Crysis (PC)

Pack your nano suit and head out to paradise; it's time for a Crysis.
1/31/2008 12:00 AM | 0 Comments | Page 1 of 2

Playing videogames is inherently adversarial. The developer creates a challenge and you have to beat it. It doesn't matter whether you're leveling up a character to fight the main boss, shooting your way down a hall stocked with Nazis, or just bouncing a ball around some colorful pegs. It boils down to you vs. the developer.

The beauty of Crysis, a free-roaming shooter with some wonderful tricks up its sleeve, is that you feel like you're subverting the rules, beating that mean ole developer at his own game. He probably didn't expect you to use your superstrength to jump onto this roof and snipe those guys. Ha! He probably didn't think you were going to use stealth to work your way behind this base and then come in behind the machine gun nests. Sucker! Little did he know you'd use your superspeed to run away from that marauding helicopter. What a rube! Like the best free-form games, Crysis makes you feel like you're getting away with something.

Of course, the developer of Crysis knows full well what you can do, and despite the careful illusion of total freedom, he's in complete control. But you'd never know it from the way the game plays, turning you loose and giving you superpowers to wreak havoc on a lush tropical island occupied by enemy soldiers. The story is some stuff about a mysterious discovery at a remote dig site, and the North Koreans got there first. It's up to your elite special ops team, decked out in nano suits, to discover what's going on. The premise is just a setup for a Big Surprise, which is hardly surprising, but is revealed in an impressive way.

With Crysis, the developers at Crytek are visiting familiar territory. They've been here before with 2004's Far Cry. Both games strike out across open terrain dotted with free-form encounters against soldiers with decent Artificial Intelligence (AI). About two thirds of the way through, both games jump the shark. They make the nearly fatal mistake of bogging down in the conventions of traditional corridor shooters stocked with monsters, essentially abandoning everything that made them exceptional.

There is some really nice stuff at the end of Crysis, which deserves not to be spoiled. Suffice it to say a fantastic new environment opens, and the old environment is modified just enough to be new and interesting. But then the endgame moves into closed quarters, established with an extended and barely interactive cut scene. It all culminates in one of the most tedious boss battles this side of a Metroid game. Your reward for sticking it all out? An unsatisfying cliffhanger ending with nothing resolved. It looks like the developer you thought you were beating gets the last word.

Along the way are some vehicle sequences, mostly optional. If you don't want to take the Humvee, feel free to hoof it. The tank, however, is one ride you won't want to miss. Unfortunately, the aircraft sequence is like a tech demo slapped onto the game. It's an unnecessary "See what we can do!" moment. Yes, Crysis, we know by now how impressive you are. Can we get out and walk now?

This is visually one of the year's most impressive engines (it is rivaled only by Massive Entertainment's World in Conflict engine). It's no surprise that a game this good-looking and wide open is also demanding. A good video card isn't enough. You'll want a fast CPU and plenty of RAM. Even then, you'll have to make compromises. Option tinkerers will have a field day with the advanced graphics setting, but there are general settings for everyone else. The "very high" setting seems to have been included for computers that haven't been invented yet. But no matter how you set it up, you're getting absolutely stunning sun-dappled forests, surf-kissed beaches, and detail-crammed shantytowns. Such foliage, such water, such light! Crysis refuses to look ugly.