Crysis was a big deal when it launched way back in 2007.
Developer Crytek didn’t really seem to care about how the game would run, leading to a meme we all probably know.
The result was of course a beautiful game with groundbreaking graphics and solid gameplay. The problem was that most systems couldn’t run it.
With the news of a remaster coming this year, it’s a great time to revisit this franchise.
Since the original Crysis game is getting a remaster pretty soon, maybe you want to give Crysis 2 a go. It’s not too dated, but modding is definitely going to help here.
So let’s take a look at some of the best mods to enhance Crysis 2 all these years after its initial release.
While Crytek had already pushed the capabilities of CryEngine, Crysis 2 saw its release with mod capabilities.
This allowed the modding community the freedom to play around with it themselves and see how much further they could take it.
Modder BlackFire has become quite popular for this graphical enhancement mod, which he claims pushes the boundaries of CryEngine 3 to make the game look even better. Somehow.
This mod adds a lot of visual improvements in the form of color changes and redesigned lighting too.
While feedback for BlackFire’s mod has been mixed, as some love it while some hate it, it’s best to try it and see for yourself how you like it.
Another great feature of BlackFire’s Mod is its compatibility with MaLDoHD 4.0.
As BlackFire himself puts it, MaLDoHD is “the greatest Crysis 2 Texture Pack on the Internet.”
So that should already be reason enough to check this out.
MaLDoHD is a high-definition texture pack that replaces existing textures in the game, adding tons of detail to everything like bricks, trees pavement, etc.
Alongside BlackFire’s mod, MaLDoHD with have your game looking like recent AAA title – which just goes to show how Crysis 2 was far ahead of its time.
Many fans felt that Crysis 2 didn’t make much improvement from the first game.
Of course, whether Crysis set the bar so high that the sequel just couldn’t live up to it, or that the original is simply the superior game, is completely a matter of opinion. No flame wars here.
Modder rGOt wanted to take Crysis 2 and bring back the feeling of the original game.
Crysis Revival is a result of that.
It’s a mod introducing 2 maps from the original Crysis game. The maps weren’t ported exactly, since improvements in CryEngine are leveraged to make the environments more detailed.
Crysis Revival is also merged with another popular graphical mod: C Mod by Wootwoots.
C Mod swaps in new weapon models and it adds a few ballistic effects, you know for visual flair.
While others have been focused on improving the visual quality of Crysis 2, user Profits Before People was hard at work creating Letters Upon A Page.
It’s actually interesting because this mod focuses on audio instead of visuals, but more so because it actually started as a school project.
Eventually being made available to the public, Letters Upon A Page sees an aspiring sound designer completely reimagine the audio for the Crysis 2 world.
And it’s really good.
It’s a completely unique take, and while it may not work for a full playthrough of the game, it makes for a relaxing cinematic experience for anyone open to exploring the Crysis universe like this.
There aren’t that many Crysis 2 mods out there for custom content.
But here’s a cool one from Sasha_The_Lynx.
With Crysis focused around the idea that soldiers wear nanosuits to enhance their skills in battle, this mod introduces three new suit models to choose from.
The Protosuit MK1, Shadowsuit, and UVSuit are completely usable in-game. And they each have their own set of strengths and weaknesses.
The Protosuit focuses on tanking and strength at the expense of Stealth.
The Shadowsuit focuses more on stealth sacrificing durability, while the UVSuit specializes in speed and mobility at the cost of armor.
All three are worth trying out just for the fun of it.
If you’ve completed a playthrough of Crysis 2 vanilla want a more challenging experience, mods make that possible.
Specifically this mod.
Be The Weapon ups the difficulty level by tweaking damage levels, but introduces a few rebalances to weapons and other gameplay mechanics as well. So it kinda evens out, but yeah it’ll be a tougher playthrough for sure.
Cryminator is one of the more interesting mods on the list, as it combines Crysis 2 with one of the most well-loved movie universes out there.
Crysis 2 and Terminator.
Now who wouldn’t want to experience that?
The mod even includes weapons and textures from the film series, including plasma rifles used by Skynet.
Just seeing the texture of the T-800 with half of its face melted off, revealing the robotic skull underneath, is enough to convince me to give this a go.
