Crysis

No, you’re not seeing things. I actually am reviewing Crysis. You see, back when the game originally came out I couldn’t play it, largely because at the time (2007) I was using a computer built in’05 that couldn’t run anything post Xbox 360/PS3 release (I had to upgrade my video card to play Mass Effect, damn you Shader 3.0!). The things I heard at the time were mostly related to stuff like Crysis being a beautiful game that would melt your PC, including it becoming somewhat of a benchmarking tool for PC comparisons. Time went on and I eventually upgraded my PC to what I’m using now (i7 950, GTX 295, 12 GB DDR3), which should have been enough to run the game without issue, considering it was built 2 years after Crysis’ release and with near top of the line components. An earlier attempt to play the game, long before I started these reviews, was aborted because it didn’t like my Mouse 3 on my Logitech mouse/keyboard combo, and considering Mouse 3 is the default to use your special abilities, that’s kind of a big deal. So the game sat in my Steam backlog until now.

So this is what people mean by Crysis' open environments...Not bad, not bad at all.

What brought it back up were a few articles I read about how awesome the game is in retrospect, including one at PC Gamer and another with Rock, Paper, Shotgun. The jist of the articles focus on what you can do in the first half of the first game, before things come out that make it less entertaining, and before the tragedies of the 2^nd and 3^rd entries in the series (to be completely honest, I didn’t even know the 3^rd one had come out until several months after the fact, such was the lack of interest in it). One of the articles was even called something along the lines of “The Campaign for a Better Memory of Crysis.” So, new(er) mouse firmly in hand, I thought I should go back and finally, finally give this game a try and figure out just what all the fuss was about, both back when it was released and with this odd resurgence it’s made in the gaming media.

Though my game also came to an end when I couldn't look straight up to shot down this extremely buggy helicopter

So the first thing I want to do when I move out of my background paragraphs and onto the game of Crysis itself is not talk about Crysis. Instead, I want to talk about Halo. Yes, the game that made the Xbox a viable platform way back in the early 2000s. Why do I want to talk about Halo you ask? That’s because there are plenty of similarities in the design of the two games, the pacing, and just when the two go from being enjoyable experiences to being terrible. That’s right, the single player of the original Halo is a horrible game, and if it weren’t for the multiplayer to expose console gamers to the idea of networked gaming, I don’t think the series would have survived. Just in case you’ve never played the original game, here’s how it goes: Halo starts with a bang as you evacuate a damaged human warship, crashing on a structure known as the Halo. You spend the first half of the game battling in various locals, both attempting to find out what this ring structure out in space is there for, and to foil the plans of the alien race that threatens humanity’s very existence. You’ll fight in a space ship, across a beautiful beach, down valleys covered in forests, above snow covered peaks, and even inside the mechanical structure of the ring itself, all in a pretty liner, progressive A to B path. You’ll have access to an array of weapons and vehicles, and the enemy will be aggressive enough to pose a challenge.

Then you get to the middle of the game, and that sense of wonder gets replaced with a feeling along the lines of “this is just stupid.” You’ll spend a substantial amount of time wandering around this tower structure where you unwittingly unleash the Flood, the parasitic enemy that threatens all life in the universe with its capability to turn them into mindless mutant zombie things (I think I got lost in this level for about an hour, and never played it again after that first time, even though I replayed the full game, and one time the entire series, at other points with friends). The remainder of the game is spent backtracking through what you’ve accomplished, revisiting many of the places you’ve seen before in your now point B to A journey, until you ultimately end up in the same place you started the game – your space ship (the level is actually called “The Horse You Rode In On”). Both the lame enemy (not as intelligent or coordinated as the first half of the game, just more numerous) and the lack of original level design contribute to the feeling that the game is not what you were led to believe by the first few missions –  becoming really redundant, boring, and ultimately, unenjoyable. It is one of those games where the total duration exceeds the parts that are actually enjoyable by nearly double. This feeling of disappointment and the sense that someone, somewhere, didn’t know when they should stop, are the kinds of things I want you to keep in mind as I discuss Crysis proper.

