Ah, Crysis 2. There was so potential after Crysis 1 and Crytek did really f’ it up. PC gamers were expecting a similar experience to the first part of this franchise, but they were let down by their beloved studio. And finally, after this whole time, Crytek decided to reveal that Crysis 2 was made with casual gamers in mind. Which is what we’ve been saying from the get go but… well, at least they admitted it.

In an interview with PCGamer, Crytek’s Senior Creative Director Rasmus Hojengaard revealed that Crysis 2 was made in a way to attract casual gamers so that they could ‘lean back and see the whole thing unravel in front of their eyes’. Which explains the quick-time events that were introduced to the game and the underwhelming final fight (if you can call it a fight).

As Hojengaard said:

“We want to do everything we can to make sure that we leverage the strengths of having the player control everything and do the actual stuff themselves, and also leverage the fact that sometimes it’s nice to just be able to actually see what’s going on, because you don’t have to sit and concentrate on doing five skill-based things at the same time as watching two buildings collapse. Because you’ll either screw up the skills or you won’t really get the full visual, overwhelming, epic experience.”

In our opinion, this is one of the things that made Crysis 2 an average game. Imagine this: Friday night, you play Amnesia. A scary scene unfolds and suddenly, a ghost appears at a corner. In a true Amnesia – PC game – style, there would be a sound or music cue and it would be up to you to notice the ghost. Imagine a friend alongside with you, noticing it and screaming. You hit escape and ask him what happened. He tells you about the ghost. You find it hard to believe as you didn’t notice anything. You reload and suddenly, bam. He was right. Now that’s what makes a game unique and how gamers can appreciate some scripted moments.

Scrap that thought and let’s rewind: Imagine playing Amnesia. You enter that room when suddenly the camera zooms in that corner, while at the same time you can’t control your own character. Ghost appears and boo boo. Even if that moment is scary or cool as hell, the whole gaming experience is damaged and when you decide to replay the game, you will already know what to expect and what happens in that corner. Hell, you could be even eating pop-corn while watching that quick-time event.

As we’ve said countless times, scripted events and quick-time events are cool but should not be overused. No. In fact, games should not be made with quick-time and scripted events in mind. They are a nice addition but they should not be the main focus of the game. Can you remember the first time you shot a tree and watched it falling in Crysis? Or when you could move the leaves while you were crouching? No scripted event can remotely describe these moments because, YOU were doing something that hasn’t been done before.

Not only that, but Hojengaard has also admitted that they don’t know whether Crysis 3 will feature advanced graphical options or not. Hojengaard said that if they have the graphics are adjustable, it makes sense to put sliders and more options into the frontend so players can adjust them directly. Which makes sense. But then he said:

“But I can’t say exactly what we’re going to do. We don’t know yet.”

Holy Batman. That doesn’t make any sense but then again, Crytek is well known for pissing PC gamers off. At least, Crysis 3 will come with DX11 support from the start. Here is hoping that the company will pull themselves together and take care the PC version before releasing it!