Crysis Review - The Good, the Bad, and the WTF

You know what my biggest pet peeve is... game developers moving to this "episodic" gaming phase.
The first game I can think of that I purchased that purposely left the ending unresolved was Half-Life 2. Ever since Half-Life 2, it seems like every game I've purchased has had a crappy or unfinished "cliffhanger" ending. I spend $50 + tax on a game, and I spend a good number of hours of my life battling against all odds, and I don't even get a proper ending.

With Half-Life 2, I had grown to love the Gordan Freeman experience, and I had a true connection with Alyx and the other characters. The story telling was novel and fun. I didn't mind the idea of buying further expansions in order to follow the story... for $19.99... The First Episode of Half-Life 2 was $19.99, and you got about 4-7 hours gameplay. Then Valve decided to capitalize on this, and charged a whopping $50 for the Orange Box (Which is an incredible deal if you don't already have HL2 and Episode 1).

OK, so Valve decided to screw over the customers a bit, but we got Portal, so I'll allow it.... But Finishing Crysis, I figured I have approximately 8 hours of gameplay (Beat it over the course of 3 nights)... Which, for all the hype, is unacceptable.

Kicking off the game, since I tried out the demo and liked it, I started the new game on Delta mode (the hardest setting, and supposedly makes the AI smart). I wanted the full experience... Koreans speaking Korean, and all the realism I could muster. The game was hard, but it's not nearly as hard as it could be. Maybe I'm just that good,

Ok, so the game kicks off the same as in the demo. You are on a special forces team infiltrating an island filled with Koreans in search of a missing group of archaeologists. A decent start. Weird stuff starts happening from the moment you jump out of the plane, and the game holds in in suspense all the while you're battling Koreans... Ominous shakings of the ground, and an impending mountain is visible virtually at all times... As you make your way through the game, you get ever closer to what seems to be the source of one hell of a disturbance.... Love the foreshadowing.

So you make your way though the jungle, using stealth mostly (if on delta mode, you have to use it, because a platoon of Koreans will pretty much oust you, since your energy runs out quickly from defense from bullets). My favorite tactic is following a group of 6 patrolling guards, and grabbing the rear guard while in stealth mode, pulling him away from the patrol, and smacking him unconscious... and doing this until the guards are thinned out. It's the only real stealth move you have, since you don't get a knife, wrench, or crowbar like any other FPS game.

You can only hold 2 big guns (rifles) and 2 pistols, and 1 RPG rocket launcher. Later in the game (the last level) you do get to acquire a gun that supposedly is a portable nuclear weapon launcher, which I'm guessing is going to have the novelty of the gravity gun in the Half Life Series, actually wasn't that all impressive, in terms of explosion. It's only usable in a scripted event and when you get to launch it, it's nothing but a larger version of the RPG. Yawn.

Speaking of the ending, I won't spoil it, but they totally dropped the ball. It would not have been hard for them to make the game longer. You have a massive battle, which is as epic as the final battle in Pirates of the Caribbean 3, and just when you're all psyched to go get those sons of b*ches, the credits roll.... WTF?! I'm not done kicking ass! I don't care who made the game!

Yeah, they purposely made it so that us gamers have to wait another 3 years (or however long it takes) for Crytek to develop another game (Crysis 2: The Search for More Money) and we'll have to shell out another $50 to find out how they decide to end the story... Oh, I'm sorry. They're probably going to stretch it into a sequel and we'll have to fork out another $150 to find out.

Timeshift, they did that too. Take a perfectly good game and totally make it suck because of a cliffhanger ending.

I enjoyed Crysis while I was playing it. The environment was engrossing, though I can't play it above Medium settings since it's so advanced... The scenarios were fun, the characters had depth in terms of believability. The voice acting was top notch. Game only crashed on me once, and that was because I had played it too long and my gfx card overheated.

The A.I. was OK. Using the stealth mode on your suit makes them dumb. You disappear, and they shoot the spot where you were at, nonstop for about 20 seconds.... Which is annoying. Real AI ought to shut up and try listening for your footsteps in the woods... It's amazing how a cloaking device hides the sound of me breaking branches in the woods, with the AI totally oblivious I'm running up behind them... Yet if I crouch, and move slowly and turn off the cloak THEN they decide to turn around and start shooting me. Not realistic.

One of the biggest plot holes in the game is the presence of Koreans that are wearing the same special biosuits that you're wearing.... It's equivalent to the time shifting bad guys in TimeShift. The only purpose they serve is to match the player up against someone with the same advantages (stealth, strength, armor) never saw the AI use speed though....

How the hell did the Koreans get these suits? It's never explained. At least in Timeshift, the bad guys had your suit because the bad guy in charge was also in charge of the Time Travel research, so he had the means... Koreans with biosuits... No reason other than to make the bad guys harder.