Actually, the most memorable part of this game might be the Jason Statham knock of character aptly named Psycho.

Crysis takes place in the (now) not so distant future. An island near the Philippines has been invaded by North Korean forces. You take on the role of Nomad, one of an elite group of soldiers (complete with equipped nano suit) who are dropped into this potential warzone to rescue a few hostages that had been on an archeological dig on the island. While this seems like a simple rescue mission, things go south pretty quickly, starting with your separation from the rest of your squad. You make your way around the island, attempting to reunite with members of your squad, only to discover that most of them don’t make it. You’ll have to make your way through various North Korean outposts and checkpoints, disable jammers or search for intel, and even prep a harbor for a full scale counter invasion.

While I still maintain that video games do not cause people to become violent, I think there is an exception when the topic is game developers who put in frustrating, annoying, or just plain pointless jobs in their games.

Shortly after that point, and in Halo like fashion, the game makes a shift from interesting to, well, bad. Savor your last few levels of infiltrating enemy buildings or romping around in a tank, because as soon as you enter the dig site, you’re entering a part of the game better not played. You’ll get one last boss fight against the evil Korean general, then the mountain you’re inside will start collapsing, and the only viable route is to enter “The Cave.” While the archeologists refer to it as a temple, and the Koreans say it’s a huge power source (hence U.S Government interest), it’s actually an alien structure. Nomad slowly comes to this realization, and eventually has the epiphany that this many critters can only be an invasion force. You know this because he narrates the *entire* level, done in the guise of providing his thoughts for his suit’s recording devices, but mostly it’s to guide the player with useful tips, like “I feel I should keep fighting the current,” that seem so obvious and yet so dumb that you want to punch a game designer in the face. Once you escape the cave, your free roaming missions are done with. Now you proceed in a very liner fashion though the few remaining levels, including a mission where you must escort one of the two remaining members of your squad from fire to fire so that he does not freeze to death in the now ice covered island. Add in a mission where you take the gunners seat in a Humvee, one somewhat enjoyable one where you get to fly a VTOL (vertical take-off and landing), which is the only sci-fi vehicle in the game, and cap it all off with a final mission aboard a ship that’s 15 minutes of “go here, listen to this character be a jerk, then go of there” and 10 minutes of gameplay (including back to back boss fights), and you’ve just made it through Crysis.

While I still maintain that video games do not cause people to become violent, I think there is an exception when the topic is game developers who put in frustrating, annoying, or just plain pointless jobs in their games.

What really makes Crysis special (which is a stretch of the word) is the nanosuit. The suit gives you 4 special abilities or powers, depending on what you want to call them – Speed, Strength, Cloak, and Armor. In addition to your health (which, it’s important to note, regenerates rather quickly), you have an energy bar. That energy, predictably, fuels your special powers. You can use it to either maintain a faster than average movement speed with an optional turbo boosted sprint; increase your strength so you can leap walls, throw items/enemies with deadly force, or one punch kill enemies; go invisible for a time; or use your energy pool like body armor. The most memorable (in a good way) part about this game is combing the different abilities to put on something like a ballet of movement. Sprint towards a fence with maximum Speed, then switch to Strength to jump it. Once over the fence, Cloak to get into position to grab an enemy, switch to Armor, and use the enemy as a temporary shield to enhance your already enhanced health.

The problem with this is the amount of energy you have struck me as being very, very low, particularly in regards to Cloak. When cloaked, your energy will drain at a different rate depending on what stance you are in and how fast you’re moving. Even when prone, I felt like I couldn’t cover enough ground when cloaked to make it the preferred means of infiltration, as I would too often need to switch to something else to regenerate my energy. Speed was also a nice ability, but as with Cloak, it seemed like it drained too fast (to be fair, you do travel at light speed when sprinting, but you don’t cover a lot of ground), and the passive speed boost meant not having armor equipped if an enemy shot you. Further, you really needed the passive speed boost to not feel like you were wading through molasses the whole game, though my extensive time in Warframe may have screwed up my sense of scale as well. Strength proved most useful for jumping fences or on top of buildings, as well as punching or throwing enemies to dispatch them quietly. While I attempted to be stealthy at first, I pretty quickly came to the realization that it was far better to dash in and out of combat, cloaking with whatever energy you have left, and let your health regenerate while enemies comb the area for you. That is to say, while the game has the potential to be awesome in ways such as jumping over Humvee’s speeding towards you, turning around, and shoot the gas can, or punching out the edges of a building, in reality that’s just fancy marketing snippets that you won’t recreate during the regular course of the game.

