If you’re a console-based shooter fan, Crysis may be the best game from the past five years you never played. The unrelated follow-up to Crytek’s visually and technologically impressive Far Cry, the 2007 title and its spin-off Crysis: Warhead took the sandbox shooter genre to the next level with even better graphics and futuristic weaponry that turned Special Forces soldiers into alien-fighting badasses. Armed with the new CryEngine 3 technology, the true sequel brings Crysis to consoles for the first time.

Publisher Electronic Arts and Crytek aren’t bashful about setting a high bar, with EA Partners general manager David DeMartini saying he believes Crysis 2 is “the greatest product that is going to come out this year.” To achieve their immodest goal, Crytek is focusing on delivering highly interactive destructible environments, enhancing the nanosuit functionality, and highlighting the catastrophic beauty of a decimated New York City.

In the few years that have passed since the events of Crysis, the planet has suffered a series of catastrophic natural disasters with a frequency normally reserved for Roland Emmerich movies. Earthquakes, tidal waves, and flooding have ravaged much of the world, including the bustling metropolis New York City. To make matters worse, a plague is ravaging the city populace, and the aliens have returned to finish what they started. It’s up to you and your super-charged nanosuit to repel the latest invasion.

Crytek founder Cevat Yerli admits the story in the original Crysis was one of the weak links, and believes that enlisting acclaimed sci-fi writer Richard Morgan to pen Crysis 2 will bring the narrative quality on par with the rest of the experience. Morgan, best known for his book Altered Carbon, has won both the Philip K. Dick and Author C. Clarke awards for his novels. To add intrigue to the compelling sandbox gameplay, Morgan says he’s focusing on the mystery at the heart of the nanosuit technology. “It’s a very useful, sharp tool, but it can cut both ways,” he says. “It can get out of and do things you don’t expect it to.” To pull this off, Morgan is giving the suit its own narrative arc that players will have to come to grips with as they play through the game. “The technology is not what it seems – there’s more to it than appears on the surface” he alludes.

When analyzing the telemetrics from Crysis and Crysis: Warhead, Crytek discovered that most players used the nanosuit to either hunt like a stealth-like Predator or become a tank like the Incredible Hulk. To accommodate these play styles, Crysis 2 introduces a streamlined nanosuit that adapts to your preferred method of attack. Maximum Stealth allows players to go invisible for a short amount of time with the cloaking mode, and Maximum Armor gives you the firepower to jump right into the fray and experience brief moments of invincibility. The rest of the abilities the previous nanosuit featured are moved into supplementary roles; the power mode enhances your speed and jumping ability, while the tactical functions allow you to better access the situation. Nanosuit vets will also be happy to know that they can now customize the suit with new unlockable functionalities that augment your preferred style of play as you move through the game. “Everyone starts with the same, but you’ll finish differently based on your own progression,” Yerli says.