Introduction

Perhaps the most anticipated PC FPS of 2007, but how does it hold out to Wuup’s standards? Read on to find out.

Plot

You are Nomad, one of an elite team of five, equipped with the highly advanced nanosuit. You have been sent to rescue a scientist from the clutches of a Korean general, General Kyong. Soon into your mission you find that this is not a usual extraction mission and all hell breaks loose.

Game play

The game play centres around using the suits abilities (armour, strength, cloak, speed) to defeat any given situation. Whilst this is great in theory you may find yourself using one tactic throughout the game, For instance, I used a combination of; Cloak, run to cover, uncloak, shoot, repeat. Which worked for all but the last sections, the other suit abilities are hardly needed (though punching a soldier through a wall is pretty fun). Bearing in mind that this is on the hardest difficulty (Delta), which most seasoned FPS players will find far too easy.

After a certain point in the game you find that there isn’t any use for even the cloak. As chaos descends to the island you’ll be killing large amounts of enemies. Which is still very cool, you loose the up-close-and-personal touch of the beginning – mid sections.

Multiplayer

The multiplayer is very well done with several modes of play. The most popular is “power struggle” A Battlefield 2 type play mode, slightly modified. There are two teams USA and KPA which start off in opposite bases. The objective is to destroy each others bases by taking out turret defences; this can only be achieved by high powered weaponry (AKA the TAK gun). Scattered between each base are three types of buildings, Energy Sites, Bunkers, Vehicle Factories and only one Prototype Facility.

However the physics have been toned down for the multiplayer, you may find yourself in a situation where you’re new battle tank can’t run over a small road sign. Whilst this is necessary to improve performance, it reduces the realism of the experience.

As of patch 1.21 the multiplayer has been significantly improved with better balance and reduced hacks (so long as you’re in a Punkbuster server).

Graphics

If you have seen any footage of Crysis so far, you know it is the most stunning game to date. Using all of the new DirectX10 features it achieves a level of realism comparable to real photos. That is if you have a system capable of running it at that level, my machine that I thought was uber can only sustain a 32fps frame rate at the highest settings (running the included GPU benchmark).

Final Thoughts

Crysis is the most stunning and immersive gaming experience on the PC. It will leave you wanting more and, perhaps, a bit sooner than preferred with a play time of around 6 hours on max difficulty.

I highly recommend Crysis to any hardcore PC FPS fan.