The abilities in this game sound more impressive then they really are.

On the gun play side of things the game is pretty weak. You begin with 3 weapons – a SCAR rifle, pistol, and your fists. You’ll quickly run out of ammo for your SCAR and be forced to switch to the North Korean’s FK7 (or some similarly named thing), though over time you’ll also find a shotgun and, around 40% of the way through the game, pretty much nothing but SMGs. Sniper rifles are extremely rare, but they do exist. Generally I preferred to hold onto a sniper and assault rifle (you are limited to two primary weapons at a time), but without a way to hold your breath to improve accuracy (going prone helped, but didn’t eliminate the sway) it was rarely used. That’s a shame, because a sniper would have really come in handy to do things like take out the gunner on a patrol boat. Around the half way mark you’ll be introduced to the very unimpressive chain gun, as well as the more memorable, but only found in 3 spots in the whole game, gauss rifle. You’ll also gain access to two special guns in the game. One has regenerating ammo and is used exclusively in the mission where you must escort a squad mate, while the other launches a small nuke and is only useable on the final boss.  Out of all the weapons in the game, I’d have to say the gauss rifle was the only one that stuck out as being somewhat unique, but that’s largely because of its ability to two shot the largest non-boss enemy you’ll face. Furthermore, while weapons can be upgraded with things like different scopes, flashlights/lasers, and other attachments, most things didn’t stand out (I could put a sleeper dart on my rifle and knock people out with it, which would be fine if it didn’t also immediately put every guard in camp in high alert the one time I tried to use it, whereas the only thing the flashlight did for me was alert nearby enemies of my stealthed presence).

When it comes to the enemies you’ll quickly learn that the North Koreans put up a good fight. They will send up the alarm if you’re detected, calling in Humvee like vehicles with 50 caliber turrets as backup, as well as spawn significantly more enemies. The camps and outposts you’ll need to assault turn out to be crawling with guards when that happens, and the combination of how many shots those soldiers can take and how much damage they deal makes them a formidable opponent. Heavy enemies, including those with their own nanosuits, make an appearance towards the later portion of the first half of the game, and they can be a challenge to take down. On the other hand, the aliens usually come at you in groups of 2-5, and are pretty quickly taken down with the types of weapons you’ll have at that point in the game. They don’t synergize well, and instead will fly up into the air and then make a dash at you, or hop onto an elevated area and begin to shoot you. The largest threat that they pose is getting within melee range, but since their dash can be side stepped and it only takes 2 shotgun rounds to take them down, they are absolutely not a threat.

Even though there are only 4 of them and I'm playing a killing machine in an invisible suit, this situation could go south very quickly.

The final feature worth covering in this game is the one thing it does really well – create an open environment with a stunning level of detail and a decent physics engine. Yet even here there are a few caveats. First, Crysis is not an open world game like, say, GTA is an open world game. There are levels with loading points and distinctive boundaries to the maps. It’s just rather than making your way down the corridors of a science facility, trudging through a cave, or navigating the ruins of a war torn city with a tall skyline and rubble limiting your line of sight, you’re navigating valleys or beach fronts, and so it is a much more open feeling area. And the game is, for the most part, pretty. Enemies look pretty bland until you grab them by the throat and see the look of terror on their faces, but the foliage is what stands out the most in my memory. It is a nice touch, but while graphics are a nice thing to have, they can’t make a game on their own. You need some deeper substance (i.e. gameplay matters).

