Crysis

The Good
There is no doubt that Crysis was one of the most hyped games in the hobby. Even after it was released, between the media accolades and its use as the new technical benchmark throughout the industry kept it in the spotlight. The primary reason for this is clear the moment you enter the game. No game before this or since (as of this writing in November 2008) has achieved the level of graphical splendor found in Crysis. The visuals and environments are simply breathtaking. So much so that they tax even the most up-to-date gaming rigs.

Game physics are also impressive. The way that objects in the environment react to you and other elements of the world is a pleasure to see and helps immerse the player.

Then the artificial intelligence deserves kudos. While it is not at the level of F.E.A.R.'s eerily competent soldiers, the enemies you face in Crysis are a real challenge and can be relied upon not to fall for simple tricks. They also have a good sense of their own mortality and if you ever take on a soldier alone, be assured that he will try to bring in some reinforcements as soon as he can. This causes the player to take special care in tactics or else face a deadly barrage of bullets from all sides.

Sound is excellent and plays a great part in the gameplay itself, as sometimes it is the best way to determine where your enemies are. I definitely recommend playing with a good headset.

The Bad
As technically beautiful as Crysis may be, as a game it falls short. This is a game that I really wanted to love, especially since I bought it with my brand new gaming system. Even so, I found myself rather uninspired from the beginning.

The storyline is not terribly involving and verges into cliche. As well, I never found any of the characters - least of all my own - to be very appealing. I do wish that I could have played as the cocky British commando in the team instead of the incredibly bland American muscle slab that I was.

Gameplay is actually not as fun as you would think it could be. The idea of sneaking around in the jungles, using ambush tactics, and generally engaging in stealth badassery seems awesome - and it is awesome. But the inclusion of your super-powered suit with built in stealth capabilities spoils it. Once I began running circles around groups of enemies, repeatedly hiding and recloaking after each kill, I began to feel like I was shooting fish in a barrel. Try to play without cloaking, though, and it is like pushing boulders up the side of Mt. Fuji. The enemy suddenly knows exactly where you are and they somehow all have the accuracy of Navy SEAL snipers.

Weapon selection is pretty uninteresting. This is especially the case because you soon run out of ammunition for your cool high-tech assault rifle and have to pick up the aging Korean model instead.

Also, there seems to be little reason for stealth other than to keep from being filled with holes. I think that it would have been great to have missions in which you needed to infiltrate a base without raising the alarm, silently bypassing or removing guards as you go.

The Bottom Line
Crysis is an awesome technical achievement but a mediocre first-person shooter. I hope that someone takes this engine and makes the game that FPS fans have really all been awaiting.

The Good
This one of the few games where you don't start with a weak weapon and no armor, but an amazing nano-suit with five superpowers at your disposal, it's like having five X-Men mutants in one body (Quicksilver, Colossus, Blob, Mystique and Wolverine). You can comfortably switch between stealth and direct combat and never die easily if you don't get carried away. And the suit automatically switches to maximum armour so you won't suffer a cheap death.

There's so much attention to detail and atmosphere across the island and it's fun to explore. This game has a rare feature almost never seen in an FPS, which is the ability to see your feet, when the camera is angled downwards. Even the music really blends in, changing according to whether you remained undetected, arouse enemies' suspicions or get spotted by them, not unlike the way the music works in Manhunt.

The gameplay really works at its best if you have the right framerate. There's a decent variety of weapons with attachments to make them even more reliable. Secondary objectives to add to the flow of getting your primary objectives done. If the going gets tough, you can save anywhere at any time.

The plot has politics and science fiction put together in just the right spots. Just when you thought you were entering a Call of Duty-styled cold war, you soon find yourself plunged into an alien war almost reminiscent of the Scrin from Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars. It would have been nice if the characters were fleshed out a bit more.

The Bad
The worst part of the game is the driving. Driving in jeeps, trucks and boats isn't so bad, even if you have to remember to switch seats to fire the machine gun. Where the frustration lies is the driving of a tank and a VTOL, both of which ruin the fun in the game.

