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This isn’t really a big deal – I’m just kind of wandering aloud, if you will.

Ever since the official announcement at E3 of Crysis 2 and it being developed for PS3, XBox 360 and PC, I’ve had one burning question on my mind: How does Crytek plan to port the Crysis story to consoles for those who have never played so much as game one of the franchise? Now, admittedly, I’m a total Crytek, “fanboy” and I absolutely love the products they’ve shipped thus far. Being such a fan of their games, I’m always mentioning them as, “need-to-play” experiences to friends and family who are into games but have yet to play anything out of Crytek.

Well, I recently played through both Crysis and Crysis: Warhead after purchasing Crysis: Maximum Edition (yeah, yeah… I know all about the SecuROM gripes and complaints but it doesn’t stop me from enjoying the game) and with the announcement of Crysis 2, I don’t know how Crytek plans on not just porting the story, but the emotional context of the story, also. When I think of how much you go through in the story and find out yourself in the first two Crysis games, I imagine something like watching the 3rd Matrix movie without seeing the first two. By itself, it would be an action-packed movie, but even with all the references to the prior two movies that you could glean relevant information from without actually having to see them, just imagine how much you would be missing to truly make the emotional and philosophical connections with the movie.

All the same, even with a decent summary of Crysis up to this point in the form of a cut-scene to start you off, I don’t see it coming close to touching, “satisfactory.” Now, I realize that perceptions of games differ for each individual, but I’m one who enjoys getting wrapped up and involved in the stories of the games I play. Even if they’re not the greatest, I still make the most of it. Basically, what I’m trying to say is that I feel there’s going to be no good way to tell the story of Crysis up to this point that will have anywhere near the impact of actually playing through it. With that thought in mind, it begs the question of if Crytek may be planning on that to some degree so as to see a surge in sales for the prior two games. Likewise, it makes me wonder if Crysis 2 for consoles will be shipped with Crysis, but not Crysis: Warhead since it’s more of a parallel story and not really necessary for much other than the character development of Psycho.

Another possibility may be the announcement of a console release of the first Crysis sometime prior (at least 3 months, I’d imagine) to the release of Crysis 2. That probably wouldn’t be too far-fetched of an idea since Crytek has talked about and even released tech demos of CryEngine 2 running on consoles. I’m not sure just what all has changed in CryEngine 3, but with Crytek’s massive expansion over the past year or 2, I’m sure they could pull it off… but that’s all just speculation and wishful thinking for those who will get their first-ever taste of Crysis via a console.

What do you think? If you’re a fan of Crysis, do you think Crytek should release the first game on consoles or do you think they’ll be able to pull off a satisfactory summary of the story thus far via some type of cut-scene early in Crysis 2? If you’ve never played Crysis, what’s your take on picking up with part 2 of the game? What would you personally like to see happen? Likewise, if you enjoy Crysis 2 enough and the first isn’t ported to consoles, do you think you would actually invest in going back and purchasing it for PC?

I know this is more Crysis-related than anything else, but with this ultimately involving the Xbox 360, I thought it would properly appeal to the Microsoft-driven theme of my site……. or not. lol.

-Stephen

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