Kry Reviews: Crysis

The Crysis series is probably one of the more well known and popular FPS series currently on the market. I will be reviewing both Crysis(released 2007) and Crysis: Warhead(2008) in this review.

Crysis is most notorious for its graphics. It has some of the best visuals ever rendered in a video game, but to see them you have to have one of the best computers available. Even with a 512 mb video card I still suffered framerate lag on medium! But the graphics are everything they are said to be. They are so well done that you can easily be completely immersed in the lush environments, especially when the jungle gets frozen over by aliens. That truly dropped my jaw, especially Warhead with the frozen tidal waves. But, I digress; I feel the graphics should have been optimized to better fit a more standard computer, and for me, Warhead for some reason gave me worse graphical returns than Crysis. Not to mention the dumb naming conventions on graphical settings.

So, onto the gameplay... Crysis’s take on the fps genre has been one of the most fun and action packed experiences I’ve had gaming. Most of the battles, be they versus human or alien, are intense. I loved being able to go invisible, sneak around tanks, and dodge individuals. But, using the suit powers drains your defenses. So, you have to use the powers conservatively. I really laud the suit system in Crysis. Also, you are able to customize your weapons to a reasonable degree, and the power levels are really quite balanced between guns, so you’re not using the same one constantly throughout the game.

The AI is mostly good, although it has a couple problems. It could be easily exploited to kill enemies near gun embankments (killing one makes another guy run up to it, boom headshot), and on the other side, when you’re spotted, the enemies have ridiculous laser vision and cut you to pieces while you’re hiding behind a bush a mile away.

Crysis’ presentation is top notch and well polished. The music is utilized excellently to progress the story and highlight dangerous and epic scenes. Both games also employ cutscenes to further the plot. I enjoyed them in Crysis because they weren’t obtrusive; Warhead had a bit too much emphasis on them, I felt jipped when I watched the main villain die in one instead of blasting him to pieces myself.

Concluding, I found Crysis and Warhead both to be excellent games. I’m going to note here however, that I have not played multiplayer on either one, not only because of how graphically intensive it is, but also because I feel the power of the nanosuit would be too frustrating to deal with in multiplayer. Perhaps I’m wrong here, who knows. Either way, the single player on both games is worth it alone.

Kry Retro-Reviews: Bioshock

Bioshock was released August, 2007 to almost universal acclaim, winning several “Game of the Year” awards. I played through the game and enjoyed it then, but I really didn’t feel it was the end-all, be-all. And what with sequels and a movie planned, as well as a recent PS3 release, I feel it’s reasonably relevant enough to mention in a quick retro review.

First off, Bioshock is amazing simply for its story, setting, and atmosphere. Truly one of the most amazing and imaginative settings I have seen ever. It is worth buying just to explore the underwater city of Rapture and to see the story unfold. I loved progressing through the city and gazing out into the murky depths outside. It is truly that immersive.

Bioshock also has an innovative system for upgrading your character (mutating yourself and gaining ‘magic’ spells). Unfortunately that system does not have much depth. Only a few upgrades are actually worth taking and others are downright useless. Along with the lack of depth are the enemies in the game themselves. They are very homogenous and do not change throughout the game besides gaining more health and damage. I was really disappointed here. The whole city goes nuts for Adam and you’re picking up magical mutating spells from vending machines, yet only the last boss has the same arsenal you’ve got. And then there are the Little Sisters. Either killing them or saving them, the game still plays the same way, except you get an ending where you are either evil or good. That is pretty much the only difference gameplay wise.

Though Bioshock was touted by some as the greatest game of 2007 and a benchmark of gaming prowess, I simply think it was a good game with a very engrossing setting. Bioshock was also very good at giving the player the illusion of choice. There are myriad options in this game, but few useful ones; and it is something most people do not realize until they are finished. Either way, I’m certainly interested in seeing the next game of the series (Sea of Dreams, I believe it will be called).