Crysis 2

And, whatever Morgan has in mind, the Nanosuit's latest incarnation is emblematic of the approach Crytek is taking to the sequel. While its visual design remains largely unchanged - with its slick black piping and silver cinches, it still makes the wearer look like a cross between Captain Amazing and a really fancy car seat - its uses have been both streamlined and expanded.

The original allowed you to essentially respec your character on the fly, hitting the mouse wheel to switch between options for added speed, strength, armour, or, stealth. It was brilliant fun, but Crytek wasn't satisfied. "We looked at the way people were playing, and largely it came down to two decisions," says Yerli. "They tended to focus on either stealth or armour: they were either a predator or a tank."

Armed with that knowledge, Crytek has swapped things about a bit, promoting stealth and armour to your two basic starting points - on the 360 pad, they're mapped, rather wonderfully, to the bumpers - before allowing you to layer on up to two additional traits at any one time, expanding your options in some fascinating ways.

At this juncture, speed and strength are joined by a new arrival, tactical, which heightens your awareness of the immediate surroundings, picking out distant foes and allowing you to eavesdrop on conversations taking place the best part of a block away. When you start combining approaches, that minute-to-minute richness which always defined Crysis becomes faintly overwhelming: blending speed and strength and armour allows you to become a human wrecking ball, while combining tactical, stealth and strength lets you leap around and get the drop on snipers.

Beyond that, there are plenty of other permutations waiting to be exploited - even before you take into account that, in the finished game, the Nanosuit will also have the scope for customisation and upgrades as you move deeper into the story.

Watching a developer play through a few very brief set-pieces reinforces the potential of the new system, while also suggesting that, despite the change in location, the heart of the Crysis experience remains intact. Regardless of the overwhelming odds and the total devastation, this is still one of those shooters that revels in making you feel tremendously powerful.

Dropped onto a skyscraper ledge overlooking an intersection riddled with Crynet Security (a PMC who provide the game's human enemies - and who, despite the extra-terrestrial threat, appear to be gunning primarily for you), it's not so much survival as wringing out the maximum possible enjoyment that plays on your mind.

Tactical mode picks out a number of patrols dotted around the various rooftops between you and your ultimate objective, and it's a pleasure to plot a course through them, turning invisible and hitting armour to survive a 20-storey drop onto the first enemy-held rooftop before switching to strength and bounding all the way across the street to punch another group of unfortunates into the Hudson.