Crysis Review

I find it amusing when hype surrounding a game focuses solely on aspects other than how the game actually plays. For far too long, the only thing we in the media heard regarding Crysis was how it would make all of our computers fall to their knees begging for mercy, only to then deliver none. I was, and remain to this day, the furthest thing from a fan of Crytek

It is one thing to see a painting, it is entirely something else to see it come to life. From end to end, Crysis is masterfully drawn. It is almost shocking to find yourself on a tropical beach, watching a sunrise from a hut as enemy soldiers patrol the bay in front of you. When you take out one of these boats then commandeer it, it is incumbent upon you to drive around. As the waves splash around you, planes fly overhead, and crabs scuttle about on a small island, the only thing missing is the smell of the ocean spray.

The different settings allow for all the bells and whistles to be cranked up or turned off, or somewhere in between. The game still looks respectable without everything cranked to an 11, but I would recommend hitting www.tweakguides.com for their guide on how to get the most out of Crysis. It is invaluable information because watching how trees sway before falling to a hail of bullets is stunning.

Character models have an impressive skeletal structure that rivals Valve

As beautiful a game as Crysis is, stop and listen. It doesn

The controls are extremely tight and at first glance the mouse controls would be problematic. But after playing with it for a few moments, it clicked (so to speak). The game defaults the suit control options to the scroll wheel. Pressing this will bring up a “Simon Says” wheel where you select which power you want your suit to use for the moment. Even while in the heat of battle, players will get the hang of it and be able to switch powers on the fly without accidentally swapping firearms.

As it is a PC game, all the controls can be remapped to your heart

The opening of Crysis is stunning. It literally drops you onto a jungle island where things are on the verge of going very, very wrong between North Korean and American forces. The genius though is how the game builds up to a reveal of something far worse, and the leaps forward in storytelling mark this as a vast improvement over Far Cry. It is clear right from the beginning that the developers knew where their story was going, and how best to tell it because it works far better than a majority of first-person shooters. The ongoing philosophy in the games industry seems to be “engine first, story second.” While I

Do not be fooled into thinking this is a long game. Crysis follows the trend of hitting the six to eight hour mark in terms of length, but with so much to explore and so many ways of completing tasks it demands immediate replay. The game is fun, first and foremost. The requirements may be steep but if you can get it to run on your computer then you are in for a treat. It is a well told story, immersive like nothing else in recent memory, and fun. Not to mention it comes with a healthy dose of multiplayer action, augmented recently by Crytek