I know I’m not the only person who, upon seeing the newest Crysis 2 trailer, felt that Crytek was evoking 9/11 imagery, perhaps as a function of going for an emotionally charged story. I brought up that point to Nathan Camarillo, the executive producer on Crysis 2, thinking it was especially valid because one of the gameplay sections we saw took place during the first week of September in 2023.
Camarillo made sure to note that the development team is “very sensitive” to that topic, saying that “we’re not doing destruction for [destruction’s sake].” But according to him, the time frame has nothing to do with getting players to think of 9/11:
It’s just the time of year we wanted to pursue. New York has this very unique feel around the time of late summer/early fall. And we didn’t want to do winter; we didn’t want to do hot, steamy summer — [early September is] this time when the city’s kind of green but the leaves are changing. It was more about a mood and a feel. October’s a little too late — it’s a little too brown; August is still a little too green, too hot — it’s, like, when no one wants to be in the city. So immediately, people are going to draw parallels [to 9/11], and that wasn’t really the intent behind it.
As a native New Yorker, I can’t help but think of 9/11 when I see New York get destroyed in films and videogames, but Crytek’s reasoning makes complete sense here — the setting is serving the narrative, not acting as a cheap way to elicit an emotional response. (And it’s true: the muggy days of August in New York are no fun.) I just hope the footage doesn’t catch Fox News’ eye…
