Aliens have invaded The Big Apple. The Marines, outgunned and outmanned, are doing their best to ward off the invasion, but to no avail.

     Suddenly, a force crashes from the sky. Cars and aliens alike are thrown back by the force. A heavily armored man walks out of the wreck.

     The aliens open fire, but the man’s suit is seemingly indestructible. Then just as suddenly as he appeared, the man vanishes.

     And then a helicopter crashes into a building and everything explodes.

     It sounds like the climax to sci-fi thriller, but this violent scene is the norm in first-person shooter “Crysis 2.”

     The original “Crysis,” released in 2007, was a landmark game by any standard.

     It set a new standard for video game graphics with its beautiful, near photorealistic jungle environments. It had an incredibly fun, challenging and infinitely replayable single player mode and a surprisingly deep multiplayer mode that went far beyond the “Call of Duty” clones of the world. It was also infamous for its forbidding system requirements- the game was exclusive to PC and required a multi-thousand dollar computer (at the time) to even run properly.

     German developer Crytek has been working on a sequel for several years now. It’s been a long wait, but “Crysis 2” is finally here. But can it live up to its predecessor?

     Let’s get one thing out of the way: You won’t need a supercomputer to run “Crysis 2.” It’s a much more stable game that will run on a wide variety of machines. Indeed, you won’t even need a computer to play the game, as it is also available on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.

     But make no mistake: “Crysis 2” is one of the most beautiful games ever released. The lush jungles of the original “Crysis” have been replaced with metropolitan skyscrapers, it’s a new art style, but a gorgeous one nonetheless.

     Unlike shooters such as “Call of Duty,” which rely on drab gray and brown hues, and “Killzone,” which is overwhelmingly dark, “Crysis 2” bathes in brightness. In contrast to most “real” cities, “Crysis 2” is endowed with light colors that are at times jaw dropping.

     But there’s more to a game than its graphics, even when they’re arguably the best available. While the gameplay in “Crysis 2” doesn’t quite match its gorgeous scenery, it comes pretty close.

     The game’s “nanosuit” is still the defining feature of the game. It’s basically a super-suit that gives you a set of superpowers, such as cloaking and super strength. The suit allows you to play the game in a variety of ways.

     You can take the role of a walking tank, using the suit’s armor mode to wade directly into the fray, shrugging off bullets and grenades at point-blank range. Or you can opt for a more subtle approach, using cloaking and stealth kills to leave the game’s many enemies in disarray. It’s as close as any game has ever come to letting you act like a Terminator.

     The true beauty of the suit is its adaptability.

     You can switch between any of its modes on the fly. The wide variety of play styles curtails any potential monotony. The game’s single player is much lengthier than that of “Call of Duty,” and it’s more fun and replayable due to the variety of ways to conquer each situation.

     While streamlined nanosuit and large scale conflicts work in the game’s favor, “Crysis 2” fails in many areas where its predecessor succeeded.

     The original “Crysis” took place on a remote tropical island- and it really felt like an island. The wide open plains, coasts and jungles offered an unrestrained amount of freedom. You could walk for miles, admiring the virtual scenery, and literally use the environment as a playground in your supersuit.

     The island environment rewarded creative thought in ways that the sequel’s New York metropolis fails to.

     Find a palm tree? You could shoot the branches off, pick them up and use them as a weapon.

     No foliage in sight? Find a frog, bird or even a turtle? You could pick it up and whack someone over the head with it. It was mindless fun, but inspired creativity in ways that few, if any shooters have achieved since.

     In comparison, “Crysis 2” is a fairly linear game. You still have a lot of room to maneuver around the environment, and it’s never as dictatorially scripted as “Call of Duty,” but it’s disappointing nonetheless.

     With that said, the more focused nature of the sequel allows for some incredible set pieces. In the end, though the free-form gameplay of the original “Crysis” is sorely missed, the newfound sense of direction makes “Crysis 2” a much more action-oriented experience. There’s still plenty of room for strategy and the campaign is still quite replayable.

     Other aspects of the game aren’t so successful, however. The enemies in “Crysis 2,” human mercenaries and “Halo” Convenant rip-offs, pale in comparison to the North Koreans in the original “Crysis.”

     The enemies aren’t as smart. While the Koreans in the original “Crysis” would use flanking maneuvers and other realistic battle strategies to combat you, the mercenaries in “Crysis 2” do little more than shoot at you.

     The aliens are also less exciting than those in the original. They’re similar to the Convenant soldiers in “Halo.” That is, they point at you and shoot. Not exactly the most menacing of aliens. There are some different forms of aliens, but they’re basically normal aliens with more powerful attacks and hit points. It’s too bad Crytek couldn’t come up with any original enemy designs (In a game filled with aliens and doomsday machines, seriously?).

     The game’s plot also has its ups and downs.

     It’s better told than the original one and touches on mature subjects such as evolution, morality and immortality. But it still leaves too many questions unanswered and has the typical, “Wait for the sequel!” ending.

     It’s never really explained why aliens are attacking New York (why is it always New York?), I guess aliens just really hate Earth or something.

     They’ll bark objectives at you for the majority of the game and your stereotypically silent protagonist will follow them out without question. You’d think a man with a nigh-indestructible super suit would take matters into his own hands, but he never really does.

     Despite all of this, the plot isn’t bad. It moves the story along, and is believable and exciting enough to keep the player engaged, despite its unoriginality.

     The multiplayer is in a similar vein. It plagiarizes “Call of Duty” to the point of embarrassment.

     You have the persistent ranking: Unlockable perks, weapons and attachments, killstreaks and even dog tags. It’s laughably unoriginal. But despite this, it’s still a lot of fun, largely due to the nanosuit.

     The ability to cloak and use the suit’s other modes diversifies the gameplay.

     At a glance, it looks like “Call of Duty,” but it’s much slower-paced and more strategic. Unlike most shooters, you’ll need to use actual tactics if you want to succeed. It’s a refreshing change of pace.

     That said, it’s too bad that some of the original “Crysis’” multiplayer modes didn’t make the mark. Power Struggle was a complex and rewarding mode that offered far more replayability than your typical death match modes.

     If Crytek was so intent on stealing ideas from other top shooters, it’s a shame they didn’t include a cooperative mode. I would’ve loved to be able to defend a stronghold from an alien invasion with a group of friends. But there’s still plenty of depth to the existing multiplayer modes and it has the potential to become one of the more popular shooters out there.

     Change can be difficult to accept. “Crysis 2” is in many ways an advancement over its esteemed predecessor, but it also fails in many places where the original succeeded.

     But in the end, “Crysis 2 is a wholly entertaining game. It takes the bombastic action of “Call of Duty” and “Halo” and mixes it with the free-form strategy of the original “Crysis.” It’s challenging, fun and quite

replayable.

     If you’re looking for a game that transcends the typical “run and gun” idiocy that’s flooding the market,

“Crysis 2” will entertain for quite some time.