Crysis Preview
PC (Crytek Studios - Electronic Arts)
First Person Shooter, Release Date: Mid to Late 2007
Posted December 8th, 2006

In the year 2021 a massive asteroid crashes into a remote tropical island, which is quickly taken over and occupied by the North Korean government. You, along with your elite Delta Force team are sent in to the North Korean compound to figure out why this extinction-level event has not thrown the world into another ice age. Shortly after you arrive a ginormous beam of light comes out of the asteroid, turning tropical paradise into a frozen wasteland. This isn't a normal asteroid, but rather a proverbial trojan horse containing thousands of alien soldiers that plan of raping our planet of all its resources. You and your Delta Force squad are now at the front lines of the surprise invasion, and behind you is the entire North Korean million man army. There's only one way out of here, and that route only exists if you can fight your way out. This is Crysis, and it's coming for the PC sometime next year in 2007.

My first impressions of Crysis focused almost immediately on the graphics, and more specifically the jungle environment in which the game takes place. To get right to the point: the jungle environment in Crysis is easily the most beautiful engine I have ever seen. Every single tree is destructible, and there are branches everywhere loaded with leaves that move around you, meaning you always have to be aware of your surroundings. If you move too quickly, you'll make too much noise that will reveal your position. Talking about this game's graphics just doesn't do it justice; heck even the screenshots below don't get my point across. I encourage all of you to check out the videos below, because you truly have to see this engine and it's environment in motion. I don't think "realistic" is a strong word to describe what Crytek Studios (EA owned) has created here.

Just beautiful.

While the College Downtime offices hasn't been fortunate enough to receive a playable demo of this upcoming game, we have been able to squeeze a few exciting gameplay tidbits out of the videos that are worth noting. Okay, so they blatantly talk about these in the videos below, but they're biased since they made the damn game. Anywho, let me get to the point. Crysis isn't your typical next-gen FPS; while it won't knock Half-Life 2 off it's pedestal, it does bring some very cool new gameplay elements to the table that will probably make this title a must-buy. The first element is one that I already mentioned above in the graphics discussion: leaves under your feet will crunch and the branches on trees and bushes will move around you, creating noise and ultimately giving away your position. In other words, running and gunning usually will not be an option. The second element is the vehicles. All the vehicles are completely interactive, and the cool thing I noticed is that after you're done using them you can blow them up so enemy troops can't use them against you. This element of destruction goes along with what I said about the trees; everything, and I mean everything in this game is destructable. If your enemy is holed up in a bunker or a house, simply jump in your truck and plow right through the bitch. Then jump out and take out any survivors that you missed with your rig and move on to the next checkpoint. Pretty cool eh hoser?

While the graphics are breathtaking and the gameplay brings new elements to the FPS table, I'm still a little unsure on this one. Don't get me wrong, this game is still on my Most Wanted List, however I don't think it's going to be "Game of the Year" good. I don't think this is gonna be a Half-Life killer, and because of one reason: it's being made by EA. I'm sorry, but EA has done nothing but pump out mediocre to above-average games and I don't know if that will ever stop. They have yet to create a Game of the Year title, and while this one does have potential, so did many others they created. Now as I said before, I think this game is going to be awesome. What I'm saying is that just be a little weary, and don't expect that this is going to revolutionize the FPS world, because frankly it isn't. More info as it comes folks.




Crysis Screenshots:



Crysis Videos:


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