Crysis has been one of the most controversial games in history. It is a game that amazes with its spectacular visuals, frustrates with its heavy system requirements, and entertains with its gameplay.
Many games do not get more than a few sentences regarding their graphics, however, Crysis is a completely different story. Crysis is perhaps the most technically stunning game in history. That is a pretty bold claim, but I think that Crysis defenitely delivers. The attention to detail here is amazing. Everything from small particles flying in the air, to rainbows forming when the sun reflects off the water in the right angle, serve to demonstrate how serious Crytek was about bringing this game to a whole new level of realism. There will be times when you will just want to sit back and enjoy the view. It may sound like an exaggeration, but I am dead serious.
All of this visual wonder, however, comes at a heavy price. The system requirements of this game are very demanding. It needs to be said that even with an ultra high end rig, you will still experience lag on Crysis. As of now, it is impossible to completely max out Crysis at 1680x1050 or higher at very high with AAx16, and stay above the 60 frame per second mark. It is just an overwhelmingly demanding game.
Your game will lag. Do as you may, it will occasionally dip to the low 20's or low teens. On average, most gamers get anywhere from 20 to 30 FPS on high. This is certainly true for me. Although those numbers may seem low, the game remains playable. If you would like an even bigger performance increase, the settings can be set to a mixture of medium and high. This will allow you to retain some of the eye candy, and still get good performance.
The gameplay in Crysis is quite different from many other FPS. Although you have your standard array of weapons, such as your machine guns, pistol, sniper rifle, shotgun, etc., what really sets this game apart is its use the "nano suit" and physics.
The nano suit is just that. It grants the player special abilities such as stealth, strength, speed, and armor. These abilities allow you to tackle a situation in different ways. You can sneak around, taking out soldiers when no one is looking, zoom past all the action, fight your way through Rambo style, or a mixture of all of these. It is a fun addition that adds an extra layer of depth to this game.
The other thing that sets this game apart from other FPS is its use of physics. Physics play a big role in this game. The problem lies in figuiring out how to use them. So many games exclude any real physics that we have never really learned how to use them. When I first played through this game, I played it like many other games, just shooting all my enemies. This led me a decent gameplay experience. However, what I soon realized was that I was playing the game wrong. I was playing it like I would play Call of Duty or Medal of Honor; I was not using the physics. As I tried to change this, I began to learn of neat little tricks I could do that made the game much more satisfying. For example, I realized that I could knock down buildings to kill my opponents instead of shooting them, or I could run them over, or I could throw them off cliffs. These new ways to defeat my opponents proved to be much more interesting and satisfying than just shooting them.
Overall, Crysis is a great game. It will amaze you in many ways. The graphics, physics, and gameplay all combine together to create a deeply compelling experience. Do yourself a favor, and go buy this game today.
