Crysis (Special Edition) (PC, 2007)

It was hard not to be completely impressed when the first images and videos of Crysis appeared about 18 months ago. Scenes of lush jungles and towering alien war machines looked light-years beyond what seemed possible. Of course, the two questions that revolved around Crysis since its announcement were whether it would deliver on those visuals and whether it would deliver a game worthy of those fancy graphics. It turns out that the answer to both those questions is a resounding yes, as Germany's Crytek has proven that its 2004 hit Far Cry was no fluke. In fact, it was just the beginning from this studio. With its sophomore effort, Crytek has managed to deliver an incredibly advanced and exciting first-person shooter that practically rewrites the rules for the entire genre.


Welcome to the prettiest jungle that you have ever seen in a game. Notice that it's starting to snow?

Crysis is an alien invasion game set in the year 2020. An archeological team on a remote Pacific island is captured by an invasion force of North Koreans, and your US Special Forces team is dispatched to investigate and rescue the scientists. Clad in high-tech nanosuits capable of boosting your strength, speed, and armor, as well as cloaking you temporarily to the enemy, you're parachuted into a tropical paradise that's crawling with intelligent enemies and something else that's tearing both the North Koreans and US forces to shreds.

Like Far Cry, the first half of Crysis is essentially a "sandbox" game where you're put in the middle of incredibly large levels and tasked with an objective. How you get the job done is pretty much entirely up to you, which is part of the brilliance of the game's design. For instance, the environments are big enough to give you a wide range of latitude. Do you have to get to a certain point on the map? You can take a meandering route that avoids patrols and go stealthy, or try the up-front approach and try to blast your way through, with the danger of enemy reinforcements showing up. Need to infiltrate a North Korean-held village? You can try the front gate, or maybe explore and find a quieter way in.

Couple these huge environments with the powers of the nanosuit, and you have a ton more options. You can play like the eponymous character from the movie Predator and use your cloaking abilities to stalk North Korean patrols, picking them off one by one and watching the survivors react in confusion. That could be via a silenced rifle, or simply coming up from behind a guard and grabbing him by the throat and hurling him off a cliff, or through the roof of a building, or against a tree, or whatever catches your fancy. Enhanced speed and strength give you an amazing amount of mobility, so you can vault atop buildings and come down behind someone, or run up against a North Korean vehicle next to a cliff and push it over the side. In a heartbeat you can switch between different roles, from stealthy assassin to seemingly unstoppable death dealer. It's a game that makes you feel like a superhero, though not an invincible one, because you simply can't run roughshod over the enemy. Crysis rewards smart, fast thinking.


The firefights are stunning, as well as challenging, whether you're tackling North Korean soldiers or alien war machines.

It helps that the game features a high degree of advanced physics and destructibility in a highly dynamic world. Getting caught in a firefight in the jungle is a cinematic treat, thanks to the way the bulAs

the most amazing graphics to date, a soundtrack that wins awards of its awesomeness, fast paced and deep gameplay of a first person shooter. Advanced AI that react to your every move, a deep and engaging storyline across a vast island that you free roam across. a great all around game...if your computer can handle it that is

Awesome game. It's a shooter fan's dream: great graphics and sound, tight control, compelling storyline. It's all there. If you liked Far Cry, it plays the same in a lot of ways. A little less difficult, but a lot more fun thanks to the nanosuit and its powers. If you like any shooter games, give this one a try. You won't be disappointed.

First time I've gotten to play a crytek game, finally had a video card that could handle one GTS 250. The graphics are awesome and unlike newer games this doesn't harrass you with activation. (Why should we have to prove it is our? If someone is going to pirate software you better bet they just remove your activation so who does it punish? Those of us that legitimitely purcahse it! I say don't buy anything with activation EVER and if you have to write them letters dailiy saying how much their software sucks. Maybe one of these days the idiots at software companies will learn that the customer is always right and simplicty is what sells things) Sorry my rant on that I hate messing with activation activating software almost never works right because of it. Anyway this software predates that stupidity and works wonderfully, buy it!

Crysis is one excellent game. the graphics and game story is great. This is one game that I can play all levels over and over. I love a single player, life like game like this one. Far cry was great, This Crysis is even better. Thanks Walter