Crysis 2

Crysis 2

Developers
	Crytek
Multiplayer	Crytek UK
Publishers
	Electronic Arts
Engines
	CryEngine 3
Release dates
Windows	March 22, 2011
Reception
Metacritic	86
IGDB	87
Taxonomy
Monetization	One-time game purchase, Subscription gaming service
Modes	Singleplayer, Multiplayer
Pacing	Real-time
Perspectives	First-person
Controls	Direct control
Genres	Action, FPS, Shooter
Vehicles	Tank, Transport
Art styles	Realistic
Themes	North America, Post-apocalyptic, Sci-fi
Series	Crysis

Crysis
Crysis	2007
Crysis Warhead	2008
Crysis 2	2011
Crysis 3	2013
Crysis Remastered	2020
Crysis 2 Remastered	2021
Crysis 3 Remastered	2021
Crysis 4	TBA

Warnings

GameSpy online services have been shut down (see Network for solutions).

Crysis 2 is a singleplayer and multiplayer first-person action, FPS and shooter game in the Crysis series.

General information

Crysis Website

MyCrysis Forums

Steam Community Discussions

Manual

Availability

Source	DRM	Notes	Keys	OS
Retail		TAGES Solidshield DRM.
Microsoft Store		Maximum Edition. Included exclusively with Xbox Game Pass for PC as part of its version of EA Play.
Origin		Maximum Edition. Included with EA Play.
Steam		Maximum Edition. Included with EA Play (Steam).
(unavailable)		Maximum Edition.
Games for Windows Marketplace (unavailable)
Humble Store (unavailable)		Maximum Edition. Region locked in Latin America.
Steam (unavailable)		TAGES Solidshield DRM, 5 machine limit.

The original edition of Crysis 2 on Steam carries TAGES Solidshield DRM with a 5 machine limit, while the Maximum Edition contains SteamStub DRM in addition to SolidShield, although the SolidShield wrapping seems inert.^{[citation needed]}

Monetization

Type	Notes
One-time game purchase	The game requires an upfront purchase to access.
Subscription gaming service	Available via EA Play.

Essential improvements

Skip intro videos

Edit system.cfg
Go to the installation folder. Open system.cfg with Notepad. Write g_skipIntro = 1 at the end of the file.

Skip log in screen

Edit game.cfg
Go to %USERPROFILE%\Saved Games\Crysis2\ Open game.cfg with Notepad (or create if it doesn't exist). Add g_enableInitialLoginScreen = 0 to the file.

Change in-game language

The game set its language based on Windows' settings by default.

Edit configuration files[citation needed]
Go to the installation folder. Open <path-to-game>system.cfg. Find and change g_language = xxxx. Where xxxx is the language officially supported by the game.

Patches

Patch 1.9 prepares Crysis 2 for DX11 features and high-resolution textures. Each need to be downloaded and installed separately from the 1.9 patch. They are both included in the Maximum Edition.

Patch 1.9 can be downloaded from here.

DirectX 11 Ultra Upgrade

The DirectX 11 Ultra Upgrade can be downloaded here.

Included in Maximum Edition.

Features

With this package the following DX11 exclusive features will be activated:

• Tessellation + Displacement Mapping
• Realistic Shadows with Variable Penumbra
• High Quality HDR Motion Blur
• Sprite Based Bokeh Depth of Field
• Parallax Occlusion Mapping
• Particles Motion Blur, Shadows and Art Updates
• Water Rendering improvements and using Tessellation + Displacement Mapping

Requirements

• DX11 compatible graphics card with 768 MB Video Memory
• 545 MB HD space

High-Resolution Textures

The High-Res Texture Pack can be downloaded here.

Included in Maximum Edition.

Features

The High-Resolution Texture Pack doubles the fidelity of many of the game's art assets.

Requirements

• 64-bit operating system
• DirectX 9-compatible graphics card with 768 MB Video Memory

NTCore 4GB Patch

Crysis 2 is very memory intensive. This app improves performance for Crysis 2 on 64-bit Windows systems with more than 2GB RAM by allowing it to access up to 4GB RAM.

At least included in the Maximum Edition by default.

Modifications

BlackFire's Mod 2 and MaLDo HD Textures

For those who truly want to push Crysis 2's graphical fidelity to its limits, BlackFire's Mod 2 and MaLDo HD serves their needs. Note that BlackFire's Mod 2 require the MaLDo HD mod to be installed and properly configured, on the other hand the MaLDo HD mod can be used alone as it's meant to improve the vanilla game with higher quality textures, model and bugfixes, a variety of game tweaks etc.

A step by step list of instructions for BlackFire's mod is available at the mod file's description on ModDB.

Most of the download links for the MaLDo HD mod on the original blog page are dead. The files can be found elsewhere though, e.g. over at Mod DB and over at gamepressure.

