Crysis

Title: Crysis
Platform Played On: PC
Release Date: November 13, 2007
Date Played: October - November 2011
Time Played: 10 hours
Completed (Y/N): Yes
Score: 4/5



Opinion:
Crysis is a spiritual sequel to 2004's FarCry and is used by many gamers as a shining example of PC gaming.

Right off the bat I want to say that even in 2011, this is the most amazing looking game I have ever played or seen. I seriously can not believe video games can look this good. There are moments towards the back half of the game where you are surrounded by crystal formations in weightlessness, and shooting one (or all) of these crystal formations creates the most amazing physics show ever. Each crystal splits into hundreds of pieces, each with its own inertia and spin based on where the bullet hit it.  This amazing physics show is so flawless it is exactly like it would happen in real life. And I would sit there for minutes watching hundreds of particles and crystals spinning and bouncing around.

Click to Zoom

Looking at things retrospectively, I am glad that the PC I had in 2007 was unable to run Crysis, because there is no way any PC at that time would be able to run it with all the bells and whistles set to 11.  Now on a i7 930 with a 470GTX it simply looks and feels incredible. The environmental effects, the textures (ground/buildings/people) all look amazingly realistic.

All that being said, Crysis is not just a pretty game. It has an interesting premise and the actual game mechanics are fairly unique.  You have a special top of the line spec ops suit, which can divert its power to 4 different aspects.  Strength, which gives you long jump, and very powerful punches. Speed, which makes you move faster. Shield, which decreases the amount of damage you take. And Stealth, which renders you invisible.  You can switch between these abilities on the fly, performing some amazing Batman moves in the process. This aspect alone allows you to make unique approaches as you move through the game. Coupled with expansive environments and plenty of cover it really makes it fell like you have a lot of choice approaching your goal.

Click to Zoom

As you can tell, Crysis is an amazing game both visually and technically; however it does have one major problem.  Pacing. It is not very good at keeping things interesting during the first couple of hours. There is too much running around from place to place without anything interesting going on. Towards the end though action picks up and the game keeps you engaged all the way to the credits.

Crysis is a must play just for its graphical fidelity and physics if nothing else.  I would definitelly recommend it to anyone with a 2010 or newer video card or on Xbox360 where it was just re-released last month using Crysis 2 engine.  This is THE game to show off how pretty computer games can be.