I just got an updated for my laptop’s video drivers and finally am able to run Crysis properly. I’m currently running on a Core 2 Duo 2.0Ghz / 2GB Ram / 7600 GeForce Go 256mb – 256 bit. On the old drivers I used to get around 5fps, now it’s 30-50fps – and runs pretty stable. So what was all the hype surrounding this game? The graphics, of course. But we all know that graphics isn’t the only thing required to make a great shooter.

Now let’s backtrack a bit. I’ve been a loyal fan of GameSpot for 5 years or so. And since the PS3 came out, I started noticing that they bash every single PS3 game on the market and praise all of Xbox 360’s. Slowly their reviews started losing my trust, and the review of GameTrailers seemed to be gaining more and more of it. Now, GS gave Crysis an editor’s choice and a 9.5 score – saying it’s _the_ shooter we’ve all been waiting for – the revolution and next step of the FPS genre. I played Crysis all night yesterday with everything almost maxed out. And I have to say, after playing this game – and don’t get me wrong, I’ve been into FPS’ since Doom – I am never reading another GameSpot review again.

So let’s talk about the graphics – which are the absolute highlight of the game. They are really super sweet. Even if you are running at 30fps, you won’t really notice it because of smart use of motion blur. The game’s main environment – the sandbox jungle – looks simply amazing. Actually feels like a real tropical island, or that you’re on the Korean version of Lost. Everything from the water effects, the physics interaction looks as real as they can get. This is definitely one of the best looking games out there.

Most notable is real time shading of EVERYTHING. You go through the jungle, you see every single leaf interact with anything you wish – and all that casts a shadow. This is one of those things that’s been bugging me for a while now in computer games, specifically when let’s say in Half-Life 2: Episode 2, some things cast real time shadows, and others are totally static and don’t give a crap on you casting your flashlight on them. Not in Crysis though. Physics aside, the shadows are what eat up most of your processing power, so you might want to tweak them down if you want the game to be more playable. I just wish that the not so long ago announced Lost game would look just as good, sigh.

Second best thing about the game is physics. The Crytek physics engine really does its job well, very well. There are NO static animations what so ever in Crysis – which reminds me of the totally-static and pre-rendered animations from Call of Duty 4, it’s still a great game, but after Crysis I don’t really feel like coming back. So everything is interactive. Shoot a tree – it falls down. Blow up a house, it falls down. Pick up a soldier and toss him into another soldier, and they’ll break each other’s bones. Pretty neat. I was wondering when a game that does FULL use of ragdoll physics comes out. It’s finally here.

Graphics aside, the game tries to implement innovations in the good old FPS genre. So it’s the year 2020, apparently some scientist folks have been kidnapped by North Koreans. You, as a part of an elite team of nano-suit equipped soldiers, have to rescue the scientists from a remote tropical island. Of course, things go wrong and whatnot.

Crysis has more or less open-ended environments where you decide how exactly to engage your targets. Your nanosuit has several unique powers that you can toggle one at a time – strength, stealth, speed and armor. This is great, because every gamer has his own playing style and he may choose the appropriate ability. You can go ahead and blast everything in sight with the armor shield, although it won’t hold too much damage and you will have to switch to speed mode, and possibly get a good sniping point to take out your enemies. As for me, I prefer using stealth and strength more often than the others. You can sneak by to a good firing position with great cover, or come up to a guy and use him as a human-shield, then throw the poor guy into his fellow soldiers.

Although there are some occasional straight-forward scenarios where you are forced to use one ability or the other, it’s all about choice.

Imho that is one of the best things about Crysis, you won’t really be able to enjoy the graphics at a stable 100fps during the next 6 months – provided that you don’t waste all your money on PC hardware, so gameplay innovation is there, but it’s nothing uber-special.

The game also tries to not tire you with the same environment through-out the whole game, so in the middle you are transferred to an alien spaceship environment – where you can easily get disoriented due to null gravity. And after that you get a frozen jungle environment that mixes things up. It’s a very good way to not tire yourself from playing in the green throughout the whole experience, but it’s not that it hasn’t been done before.

The singleplayer took me 11 hours to complete, but I am an experienced FPS’er. Average players should get 15 hours easily.

But what to do after the 15 hours spent on SP? Of course, you can try out other scenarios and try completing objectives using only a single ability, but real replay value comes from multiplayer.

And Multiplayer is a total disaster.

Let’s take Call of Duty 4 as an example – they have more than a DOZEN play modes that gradually unlock as you gain experience and get promoted in the game, there you can also customize your character to your playstyle.

In Crysis, there are only 2 playmodes. Two playmodes in total! What was Crytek thinking? It’s almost 2008, and you should know that your game will die pretty soon if you don’t have strong multiplayer support.

The first mode is standard deathmatch – nothing can be said here. Every lame-ass game has this.

The second one has 2 teams that are initially stripped of their nanosuits and have to kill each other in order to gain points. These points allow them to unlock their abilities in order to take down the enemy base. Yes, it’s an interesting twist – but Crytek, is that the ONLY thing you could come up with? Was it really that hard to get some lame CTF in there?

The engine is great and should’ve allowed enormous vehicle battles in huge jungle environments. That was exactly what I was hoping for when buying this game. Instead, hardcore multiplayer fans are left out in the cold.

Yes, Crysis is a great single player experience – and ends at that. It would’ve been the reason to buy a graphics-hog desktop to spend endless hours in multiplayer with friends in a truly unforgettable experience. So despite the lack of physics, Call of Duty 4 still has the crown in recent Multiplayer Games.

Overview:

Crysis is a great game nonetheless, and an outstanding achievement in the game development industry, but it fails to deliver the essentials of what makes PC games remembered for years to come. There’s still a lot of people who play Battlefield 2 – and I’m one of them. Sure, it was only multiplayer focused, but haven’t Crytek played it? So despite being an enormous step forward in terms of production values, it will be overshadowed by shooters with better multiplayer aspects and community support.

Great game, 8.5 out of 10 from me.

You can watch GT’s review here: