Install the game.
Installing Crysis 2 on a modern system is anything but straightforward, on my windows 10 build installing via disc was plagued with errors. Your best bet is to download and install Origin. After downloading and installing (and creating an account if you don't already have one) run Origin and select "Add a game" from the top right, then "Redeem Product Code...". From here enter the CD key that came with your game either retail or Steam version will work.
If you choose to ignore this suggestion and install from the retail copy you may encounter the following errors.
1. Game install stops on "Updating Component Registry"
Fixes include running the setup.exe as administrator or running the game in compatibility mode for various older windows versions. I found running as administrator eventually let the install progress go passed this point.
2. Game crashes at launch
Fixes include running the game exe as administrator, running the game exe in compatibility mode for older versions of windows and setting windows defender to ignore the game exe and the game launcher. None of these suggestions worked for me.
1. Game install stops on "Updating Component Registry"
Fixes include running the setup.exe as administrator or running the game in compatibility mode for various older windows versions. I found running as administrator eventually let the install progress go passed this point.
2. Game crashes at launch
Fixes include running the game exe as administrator, running the game exe in compatibility mode for older versions of windows and setting windows defender to ignore the game exe and the game launcher. None of these suggestions worked for me.
Once the game has installed, if you used the retail version then allow the game to install all updates, otherwise if you use the Steam or Origin version the game should be fully updated.
You will need to run the game once, take this opportunity to configure your game settings and play through the tutorial mission.
You will need to run the game once, take this opportunity to configure your game settings and play through the tutorial mission.
SLI/XFIRE and multi-monitor.
This game has excellent scaling across two gpu's and its multi monitor support is near perfect. The only issues are that the HUD is not displayed on the center monitor and that some of the cut scenes are stretched, however they are still watchable. The FOV is a little stretched but there is a fix for that below.
Mods.
Unfortunately at this point most mods for the game will simply take you to dead links, having been abandoned years ago. Luckily one of the best mods for the game has been saved for us, MaLDoHD 4.0 is a comprehensive texture improvement mod and the difference over the original textures or even the HD texture pack that comes in version 1.9 of the game is clear to see.
This video showcases the mod in action.
1. download the mod and both fixes (three downloads total) and save them to a directory of your choice from here.
2. Extract the mod to a directory of your choice, then extract Fix 1 and Fix 2 into the extracted directory.
3. Copy the files from Fix 1 into the corresponding directory of the extracted files of the mod and overwrite when prompted. If you do not get the prompt then you have copied them to the wrong directory.
4. Inside the extracted mod folder run MaLDoHD-C2_Setup.exe. Follow the prompts and install the mod.
5. Open the extracted Fix 2 file and copy the MaLDoHDv4 folder into your "crysis 2\mods" folder, allow it to overwrite any files it needs to.
6. Before running the MaLDoHD configuration tool it is important to note that you can no longer use the in game settings as they will overwrite the adjustments made by the configuration tool. The main screen of the configuration utility will look like this.
Mousing over the options will give you a reasonably comprehensive description of what they do. Note that in the bottom left you can mute the music. Select the options that best suit you and click the "OK" button. Next click the "Advanced Config" button, which will bring you to this menu.
If you are running sli/xfire then your first step is to check 'MultiGPU'. the rest of the settings are up to personal preference really, mouse over each for a description if you are unsure. Once you have set the configuration to what you want you can click the "OK" button and exit the configuration tool.
If you find that the games FOV is slightly off, or if you are running multi monitors and find the outside monitors are distorted then lowering the Vertical field of view will help alleviate this. experiment with different values, though on my 5760x1080 resolution I found 60 was sufficient.
If you set the configuration tool to create a desktop shortcut you can launch the game from this and the mod will be enabled. Otherwise you will have to launch the game as you choose and enable the mod in the menu. If your experience is similar to mine you may encounter this error after launch.
To prevent this from happening simply lower the anti-aliasing settings in the configuration tool, any in game option still works fine.
Anti Aliasing and down sampling.
Other than the configuration utility and in game anti-aliasing settings there are limited options via nvidia control panel or catalyst control center to improve on these settings further. If you still have plenty of gpu power to spare and wish to improve the graphical fidelity of the game even further you can implement a strategy called down sampling. this involves rendering the game at a far higher resolution than the native display resolution and then down sampling it to match the display's resolution. Obviously this will have a significant impact on performance. there are a variety of strategies to implement this, nvidia users can use DSR or a custom resolution, amd also have access to custom resolutions. If you use multi monitor then you will need to implement a work around to down sample.
Note that running the game at a resolution of 7680x1440 on my native 5760x1080 display caused the game to not render full screen initially. to fix this simply change the game from full screen to windowed and then change it back again.
Remove the HUD.
The simplest way to do so is to open the autoexec.cfg file in the game install directory using a text editor like notepad++ (see useful software at the top of this page). If you installed MaLDoHD then autoexec.cfg will already exist, otherwise you will need to create it yourself.
Inside this text file add the line
hud_hide = 1
To enable the HUD again simply delete this line.
The next time you launch the game you may receive a warning regarding the modification of this file and be asked if you want to reload it. Say "NO" otherwise this change will be undone.
Inside this text file add the line
hud_hide = 1
To enable the HUD again simply delete this line.
The next time you launch the game you may receive a warning regarding the modification of this file and be asked if you want to reload it. Say "NO" otherwise this change will be undone.
Skip the annoying login screen.
Add the following line
g_enableInitialLoginScreen = 0
to the game.cfg as you did before to remove the HUD, which will be in C:\Users\*your username*\Saved Games\Crysis2
g_enableInitialLoginScreen = 0
to the game.cfg as you did before to remove the HUD, which will be in C:\Users\*your username*\Saved Games\Crysis2
Remove hit sounds feedback for added immersion.
If you prefer to not hear the sounds of your bullets hitting your targets then while you are disabling the login screen you can also add the line
g_useHitSoundFeedback = 0
g_useHitSoundFeedback = 0
Final word of caution.
Do not disable DX11 mode! Doing so will may prevent Crysis from launching, if you find you experience this error then open the game.cfg in your C:\Users\**your username**\Saved Games\Crysis2 and edit the line r_Driver = "DX9" to r_Driver = "DX11"