Crysis

This week I tackle a game renown for graphics. But, is it just graphics or is there more in Crysis? Well lets dive right on in!

We start off by getting a cut scene setting up the situation on this pacific island and hints at there is more going on than anyone knows. As such we then cut to a few days later and a transport plane flying towards the fictional Lingshan islands. Here the North Korean's have evacuated all the civilians from the island after massive seismic activity. Now the whole place is under lock down and the US Government is worried about what is going on and sends in a team to find out what is going on.

At this point Nomad, the player, finishes being briefed by Prophet, the squad leader. Once briefed the pilot of the military transport plane gives the green light for the jump and the team runs and jumps out and heads down to the ground. But not all goes well on the drop. Something comes out of no where and attacks Nomad taking out his parachute. At this point if you caught a glimpse of it earlier you know already that it is not something man made. Once on the ground you regroup with your squad though one is killed right off the bat. At this point you are told to keep moving forward and get to the archeological team that was working on the island before the North Korean's take over. As things go on more of your team disappear or are killed and the island starts to shake apart. Eventually revealing what is behind what has been going on and a massive threat.

A early Glimpse of what is going on at this remote island.

It turns out that there are some sort of life on this island that predates humanity. At this point the US Military steps in and starts a out right invasion of the island to recover what data and technology from the aliens before they awaken. Sadly it is to late and the North Koreans have already awoken them and now they stalk the island learning all they can before readying themselves for a outright war with humanity. At this point you are directed to save the daughter of the researcher who uncovered these aliens and is the second most knowledgeable about them on the planet at this point. Here you, backed by the US Military, fight through North Korean defenses to a Quarry where the archeological team uncovered something big. At this point the seismic activity causes the central mountain to fall apart and reveal that is is actually some kind alien structure, and the uncovered object in the quarry is in fact part of it. Now it is time to save the girl and kill the leader of the North Korean military. Once done you help Dr. Rosenthal's daughter out of the cave but becoming stranded yourself. Then the door opens into the alien structure and is the only way that might lead out. Once in it becomes clear how dangerous these things are and that they are not related to humans at all. After this it is a run from the aliens to the US Carrier now off the coast of the island and to the final climatic fight.

 The final Boss, which is hard for me to take serious due to the face.

Game play:

Crysis is a standard a fair due to relying on WSAD like most first person games nowadays. With how things are set up you can also lean left or right and can be in three states for stance. This is normal for when it came out with Call of Duty 4. However the true unique part is the Nanosuit, allowing for extra armor, speed, strength, and also going invisible. As well as having the ability to customize your weapon on the fly to react to various situations. This makes the game feel quite a lot more personalized and enjoyable.

Example of customization allowed in Crysis.

Balance:

Crysis is rather well balanced, to the point combat comes down to tactics more than weapons. In multiplayer, for the short bit I played it, I died a lot, a lot of times from people just sneaking up then super punching me. To be honest Crysis was rather run in multiplayer but over all the level of skill of other players made it hard for me to play. I will say campaign is nice and balanced always tricky and encouraging the player to plan then strike and not just run out into the open and start shooting.

AI:

The AI in Crysis is smart at times unnervingly so, but thankfully it is more of you cause a sound in one place they will check it out and actually comb the area. Problem comes at one part where you are escaping a lab and the AI has a thick ring of troops which each time you take one out either with a silencer or something else the net closes in on you tell more troops drop in or you get killed. The stealth parts of the game are good and those are actually a lot of parts due to you get the option for stealth quite often.

Replay Value:

Not a huge amount of replay value unless you wish to try different tactics, not terribly memorable tell the latter half of the game. Really I have played it through three times, twice back to back for this review. I enjoyed it but you get into a pattern and it is no longer as fun.

Final Verdict:

I say Crysis is a decent game, better than average, which is not saying much as average is Call of Duty Black Ops. I would recommend picking this up if you have a good computer and a Nvidia card as it is optimized for it. The multiplayer mostly moved to Crysis Wars which is bundled with Crysis Warhead a stand alone expansion of Crysis. Now you can get a bundle of Crysis, Crysis Warhead, and Crysis Wars for cheap and I recommend picking them up.

Until next time!

Screen shots for this review are found here.