Crysis is a first-person shooter developed by Crytek Frankfurt and published by EA and Valve (Steam). Players are pitted against an ever-changing environment forcing them to adapt to their surroundings in order to survive and complete their missions.

Requirements

• Windows XP/Vista
• Intel Core 2 DUO @ 2.2GHz or AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+
• 2GB RAM
• VIDIA GeForce 8800 GTS/640 or similar
• DirectX 9.0c compatible sound card

Installation

Another game bought from Steam means another game that's easy to install. With the added touch that you can also tell Steam to add it to your Games Explorer in Vista. There's one thing I noticed though, is that each and every non-Valve game tends to check for DX9's version each time you install it. I imagine that a check should only take a couple of seconds but for the most part, it tends to take minutes...around 3-5 minutes. Still a 5 out of 5 experience though.

First Impressions

Wow! I mean seriously though, that's what I literally said. All the non-believers out there that say Crysis looks just about any other game out there is wrong. Screenshots and gameplay videos can't even accurately depict how good it is.

Singleplayer

Getting used to your suit's different options tends to take time and it also depends on your play style. I'm the kind of guy that likes to role-play a bit when I play games and that means being a sneaky bastard when playing Crysis. Sure you can just go out and show them who's boss but you tend to die quickly especially at the harder levels of the game. Stealth is key in winning the single-player missions.

AI's pretty damn good too, think of Crysis' AI as a level 4 player on a scale of 1 to 10 (10 being the best). You can still own them pretty bad, but you need to use your brain a bit or else they'll just overpower you.

Multiplayer

Since Crysis has a very high hardware requirement, there's only a few people online and most of them are spread out on different Crysis game servers. I guess not too many people can play Crysis yet since their computers can't handle it. Don't forget that you need a GameSpy ID to play multiplayer.

Final Thoughts

Overall, I really enjoyed playing the singleplayer missions. For multiplayer...there's just not enough people to play against with. There's something that bothered me a lot though and I think it has something to do with the default FOV (Field of View) because everytime I play Crysis I tend to get a severe headache. It's just me though and it totally depends on the player.

Ratings

Installer - Even though I absolutely love Steam, for non-Valve games, it takes some time to get the version of DirectX. Even if I have a quad core, it still feels like forever. I mean it's just a value right?

Graphics - I have yet to see a game that beats Crysis. Thegame engine is just...jaw dropping.

Sound - Watch out! Sound isn't just for your hearing pleasure! It should help you stay alive as well.

Gameplay - Although the story is just so-so a.k.a. let's all kill the bad guys plus some aliens. What you will pretty much do when you play this game is just look at how beautiful this game can be. You tend to explore your surroundings (if you're into role-playing your games) like I did. Who doesn't like camouflage?!?!