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Crysis Review - PAGE 2
Gabriel Vega - Tuesday, December 18th, 2007


Crysis is a dash into tropical lands filled with two factions at war, the US and Korea. The Americans are trying their best is to stop Korea from gaining access to something that would make them a viable threat in the world. What you don't end up betting on is that the viable threat is in fact alien and far beyond the control of either side -- even if both the Americans and Koreans believe they can control and harness this mysterious power.

In the game there is a simple strategy, you get two choices often through the game: complete objective 1, and move along, or complete objective 2, then complete objective 1, and then move along. Generally is it the case that in the way of completing objective 1 you pass right through objective 2 -- so why not just dive right on in and get the extra boost. Outside of this the game is fairly linear and offers odd adventures for those ready to annihilate everything in the way as long as they don't mind trying to re-obtain all the ammo wasted in the process, as the game is fairly stingy about when it wants to give out ammo for the weapon of choice at the time.

In the midst of the game things are going rather smooth, the game flows well, the enemies try various squad moves and the overall the action is fast and pretty deadly; but the problem tends to come in around midway into the game. Going from a fast paced action against the opposing army into a giant hull of an alien entity, one that ends up taking a large portion of time to pass through with relatively strange enemies seemingly inspired by the Matrix (see squiddies). The drag here is that you end up in this odd floating maze fighting enemies (or even apparently grabbing them and throwing them with the nano-suit if you so please) and then finally emerging after what seems like a massive filler section to slow down the speed of which you are completing the game at. Granted I ran around and super punched buildings into oblivion but even with that it feels like I was put into a corner to absorb some hidden alien story that until this point wasn't that pronounced.

The game pushes from that point onward though, escaping the alien base leads gamers to a fast paced series of adventures: doing escort missions trying to keep AI alive, short burst vehicle moments, and an experience flying a jet / hovercraft against speedy aliens that left me wondering if the developers even remotely considered how slow players would be moving against their opposition. Regardless, this second half seems rushed and most of the ground battle that people enjoyed for the first half of the game never actually comes back. Shortly after this players are greeted with the final area of the game which leads into the classic boss battle and then the open-ended close of this apparent chapter in Crysis.

Story aside, mechanics aside, the first half of the game is good, the fights are interesting and anyone with a background in FPS games will appreciate the inclusion of the ever popular red barrel and the many things that can be done with it, given that it's a throwable item in Crysis. The weapons are solid, the AI actually lands hits and tries to put up a fight and the inclusion of other Nano-suit members in the game makes for a good fight, although honestly at times players might almost wish for more nano-suit moments because sometimes being able to throw an entire village of soldiers through buildings can get a little boring as those who play with the suit long enough can learn to take their time and pretty much dismantle an outpost without too much ammo being used.

For those so inclined to use all the weapons in the game, there are a lot of options especially with sights, attachments and the ever-popular silencer, in fact it's great that I was able to attach a sniper scope to my shotgun, although it did nothing to improve any fire fights at all. The novelty factor was rewarding enough as it is a really absurd option to give players.


Article Index

1.Introduction
2.Story / Gameplay
3.Graphics / Audio
4.Multiplayer / Sandbox
5.Conclusion
6.Tweaking Crysis

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