Crysis

by Seyon, in Games: Crysis, In Conclusion (1 Comment)

I was excited when I heard that Crytek, maker of Far Cry, was making a new game. I enjoyed Far Cry and it had beautiful visuals, so I expected much of the same from their new game, Crysis. As game release approached, I realized something very terrifying: I needed a new PC to play this game. I had planned on waiting before I got my new PC but this game was going to push up the date. It ended up being one of the first non-Valve game I installed, and I finished it not too long after. So, did Crysis justify the purchase of a new PC?

Let’s start off by jumping into graphics. They are just amazing. I was able to run it at max settings on almost everything, yet didn’t get that creepy ‘too-real’ feeling that I was expecting. The graphics really brought up the submersion level, going hand in hand with the level of detail put into the game. The foliage was lush and truly seemed part of the environment. You could shoot trees down. Explosions would take out shacks but leave sturdy buildings unharmed. Every nook and cranny had been fleshed out.

The controls were much of what you would expect from a first-person shooter. I liked the quick switch menu for picking the suit modes (Stealth, Strength, Speed, Armor) and the weapon customization menu for changing scopes or adding flashlights to any of your guns. One of the few technical problems I had was with the weapon customization menu; the game would lockup whenever I brought up the menu for about a minute and again for a minute when I closed the menu. While it was annoying, it wasn’t horrible.

Spoilers Ahead:

While not being a distraction from the action, the story is far from great. The first half of the game against the KPA is great. The enemies are mostly fun to fight, there a literally dozens of ways to get past every part, and you play it as you want to play it. The second half though, when the aliens are introduced, is horrible. While intriguing at first, the game quickly devolves into a very linear storyline, with a one method approach to winning every fight. Environments become very bland and the new enemies are not fun to fight. Also, in the second half there are a couple of parts that were torturous: there is one section where you are fighting aliens with an AA gun that seems to made of paper. Slightly later there is a vehicle section that where you fly a VTOL – I couldn’t wait till that section was over.

One other annoying element for me was the guns. Playing through Far Cry, one of my favorite things was the guns (shooting the guns felt very tactile and satisfying), so I was disappointed when Crysis was not up to the same level. Also, it didn’t help that it took so much to kill a single KPA solider – a silenced sub-machine gun requires ten shots to the face to finish him off. You would think you were shooting paintballs. Distance greatly reduces damage in game. The sniper rifle, sub-machine gun and shotgun were the few guns I could tolerate.

Overall, I enjoyed the game. It doesn’t have the story of Half Life 2 or the gameplay of Far Cry, but I would recommend it to any first-person shooter fan. For everyone else, you may find it hard pushing yourself through some of the more frustrating parts. All things said, I will still be buying Crysis: Warhead this Fall when it comes out.