Basically, its hilarious.
The game gives you a mountain of options and tells you to 'have at'.
I like that.
From the start it reminded me in degrees of Splinter Cell, especially the pistol. The power of it reinforces this link, and since then I have been applying the same tactics I developed to play Chaos Theory to this game too, albeit with a few awesome moments to befit the change in mechanics.
Now, Crysis is pretty. I'm running it off a laptop here at a decent speed. Its not as pretty as I was led to believe - there are some very shonky textures used in spots, but on the whole it echoes a very nice visual picture and the area it gives you makes up for the occasionally strangely stretched texture, because the amount of room out there is gigantic, the areas are cavernous. Touches like the plundered graveyard or the numerous forest jeep tracks winding through the trees make it a particularly memorable experience to play.
Also, the vehicles are insane fun. Insane fun, and my only gripe would be that they are often too weak for what I have in mind, and suffer from occasional glitches.
Ploughing a jeep at full speed into a gas station and diving out at the last minute perhaps may illustrate how flexible this game is, I am constantly impressed by the consideration Crytek put into the game. Other fun tricks include taking out people on piers by jumping over them with a speedboat, and driving speedboats over waterfalls. The power of the physics engine here really shines in all this.
Speaking of physics; this game boasts a fantastic set. There are very rare Cellfactor moments where you're killed by your own stupidity (eg, falling roof, etc), but on the whole you get a highly satisfying experience, allowing you to demolish houses and punch your way through roofs. Hilariously, frogs, chickens and turtles are all physics calibrated as well, allowing you to kill people by hurling them with sufficient force. Trees are also game, allowing you to dissect them with bullets into dozens of pieces, but annoyingly, seem to wait a second before physics activates on them when hit by a car or similar, leading to all too often a sapling damaging or gutting the vehicle you're driving.
Annoyingly, while some fences are physics enabled, others are statics, and they all look the same, why is an easy way to ruin a perfectly good vehicle when you slam into it while making a hasty retreat. The same applies to some boxes (or bags of grain (?)). While everything else is light and highly movable, these things are deployed like roadblocks, and are annoyingly common on the roads and in towns.
The plot is surprisingly solid, and, although you barely remain conscious of it given the good time you're having, it isn't bad and doesn't chain you to any particular method of operation, which is pleasing. You're free to approach objectives from any direction, and it is fun to see how things can go.
The game also gives you suit powers, because having a regenerating suit isn't enough. Apparently. This involves Speed Mode, Power Mode, Armor Mode, and Cloak. I found myself toggling constantly between Cloak and Armor, simply because they're the most practical tools in the game. The cloak is a massive pile of hacks, as you can throw it on and immediately disappear from view for a good minute, and only have to pause for about 4 seconds to let it recharge, and the game thoughtfully provides mountains of cover for you to do so. I found that simply creeping along with a pistol upgraded with a laser pointer and silencer provided the best solution in terms of stealth, although blasting the occasional savvy Korean in the face with a shotgun if they get too close in handy too.
I found speed was often the most useless power, and I only ever really used it to get the heck out of a sour situation (which was rare), or get to an objective faster rather than walk through miles of forest. Power mode was used about the same amount, but the presence of the physics engine and fully destructible buildings made for an excellent lure.
Other than all that, the voice acting can get a little repetitive, with the Koreans yelling the same phrase a little over much ("Die Yankee Dog!" anyone?), but on the whole you don't notice it that much.
I'd give the game an 8.5/10, suffering only because of the occasional physics glitch (invincible tin fences, and the occasional invincible tree), and the weakness of the vehicles in general. It'd be nice to be able to plow a truck at full blow through a house with little to no damage, rather than having the speed drop off so sharply, but I suppose that is Crytek's prerogative, not mine. A highly enjoyable game, and very recommended.
The game gives you a mountain of options and tells you to 'have at'.
I like that.
From the start it reminded me in degrees of Splinter Cell, especially the pistol. The power of it reinforces this link, and since then I have been applying the same tactics I developed to play Chaos Theory to this game too, albeit with a few awesome moments to befit the change in mechanics.
Now, Crysis is pretty. I'm running it off a laptop here at a decent speed. Its not as pretty as I was led to believe - there are some very shonky textures used in spots, but on the whole it echoes a very nice visual picture and the area it gives you makes up for the occasionally strangely stretched texture, because the amount of room out there is gigantic, the areas are cavernous. Touches like the plundered graveyard or the numerous forest jeep tracks winding through the trees make it a particularly memorable experience to play.
Also, the vehicles are insane fun. Insane fun, and my only gripe would be that they are often too weak for what I have in mind, and suffer from occasional glitches.
Ploughing a jeep at full speed into a gas station and diving out at the last minute perhaps may illustrate how flexible this game is, I am constantly impressed by the consideration Crytek put into the game. Other fun tricks include taking out people on piers by jumping over them with a speedboat, and driving speedboats over waterfalls. The power of the physics engine here really shines in all this.
Speaking of physics; this game boasts a fantastic set. There are very rare Cellfactor moments where you're killed by your own stupidity (eg, falling roof, etc), but on the whole you get a highly satisfying experience, allowing you to demolish houses and punch your way through roofs. Hilariously, frogs, chickens and turtles are all physics calibrated as well, allowing you to kill people by hurling them with sufficient force. Trees are also game, allowing you to dissect them with bullets into dozens of pieces, but annoyingly, seem to wait a second before physics activates on them when hit by a car or similar, leading to all too often a sapling damaging or gutting the vehicle you're driving.
Annoyingly, while some fences are physics enabled, others are statics, and they all look the same, why is an easy way to ruin a perfectly good vehicle when you slam into it while making a hasty retreat. The same applies to some boxes (or bags of grain (?)). While everything else is light and highly movable, these things are deployed like roadblocks, and are annoyingly common on the roads and in towns.
The plot is surprisingly solid, and, although you barely remain conscious of it given the good time you're having, it isn't bad and doesn't chain you to any particular method of operation, which is pleasing. You're free to approach objectives from any direction, and it is fun to see how things can go.
The game also gives you suit powers, because having a regenerating suit isn't enough. Apparently. This involves Speed Mode, Power Mode, Armor Mode, and Cloak. I found myself toggling constantly between Cloak and Armor, simply because they're the most practical tools in the game. The cloak is a massive pile of hacks, as you can throw it on and immediately disappear from view for a good minute, and only have to pause for about 4 seconds to let it recharge, and the game thoughtfully provides mountains of cover for you to do so. I found that simply creeping along with a pistol upgraded with a laser pointer and silencer provided the best solution in terms of stealth, although blasting the occasional savvy Korean in the face with a shotgun if they get too close in handy too.
I found speed was often the most useless power, and I only ever really used it to get the heck out of a sour situation (which was rare), or get to an objective faster rather than walk through miles of forest. Power mode was used about the same amount, but the presence of the physics engine and fully destructible buildings made for an excellent lure.
Other than all that, the voice acting can get a little repetitive, with the Koreans yelling the same phrase a little over much ("Die Yankee Dog!" anyone?), but on the whole you don't notice it that much.
I'd give the game an 8.5/10, suffering only because of the occasional physics glitch (invincible tin fences, and the occasional invincible tree), and the weakness of the vehicles in general. It'd be nice to be able to plow a truck at full blow through a house with little to no damage, rather than having the speed drop off so sharply, but I suppose that is Crytek's prerogative, not mine. A highly enjoyable game, and very recommended.
