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Cereal&Milk

Crysis: So clever it's stupid
And five other reasons why it's time to smash your old PC into little pieces

Crysis is really going to punish your hardware budget. The official specs aren't quite as nuclear as we expected, but if you want your version to look anything like these shots you better get cracking with a hammer on that old rig. It's time to blow the savings on a shiny new gaming behemoth.

But is it really worth it? Well, yes. Because Crysis is stupid. We'd never have thought it before our latest hands-on with the game, but that's one of the best reasons to get busy with the smashy. We're not talking sticking-your-soggy-fingers-in-a-power-socket dumb. Instead, we're referring to the game's AI, which is so realistic it messes up just like a real person. Enemies actually trip over foliage and lose their balance getting legs over fences. So stupid, yet very, very smart.

We've plucked a handful of other undeniable reasons to upgrade from the depths of our mush-boxes, inspired by our visit to developer Crytek in Frankfurt earlier this week where we spent a whole day bashing through both single player and multi-player modes. Intrigued? Of course you are...

Reason #1: It's an all rounder
After playing an hour-long, multi-layered single player level called Assault, then multi-player modes Power Struggle and Deathmatch, it's clear that Crysis is quite the all-rounder. Its 11 single player locations, which embody stealth, all-out action then, finally, mass soldiers vs alien invader war, are tense and tactical. And, most importantly, never the same.

Assault begins with an air-drop into heavily guarded Korean territory and the instruction to destroy three gun turrets. Our objective takes us through Far Cry reminiscent forests, on a Jeep ride through mountains, a swim to ambush a hovercraft and then into a well-armed enemy base. And that's just one level. One incredibly open level so huge that, once completed, we're left feeling like we've just visited Alton Towers, legged it through and missed out on some good rides.


And just as much care has gone into crafting the multi-player experience, which supports up to 32 players, and is more epic than the build up to Christmas. Power Struggle is reminiscent of Battlefield 2's Conquest, with players fighting long, fraught battles to capture alien crash sites, build better nuclear weapons and take down the opposition's bases.

Balance was a crucial aim, lead level designer, Sten Hubler told us: “We wanted to make both a great single player and multi-player game. In Far Cry we weren't so happy with multi-player, and wanted to push there this time around.”

Reason #2: The enemies are idiots
Crysis' AI credentials have been bigged up from the start of its development. Not only do enemies use cover and flank the player, they understand their environment. Objects in the game world are programmed to communicate with them, so the AI knows it can jump over a wall or use a recently flattened tree for cover.

“We have smart object interactions, so if an enemy encounters a fence, he knows he can jump over it instead of running around it,” says Hubler. “We've programmed it so enemies can sometimes fall over too. You have moments where you're thinking 'damn he's going to kill me'. Then he trips over and you kill him instead.”

Equally as impressive as this unpredictable and downright clumsy behaviour is how the Korean soldiers react to your character's futuristic US prototype Nanosuit and its various cloaking and super-speed abilities. Understandably, seeing as they've never seen anything like it before, they react with surprise and confusion at the sight of a man darting towards them like Linford Christie on fast forward. If you're seen running down a dead end, then you activate the suit's cloaking function, enemies understand that you can't have disappeared into thin air and respond by tentatively investigating the area.


Reason #3: It's Ride or Die time
With a game world as big as this, you don't want to be plodding around on foot. Luckily, there are vehicles everywhere. Civilian pick-up trucks line the roads and armoured trucks can often be found at enemy bases or, of course, you can just shoot occupants out of ones in use.

An armoured vehicle's mounted gun is powerful enough to blast helicopters out of the sky, which is handy if you've run out of grenades in your launcher. While choppers themselves aren't flyable in single player, they are in multi-player. As are the hovercraft.

You can also dive into tanks and other armoured vehicles, plus the odd boat. Keep your eyes on the on-screen icon indicating how much damage it's taken though. Once completely red – usually at about the point you can't see through the windscreen for bullet holes and blood smears – it's a good idea to leap out before the inevitable explosion.

Reason #4: You'll get lost
Few games offer true open worlds. With the exception of games like Grand Theft Auto and Just Cause, split paths and the illusion of space are often as far as they go. Even STALKER, which promised to deliver an expansive, living and populated world, actually ended up with distinctly level-like areas.

While Crysis is very much a level-based game, it easily out-does the average shooter in terms of possibilities and openness; and while it's most similar to its spiritual predecessor Far Cry, it expands on even that in terms of scale. Most games guide the player to one combat situation after another. Crysis lets you choose your next fight: Whether you want to take it on, sneak past, or approach it from an unexpected angle – like out of a lake or pelting down a mountainside in an APC.

“The openness of the levels and sandbox take on gameplay means you can encounter things in different ways,” says Hubler. “In some levels we take a little bit of that freedom away to make sure you see when something cool happens, but there are a lot of those open sections. You can completely do what you want and there's not just one goal you have to achieve.”




