Are you itching to get back into your nanosuit and bitch-slap aliens again in Crysis 2? Well, here’s something to scratch that itch before you get the game on the 22nd: EA’s been kind enough to give prospective buyers a chance to take the multiplayer component of the game for a spin. There’s two modes available – the standard team deathmatch (Team Instant Action), and a domination type game (Crash Site) where each team vies for control of crashed alien pods. There’s four main weapons to try out for each of the four classes, mainly a fully automatic assault rifle, semi-auto shotgun, sniper rifle and a machine gun for the assault, recon, sniper and heavy classes respectively. 
The two maps on the demo are Pier 17 and Skyline. Skyline takes place in interconnected skyscrapers that make for some really close quarters combat. Pier 17 on the other hand, has two main buildings separated by a long expanse of flat terrain with little cover, which is a prime location for snipers to do their thing. Like other multiplayer shooters currently in the market, Crysis 2 allows players to customize their soldiers by adding different enhancements to both their guns and their suits. There’s also a nice leveling system in place.
The game is unquestionably fast paced. Like the previous game the nano suit allows players to enhance their combat prowess by either adding an extra layer of armor on top of their health, or by cloaking them. Players can also jump higher than a mere mortal by pressing the space button longer, and while in the air they can stomp on unsuspecting enemies. It is a bit annoying though that there isn’t a dedicated hot key for grenades, and the game still requires you to switch to them first before throwing.
The question in everyone’s mind by this point is how hard is the new game on requirements? Well, you’ll be happy to know that Crysis 2 has comparably low system requirements compared to the first game. The rig we ran it on was only a first generation Core i5 running at 3.33GHz paired with an ASUS HD6970 but it managed to keep the framerate at a zippy 50-60 FPS at 19200 x 1080. The graphics are undeniably pretty, and there’s plenty of servers for you to run in on. While there are no local servers for the Pinoy gaming community, I was able to connect and play properly at a California based server without any large issues.
Crysis 2 will be available to purchase starting March 22, and it’s more than likely you’ll be able to grab your copy from Datablitz. You can download the demo from here.