Crysis is one of the most stunning graphical videogames created to date. Aside from that, it’s a fantastic shooter with solid weapons, intelligent AI interfaces, vast levels and a pretty cool nano-suit to make this a bench mark for many developers to live up to.

What I liked most is how immediately this game throws you into the action. Many games have a warm up feel with a ton of backstory, but this game does the opposite. All you know is that you’re going into North Korea to fight some bad guys. Within moments of landing on a seemingly beach paradise you begin to fight your way through numerous soldiers. You have to use your wits to scout enemy intel, blow up communication blockages and stealth your way between enemy base camps.

It’s hard to talk about Crysis without talking about its graphics. The visuals in this game are the standard for games in the near future. The water looks absolutley amazing; the jungles look sweltering; the excavation sites look like a fossil dig site and the alien space crafts look elegant and beautiful, but menacing at the same time.

One thing you’ll have to consider before purchasing this game is the power of your PC. I run dual core pentium, 4GB of Ram and a nvidia 9800 GTX, and there were moments when it turned into a slide show. Since DX10 will probably never be fixed, it’s safe to run it in DX9 for better performance. Though shading is a tad less detailed you’ll find little to no difference in visuals in DX9.

The nano-suit is a unique asset to the game, but I believe this is where Crytek faultered a bit. The nano-suit delivers a believable experience, but developers could have balanced its use a bit more. There are 4 different assets to the suit that give you advanced abilities: armor, speed, power and stealth. You’ll find yourself using the stealth mode most often whereas armor is the default setting. Speed drains your suit’s energy quickly rendering it useless at the most oppurtune times. About the only time I used power was to jump over large structures or jump up to high cliffs.

Most of the single player will be spent running around on the ground, but occasionally you’ll have the oppurtunity to utilize the vehicles. This part is probably the most innovating experience of the game. At one point, you’re setting out with a squad of tanks to take out N. Korean tanks. In another instance, you’re a machine gunner on in a fleet of hummers and finally you get to pilot an aircraft carrying a small company of marines. It’s details like these that add an extra umph to the game play.

Crysis is an innovating experience with the best visuals around. Crytek really set the standard in many different areas with this awesome first person shooter. It utilizes the fullest potential of any PC, makes a fun and enjoyable experience and has an interesting story line. As a result, this is a game that should be played by any gaming die hard.

Upated: I wrote this review about two years ago, hence why it’s dated.

1. 

   Simon Jones

   I still wish my computer could run something like this I loved playing it on my friend’s PC.

   Retro Curtis Review FTW!

   February 10th, 2010 at 3:51 am
2. 

   Martin Bigg

   I’ve never been able to play this, so I hope to get the sequel when it comes out for consoles.

   February 10th, 2010 at 6:36 am
3. 

   Christopher Matulich

   Now that I have a PC that can run it, I may pick this up. But only after ME2 and BioShock 2

   February 10th, 2010 at 9:55 am
4. 

   Mark Davis

   Thanks for the “upate” on this game. I still haven’t been able to play it… maybe in a few years I’ll have a PC that can run it.

   February 14th, 2010 at 5:29 pm
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