The Zero-G environment actually wasn't how I expected it... Luckily, those American scientists considered the fact that the player wearing the suit might encounter a lack of gravity, so they had enough foresight to put in jets in your suit to help you move around. Zero Gravity then in fact does not act the way it should. You shoot your gun, the kick ought to send you backwards till you hit something... Since there is no friction to stop you... But thanks to your suit, you stop automatically after a slight kickback. The game's Zero G environment could have been a bit more fun if they had slowed down the bad guys your aiming at, and somehow made it so there was no "friction" but rather you had to manuver via shooting to propel yourself... They used a can of cheese (under pressure to propel) in the Journeyman Project 2... it could work in Crysis.

Don't get me wrong. The game itself is a fun ride, while you're playing it. There are many things you might miss because the levels are so huge... If you take 1 path, you might miss a dead body of one of the scientists... or stuff like that. It's linear, but open-ended in presentation... You're moving foward, but you have a mile across to do it.

In summary:

Graphics: 8/10 (I can't see em on the Highest Detail yet! It's too advanced)
Sound 10/10 (Good use of sounds)
Voice acting 10/10
Story 3/10 (Lame ass "ending" leaving many plot holes and unresolved problems/characters)
Overall feel and presentation 7/10 (Environments are engrossing)

Overall Average 7/10 (not mathematically calculated)

Overall worth a buy, but only after it's come down to $30 or less.



Side note: I haven't tried multiplayer yet, which might be interesting so I didn't base my rating off that... Game developers should not have to rely on multiplayer to make up for crappy plots in singleplayer.

 

 

 

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I currently have bought crysis and find it to be a real hardware hog where I can not run it smoothly on medium settings. My current system specs meet the requirements but I believe that may not be even enough to run such a game of the stature. I will probably end up upgrade my system in time, with the best of the best performance and quality parts. I only have played the first 15 minutes of it and I already notice the performance it asks for. The amount of stuff that is going on in the game cause my game to totally stutter for every cinematic that happens. The game is indeed beautiful but it is way too stuttery for me to be able to play. I cant have it on lowest settings cause I cannot stand playing a game that isnt beautiful to the eye. At low settings the textures are really washed and water colory. On medium it has its shadows but textures still lack. On high everything is really nice, but it has texture pop ups from time to time. Not to mention crashes on firefights. For those that are looking to buy crysis make sure that you do your research on what this game needs before aquiring this game. For me personally, I will probably not play this till my system is up to par for its needs. But from the first 15 minutes of the game I have seen its definitely perfect in terms of beauty and gameplay.

 

 

 

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I'm going to try the demo before purchasing, too much to spend on something I may not want. I will also want to make sure that my PC hardware suits it well and it will run 100% smooth, I had to upgrade my video card for CS:S, I was only getting 13 FPS wirh onboard lol, and graphics were horrible!

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My comments will be undirected at your review simply as I haven't played very far into the game yet so don't want to ruin anything for me even though I'm sure you tried to avoid big spoilers in your text.

My computer can barely handle this game, so that hurts haha. From a tech standpoint its amazing however and even from simple game concepts I found alot I enjoyed. Being able to mow trees down with gun fire, the powers provided add a nice gameplay variability, and being able to tweak weapons is a nice touch. Various other small goodies are noticed as you rip through the early game. That said I am not overly impressed but not disappointed. I knew it wouldn't be a game that would revolutionize the industry but simply does what it does well, be a fun tech demo. Personally I enjoy playing the game, the story seems like it could turn out alright (I'm not far enough to be too deep into it) and some of the unusual parts seem creative and thats something that always wins bonus points with me.

So to sum up, my first impressions are if you thought you wanted to play it, and if your system can run it, give the demo a try and see if its fun. Its a very solidly put together shooter, just wont blow your mind.

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Reading more, I've found that Crysis is being marketed as becoming a trilogy, (so my "prediction" was correct).

It just sucks that we have to wait so long for the whole story. I just finished The Witcher, and that game lasted approximately 60-80 game hours, the story was decent, and they finished the plot in one game. Needless to say, 80 hours is a bit much, and by the time I finished it, I was truly glad to be done with it... But still, hours per dollar, I got more bang for my buck.

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Ok, with the review, I have several comments, although I think your review is very accurate.

Firstly, I agree the AI is good but nothing more. It's cool to watch the enemies interact with each other and their enviroment but when you enter combat with the invisibility "setting" they do screw up.