Game data

In-game general settings.

Configuration file(s) location

System	Location
Windows	%USERPROFILE%\Saved Games\Crysis2\
Microsoft Store
Steam Play (Linux)	<SteamLibrary-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/108800/pfx/

Save game data location

System	Location
Windows	%USERPROFILE%\Saved Games\Crysis2\Profiles\ %USERPROFILE%\Saved Games\Crysis2\SaveGames\
Microsoft Store
Steam Play (Linux)	<SteamLibrary-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/108800/pfx/

Every automatic checkpoint save made in the game is saved as a permanent save file. There is no way to delete these files in-game, nor are they ever overwritten on subsequent playthroughs. These files can add up to several hundred megabytes worth of permanent save files if playing through the single-player campaign more than once.

Save game cloud syncing

System	Native	Notes
Origin		[citation needed]
Steam Cloud
Xbox Cloud

Video

In-game general video settings.

In-game advanced video settings.

Graphics feature	State	WSGF	Notes
Widescreen resolution
Multi-monitor
Ultra-widescreen
4K Ultra HD
Field of view (FOV)		Default is 55° vertical. See Field of view (FOV).
Windowed
Borderless fullscreen windowed		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Anisotropic filtering (AF)		Always enabled (x8).[citation needed]
Anti-aliasing (AA)		Post-process MSAA applied by default, use r_PostMSAA 0 console command to disable.
Vertical sync (Vsync)		Triple Buffering
60 FPS and 120+ FPS		See Run the game at screen refresh rate and Frame rate capped at 100 or 64 FPS, even with V-Sync disabled. Weapon animation is capped at 30FPS.
High dynamic range display (HDR)		See the glossary page for potential alternatives.

Field of view (FOV)

This game uses vertical FOV. See FOV Calculator for help.

Change FOV[citation needed]

Create an autoexec.cfg file in the installation folder. Add cl_FOV = 55, which controls the main game world FOV. Add r_DrawNearFOV = 55, which controls the viewmodel FOV. Add pl_movement.power_sprint_targetFOV = 55, which controls the FOV used only when you sprint. Change the default values of 55 to the desired FOV. Note Not a permanent solution. The viewmodel FOV resets to its default value randomly after a few minutes or during certain actions such as dying, and there's some chance the camera/sprint FOV might reset at certain points as well.

Input

In-game key map settings.

In-game mouse settings.

In-game general gamepad settings.

In-game gamepad layout settings for the player.

In-game gamepad layout settings for vehicles.

Keyboard and mouse	State	Notes
Remapping
Mouse acceleration
Mouse sensitivity
Mouse input in menus
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Controller
Controller support
Full controller support
Controller remapping		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Controller sensitivity
Controller Y-axis inversion

Controller types

XInput-compatible controllers
Xbox button prompts
Impulse Trigger vibration

PlayStation controllers		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.

Generic/other controllers		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.

Additional information
Controller hotplugging
Haptic feedback
Digital movement supported
Simultaneous controller+KB/M

Advanced movement and controls

There are a number of advanced control options that are not taught in the game's tutorial. These include:

Hold the sprint button (default ⇧ Shift) while aiming down sights to stabilize your aim (costs suit energy).

Activating armor mode (default Q) while aiming with a gun allows you to zoom in further.

Hold the melee button (default V) for a stronger melee attack (that uses up all suit energy).

You can also use normal and heavy melee attacks while gliding (sprint + crouch), which leads to a kick.

De-cloak just before firing a weapon, because firing from stealth would drain your energy.

Audio

In-game audio settings.

Audio feature	State	Notes
Separate volume controls
Surround sound		Up to 7.1 output
Subtitles
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost
Royalty free audio

Localizations

Language	UI	Audio	Sub	Notes
English
Traditional Chinese
Czech
French
German
Hungarian				Fan translation, download.
Italian
Japanese
Polish
Brazilian Portuguese				Fan translation, download.
Russian
Spanish
Turkish

Network

Multiplayer types

Type	Native	Players	Notes
LAN play
Online play		16	Online server browser stopped working on May 31, 2014. Use OpenSpy from these two sites: [1] [2].

Connection types

Type	Native	Notes
Matchmaking
Peer-to-peer
Dedicated
Self-hosting		Use the Crysis 2 Community Dedicated Server Package.
Direct IP

Ports

Protocol	Port(s) and/or port range(s)
TCP	80, 2891, 2990, 6667, 29900, 64100
UDP	27900-27901, 64100

Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) support status is unknown.

VR support

3D modes	State	GG3D	Notes
Native 3D
Nvidia 3D Vision			See Helix Mod: Crysis 2 for better 3D support.
vorpX		2D Officially supported game. See vorpx game list Note: Game is on the official list but not yet confirmed to be 3D.

