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With all this talk about the Next-Gen wars, many people have forgotten one of the biggest contenders in the fight for your dollar – the PC. Maybe the ads are just not as sexy. Maybe it’s tough to see the future without the number “3” emblazoned on the side of its case. The PC is generally a couple of steps ahead of the action, sporting higher end graphics and more content than the consoles, but up till now, it’s been relatively absent from the fight. Software, not hardware, leads the PC public into the next generation of gaming. Today, one such game forces the computer to take the next step.

Crysis, from the good developers who brought you Far Cry, is determined to push the PC into the Next Generation wars. The first of a trilogy, this high-end FPS demands only the finest hardware to present some of the finest graphics to flicker upon your LCD monitor. Crytek sets out to deliver the next generation of PC gaming with large stunning environments… and along the way, pads out the rest of the game with bad habits left over from the last generation.

Crysis on Multiple Plot Points

As you take the plunge out of the plane wearing a suit that looks like someone peeled away your skin, some object hurdling from the island hits you and sends you reeling to the cool blue ocean. This will be your first brush with the alien organism lying semi-dormant on this North Korean controlled tropical local. As the rest of your team tries to reassemble only to get disassembled by the alien threat, it becomes clear that this vibrant first-person shooter is all about these vicious camera-shy aliens rather than the kidnapped scientists, a crazed North Korean general, or that Alyx Vance-clone that will surely become a love interest in the next installment of the series. So many of the locations scream “aliens be here”, that you’re often disappointed to find a man at the bottom of the stairs informing you that your aliens are in another castle.

There’s a great moment as you step out of the plane towards the middle of the campaign. The door drops to a barrage of sound and lights. Men scream to the top of their lungs just so you can understand them over explosions erupting from the ground. Climbing up the slope, you spot tracer fire streaking through the night sky. A plane gets shot in the distance, tears through the sky like a wailing fireball, and slams into the side of the cliff. Overlooking this epic stage, a crouching commander right behind front lines explains to you how anti-aircraft guns have kept advancing forces at bay. You charge out with gun in hand watching the rest of the men joining the choirs of war.

But no one follows you. The less than a handful of combatants are quickly scattered by a grenade from one of their own. Like most of the game, you are left alone to take on everyone while anyone who could help you is quickly explained away. If you go back up that hill, you can still hear the men screaming and calling for support over the radio. It was a good moment but that moment has passed. Crysis tries to fill the game with great moments, but you can’t build a game on moments alone.

Isn’t not the Suit that Makes the Man

It’s not often you find a game with more accessories than weapons. Crysis’ mantra is choice equates freedom. Choice is good but attaching a sniper scope to a shotgun is rarely a good thing. This Next-Gen game takes a last-gen approach to weapons by sticking with the basics – pistol, semi-automatic rifle, shotgun, and a good supply of grenades. You can switch accessories on the fly by throwing on a flashlight or grenade launcher to meet your taste. After picking through the bodies just to find ammo, I often found that I had more choices of gun sights than guns.

Your greatest weapon in this semi-futuristic game may just be the one thing that keeps your butt warm – the Nano Muscle Suit. The new semi-naked suit comes with four flavors of super powers. Shield is your default, but that’s nothing special in this post-Halo world. Super sprint gives you an extra boost of speed while super strength lets you jump higher and gives your punches a little extra kick. Honestly, I never found a good use for either of these unless I wanted to be on top of a small house. If you need to get away quickly, either power drains away precious energy that could be better spent on your shield. And then there’s cloaking…

Putting Artificial back into A.I.

Invisibility is next to godliness in this game. Moving causes the cloak to eat up energy but standing still takes only a little energy at a time. You can survey knowing that no one – and I mean, absolutely no one - will bother you as you plan your next move or place the targeting sights just where they need to go. Every pull of the trigger drops your cloak but that’s all right. Three seconds later, you’re back into hiding in plain sight and no one is the wiser… and that’s the problem with Crysis. It shouldn’t be that easy to back up three steps, cloak, and move two steps to the right to evade your opponent. That’s a tango – not a strategy.

A man backed up into me after I fired at him. This didn’t happen once or twice, but several times during the game. Enemies would often shoot in the direction they thought I was coming from, and a couple of times; lobbed a grenade into the area. Simply put – Crysis enemy AI cannot shoot what they cannot see. Even cloaking directly in front of them only called for a couple of shots in my general direction before the searching animation started to kick in. Even in my glowing red suit, the first couple of shots only received a “where did that come from response” from the officers patrolling around.

Not A Day at the Beach

If not the AI, what is all the computer power flowing to? All those thousands of dollars of equipment are flowing into the gently moving waves, the moonlight striking the leaves of a swaying tree, and the miles of draw distance you’ll experience in every session. The graphics are truly striking but at times you feel as though Crytek could have done something more than miles of dense jungle. While the graphics may just the next PC golden standard, it’s the design that takes the biggest hit in the game.

Everyone lives in the same messy tin roof shack complete with hotpot and uncut watermelon. Tanks blow up to reveal the same charred carcass. Even the alien spaceship, which should have been the designing highlight of the game, twists and turns into a seemingly endless path of the same crystal-lined caves. Yes, Crysis, your particle effects are simply immaculate. That still doesn’t excuse the fact that I got through the final chamber of the ship simply by waiting around.

Crysis does too much primping and strutting for the player to remember that it’s actually a game. More often than not, the wide distance between action pieces takes the player out of the game. Where other games try to fill out every square inch of their limited capacity, this wide shooter fills more inclined to spread out the action so thin that pockets of nothingness tear through the flow of the game. Enemies yelling for help often go unheeded with their compatriots being too far away to answer. Easier still is the ability just to ignore the walking obstacles all together by moving around them. I guess a man in glowing red underwear just doesn’t stir that much attention anymore.

Not a Complete Crysis

Don’t think that I forgot about multiplayer, because it seems that Crytek sure has. Your online options are limited to Instant Action and Power Struggle. No Capture the Flag or Team Deathmatch in this package. Power Struggle consists of two teams making a mad dash to control resources such as a vehicle factory to use against the opposing team. There’s a high learning curve when it comes to earning prestige points. These points work like money to buy better weapons and vehicles in the game, but to get them; you’re going to need a lot of practice. 

What hurts the most about Crysis is the wasted potential. Anyone who’s spent enough time with the sandbox editor knows that the CryENGINE2 has the muscle to pull off some impressive physics, mind blowing explosions, and laundry list of bells and whistles that were left out of this shooter. Instead of the same polish and attention designers gave every blade of grass, the game seems incomplete with the same shacks dotting the landscape and enemy AI getting lost in it’s own lush environment. Even the graphics and physics experience the occasional hiccup within the game. Developers move forward with graphics only to look backwards in gameplay. With so many first-person shooters doing so much with less, Crysis needs more than just a pretty face to keep up with the competition.

Review by: Rob Manuel
Video Produced by: Mark Fahey