Crysis: Windows

...

worth it. I found myself just wandering around looking at the rocks and water in the beginning. I have played pretty much every recent shooter, and I can tell you that they don't hold a candle to Crysis. Whoever said Half-Life 2 has comparable graphics hasn't played this game. I should mention that I care a lot about graphics. If you are more interested in a complex story or innovative gameplay, than Crysis may not be for you.

The gameplay of Crysis is not as bad as some people here would have you think. Since it was made by the same team who developed Far Cry (in my opinion the second best shooter ever behind Half-Life), the two games have a lot in common. The HUDs are similar, the radar is basically identical, the AI uses common tactics, you're in a jungle etc. Far Cry is a little more sophisticated and polished in terms of the diversity of play, but Crysis has its moments. Crysis is slightly more linear, but also offers more vehicles and more interactive environments. In addition, your character has a suit that enables him to increase speed, strength, armor - or make himself temporarily invisible. While these are not all quite as useful as they could be, they do allow for a variety of approaches. "Maximum strength" is especially fun as it allows you to jump insanely high and throw enemies to their death. There is good weapon variety, especially since all of the weapons are customizable.

I will acknowledge that the game is not perfect. But I also feel that it is being compared unfairly. Crysis and Far Cry don't pretend to compete with the Half-Life series in terms of immersion and story, yet these games are compared frequently. If you like beautiful, expansive, open-ended environments and lots of freedom, then play Crysis or Far Cry. If you like a more linear, more RPG type FPS, than play Half-Life. I will say that Crysis is hindered by its absurd plot, as the alien component is not polished or enjoyable enough (as reviewers have mentioned). But this is not a major flaw, and certainly should not prevent anyone from buying the game. The cutscenes and objectives are still good, and it's not like your're expecting another Deus Ex when you buy Crysis.

Crysis is fun. There is no denying that. You get to use all kinds of vehicles - including a mission where you have to fly a helicopter full of marines while battling aliens! The final bosses are challenging; think shooting Halo's vents while battling flood combined with Doom 3's enormous bosses.

As you've probably gathered, I'm mostly writing this review in response to others because I don't want potential buyers to be misinformed. I want to reiterate that you should only buy Crysis if you know what you are getting into. It is not a game for everybody. But, if you have a high-end computer, and enjoyed Far Cry, then I highly recommend Crysis. It is a well made game that is beautiful and fun. Sure, the developers made a mistake by making its optimal setting only accessible to graphics cards that hadn't come out yet, but honestly this game looks better than any other on medium, and there are cards now that can run it on very high.

Crysis: Windows

...

worth it. I found myself just wandering around looking at the rocks and water in the beginning. I have played pretty much every recent shooter, and I can tell you that they don't hold a candle to Crysis. Whoever said Half-Life 2 has comparable graphics hasn't played this game. I should mention that I care a lot about graphics. If you are more interested in a complex story or innovative gameplay, than Crysis may not be for you.



The gameplay of Crysis is not as bad as some people here would have you think. Since it was made by the same team who developed Far Cry (in my opinion the second best shooter ever behind Half-Life), the two games have a lot in common. The HUDs are similar, the radar is basically identical, the AI uses common tactics, you're in a jungle etc. Far Cry is a little more sophisticated and polished in terms of the diversity of play, but Crysis has its moments. Crysis is slightly more linear, but also offers more vehicles and more interactive environments. In addition, your character has a suit that enables him to increase speed, strength, armor - or make himself temporarily invisible. While these are not all quite as useful as they could be, they do allow for a variety of approaches. "Maximum strength" is especially fun as it allows you to jump insanely high and throw enemies to their death. There is good weapon variety, especially since all of the weapons are customizable.