One of the best features of the game is the gameplay, the enviroment is huge and you can do almost anything you think of. The nanosuit is total bull - but it's fun. You can turn yourself invisible, max your strength or run very fast to cover or away from enemies. This can give you the edge in combat against your enemies but it does get repetitive after a while. What I like most about the gameplay is it's flexability, while playing on easy (c'mon we all do sometimes...) you can play with an almost Halo type style of charging in all guns blazing. However, playing on the harder settings means that you must take a more military approach to the combats and fight them out with your enemies doing equal damage to you as you do to them. Which can be hard somethimes.

Although some people may disagree with me, I have to say that the sheer size and detail of the island does detract on the games gameplay. It's cool being able to do what you want (almost) but if you really want to explore large enviroments and play in a massive world, you should play something like GTA SA (or four when it comes out) or some RPG (Oblivion is good). I don't know about you people but when I play shooters, I want to kill things and although a good plot, being able to make decisions which affect the game and things like that are definatly good, they are not the reasons to play shooters. The game does get a bit tedious in some places and often the fairly large distance between differnet groups of enemies and the speed in which you can clear out an area are not things that I found enjoyable.

Weapon customisability is another cool feature of the game. Although I think it's a bit unrealistic how you can do it on the fly. I think it would of been better to have a souped up weapon (chosen upgrades at the start of each mission) and then activate the GL for example with a hotkey, much like COD 4.

I have to agree, the game is fun while it lasts but 8 hours of gameplay is unacceptable. A better ending would have made the game at least twice as good, but finishing the campaign is still satisfying. However, because the maps are so large it is possible to play the game again in a completly different way and taking a different route then before btu this will get boreing quite quickly I imagine.

Graphically, Crysis is one of the best games out. I have two 8800 GTX Ultras with SLI and I can tell you that maxed out, the game is supurb. I won't go into too much detail as it's one of those "try it and you'll see what I mean" things but the effects and active shadows as well as the light beams throught the vegetation are stunning. However, the specs are quite demanding and most of my friends can't play it, as with all new games, remember to check the specs and check with your computer to see it it will work for you.

Multiplayer is insane. It is one of the best features of the game by a long shot. Best of all Crytek included a sandbox editor which allows users to change existing multiplayer maps or make their own from scratch meainign that people with very limited computer experience to make great maps with awsome effects and textures, although don't get me wrong, making a full sized detailed map for Crysis with objects and a cool design will still be a long quite fiddily process.

In hindsight, these comments are quite harsh actually. Although Crysis like every other game has it's faults, I found that the positives of this game far outstrip the drawback, which I have focued on here. The campaign is interesting and will make you constantly think out solutiuons to problems and think tactically where the multiplayer games are immense fun. Overall, this is one of my favourite games and will be for quite a long time.

Overall Rating: 9/10

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Disappointed
Crysis Review

I've beaten the game, and let me tell you, there's nothing more fun than going back through it on expert with no weapon limit, unlimited ammo, a lot of extra health, and a faster speed mode.

I do agree the ending to the game was total shiza, and I was disappointed by the lack of attachments and guns. Most of the game you're using the same rifle as the Koreans because you rarely have any ammo for anything else.

And the attachments are mostly useless. The "tactical attachment" was fun at best, not useful unless you really intended on not killing people to sneak by but was still only useful for 1 or 2 enemies.

The zero G environment was a pain in the arse too. But hey, at least chucking grenades made for some satisfaction as buildings and vehicles exploded. The helicopters were hell, be sure to have rifle grenades and good aim

-Wolf

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Crysis Review, Comment
Crysis Review

Well first of all I think you did a good job talking about the game. But however I don't think you should take out your anger of finishing the game and not having anymore nasties to kick ass on ;). Lol honestly I hate that too.

Also Timeshift owned, it was a very nice game but once you beat it you can't do much because multiplayer isn't very big in it. I don't have crysis but my bro does and I've watched him play and it looks pretty sweet.

If I got it my comp would die XD. Well I'd probably give crysis a 8.5 (from observation point of view) And also I'd give timeshift a 9/10 (from the players point of view). So Yeah thats just my opinion.

-Sarge

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heres my review on crysis:
one word sumup is excellent,
and heres why i think so.
I love the zero g enviroment inside the alien ship that is my faviorite thing to go in. the ability to destroy alot of buildings and most of the tres in the game was very entertaining. the alien exosuits were a better idea then anything i have come across before, sure in halflife 2 there is aliens aka the combine but most of them have a human shape aliens are better when they look different from humans. the twisting stryline entertains you as you play through the game. i also like the crysis warhead game which is a good way of keeping you going after you get to the cliffhanger at the end of crysis so you can still have something to do and it allows you to get inside the head of physco aswell as having him going into flashbacks every so often which adds to the storyline to keep you pinned back in your seat as you play the game.

i truly recommend people get the game to try it (demo first incase it is not the game for you).

-grim reaper1666

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