So the most anticipated PC game of the year is almost upon us. To say I’ve been feverishly anticipating this game would be an understatement, and with the recent release of the single player demo a little review of the demo seems in order.
The demo begins with a fairly slick opening cinematic showing off the different powers your nanosuit grants you. This futuristic military armour grants you enhanced strength and speed, cloaking and damage absorption, and although it seems difficult at first to quickly switch between suit modes, by the end of the demo you’ll be nimbly switching between the four modes in the middle of a firefight. After that there’s another opening cinematic where you and the rest of your team all kit up and drop out of an aircraft. However, old friend plot device strikes you on the way down so you crash land separated from the rest of your ethnically diverse team, and it’s your job to meet up with them again. So far, the plot seems very paint-by-numbers; nothing jumps out at you that tells you this is going to be the next Shakespeare. But that’s okay in this instance, as you’ll soon discover when you take over and can freely move about; this game isn’t about the story, it’s about the gameplay. The first thing you’re likely to notice (assuming you have a nice PC) is that the game looks utterly fantastic. The second thing you’ll probably notice is that you can pick up a turtle which is happily lazing around on the beach. I repeat; YOU CAN PICK UP A TURTLE AND THROW IT AROUND. If this isn’t enough to make you rush down to your latest game store and preorder Crysis then I’m not sure this game will be you.
In fact it seems you can pick up almost everything in this game. Shoot the hat off an enemy and you can pick it up; catch one of the little birds running around and you can use it as a weapon or just to satisfy your sadistic needs. The physics in this game are absolutely incredible; Half-Life 2 Episode Two may have wowed us with its Striders demolishing complete houses, but that was all scripted. Demolition of houses in Crysis is completely physics-based; Grab a Korean by the throat and throw him into the side of a wall and it will collapse the wall, taking the rest of the building with it. Take out the supports of a small shanty building and watch as the rest gives way. This all looks and feels absolutely incredible and real. But it’s not all good; while the graphics and physics are phenomenal you will need a monster rig to get the best out of this game, and there’s lots of little bugs and things missing that need to fixed before the finished version hits the shelves. The gun and weapon sounds really need to be tuned up as well; weapons generally don’t sound very powerful, and someone tell me why an enemy can bring down a highly trained high-tech soldier with just one whip of his rifle?
Still, these are minor things that I’m sure will be fixed by the time the actual game is released. The single player is going to be amazing, but don’t write off the multiplayer; I’ve played a lot of it in the beta so far and it’s an absolutely unique experience; I can’t say anything else without giving away too much but multiplayer is going to have a lot of people hooked for ages, the unique mode Power Struggle is so good it simply cannot be missed. Mark November 16th on your calendars; Crysis is coming.
Check out some amazing videos of Crysis in action:
http://www.gametrailers.com/game/2509.html
- KillaCon
