Articles
Crysis |
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 Crysis is truly one of those turning points in the history of video games, or at least graphically speaking. In all, Crysis is a technical master peace, and achievement that during the release date, was hard for even the most beefy computers to fully comprehend.Developed by CryTek, the makers of Fry Cry. Crysis really shows off CryTek's new CryENGINE 2 technology. With the addiction to new Direct X 10 architecture, Crysis really almost “Rips me out of my chair and throws me into a digital jungle.” Soft light beams peaking though tall palm tree leaves, water that almost looks better than real life, 3D road and ground textures, real-time 3D smoke and particles, next-gen physics, and even little files buzzing around rotten fruit. The list of details could go on for pages and pages. The story in Crysis takes place in the year 2019. Korea and USA have been researching a suspicious archaeologist dig on a remote Korean volcanic island, and when something goes haywire, and important U.S. archaeologists go missing, the USA sends a squad of elite nano-suit laden special operatives. This is were you begin as, Nomad, sent on a silent recon mission to find the archaeologists. However as to be expected, nothing goes to plan and a interesting discovery leads to a epic and hostile alien invasion. While this type of story may not be very original, Many unique events and well played cut-scenes are still pretty entertaining to watch. While the story in Crysis might be quite entertaining to a few, it does seem to be missing something solid, that games like Halo 3 or Call of Duty 4 has. So with that said, if someone wanted to buy Crysis for the story alone, they will probably be disappointed. However, the game play in Crysis is definitely one of the major reasons to give this game a shot. I like how, unlike Call of Duty 4 and Halo 3, Crysis is almost is a complete sandbox. This means you have one or two objectives, and a whole beautiful island were you can travel pretty much anywhere, and complete tasks as you please. I think the level design is pretty good, though the graphics once again really make the maps seem better than they really are. Vehicles are a fun break from walking, and seem to have decent and realistic controls and damage. There is a whole Tank level that really takes advantage of the unique realistic damage system that implemented into vehicles. The basic first person shooting mechanics are pretty fluid, but seem awkward at times. Though, shooting alone is not what is going to make Crysis fun. Your nano-suit has four different abilities: armor mode, cloak mode, speed mode, and strength. These are the most fun- and are quiet the “life saving” functions in Crysis. For example, use cloak to sneak up to approaching Korean soldiers, change to maximum strength mode, grab a foolish solider by the neck and toss him with so much force, that he flies though a nearby hut, causing it to cave in and killing even more Korean soldiers inside. After that, just flip on maximum speed mode, dash into the jungle and hide in bushes while watching enemy reinforcements search in vain for revenge. The A.I. is pretty good in Crysis. So far I haven't seen any game has had perfect A.I. but the NPC's in Crysis really keep you on your heals. Stay in one spot shooting too long and enemy forces will flank your sides and rears. Try to melee too many soldiers and they will retreat and regroup. Even if you switch to cloak mode some of the enemies will blind fire like crazy in a feeble attempt to hit you. The bots are very good, but any player can find crafty ways to deplete them. For example, the NPC's in Crysis will really go dumb when you are inside buildings. They carelessly one by one waltz in a building, sometimes not even shooting, and make extremely easy targets. The Alien A.I. Isn't so great either, and will have you begging for more. Most of the time they circle above and just shoot at you, making annoying but “easy” targets. Imagine Crysis multiplayer, as a more complicated combination of, Counter-strike: Source, Battlefield 2, and Halo 3. Its Koreans vs U.S.A. And everyone has nano-suits. They have the same single player powers in multi player, though they are more balanced by keeping the energy recharge times longer. There are regular deathmatch and team-deathmatch games, but the unique “power-struggle” game mode is what draws all the attention. Your team has to capture enough individual points to start collecting enough resources to build super weapons, that can be used to blow up an enemy's heavily fortified base. You can earn resources by capturing flags and getting kills, with these resources you can buy different and better weapons. While there is a huge arsenal of weapons and attachments to buy, you can also get a huge selection of special vehicles. Enemy chopper bugging you? Save up enough points to buy an Anti-Air tank. Eventually you get to the point were you can buy super-weapons. My personal favorite is a TAC-launcher. It is basically a mini grenade launcher that shoots tactical nukes. There are very little other things more satisfying then walking over to a enemy base, pulling the trigger and watching a epic nuclear explosion completely wipe them out. However, if you are not careful, the enemy team can kill you and pick up your super-weapon thus instantly changing the tide of battle. Crysis can handle up to 32 people in one of these games, and it's pretty fun and fresh, IF you can find a server that has enough people. Sadly, Crysis multiplayer doesn't have a large community of players since many average PC gamers can not handle the game even on low or medium settings. Even though They toned down the settings in multiplayer a bit, the game is still extremely demanding and good looking. So in all, Crysis is a pretty well rounded game, It's not perfect, but it's a great game to try nevertheless. The story is so-so and has one of those classic “there's gonna be a sequel” endings, but still manages to pull out. The graphics are obviously revolutionary, and make a good benchmark to PC enthusiasts. Game play is fun, and has some unique moments, however it can get repetitive and boring to some people. Multiplayer has a lot of functions, and plenty of potential, but there is just not enough people online for a good variety of servers, players, and maps. Test computer specs: GPU: XFX 8800GT 512mb DDR3 CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 overclocked to 3.6ghz MOBO: Asus P5K\EPU RAM: OCZ DDR2 800mhz PSU: 600watt OS: Vista Ultimate x64 bit Crysis graphic detail settings: All “Very High” settings except “Medium” shadows and shader detail. Resolution: 1680x1050, No AA or AP. Lowest FPS: 10-15 Average FPS: 30-40 Highest FPS: 40-60 |
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| Written by Josh Mossman | Posted on Sep 5, 2008 9:23 pm |
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