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I pulled up a chair, slipped on a cheap pair of plastic glasses, and got to killin'…in three dimensions.
Electronic Arts put Crysis 2's multiplayer on display during Tuesday's EA Partners event, and instead of simply hooking up a bunch of Xbox 360s and dusting off their hands, they hit us with the works: Sony 3D televisions, PlayStation 3s, and their latest attempt to make the best-looking shooter in existence. As a frequent critic of 3D in gaming (and the detrimental demands it places on processing), that suited me just fine. I'm all for developers proving me wrong if the result are staggeringly cool.
That's what I think of your parking meters, Earthlings!
In the interests of science, I gave Crytek's latest run-and-gun effort a fair chance to impress me. And it did…kind of….
The heads-up display jumped out at me first. Pale blue sheets of info — stats, maps, a compass, and other standard stuff — hover in front of the game screen. It's a fairly neat effect that is exactly like having data hug the inside of a high-tech armored mask. The stats jiggle nicely during strenuous activities like running or getting shot.
But that's the stuff you don't really pay much attention to in the middle of an online massacre. It slips into your periphery in terms of both its placement and your attention span. Your surroundings matter more, and that's where things get interesting.
The depth of field makes for an eye-catching visual, even when you're busy trying to headshot the opposition. Think of the expansive vistas in Avatar. It works far better in outside environments, where you can see a city from across a bay. On Crysis 2's indoor maps, the cramped spaces make it hard to notice any difference from a 2D game. This forced the developers to bring other tricks into the experience.
Dude, we should totally nuke this.
Your gun looks noticeably closer to you than the ground. When you bring it up to aim, the effect varies based on your loadout. With a longer rifle, the distance between the forward and backward markers of the iron sights looks almost cartoonish. Weapons with laser sights use a much more subtle effect; you probably won't even notice it if you're not specifically looking. Because most gamers focus more on what (or who) the magic red dot falls on — rather than the dot itself — this nice little effect will probably go largely unnoticed.
I feel a bit bad for Crytek here. It's a laudable attempt at something they could have easily blown off. Once you start doing 3D, you either commit, or you do a horrible job. Crytek, to their credit, did the former.
It seemed like a good idea at the time.
As for your fellow Marines and C.E.L.L. agents, I noted conspicuous movement blur and loss of detail — though it seems less egregious than the early Killzone 3 demos. Without the campaign mode for reference, I hesitate to judge the 3D. I will say that it didn't give me a superior sense of distance. In one of the matches, I couldn't tell if my melee hit had landed without the desired effect, or if I was still four feet away from my opponent when he dusted me.
Does the 3D effect actually add anything? If you're a total-immersion freak who wants to forget that the world behind you exists, then yes. Coupled with the glasses, the increased tangibility of the HUD envelopes you in the fiction of the world. But if you just want to game your guts out, simply put, the answer is "no." It looks neat — no lie — but I can't honestly say that it makes Crysis 2 substantially better. That possibility remains the sole domain of the title's gameplay, not its gimmicks.