Devices
3RD Space Gaming Vest

Issues unresolved

Statistic screen

The statistic-screen in the menu displays that 13 weapon-attachments are findable in single-player but in fact there are only 12. Therefore, it is not possible to achieve "100%".

Issues fixed

Crash at startup due to Windows Defender

Crysis 2 may crash at startup without a message due to Windows defender finding the game's process suspicious.

Add game's executable to exceptions

Press ⊞ Win+R and type in windowsdefender: and press OK. In the new Window press Virus and Threat protection button. Press the Manage settings button located under Virus & Threat protection settings section. Scroll down the page and press Add or remove exclusions button located under Exclusions section. Press + Add an exclusion. button and select File from the list. Add <path-to-game>\bin32\Crysis2.exe the list.

High sensitivity when using assault scope

When aiming down sights with assault scope mounted on any weapon, the sensitivity will be a lot higher than the one set in the game settings.

Use this mod

Run the game at screen refresh rate

The game may set your monitor's refresh rate to its lowest supported refresh rate when in fullscreen mode, resulting in a lowered FPS when Vsync is on, and heavy screen tearing and/or stuttering even if FPS is high. This issue is separate from the issue capping the frame rate (see The game is capped at 64 FPS), which may also need to be addressed.

Override refresh rate set by game
Download 3Dmigoto. Copy the files in the x32 folder to <path-to-game>\bin32\. Open d3dx.ini. Change ;refresh_rate=60 to the desired value, and remove the semicolon (e.g. refresh_rate=144). Change hunting=1 to ;hunting=1 by adding a semicolon. Save the changes and close the file.

Run in DirectX 9

Use Borderless Gaming

Set desktop refresh rate to the maximum your monitor supports. In the video settings, set Fullscreen and Vsync to "No." Use Borderless Gaming to run the game in a borderless window mode. Mouse position may be off in the menus, simply hit Alt+↵ Enter twice to fix it. You may want to use a frame limiter such as MSI Afterburner to limit the FPS to your monitor's refresh rate to prevent wasted GPU power usage.

Disable fullscreen optimizations
Navigate to the bin32 folder in the game's main directory and locate Crysis2.exe. Right click the exe file and choose Properties. Select the Compatibility tab, and check Disable fullscreen optimizations. Hit apply and the game will now run at your monitor's native refresh rate.

Crash to desktop when using MSI Afterburner's On Screen Display

Config file edit

Open the MSI On-Screen Display Server program (RivaTuner Statistics Server). Click the plus sign (or newly "add" button) and navigate to where you installed Crysis 2 and add Crysis2.exe Once you have that added go to C:\Program Files (x86)\RivaTuner Statistics Server\Profiles Edit Crysis2.exe.cfg Change EnableDynamicOffsetDetection=0 to EnableDynamicOffsetDetection=1 Change HookDirectDraw=0 to HookDirectDraw=1

Frame rate capped at 100 or 64 FPS, even with V-Sync disabled

Updates to Windows 10 have resulted in incompatibility with older CryEngine games, which may result in a capped frame rate. Windows 7 is also affected, but only in menus (eg. pause menu). Enabling NULL appears to have no effect under Windows 7.

Set Low Latency Mode to Ultra
Go to the Nvidia control panel, set Low Latency Mode to Ultra for Crysis 2 in the "Manage 3D Settings" tab and press Apply.

Set max frame rate to 1000 in Nvidia control panel
Go to the Nvidia control panel, set max frame rate to 1000 for Crysis 2 in the "Manage 3D Settings" tab and press Apply.

Apply RTSS framerate limiter
Download and install RivaTuner Statistics Server. Run it. Click the "add" button and navigate to where you installed Crysis 2 and add Crysis2.exe. Set framerate limiter to any number (e.g. 200). Minimize (don't close) the program.

Use Crysis 2 fps cap fix
Download the fix and extract it in <path-to-game>\Bin32\.

Other information

API

Technical specs	Supported	Notes
Direct3D	9.0c, 11
Shader Model support	3, 5

Executable	32-bit	64-bit	Notes
Windows

Middleware

	Middleware	Notes
Audio	FMOD
Interface	Scaleform
Multiplayer	GameSpy

System requirements

Windows
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)	XP SP3	Vista SP2, 7 SP1
Processor (CPU)	Intel Core 2 Duo 2.0 GHz AMD Athlon 64 X2 2.0 GHz	Intel Core 2 Duo 2.66 GHz AMD Athlon 64 X2 2.66 GHz
System memory (RAM)	2 GB	3 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	9 GB
Video card (GPU)	Nvidia GeForce 8800 GT ATI Radeon HD 3850 512 MB of VRAM DirectX 9.0c compatible	Nvidia GeForce GTX 280 ATI Radeon HD 4870