Stuart Wilde once said, “In a time of crisis we all have the potential to morph up to a new level and do things we never thought possible.” These were my thoughts exactly when EA and Crytek spawned the delicious morsel of a PC shooter called Crysis.
The game takes you to a beautiful island as a Delta Force soldier, code-name: Nomad. The single player includes amazing beaches, aliens, jungles, and nano-suits (which I will go into later). The game play is somewhat complicated at first, but it becomes easy after a few minutes of solid jungle trekking. The graphics, physics, and sound effects all work together in perfect harmony for gigs of potential screen shots.
The interesting part of Crysis is that our man Nomad has this nano-suit. Essentially, it can switch modes to fit the situation as you fee fit. For example, if Nomad needs to run fast, it will go into “speed mode” and make him run faster. In “strength mode” he jumps higher and hits harder. There’s even a “stealth mode” where he becomes invisible and can sneak like a ninja right up to the enemy! All of these possibilities make for a strategic and thought-based single player that can be both refreshing and challenging. Much better than your standard “blowing through it in a blur of corridors and dark warehouses” that most shooters dish up. The environment is even fully destructable. You can shoot down trees, pop tires on cars, and when you run through the bushes, the bushes move around you. Crysis has an immersive single player that ranks right up there with Half Life 2, which is only the best game ever made.
Like I mentioned before, the game is beautiful, however, that brings me to my only real “gripe” about the game. To me, it’s the best looking game to ever grace the presence of my computer. Unfortunately, this is where the real problem lies. It would be an understatement to say Crysis uses a lot of system resources. This monster of a game requires a lot of processor and graphics card utility. I personally have to run the settings on medium and at a really low resolution. Most of the games that have come out recently have required a lot of beef in a graphics card, but not too much from the processor. What that means for the average gamer is that they’re super pretty games, and your mom’s PC could play it with just a few upgraded parts. Crysis requires a little more then that.
The physics engine and the amazing graphics are all working together, which is eating up more power than your typical computer can handle. Now, my computer certainly isn’t in bad shape, but I still have to invest a lot to upgrade it just to play with “recommended” settings. In order to even see the game the way it was meant to be played, I’ll have to get Vista, a physics processor, and probably a coolant system to make sure my graphics card doesn’t have a meltdown. I’m just not sure if I’m ready for that leap quite yet.
Other then losing my pride for finally getting a game my PC can’t handle on high settings, I can say nothing but good things about this game. Ive heard it called “The PC player’s Halo,” but it’s so much more then that. The multiplayer is hours of fun just waiting to happen, the single player is amazing, and it would seem there’s going to be two more Crysis titles. I can definitely see the relation, but make no mistake: Halo is no Crysis. Tax returns are coming up soon. Once that happens you probably won’t see me for a few weeks… I’ll be in the jungles of Asia shooting down palm trees with a sniper rifle. Maybe I’ll send you a post card.
January 3rd, 2008 at 11:16 pm
Wow, the game sounds really interesting. And it looks beautiful. Kinda of makes me want to pick it up for my PC next time I get some loose change gathered up.
January 16th, 2008 at 11:41 pm
Great game. This is one of those games that give you an excuse to upgrade you PC
January 21st, 2008 at 7:44 am
Now thats one awesome looking game, and sounds like theres a lot of tactics to be used….but lm a Ps3 fan so l have to wait for a port in the future.
January 27th, 2008 at 10:54 am
No kidding! I recently got the opportunity to try this game out at a friend’s house. He recently spent a nice chunk of change on buying himself a super awesome PC that he was totally proud of as well. He squealed over how good Crysis was supposed to be and finally got it for Xmas. He showed me exactly what you were talking about with its monsterness. His PC only runs it on medium settings as well and he put it on High just to see it.. and we had a hell of a time trying to get it to change back it lagged so bad!! But it did look pretty swank. I was impressed.