Richard Morgan Revealed as Lead Writer for Crysis 2

At an event this past Tuesday, CEO and President of Crytek, Cevat Yerli, spoke to the room, and conceded that while Crysis was, and still is, one of the best-looking games out there, the “story wasn’t up to the rest of the experience.” That was something they wanted to be sure to change, for the better, in Crysis 2. And so, Crytek has revealed that Richard Morgan, a popular sci-fi novelist, has been taken on as the lead writer for the sequel. Morgan has published six novels, the most recent of which is the first entry in a fantasy trilogy, The Steel Remains.

When Morgan got his chance to address us, he told us that he’s “been a big console gamer for the last seven, eight years, along with being a novelist.” So, when Crytek came to him with this offer, he was more than happy to accept. He told us that he sees a “massive potential in games” to be viewed on the same level as literature. The way he sees things, it’s possible to import the values of literature into games, but is something that rarely happens.

Morgan joked that “Lead Writer” sounds like this high and mighty position, but it’s really not. To him, the best way to describe his role was, “[I’m] like a lens, [I’ve] got to take all of this creativity [of the various members of the dev team] and refract it through the lens of the story.” He’s keen on getting the elements of the gameplay to be utilized for advancing the story, and the story being used to enhance the gameplay.

When it came down to specifics of Crysis 2, Morgan had some interesting details and ideas. First, he said that the story will be unpredictable. He really wants the player to not know where the story is going, throw them into completely unexpected twists and turns. Another new element of this entry is the heightened importance of the Nanosuit, even to the story. The Nanosuit 2 has almost become a character in its own right, and has its own narrative thread. The technology isn’t everything that it seems, and there’s an air of mystery surrounding it that the player needs to clear up. When it comes down to it, the suit has its own destiny and its narrative becomes intertwined with the narrative of the player and of the city itself to reach an endpoint that relates them all.

It really does sound like Crytek wants to step up the storytelling this time around, and when they do something they go all out. I’m curious to see where this all goes, and hope we can get some more details down the road.

Currently, Crysis 2 is set for a somewhat vague “Holiday 2010” release on Xbox 360, PS3, and PC.