I know the previous paragraph made it sounds like I was getting ready to wrap it up, but I have one more jab to get in on this game, which involves covering some of the other miscellaneous issues I experienced that just made the game unpleasant (and technically these aren’t features, so I’ll use that loophole from the previous paragraph to my advantage). The first issue is performance. I’ve covered how Crysis was used as a benchmarking tool because of its ability to “melt rigs,” and while my computer is much more powerful than those in common usage when it was released (my computer is actually pretty far behind the curve now), there were still a few points that caused problems, seemingly without reason. The first issue involves the loading screen when you start up the game (really?) that would have my video card rendering 4000 FPS and squealing like a jet engine. It’s an issue I’ve experienced in some games that can be corrected by enabling Vsync, but it is annoying. The second involves two other points where I would get intense stuttering that made the game almost unplayable. You might thing these would be related to extreme draw distances, and while the first – on the final mission before you enter the cave and the game takes a major dive in quality – this could have been the case, the second time it happened was during the 15 minutes of running around on an aircraft carrier during the final level – indoors! I don’t know, maybe trying to put all those pipes and high polygon models in one tight corridor is an issue, but to not experience problems during the rest of the game but have the issue there was very, very surprising. The final two complains boil down to control settings. Usually I’m not one to favor toggle settings for aim or crouch, but some gamers do, which is why games will give you the option to change this. Crysis doesn’t. You’re stuck using toggle aim during the whole game, as well as dealing with a hold down crouch. That crouch wouldn’t be too bad if I didn’t have to use it to make stealthing around even plausible. Thankfully I was able to find a script for a config file to fix that, but any time I have to start modding a game to make it work or insert features that should be basic options, it’s an automatic deduction in my book (I’m looking at you Dark Souls!). I should also toss in a nod to broken Alt+Tab, just for kicks.

The foliage is probably the most impressive part of this game.

To bring things full Halo, err, circle, I’d just like to say that Crysis is a surprisingly disappointment and underwhelming game. Aside from the graphics, which are perhaps the only thing that could mark this as an above average title, I see no real reason to fondly remember it, despite what other review sites might suggest. The nano suit, a key feature in the game, feels more like an add on that a central aspect of the game where proper use can turn certain defeat into miraculous victory, and aside from being able to pull off a few tricks like scale a building, I’d say it’s not even worth was of time to switch out of anything besides armor. The Korean enemies are generally enjoyable in the way that they search for you, though they can quickly overwhelm and are so damage resist that you’d think they have an improved version of your nano suit on (the Korean General boss is extremely powerful, and I found the best technique was to hide under a bridge until his mini gun spooled down, but I certainly couldn’t do the same amount of damage to him he could do to me), which is acceptable in that it can make the game a challenge, but also disappointing that things like headshots don’t seem to scale well, particularly since that would have put some importance on improving your style of play. Furthermore, whatever good graces the game builds up during the first half is quickly lost during the second half, when you switch from an “open” environment where stealth is an “option,” to one that locks you in a narrow path at a pace you really can’t do anything about, and only serves to further negate the little that the nano suit adds to the game. It’s not to say that linearity is bad (most games are linear, yet they still manage to be enjoyable), but something about the jarring transition loses the player. Even the story is not engaging, particularly as you watch the cold, calculating scientist (who just lost her father but has no emotion in her voice whatsoever) scold the military leader about his predictable plan to nuke the island to destroy the aliens. It’s all just…bad. It’s a real shame, because while I was aware of some of these issues going into it, I was still hoping I would really enjoy this game, and that ultimately wasn’t the case. In the end, this is not a title you should pick up for more than $5, and hopefully you’ll be able to make it through the 11 or so hours it takes (keep in mind I tried stealth in a lot of that), because when it boils down to it, the game is at best…average – 5 out of 10.

So, the final breakdown:

Score: 5/10

Suggested Price: $5

***

For more Crysis, check out this collection screenshots otherwise unused in this review. Click any image for an enlarged version.