the suit is creating an antibody for the Manhattan virus, and they decide to scan more samples at a Crynet base on Wall Street. The scans are cut short when CELL forces led by Lockhart and Lieutenant Tara Strickland ambush them. As they attempt to transfer Alcatraz to their headquarters, the Ceph attack the CELL personnel. Additionally, a massive alien spire rises from the underground, releasing a spore-based bioweapon that kills most CELL troops in the area.

Alcatraz’s nanosuit further adapts the spores, but malfunctions, and is rebooted remotely by Crynet director and Hargreave-Rasch Biotechnologies co-founder Jacob Hargreave. Hargreave contacts Alcatraz, claiming to have knowledge of the Ceph, and to have designed the Nanosuit based on stolen Ceph technology to be used as a defense against the aliens. Hargreave directs Alcatraz to another Ceph spire to experiment on him. On the way, Hargreave reveals to Alcatraz that the Manhattan virus had been spread by the Ceph, to clear out the entire human population from Earth. The Manhattan virus would cause all infected humans to melt down into a liquidated mass, which could then be stored and disposed of.

Upon reaching the alien spire, Alcatraz attempts to interface the Nanosuit’s systems with the aliens’ technology but fails. Meanwhile, the US Department of Defense rescinds CELL’s authority over Manhattan and deploys Marines in their place under the command of Colonel Sherman Barclay. The American forces order an air strike on the city’s flood barrier, in an attempt to drown the aliens out of lower Manhattan. Washed away by the resulting wave of water, Alcatraz is found in Madison Square Park by a squad led by Alcatraz’s squadmate Chino, who survived the submarine’s destruction. The Marines enlist his aid in evacuating civilians to Grand Central Terminal, the city’s primary evacuation point.

Hargreave asks Alcatraz to take a detour to the Hargreave-Rasch building, to find a stabilizing agent to facilitate the Nanosuit’s analyzing process. Ceph interference causes this to fail, with Hargreave telling Alcatraz to help evacuation efforts at Grand Central. At the terminal, Alcatraz is reunited with Gould, who had somehow escaped Strickland. Grand Central is overrun by Ceph forces, but Alcatraz holds them off long enough for the evacuation to succeed, and he escapes the building. Alcatraz is tasked with defending another evacuation point at Times Square, and this time manages to repurpose the alien spores to be lethal to the Ceph, destroying all Ceph in the area.

With the evacuation complete, Gould instructs Alcatraz to head to Roosevelt Island, to infiltrate a Crynet complex named “The Prism”, where Hargreave resides. Alcatraz foils Lockhart’s attempts to ambush him and kills him in the process. However, he is then betrayed and captured by Hargreave, who wants the Nanosuit for himself, to continue the mission in person. Hargreave attempts to remove the Nanosuit from Alcatraz’s body, but the Nanosuit resists its removal, having assimilated with Alcatraz. Alcatraz is then rescued by Strickland, who reveals herself to be an undercover CIA operative responsible for Alcatraz’s deployment. Strickland instructs Alcatraz to capture Hargreaves.

In Hargreave’s private office, Alcatraz discovers Hargreave’s body in a vegetative state stored in a cryonic chamber. Hargreaves reveals to Alcatraz that he had been communicating with him through an advanced computer system, having been injured in an encounter with the Ceph at Tunguska. Hargreave gives Alcatraz a Nanosuit upgrade, allowing it to fully interface with the Ceph, as the Ceph invade the island. Hargreave triggers the self-destruct system of the complex and orders the remaining CELL forces to aid Alcatraz’s exfiltration. Alcatraz escapes the complex and reunites with Gould, Strickland, and Chino on the shores of Manhattan.

Alcatraz is notified by Barclay that STRATCOM has just authorized a tactical nuclear strike on Manhattan Island. Thus, Alcatraz has a short period to end the conflict with the Ceph before the missile is launched. Alcatraz and his comrades make their way toward the center of the alien infestation and spot a massive alien “litho-ship” rising out of the ground beneath Central Park. Alcatraz assaults the floating section of Central Park and makes his way to the alien spire at its center, which serves as a dispersal point for the alien spores. Alcatraz successfully turns the spire’s bio-weapon against the Ceph, causing the death of all the Ceph in the city.