With the tank you have limited shells, which means you have to rely on your partners to do a lot of the enemy tank busting. So many boulders on the ground hinder your movement (sometimes you get completely stuck) and you need a lot of momentum to trek up hills. And the tank is so wide, you can't tell if it can squeeze through a gap or get wedged in it. Driving the tank is like wading in quicksand. Unfortunately you need the tank to get far in the mission, but in a moment of frustration, you'd much rather exit the tank and go on foot, which gives you better control.

The VTOL is just as bad because of the way the flying works, with awkward angles and its hard to get a lock on enemy targets, you might crash before you know it. If you do land roughly, you'll have no chance of getting up again, so you'll need to fly in the sky in one go. With what limited missiles you have, you're not going to get all the secondary objectives easily if at all. Heat-seeking missiles would have been more helpful in this mission.

One other game physic that can ruin a game is that the bodies of your enemies are solid. If you're in prone mode, you can't crawl over a body. Worse if you're caught between a wall with a low ceiling and a body, you're stuck for good. And sometimes falls are a real problem, being as hateful an opponent as the ones you shoot, you'd be wishing the suit could protect you from fall damage.

The Bottom Line
Crysis is not an FPS for the inexperienced. Getting the hang of it would have gone smoother if only there was a proper tutorial guide for utilising the nano-suit's abilities as well as the awful driving and certain physics, which the creators made a bit more realistic than you would have liked. You have to appreciate every ounce of effort put into the game. That iconic nano-suit brought FPS gaming to a whole new level, you cannot say it's been done a hundred times before. The game's reputation earned it the remaster it deserves, but this is the title one must play at least once in a lifetime.

The Good
I still remember when i upgraded by PC in 2004, the first game I used to test the card was Farcry. I basically saw the previews on TV & was impressed with its visuals but wasn't expecting much from the game. After completion of that game I was pretty much impressed with Crytek who pretty much focus on the overall aspect of a game.

Skip to 2007 and Crytek are back with a new engine, a new publisher and new intellectual property called "Crysis". Crysis is advertised as a Tactical Shooter that will refresh the stagnating FPS genre and also take visuals to a new level. It's safe to say that Crysis does as advertised.

First of the visuals are one of the best around. It has a very authentic feel, even indoors without overdoing it. Many other games use excessive bloom, blurring and some even end up looking plastic with all that shininess but Crysis is as real as games can get. I couldn't play this game on high, so I used a mixed setting it still looks brilliant.

The gameplay is pretty much non linear until the latter part of the game. The levels are pretty much the same sandbox style of Farcry. You have a choice on what path you want to take and how you get about doing it, that's where the nano suit comes in. With the nano suit you can increase your armor, speed, strength and also cloak yourself. At first I thought the Nano suit is a gimmick but after playing the demo it proved it was an integral part of the gameplay. The weapons also have real time customization, you need to acquire the parts like laser sight, assault scope etc by picking up weapons from the Koreans which have these attached. You can modify your shotgun to have a laser sight or torch.

Also unlike Farcry there is some diversity in Crysis with the environment. At first you start off in the tropical island setting then end up in a alien ship to an Arctic like island and finally a navy ship.

The A.I is average, not much improvement from Farcry but still pretty tough even on normal. Mid game you battle Koreans with the Nano suit.

The games length is just about right on FPS standards. Voice acting is perfect and the storyline is not so great. The cut scenes are from first person perspective and are executed perfectly. There seems to be a lot of Matrix and Independence Day influence in the art direction.

The Bad
The characters are pretty cliched. You got a sophisticated but relentless African American "Prophet", A drunk cussing loudmouth British "Psycho" and the Hot scientist Dr. Rosentall who is also a closet furry just like Alyx from HL2. She keeps transmitting stuff like Trojans and furry porn into your suit to weaken the aliens. Apparently aliens don't like cats. Not to forget the Admiral character. Sometimes I felt that you're seriously outnumbered, but this was okay since it added some challenge.

The Ending of this game was cool but will be disappointing to many as it's a cliff hanger. Expect an expansion pack. The game sucks towards the end. The storyline and dialogs aren't too great either. The game has steep requirements.

The Bottom Line
If you have a high end PC or even mid range, I highly recommend this game. It's all that it was hyped up to be and one of the best games I've played in recent years. Its opened ended gameplay will have some re-playability too. Good job Crytek.