Many gamers cry foul these days at the linearity found in modern game design. Gamers looking for more open and adventurous shooters were given a saving grace with 2007's Crysis. The game offered huge amounts of space and all sorts of crazy superpowers allowing players to plan attacks and let our imaginations go nuts with the different ways we could complete objectives. Oh, and it was the prettiest game of its time.
Crysis 2 would later come out and be a hit for PC and console players alike, but the original remained missing in action on consoles. That is until now.
Crysis (PlayStation Network, Xbox Live Games On Demand) Developer: Crytek Studios Publisher: Electronic Arts To be released: October 4, 2011 (US) / October 5, 2011 (EU) MSRP: $19.99 (PSN) / 1600 Microsoft Points (XBLA)
The biggest difference (sometimes issue) between console and PC shooters are the controls. This is particularly important for Crysis as there is quite a bit of micromanaging with respect to the nanosuit abilities. For this port, Crysis recreates the controls scheme of its console sequel. If you've played Crysis 2 at length then you will be as immediately comfortable as I was with how this game handles.
Speed is activated by pressing down on the left thumbstick to sprint, and holding A (on Xbox 360) allows for Halo style frog leaps. Since the demo was fairly brief I didn't get a chance to see how the iconic choke and throw is handled, but rest assured that it's back and can still be used to pick up fish and crabs, among other environmental interactions.
My personal favorites though, armor and cloaking, are back and as much fun as Crysis 2. Throwing on armor and mowing down an enemy squad felt as satisfying as ever, and going Predator style with cloak and methodically picking off enemies feels equally badass. It's nice to see games that truly allow for, and don't punish one style of play over another.
Gunplay has made the transition to console smoothly as well. There's the aim assists common in most shooters when looking down the sights, and the guns don't have the greatest sense of weight when you carry them, leading to an overall smoother feel when in frantic combat. The weapon modding system of the series is of course here and still flaunts its patten intuitiveness. By holding down the back button you can bring up your weapon and customize its scopes, under-barrels, silencers and the like. It's been a joy to use in past Crysis games and it's no different here.
Graphically speaking, Crysis running on a consoles isn't terribly different, but of course can't remain the beast that it was on PC. I was told that our demo on the Xbox 360 was running on the equivalent of a PC high setting. Concessions have been made of course as the textures run at medium but can go a little higher when there isn't so much going onscreen. I also noticed a little too much stuttering when loading parts of the map. It's the price of trying to maintaining this level of visual fidelity in a sandbox game, but it crept in more than I was comfortable with especially considering the game is so close to release.
The prowess of the CryEngine not only means pretty graphics but also translates to the gameplay with Crysis' destructible environments. They remain intact in this port, but just know know that we are not talking Bad Company levels of destructibility. Shacks, trees, and certain outposts are fair game but some concrete walls remained unaffected by my grenades.
Crysis was a beast of a game when it was released in 2007 and it certainly looks like it will be translated nicely with this port. It's a little disappointing that only the single-player is going to be included in this release, but you could certainly do worse for $19.99 (1600 MSP).
Hm. I'll definitely play this at some point but for 20 bucks, in the middle of the fall rush, this is probably going to have to sit in the backlog for a while. If it goes on sale for PS+ members though, I'll grab it and let it sit on the HDD till I'm ready for it.
Well, that confirms it. They streamlined the suit, ruining the one thing that really made this game a blast for me. I know a lot of people are fine with the simplified version, but I really liked having all the separate modes and the little perks they offered. Oh well. Not like I was going to buy this anyway. Good for those who never tried it, though.
@TheNephilym, Completely agree, I was hoping they would keep the radial suit menu but just either slow down time or pause it altogether while you changed modes.
IIRC on the PC version you could sprint normally, or extremely fast in "speed" mode. i guess this means sprinting will be just like crysis 2 rather than the 3 second 100m dash from the original.
must say though, i much prefered the original crysis because the jungle setting is simply beautiful.
Got it on release day on PC. I never bothered to finish, but the Wife did. And she enjoyed it. I think I will pick this up for 360 or PS3 though. I more likely to finish it on console.
@nanowerx:
Me too. Years ago I built a previous rig specifically spec'd so I could run Crysis well. When I assembled everything and actually played the game I was like "What the fuck did I just do?" I'm really glad they ditched the Crysis 1 suit. It was clunky and poorly realized. The idea was amazing, but the execution was dreadful. It's a shame the port won't fix the writing though. Crysis 2's story wasn't earth shattering, but it's not as bad as the coat hanger abortion they tried to pass off as a story in the original Crysis.
Really looking forward to this. Loved Crysis 2, and with the open envoirment and I believe more vehicular combat what's not to like? What's the mechanical tentacle sporting thing in the screenshot? Looks more interesting that the stuff I saw during my playthrough of Crysis 2.
It's actually a Games on Demand title, not XBLA. In practice that means it'll have 1000 Ach. Points like a retail game and probably won't have a playable demo.
I hope they bring the original Far Cry out as well, I always had more interest in that than Crysis.
Crysis 2 was a dumbed down piece of repetitive, badly designed sh*t that made the originals gameplay and physics look like the sequel and the story look like Oscar material.
I am SO happy the HD consoles are finally getting a TRULY impressive shooter, even if it took them a while to condense it and when they did it took some hits.
@D-Nez
The tentacle thing is a giant walker boss that makes the 'The Pinger' in Crysis 2 look like crap.
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Contest:
11:00 AM on 09.23.2011 | 
So did I. I liked the NYC setting.
must say though, i much prefered the original crysis because the jungle setting is simply beautiful.
Me too. Years ago I built a previous rig specifically spec'd so I could run Crysis well. When I assembled everything and actually played the game I was like "What the fuck did I just do?" I'm really glad they ditched the Crysis 1 suit. It was clunky and poorly realized. The idea was amazing, but the execution was dreadful. It's a shame the port won't fix the writing though. Crysis 2's story wasn't earth shattering, but it's not as bad as the coat hanger abortion they tried to pass off as a story in the original Crysis.
trollololol
It's actually a Games on Demand title, not XBLA. In practice that means it'll have 1000 Ach. Points like a retail game and probably won't have a playable demo.
I hope they bring the original Far Cry out as well, I always had more interest in that than Crysis.
Crysis 2 was a dumbed down piece of repetitive, badly designed sh*t that made the originals gameplay and physics look like the sequel and the story look like Oscar material.
I am SO happy the HD consoles are finally getting a TRULY impressive shooter, even if it took them a while to condense it and when they did it took some hits.
@D-Nez
The tentacle thing is a giant walker boss that makes the 'The Pinger' in Crysis 2 look like crap.