Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1341 in Computer & Video Games
• Brand: Electronic Arts
• Released on: 2007-11-16
• Rating: Suitable for 18 years and over
• Platform: Windows XP

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From the makers of Far Cry comes the most technologically advanced video game ever made, with graphics to make you gasp and enemy artificial intelligence so clever it could give SkyNET a run for its money. With Half-Life 2 and Doom 3 now well established, Crysis has become the new milestone for PC graphics and first person shoot ‘em-ups. The premise of the game involves an alien landing on an island off North Korea, with you as the only person that can stop it. The incredibly realistic looking environments are the game’s initial draw, with some particularly stunning looking jungle locales. All the levels include dynamic effects to make them even more realistic (and dangerous) including earthquakes, breaking ice, landslides and tornadoes. Since the alien decides to flash freeze the entire island half way through the game, and the final sections end up in a zero gravity spaceship, it’s unlikely you’re going to get tired of the same old environments.

As in Far Cry, there’s no strict level structure and you’re able to explore the island however you want; choosing to go in all guns blazing or taking a more stealthy approach. You can also customise your weapons to suit your preferred style of play with silencers, telescopic sights, laser sightings and more. Your special armour can also be modified as you go, so that you make less noise as you move, run faster, jump higher, recover energy or just take damage better and make use of heavier weapons. Naturally the game also includes an extensive multiplayer mode, but it is the stunning, near photorealistic, graphics and game world which is most certain to claim the game’s name in PC gaming history.
HARRISON DENT

Manufacturer's Description
Crysis is a PC sci-fi first-person shooter from the award-winning developer Crytek, the developers of the critically acclaimed Far Cry (MC90).

Earth, 2019: A colossal asteroid crashes down to Earth.

The North Korean Government quickly seals off the island chain, claiming the mysteries of the asteroid for themselves. The United States responds by dispatching an elite team of Delta Force Operators to recon the situation and report back to the Pentagon. Amid rising tensions between the US and North Koreans, the asteroid suddenly bursts open, revealing a massive, 2km high alien ship. The ship generates an immense force sphere, freezing a vast portion of the island and drastically altering the global weather system. The invasion of Earth has begun.

The two rival nations unite to stop the aliens and save mankind. The newly formed alliance fights epic battles against the marauding Aliens. With hope rapidly fading, the player must lead a crack squad through lush tropical jungle, harsh frozen landscapes, and finally into the heart of the alien ship itself for the ultimate Zero G encounter with the aliens.

Crysis offers players a highly immersive FPS experience in which they will have to adapt their tactics, weaponry, armour and gameplay style to survive and defeat the alien invasion.

Crysis uses the leading-edge technology of Crytek's proprietary engine CryENGINE.

Customer Reviews

Possibly the Game of the Year
Crysis has been one of the most watched and most talked about games for the last few years. It promised to be the best looking game ever made, and it promised to deliver a deeper, richer and more engrossing first person shooter experience than its pseudo-predecessor FarCry. And it managed both.

It's probably impossible to review Crysis without spending great lengths talking about how good the game looks. So I'm going to get it out of the way first. Crysis looks amazing. If you have something like an 8800gts and a couple gigs of ram and a dual core CPU, you can probably play it with everything on high at a good resolution. And in this state, it looks utterly beautiful. The sunsets are breathtaking, the island foliage is gorgeous, the character models are astounding and you will feel like you're experiencing something very special when you play this game.

Right, that's the visuals done and out of the way. So what about the story? You play as a USA supersoldier type (with a fancy high tech suit called a nanosuit), you're part of a team sent to explore why an American team of archaeologists was taking captive by North Koreans just as they were making an important discovery. Things just get better and better from there. Need an example? GIANT ROBOT ALIENS! It's no more of an interesting story than you'll find in your typical FPS game, but it's a pretty solid plot by FPS standards. The game also looks utterly gorgeous, by the way.