I will acknowledge that the game is not perfect. But I also feel that it is being compared unfairly. Crysis and Far Cry don't pretend to compete with the Half-Life series in terms of immersion and story, yet these games are compared frequently. If you like beautiful, expansive, open-ended environments and lots of freedom, then play Crysis or Far Cry. If you like a more linear, more RPG type FPS, than play Half-Life. I will say that Crysis is hindered by its absurd plot, as the alien component is not polished or enjoyable enough (as reviewers have mentioned). But this is not a major flaw, and certainly should not prevent anyone from buying the game. The cutscenes and objectives are still good, and it's not like your're expecting another Deus Ex when you buy Crysis.



Crysis is fun. There is no denying that. You get to use all kinds of vehicles - including a mission where you have to fly a helicopter full of marines while battling aliens! The final bosses are challenging; think shooting Halo's vents while battling flood combined with Doom 3's enormous bosses.



As you've probably gathered, I'm mostly writing this review in response to others because I don't want potential buyers to be misinformed. I want to reiterate that you should only buy Crysis if you know what you are getting into. It is not a game for everybody. But, if you have a high-end computer, and enjoyed Far Cry, then I highly recommend Crysis. It is a well made game that is beautiful and fun. Sure, the developers made a mistake by making its optimal setting only accessible to graphics cards that hadn't come out yet, but honestly this game looks better than any other on medium, and there are cards now that can run it on very high.

Crysis: Windows

...

worth it. I found myself just wandering around looking at the rocks and water in the beginning. I have played pretty much every recent shooter, and I can tell you that they don't hold a candle to Crysis. Whoever said Half-Life 2 has comparable graphics hasn't played this game. I should mention that I care a lot about graphics. If you are more interested in a complex story or innovative gameplay, than Crysis may not be for you.





The gameplay of Crysis is not as bad as some people here would have you think. Since it was made by the same team who developed Far Cry (in my opinion the second best shooter ever behind Half-Life), the two games have a lot in common. The HUDs are similar, the radar is basically identical, the AI uses common tactics, you're in a jungle etc. Far Cry is a little more sophisticated and polished in terms of the diversity of play, but Crysis has its moments. Crysis is slightly more linear, but also offers more vehicles and more interactive environments. In addition, your character has a suit that enables him to increase speed, strength, armor - or make himself temporarily invisible. While these are not all quite as useful as they could be, they do allow for a variety of approaches. "Maximum strength" is especially fun as it allows you to jump insanely high and throw enemies to their death. There is good weapon variety, especially since all of the weapons are customizable.





I will acknowledge that the game is not perfect. But I also feel that it is being compared unfairly. Crysis and Far Cry don't pretend to compete with the Half-Life series in terms of immersion and story, yet these games are compared frequently. If you like beautiful, expansive, open-ended environments and lots of freedom, then play Crysis or Far Cry. If you like a more linear, more RPG type FPS, than play Half-Life. I will say that Crysis is hindered by its absurd plot, as the alien component is not polished or enjoyable enough (as reviewers have mentioned). But this is not a major flaw, and certainly should not prevent anyone from buying the game. The cutscenes and objectives are still good, and it's not like your're expecting another Deus Ex when you buy Crysis.





Crysis is fun. There is no denying that. You get to use all kinds of vehicles - including a mission where you have to fly a helicopter full of marines while battling aliens! The final bosses are challenging; think shooting Halo's vents while battling flood combined with Doom 3's enormous bosses.





As you've probably gathered, I'm mostly writing this review in response to others because I don't want potential buyers to be misinformed. I want to reiterate that you should only buy Crysis if you know what you are getting into. It is not a game for everybody. But, if you have a high-end computer, and enjoyed Far Cry, then I highly recommend Crysis. It is a well made game that is beautiful and fun. Sure, the developers made a mistake by making its optimal setting only accessible to graphics cards that hadn't come out yet, but honestly this game looks better than any other on medium, and there are cards now that can run it on very high.

