Crysis Review

Game:  Crysis
Year (s):  2007 (original), 2008 (expansions)
Company:  dev.  Crytek
            pub.  EA (Electronic Arts)
Engine: CryEngine 2
Type:  First-person shooter
What I Paid: five bucks for the Crysis and expansions on a Steam sale
Game Time:  10 hours, first time, on normal (default)


Crytek?

Who is Crytek?  They're a game developer centered in Frankfurt, Germany.  They also made the Far Cry games.  Crytek is unwavering in dedication to one crucial philosophy, "Everything we make will have the word 'cry' in it" (TOTALLY not a made up quote).). 

Plot

In the year 2020, a team of scientists working on an excavation site in the Lingshan Islands send out a distress signal.  North Korea sends in troops, and states the distress signal is related to volcanic activity.  The island has no geologically interesting history, so a squad of special forces, black-ops, is flown in to investigate.
The scientists think they've found an ancient temple.  The Koreans think it could be a weapon.  It's acutally a dormant alien craft, and now the aliens are waking up.  They have not come in peace.


Difficulty

This is harder than most shooters.  Yes, your shields and health regenerate, but if you try to just run-and-gun, you'll die.  Difficulty settings don't alter damage you deal or receive, instead they alter gameplay elements.  On normal, if you hop in a vehicle, you can both drive and fire weapons, and Koreans speak English.  On the most difficult, it's impossible to be in the driver's seat and the gunner's seat at the same time, and Koreans speak Korean.


Combat

You have a nanosuit!  Nanosuit energy can do more than regenerate shields and health.  You can set your suit to maximum-, shields, speed, strength, or cloak.  Maximum strength allows for super jumps and melee murder.  The rest are self-explanatory.  Using your suit energy for such alternate purposes drains your shields.

Cover is necessary, but most structures can only take so many bullets (or a grenade) before falling apart, leaving you exposed.


Miscellany

If you're a quick-save whore like me, take not that enemies won't do the same thing every time you quick-load.  I like that in an AI.

Crysis lets you see your feet and hands, which is a nice nod to reality when climbing a ladder or holding an object in front of you.

Trucks are jeeps are somewhat widespread, but the other vehicles (tanks, AA guns, a plane, and boats) are more confined to specific missions.

You sometimes have infantry, vehicle, or air support, especially if you complete secondary objectives.


Expansions / DLC

Crysis: Warhead follows a different member of your squad and events are concurrent with the main game.  You still have  a nanosuit, so gameplay is much the same.  Warhead introduces a few new weapons and vehicles, and the ability to dual-wield handguns.  There was another difference I was less enthused about, the game mixes third-person cutscenes  with the first-person gameplay.  I felt this detracted from immersion and made the story more cartoonish.  Gametime clocked in at four hours.

Crysis Wars is a multiplayer version of the game that I own but have not played.


Complaints

The engine is pretty solid, and I only ran in to one or two clipping glitches, no crashes.  Combat is rewardingly challenging.  This is a quality shooter; the only minor issues I had were losing track of where I was going in a zero-gravity area, and being able to run past enemies when I couldn't figure out how to beat them.  Also, gameplay is relatively short.


Final Thoughts

Crysis 2 was released in March, 2011.  Events take place three years after the first, and in New York.  At least one character returns from the first game.  This is the first non-jungle environment Crytek has created.

Crysis is pretty awesome, but I can't justify recommending you spend thirty bucks on a 10-hour game.  If you catch it on sale though, grab it.  You'll like it.