The game presents many playstyles through the customisation available. Your weapons can be customised - you can attach and detach silencers and torches, you can switch between different types of scope and you can even use tranquilisers for non-lethal takedowns. Your usual assortment of weapons is in here. And then there's your nanosuit. The nanosuit might just be the best thing about Crysis. It has a small energy bar which drains through use and recharges with rest, meaning you can't use it too often, you have to be selective, which gives for a deeper and more tactical experience. With the suit, you can turn invisible for short periods of time, become super strong, super fast or have super armour.

Just to give an example of how that may play out ingame, you spot a camp up ahead with enemy soldiers patrolling. You drop into stealth and sneak past them to take cover behind a building. Using strength you leap right up on top of the building, then survey the scene from high up, tagging enemies with your binocs so they appear on your radar (just like FarCry). You then use strength to smash open the roof of the building, so you fall inside. Switching to speed, you tear out of the building towards the Koreans, faster than they notice you. You then switch to armour and take down all the enemies at close range with your weapons, while taking reduced damage yourself and also giving them no chance to react or call in reinforcements. And that's just one of the ways you can approach that particular situation. With your tools available, there are many, many other ways you can attack the enemy. Crysis is an extremely deep game when compared with your typical shooter. Oh, and it looks utterly gorgeous, too.

And the AI is utterly wonderful. The North Koreans will take cover, try to suppress and flank you, use grenades creatively, and also check out things that interest them. This is one of the more interesting elements of the AI. They queue up and remember things that happen, then order them by importance. If an enemy sees something rustling in the bushes, he'll come over to check it out. If you thick quick and lob a grenade as a diversion, he'll immediately turn to check it out. But if he doesn't find anything over there (like, for example, you) he'll turn around and resume his original search. It's very refreshing to play a game where the enemies don't just have more health, but are actually smarter. Crysis's AI also facilitates various playstyles, if you want to play the game as a run n gun, the AI will react as you'd expect. Similarly, if you prefer to play the game as a stealthier, the AI will facilitate this, without being specifically designed for either playstyle. Crysis has some awesome AI. The game looks amazing, too.

The style of the game changes quite a lot over the ten or so hours you'll spend playing. The game is split into roughly three acts. The first act takes place in the lush jungle foliage. The second act takes place entirely in zero gravity, where the recoil of firing your weapons will propel you, and spent shell casings float around in the air. It feels like you're underwater. The final act is also on the jungle, but it's been xenoformed by the aliens into an icy jungle - there are some truly epic battles against aliens here. It's quite refreshing to play a game that changes so much over its length, as so many games - especially shooters - tend to stagnate in those final few hours from doing the same thing over and over and over. Crysis does not suffer in this way. The game just keeps on throwing new set pieces and scenarios at you. You never feel like you're playing filler. The game also looks utterly fantastic.

Crysis also features a great sandbox level editor (which is actually pretty easy to use once you get to grips with the basics), and your typical assortment of multiplayer modes. But really, it's the singleplayer experience that shines, and the technology that backs it up. Crysis is probably not the best game of the year, but it is nevertheless a magnificent achievement which every FPS fan or techhead should play. If you like deep, clever shooters then Crysis delivers, if you like fast paced firefights, Crysis delivers. If you like beautiful visuals, astounding technology and magnificent physics, Crysis delivers. Oh, and it looks absolutely beautiful.

It's a game of two halves...
...and overall it's pretty good.

As you should know by now - graphically it's gorgeous - and sometimes you just have to stop and enjoy the views. Do 'google' the minor bit of editing needed to enable the 'Vista-only' top-quality graphics settings for running Crysis on XP - and it seems sad and odd to me that we users have to hack this - but it's v easy to do.

'Which FPS is best'? Easy - it's the one you enjoy the most. If you enjoy having the option to really think your way through a level, and choose your own angle/plan of attack, then (large chunks of) Far Cry still takes a lot of beating - and so does most of the first half of Crysis. (...and it seems that Far Cry 2 will 'major' on this... yipee...)