Crysis: Windows

...

worth it. I found myself just wandering around looking at the rocks and water in the beginning. I have played pretty much every recent shooter, and I can tell you that they don't hold a candle to Crysis. Whoever said Half-Life 2 has comparable graphics hasn't played this game. I should mention that I care a lot about graphics. If you are more interested in a complex story or innovative gameplay, than Crysis may not be for you.







The gameplay of Crysis is not as bad as some people here would have you think. Since it was made by the same team who developed Far Cry (in my opinion the second best shooter ever behind Half-Life), the two games have a lot in common. The HUDs are similar, the radar is basically identical, the AI uses common tactics, you're in a jungle etc. Far Cry is a little more sophisticated and polished in terms of the diversity of play, but Crysis has its moments. Crysis is slightly more linear, but also offers more vehicles and more interactive environments. In addition, your character has a suit that enables him to increase speed, strength, armor - or make himself temporarily invisible. While these are not all quite as useful as they could be, they do allow for a variety of approaches. "Maximum strength" is especially fun as it allows you to jump insanely high and throw enemies to their death. There is good weapon variety, especially since all of the weapons are customizable.







I will acknowledge that the game is not perfect. But I also feel that it is being compared unfairly. Crysis and Far Cry don't pretend to compete with the Half-Life series in terms of immersion and story, yet these games are compared frequently. If you like beautiful, expansive, open-ended environments and lots of freedom, then play Crysis or Far Cry. If you like a more linear, more RPG type FPS, than play Half-Life. I will say that Crysis is hindered by its absurd plot, as the alien component is not polished or enjoyable enough (as reviewers have mentioned). But this is not a major flaw, and certainly should not prevent anyone from buying the game. The cutscenes and objectives are still good, and it's not like your're expecting another Deus Ex when you buy Crysis.







Crysis is fun. There is no denying that. You get to use all kinds of vehicles - including a mission where you have to fly a helicopter full of marines while battling aliens! The final bosses are challenging; think shooting Halo's vents while battling flood combined with Doom 3's enormous bosses.







As you've probably gathered, I'm mostly writing this review in response to others because I don't want potential buyers to be misinformed. I want to reiterate that you should only buy Crysis if you know what you are getting into. It is not a game for everybody. But, if you have a high-end computer, and enjoyed Far Cry, then I highly recommend Crysis. It is a well made game that is beautiful and fun. Sure, the developers made a mistake by making its optimal setting only accessible to graphics cards that hadn't come out yet, but honestly this game looks better than any other on medium, and there are cards now that can run it on very high.

Crysis: Windows

...

worth it. I found myself just wandering around looking at the rocks and water in the beginning. I have played pretty much every recent shooter, and I can tell you that they don't hold a candle to Crysis. Whoever said Half-Life 2 has comparable graphics hasn't played this game. I should mention that I care a lot about graphics. If you are more interested in a complex story or innovative gameplay, than Crysis may not be for you.









The gameplay of Crysis is not as bad as some people here would have you think. Since it was made by the same team who developed Far Cry (in my opinion the second best shooter ever behind Half-Life), the two games have a lot in common. The HUDs are similar, the radar is basically identical, the AI uses common tactics, you're in a jungle etc. Far Cry is a little more sophisticated and polished in terms of the diversity of play, but Crysis has its moments. Crysis is slightly more linear, but also offers more vehicles and more interactive environments. In addition, your character has a suit that enables him to increase speed, strength, armor - or make himself temporarily invisible. While these are not all quite as useful as they could be, they do allow for a variety of approaches. "Maximum strength" is especially fun as it allows you to jump insanely high and throw enemies to their death. There is good weapon variety, especially since all of the weapons are customizable.









I will acknowledge that the game is not perfect. But I also feel that it is being compared unfairly. Crysis and Far Cry don't pretend to compete with the Half-Life series in terms of immersion and story, yet these games are compared frequently. If you like beautiful, expansive, open-ended environments and lots of freedom, then play Crysis or Far Cry. If you like a more linear, more RPG type FPS, than play Half-Life. I will say that Crysis is hindered by its absurd plot, as the alien component is not polished or enjoyable enough (as reviewers have mentioned). But this is not a major flaw, and certainly should not prevent anyone from buying the game. The cutscenes and objectives are still good, and it's not like your're expecting another Deus Ex when you buy Crysis.