There's even hidden stuff to find if you can drag yourself away from the combat for a few minutes.

“We don't have treasure chests for you to collect, but you can find out more story information by completing secondary tasks. You might find a hint for something you can do in the level, or just another fun section. We tried to encourage the player to look left and right and not just follow the path straight ahead.”

And if the huge levels aren't enough for you, we got to try our hand at Crytek's Sandbox game editor (which will be made available with the single player demo on October 26th as well as bundled with the full game). Our verdict? Truly endless possibilities. Maps can be created with the same tools used to build the game, tested out straight away and made available online and in multi-player. So six online maps can't satisfy your hunger, expect the modding community to be ready and waiting with more by the November 16 release.

Reason #5: You're spoilt for choice
Crysis boasts a lot of guns. Combined with the Nanosuit, you've got endless ways to take down enemies – and right from the start too, because Crysis doesn't make you wait to get your hands on the good stuff. And not only do you have guns, but you can pick up attachments and add-ons, making selecting a weapon from your arsenal like diving into a Pick-and-Mix counter.

Guns can be picked up from fallen enemies, or found lying around, as can various attachments to add to the ones you begin with. Grab the gun you want then bring up a sub-menu and you get a stack of customisation options, from sniper scopes and silencers or the ability to fiddle with the firing speeds. So, if you're feeling suicidal, you can strap a sniper scope to an assault rifle and see just how inefficient it is at taking down far-away soldiers.

You also have your fists which, when combined with your Nanosuit's super-strength ability, are actually very effective, and not just useful for when you've run dry of ammo. In fact, during our Deathmatch session, one rival used his fists the whole time. And ended up doing annoyingly well. Grrrr.




Guns in multi-player Power Struggle are accessed a bit differently. Winning Prestige Points in a previous round gives you more cash to spend on weaponry and ammo. Your team can also manufacture alien weaponry once you reach a certain level – opening up a gun that freezes enemies, which means the tiniest punch or push shatters them into a million pieces.

Other single player weapon highlights include being able to pick up frying pans and boxes to throw at people. Not quite as effective as using duel-wielded shotguns, but a whole lot funnier.

It anything is going to stand Crysis out from the rest of the first-person pack, it's just how many choices these weapons and the Nanosuit offer you. Put any number of people in front of this game and they'll be tackling it in different ways and experimenting with the assortments of tactics on offer – from darting to cover using super-speed to sniping enemies from a boat.

Reason #6: You won't be crowded out
Prior to our latest play test, we were unsure how the game's combat would progress. But after playing the opening level it's clear that things start small and stealthy, with plenty of creeping through the greenery, tackling Korean soldiers as they crop up and trying not to alert more of them.

Later the battle becomes more full-on, with air strikes and ambushes, before – finally – the US and Korean soldiers come across the alien spacecraft and join forces to take on what's inside.

But gunfights never break out on a huge scale. This isn't Call of Duty 4. There's no packed battlefield peppered with explosions and action bursting out all around you. More often you come across bunches of concentrated enemies who are as surprised to see you as you are them. With the AI being as smart and strategic as it is though, the emphasis on pockets of enemies is probably a good thing. It's easy enough to die at the hands of one soldier if you run out from cover without a plan of action, let alone 20 of them.


At various points during the single player Assault level we played, our squad fought alongside us. You don't have direct command over them, but they're able to pick off enemies for themselves. Being independent sorts, they also wander off at certain points in the game, leaving you to tackle objectives alone.

It's very much a one-man mission, this. But when you're playing a man whose military suit all but gives him superpowers, taking on the world alone is nothing short of thrilling.

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Bryan

I bought a new computer just for this game, damn, I cannot wait to play~!

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FabianN

Crytech, always pushing the A.I. to the limits.

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Ska-Boy

Which makes me happy, seeing as a friend and I just tried to let a NPC drive a Warthog in Halo 3 an hour ago. It diddn't end well.

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Astro

Gawd I want this. *Buys new computer.*

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Mr. First Name Basis

I'm going to mod my PS3 to play it. Lol wasn't there something in the source code for it where it was also written to run on the PS3? I sure hope so. Even if it's a port it'd own.

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Cereal&Milk

Thinking about BioShock. :O

If I remember correctly, information was written into the code about a PS3 release.

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xXDeathzJrXx

Halo what?

Bacn

I couldn't even run bioshock at a decent speed. I think I'll wait 50 years to get this one.

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PowerGamer

I'm playing the Crysis Multiplayer Beta right now, its pretty fun actually
but yeah I was expecting more performance, I can only do 1280x1024 4xAA All medium

My comp:
2x1024MB 800mhz cl4 OCZ
Intel C2D E6600 2.4Ghz
EVGA Geforce 8800GTS 320

I hope that with optimizations, the demo and the new drivers there'll be a huge performance boost and I'll be able to play on high.
'cause I ran Bioshock on the highest possible settings even in Dx10 really smoothly.

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