Where Crysis left me a bit underwhelmed was that some of the other/latter sections really aren't that good - inside the alien mothership is kinda okay for a while, but drags on, and the airbourne section is utterly unenjoyable - it's like trying to control a hippo on ice, using string! Oh, and the thankfully short tank section is... err... thankfully short.

And overall the game isn't that long, so you're very quickly back at the opening sections vs the Koreans... which may be no bad thing... One side issue of it being short is that you very quickly get to use all the fire-arms the game has - there's no gradual climbing up a 'tech tree' to anticipate/enjoy as per Far Cry. Which is a bit of a shame.

Much more of a shame - for those of us wanting an 'islands' map, well, you'll be sadly disappointed as there isn't one (...the one from Far Cry I've replayed countless times....). I know critics would have moaned 'lazy', but we players would have LOVED it! It's bizarre too, as the boats in the game are great - but almost unused - although jumping the waterfall in one, pursued by angry-wasp helicopters, is a real hoot!

So, don't get me wrong, there are some lovely open levels initially, which you can enjoy again and again, but none seem to pull you back quite so strongly as Far Cry's did.

Now - to stop my ramble - it's a good game, but not great. The control of the suit is clumsy - and whilst the cloak is fun - it sort of doesn't fit 'what feels fair' somehow (for me)... even if it is pretty key to survival.

Bottom line - if you enjoyed Far Cry, then you likely already own Crysis - if you didn't enjoy Far Cry, I'd doubt you'll enjoy this.

To summarise - I had to rebuild my PC the other week and I've NOT reloaded it - whereas Stalker went straight back on... warts and all!

Great fun until the alien bits
It's been said before but this is basically Far Cry with a nano suit. That's a good thing though because for me Far Cry is just about the best FPS ever. I prefer it even to Half Life 2 because the combat in that was dull & uninspiring. Far Cry's combat was awesome so what I was really hoping for in Crysis was Far Cry 2.

Ironically Far Cry 2 is in development at this time but for all intents & purposes Crysis is the follow up to Far Cry. The setting is exactly the same i.e. tropical island. Only this time we have Koreans instead of mercenaries & aliens instead of mutants. The aliens in Crysis look far better than the ones in Far Cry ever did (not much of a feat it has to be said) but they are so dull to fight that the last third of the game, when they start appearing is completely ruined. Combat with the aliens is so poor, compared to fighting the Korean soldiers, that it feels like you've suddenly started playing a different game altogether!

It goes from bad towards as you get near to the end of the game - there are some cool ideas but they are ruined by the alien combat. There's also a very dull & pointless VTOL flying section. This part could & should have been really cool but piloting vehicles in Crysis is another of its problems. Cars & trucks feel like your trying to drive a bar of soap down the road & the airborne vehicles are about as responsive as a 747 passenger jet, making the flying part about as exciting as waiting for paint to dry - you just can't way to get through this part as it's just so dull.

A real shame. All this gives the last part of the game a very rushed & un-polished feel & the developers should be ashamed of themselves for letting just about the best FPS ever descend into such drivel! It really is a game of 2 halves - The first part of the game, fighting the Korean soldiers, is probably the best FPS ever & the most fun you will have with one. The second half is completely dull & uninspiring drivel.

Visually this IS the best looking game ever bar none. But you're going to need a mammoth machine to get the best out of it. Nothing less than the best graphics chip money can buy will do if you want Crysis in all its glory. But don't listen to all the hokum about this game needing Vista/DX10 to run at the highest visual quality. Reports suggest the game suffers a performance hit under the resource hungry Vista & the DX10 graphic FX are scarcely an improvement over the game running in DX9 with a bit tweaking (people have already hacked the game to unlock the full graphic features that were supposedly only meant to work under DX10/Vista!!).

Overall - The best FPS ever ruined again by the non human enemies (as Far Cry was) & a last third so dull you'll think the development team must have slipped into a coma!!