Crysis is fun. There is no denying that. You get to use all kinds of vehicles - including a mission where you have to fly a helicopter full of marines while battling aliens! The final bosses are challenging; think shooting Halo's vents while battling flood combined with Doom 3's enormous bosses.









As you've probably gathered, I'm mostly writing this review in response to others because I don't want potential buyers to be misinformed. I want to reiterate that you should only buy Crysis if you know what you are getting into. It is not a game for everybody. But, if you have a high-end computer, and enjoyed Far Cry, then I highly recommend Crysis. It is a well made game that is beautiful and fun. Sure, the developers made a mistake by making its optimal setting only accessible to graphics cards that hadn't come out yet, but honestly this game looks better than any other on medium, and there are cards now that can run it on very high.

Crysis: Windows

...

out there who will find that unacceptable though.
Also an IMPORTANT NOTE: I my computer has both XP 32bit and XP pro x64 bit installed,(Some of my animation tools don't work for 64) and I have found that running it with the 64 bit OS the game had about a double increase in performance when running it on the same game settings.

Gameplay:
Well, it has the same openness to it as Far-Cry. Although I found the AI a bit more stupid. For example if you are standing right in front of one of the baddies, they will hesitate for a good long time to shoot you Etc.. Small things like that. Also the game's single player campaign is extremely short (On the hardest mode With doing all the secondary objectives, this first time through the game only took me about 6 or 7 hours tops). So in order to make the single player more interesting, you may wish to make a few passes without using either cloak, armor, or speed. I cannot say for multiplayer (Yes, there are still some people who use 56kb dial up). So yeah. Other than that, no complaints here

Crysis: Windows

...

a special ops soldier sent into an island somewhere in the south China sea. Originally sent to fight Koreans and rescue some scientists, things get very odd very fast. For more plot check out Wikipedia, but let me assure you it is far more gratifying than the plot of most shooters out there (namely Timeshift).

The interface of the game works well. I didn't have to play with a single config, control or setting throughout the entire game. I find it is always nice to find my buttons, video and sound settings right where I need them from the start.

The only real concept that causes this game to differ from others is the use of the nanosuit. Essentially, it is a set of superpowered battle armor you get the joy of using. For short intervals, it can cloak you, speed you up, give you super strength or simply defend you. This sounded cool from the start, but quickly degenerated into using the same function over and over again as the difficulty of your enemy is amped up to compensate for you powers.

Example: I decide to give myself a bit of super strength to rush up and pound some poor sap into the ground. Result: I am blasted to death before I make it five feet or I find that I am trying to fight the loosing side of a brawl between Halle Berry and a bull elephant. So scratch that power for any reason other than jumping really high.
I was pretty much stuck cloaking myself, running until my battery went dead, then hiding and recharging. This process is repeated until you get close enough to actually hit someone with that wildly gyrating rifle you have been trying to aim for the last hour.

This was my experience on normal skill, which oscillated from pointlessly easy to total unthinking rage against all living things. I would assume that things get only worse on hard, your enemies also stop speaking English on hard for some reason. So, if you are worried about playing an unbalanced game, stop there. This game is nicely balanced against you in every way. Recoil makes any rapid fire attempt laughable and a "realistic" figure 8 sway pattern makes timing a sniper shot a minigame all in its own.

The only shortcoming I had with this game was the length (about 10 hours give or take 2 depending on your anger threshold). Now I understand it is the new thing for developers to get lazy and release games in episodes in order to guarantee future income as well as cut down on development costs (just release the second half years later and call it Episode 2, stupid Valve) but I am getting really tired of paying for demos.

