Crysis

The Good
I played it on hard difficulty and the gameplay was actually quite good and presented a decent challenge, at least in the beginning. You can pick a number of approaches to any of the open-ended areas. Things are sometimes spiced up by including enemies with suits similar to your own. The first time they appeared and surprise you, you're forced into a difficult close-combat battle, while in the rest of the encounters you can pick them off from afar.

The game feels very Hollywood-ish. Heck, it's better than Hollywood. You're the wearer of an exclusive "muscle nano suit" working for the US government and your squad consists of the typical action macho men and it really feels like a highly interactive movie that just lasts and lasts.

Oh right, and the graphics. Well, they're great. I had to play on low settings so I didn't get to appreciate them fully, but even I could see that there's tons of detail everywhere in houses, outside,... Crysis really takes things to a new level. It's a shame that the terrain isn't more destructible. Of course the super detail and huge levels means this will never run on consoles, but that's a small price to pay.

The Bad
The AI is not so great. Although they continue shooting if you turn cloak mode on in front of them, if you turn a corner and then turn it on they lose you easily. You can (as I have) take out entire bases like this; unhide-shoot-hide-cloak repeat until nobody comes out any more. Works best without the silencer so the entire base can hear you and come rushing. And no, they never learn. Similarly you can shoot someone at a machine-gun nest and another will man it, and they repeat this until they are all dead. They don't move in group or anything like that, unless you encounter a patrol, which is easy to get around since the areas are so open.

You can't move bodies or anything like that to avoid alerting others, and in fact the bodies themselves disappear after a minute or so. I suppose that's necessary since you're killing tons of Koreans and having a huge pile of them would be somehow absurd.

When you finally get to shoot aliens,... all your weapons and mods are taken away. Ugh. That meant I had hoarded all those granades, HE ammo etc just to have it disappear in the middle of the game? Wow, thanks for that wonderful game mechanic. They even take away my favourite gun, the Gauss rifle.

The game can be a bit too Hollywood-ish at times. Watch the opening scene in the demo and if you don't roll your eyes, you should be fine on the rest.

The Bottom Line
Crysis can be very fun if you enjoy the sanbox playstyle, or if you enjoy action movies. It manages to merge high quality productions with good if not revolutionary gameplay into a great cinematic experience.

The Good
I still remember when i upgraded by PC in 2004, the first game I used to test the card was Farcry. I basically saw the previews on TV & was impressed with its visuals but wasn't expecting much from the game. After completion of that game I was pretty much impressed with Crytek who pretty much focus on the overall aspect of a game.

Skip to 2007 and Crytek are back with a new engine, a new publisher and new intellectual property called "Crysis". Crysis is advertised as a Tactical Shooter that will refresh the stagnating FPS genre and also take visuals to a new level. It's safe to say that Crysis does as advertised.

First of the visuals are one of the best around. It has a very authentic feel, even indoors without overdoing it. Many other games use excessive bloom, blurring and some even end up looking plastic with all that shininess but Crysis is as real as games can get. I couldn't play this game on high, so I used a mixed setting it still looks brilliant.

The gameplay is pretty much non linear until the latter part of the game. The levels are pretty much the same sandbox style of Farcry. You have a choice on what path you want to take and how you get about doing it, that's where the nano suit comes in. With the nano suit you can increase your armor, speed, strength and also cloak yourself. At first I thought the Nano suit is a gimmick but after playing the demo it proved it was an integral part of the gameplay. The weapons also have real time customization, you need to acquire the parts like laser sight, assault scope etc by picking up weapons from the Koreans which have these attached. You can modify your shotgun to have a laser sight or torch.

Also unlike Farcry there is some diversity in Crysis with the environment. At first you start off in the tropical island setting then end up in a alien ship to an Arctic like island and finally a navy ship.

The A.I is average, not much improvement from Farcry but still pretty tough even on normal. Mid game you battle Koreans with the Nano suit.

The games length is just about right on FPS standards. Voice acting is perfect and the storyline is not so great. The cut scenes are from first person perspective and are executed perfectly. There seems to be a lot of Matrix and Independence Day influence in the art direction.

The Bad
The characters are pretty cliched. You got a sophisticated but relentless African American "Prophet", A drunk cussing loudmouth British "Psycho" and the Hot scientist Dr. Rosentall who is also a closet furry just like Alyx from HL2. She keeps transmitting stuff like Trojans and furry porn into your suit to weaken the aliens. Apparently aliens don't like cats. Not to forget the Admiral character. Sometimes I felt that you're seriously outnumbered, but this was okay since it added some challenge.

The Ending of this game was cool but will be disappointing to many as it's a cliff hanger. Expect an expansion pack. The game sucks towards the end. The storyline and dialogs aren't too great either. The game has steep requirements.

The Bottom Line
If you have a high end PC or even mid range, I highly recommend this game. It's all that it was hyped up to be and one of the best games I've played in recent years. Its opened ended gameplay will have some re-playability too. Good job Crytek.

The Good
There is no doubt that Crysis was one of the most hyped games in the hobby. Even after it was released, between the media accolades and its use as the new technical benchmark throughout the industry kept it in the spotlight. The primary reason for this is clear the moment you enter the game. No game before this or since (as of this writing in November 2008) has achieved the level of graphical splendor found in Crysis. The visuals and environments are simply breathtaking. So much so that they tax even the most up-to-date gaming rigs.

Game physics are also impressive. The way that objects in the environment react to you and other elements of the world is a pleasure to see and helps immerse the player.

Then the artificial intelligence deserves kudos. While it is not at the level of F.E.A.R.'s eerily competent soldiers, the enemies you face in Crysis are a real challenge and can be relied upon not to fall for simple tricks. They also have a good sense of their own mortality and if you ever take on a soldier alone, be assured that he will try to bring in some reinforcements as soon as he can. This causes the player to take special care in tactics or else face a deadly barrage of bullets from all sides.

Sound is excellent and plays a great part in the gameplay itself, as sometimes it is the best way to determine where your enemies are. I definitely recommend playing with a good headset.

The Bad
As technically beautiful as Crysis may be, as a game it falls short. This is a game that I really wanted to love, especially since I bought it with my brand new gaming system. Even so, I found myself rather uninspired from the beginning.

The storyline is not terribly involving and verges into cliche. As well, I never found any of the characters - least of all my own - to be very appealing. I do wish that I could have played as the cocky British commando in the team instead of the incredibly bland American muscle slab that I was.

Gameplay is actually not as fun as you would think it could be. The idea of sneaking around in the jungles, using ambush tactics, and generally engaging in stealth badassery seems awesome - and it is awesome. But the inclusion of your super-powered suit with built in stealth capabilities spoils it. Once I began running circles around groups of enemies, repeatedly hiding and recloaking after each kill, I began to feel like I was shooting fish in a barrel. Try to play without cloaking, though, and it is like pushing boulders up the side of Mt. Fuji. The enemy suddenly knows exactly where you are and they somehow all have the accuracy of Navy SEAL snipers.

Weapon selection is pretty uninteresting. This is especially the case because you soon run out of ammunition for your cool high-tech assault rifle and have to pick up the aging Korean model instead.

Also, there seems to be little reason for stealth other than to keep from being filled with holes. I think that it would have been great to have missions in which you needed to infiltrate a base without raising the alarm, silently bypassing or removing guards as you go.

The Bottom Line
Crysis is an awesome technical achievement but a mediocre first-person shooter. I hope that someone takes this engine and makes the game that FPS fans have really all been awaiting.