Overall, I have to give this game good ratings. It plays nicely, it keeps you interested and it looks amazing. But after reaching the end you are left flailing in confusion as to what the heck ever happened to the idea of a conclusion. I notice that CryTech has plans for a FarCry 2 but I haven't heard anything for a Crysis 2 yet so it may be a while before anyone gets closure. Great, all of a month after release and I am yelling for a sequel, or at least the second half of my game.

Crysis: Windows

...

a special ops soldier sent into an island somewhere in the south China sea. Originally sent to fight Koreans and rescue some scientists, things get very odd very fast. For more plot check out Wikipedia, but let me assure you it is far more gratifying than the plot of most shooters out there (namely Timeshift).



The interface of the game works well. I didn't have to play with a single config, control or setting throughout the entire game. I find it is always nice to find my buttons, video and sound settings right where I need them from the start.



The only real concept that causes this game to differ from others is the use of the nanosuit. Essentially, it is a set of superpowered battle armor you get the joy of using. For short intervals, it can cloak you, speed you up, give you super strength or simply defend you. This sounded cool from the start, but quickly degenerated into using the same function over and over again as the difficulty of your enemy is amped up to compensate for you powers.



Example: I decide to give myself a bit of super strength to rush up and pound some poor sap into the ground. Result: I am blasted to death before I make it five feet or I find that I am trying to fight the loosing side of a brawl between Halle Berry and a bull elephant. So scratch that power for any reason other than jumping really high.

I was pretty much stuck cloaking myself, running until my battery went dead, then hiding and recharging. This process is repeated until you get close enough to actually hit someone with that wildly gyrating rifle you have been trying to aim for the last hour.



This was my experience on normal skill, which oscillated from pointlessly easy to total unthinking rage against all living things. I would assume that things get only worse on hard, your enemies also stop speaking English on hard for some reason. So, if you are worried about playing an unbalanced game, stop there. This game is nicely balanced against you in every way. Recoil makes any rapid fire attempt laughable and a "realistic" figure 8 sway pattern makes timing a sniper shot a minigame all in its own.



The only shortcoming I had with this game was the length (about 10 hours give or take 2 depending on your anger threshold). Now I understand it is the new thing for developers to get lazy and release games in episodes in order to guarantee future income as well as cut down on development costs (just release the second half years later and call it Episode 2, stupid Valve) but I am getting really tired of paying for demos.



Overall, I have to give this game good ratings. It plays nicely, it keeps you interested and it looks amazing. But after reaching the end you are left flailing in confusion as to what the heck ever happened to the idea of a conclusion. I notice that CryTech has plans for a FarCry 2 but I haven't heard anything for a Crysis 2 yet so it may be a while before anyone gets closure. Great, all of a month after release and I am yelling for a sequel, or at least the second half of my game.

Crysis: Windows

...

games!

Crysis: Windows

...

seems a shame. I kind of expect some problems with Vista--that's the reason I kept XP on my system . . . But I guess I'm willing to cut Crysis a little slack because it IS such an ambitious game.
But then there's another bit of hanky-panky that isn't so forgivable: This is the fact that the game won't let you turn the video settings to "Very High" on XP. At first everyone thought, quite naturally, that this was due to some difference between the relative abilities of DirectX 9 on XP and DirectX 10 on Vista. But it turns out that the limitation is purely artificial. (For those who want to circumvent this, it's an easy fix; simply cutting and pasting a few lines in some config files allows those higher settings on XP. Look around on Google, it's out there . . . ) This isn't to say that there IS no difference between DX 9 and DX 10, only that someone tried to make the difference seem even greater than it really is by inserting an artificial limitation.

All is not lost, the Crysis people are coming out with their first patch in a week or so and I have no doubt that they'll have the game running well on Vista in no time. Maybe they'll even give up on the artificial limit in XP . . . but I wouldn't hold my breath on that one. Still, I give it four stars.