Crysis is a science fiction first-person shooter computer game developed by German company Crytek and published by Electronic Arts, and is the first game of a planned trilogy. It was released on November 13, 2007 in North America, November 15 in Australia, November 16 in Europe, November 23 in New Zealand, and November 29 in Japan. Initial NPD sales numbers were taken as a sign that the game had flopped. However, during EA's Q3 2008 Earnings Conference Call, it was stated that Crysis had sold over one million copies worldwide in the fiscal quarter and that the game continues to exceed sales expectations.
Crysis is based in a fictional future where an ancient alien spacecraft has been discovered beneath the Earth on an island near the coast of China. The single player campaign has the player assume the role of United States Delta Force operator Jake Dunn, referred to in-game by his call sign, Nomad. Nomad is armed with various futuristic weapons and equipment, most notably a "Nano Muscle Suit" which, according to Crytek senior game designer Bernd Diemer, was inspired by the United States' Future Force Warrior 2020 program. In Crysis, the player fights both North Korean and extraterrestrial enemies, in four different locations: a tropical island jungle, inside an "Ice Sphere" (consisting of the same jungle, but frozen), the alien ship itself (with a zero-gravity area) and a U.S. Navy aircraft carrier. Crysis uses Microsoft's new API, Direct3D 10 (DirectX 10) for graphics rendering, and includes the same editor that was used by Crytek to create the game.
Table of Contents
Gameplay
As with Far Cry, Crysis is an open-ended game with many ways to meet objectives. An addition to the previous Far Cry formula is that most weapons may be modified with devices such as suppressors, telescopic sights, and targeting lasers.
The protagonist, callsign Nomad, is also capable of selecting various modes in his military prototype "Nano Muscle Suit." The suit is capable of four modes: armor, strength, speed, and cloak. These modes allow him to absorb and heal damage, lift and throw heavy items and enemies, reload and run faster, become invisible and reduce noise output, respectively. Due to the ability of constantly regenerating health, the game is completely devoid of first aid kits. All of these actions, however, use rechargeable energy reserves that power the suit; energy is recharged most quickly while in armor mode. The suit can be quickly switched between modes using a rapid mouse gesture system, which adds a strong tactical element to combat.
The suit's integral mask has its own HUD, displaying typical data like a tactical map and current energy levels. The view is electronic in nature, shown in-game through things such as a booting readout and visual distortion during abnormal operation. Onboard utilities include a two-way radio, PDA and audio-visual logging capability, with features like image zoom and night vision provided by optional equipment (given by default in single-player).
The artificial intelligence (AI) in Crysis also aims to be realistic and believable. Enemy soldiers constantly employ tactical maneuvers, work as squads, hide and ambush amongst the scenery, and adapt to changing environments and conditions. AI soldiers will also respond to sound and subtle movements triggered by the player's movement. While not engaged in combat, the AI soldiers will also exhibit typical and lifelike behavior, such as smoking, yawning, talking, urinating, waxing cars, patrolling, saluting superior officers, etc. Sometimes these actions depend on whether or not the player was detected earlier. If Nomad has not been sighted in some missions, he can find some enemies sleeping upon arriving to his destination. In contrast if he has been spotted they will all be alert.
Weapons
The game features the standard gamut of first-person shooter weapons such as assault rifles, along with sci-fi additions such as the Gauss rifle, or Alien weapons, such as the Alien Molecular Accelerator. As mentioned earlier, all weapons can be modified with attachments; these attachments may be given to the player by default, acquired from picked-up weapons, or purchased in multiplayer. Once acquired, they can only be removed through death or scripted loss of inventory if in story mode, e.g. If during normal play, a player attaches a flashlight to a rifle which is later discarded, it is not considered gone and will still be available in the future.
Attachment options are given a fair amount of leeway even if the end result may seem strange. For instance, a 4x/10x sniper scope can be attached to the buckshot-firing shotgun. Additionally, most weapons can adjust their firing modes. Crysis also incorporates some features that have appeared in other recent shooters, such as being able to lob hand grenades without needing to formally equip them first, or accounting for already-chambered rounds when a reload occurs.
Vehicles
A large selection of vehicles are present, with most being available to players for personal use. Available ground vehicles range from pickup trucks to tanks, while naval vessels range from motorboats to light military hovercraft. All vehicles (humvees, pickup trucks, and even tanks) have a turbo mode that can be activated via the sprint key. The aircraft selection is limited to one North Korean attack helicopter and a fictional American VTOL aircraft, each of which can transport a half-dozen troops.
Damage is limitedly modeled in wheeled vehicles, most noticeably the ability to burst their tires. Exposed gas cans can also be shot at to detonate their contents, and flaming wrecks will cause proximity heat damage. Of note is that a vehicle can still run even if all the tires are gone, slowly rolling along on its rims. Unavailable vehicles shown in-game include jet aircraft, excavator, and for reasons of scale, ships like destroyers. None of the large alien machines can be commandeered by players.
Multiplayer
Up to 32 players are supported in each multiplayer match in Crysis. There are two different modes, each with six available maps: Instant Action, a deathmatch type mode; and Power Struggle, which are played by two opposing teams, each trying to destroy the other's headquarters.[1][2]
Power Struggle features the American Delta Force soldiers fighting the North Korean Army; both sides, however, have nanosuits.[2] All players begin armed with only a pistol and a basic nanosuit, called the "prototype" suit.[3][2] In order to purchase weapons and vehicles, the player must complete objectives, or kill enemies. The aim of Power Struggle is to destroy the enemy headquarters, a task which is done using either alien technology or nuclear weapons, gained by capturing alien crash sites. Without these technologies, it would be difficult to win, due to multiple automated turrets guarding headquarters; they can be destroyed only by powerful human weapons, or alien technologies.[2][4] All vehicles in the game are available in Power Struggle, though they must be unlocked by capturing a zone that specializes in manufacturing a certain vehicle—for example, capturing a zone with a port would allow the building of water-based vehicles for the team in possession of the zone. However, vehicles may be stolen, by picking their locks, even if their team has not captured the zone producing that type of vehicle.[3] Depending on the settings determined by the host, a game of Power Struggle could potentially take up to ten hours, which would cover multiple day/night cycles, if playing on a DirectX 10 server. Again, the duration of day/night cycles depends on the host's settings.[2]
Capture The Flag, originally planned to be included in the game, is no longer part of the game mode line up, due to its similarity to Power Struggle.[2] Even so, Jack Mamais, a Crytek employee, stated that Crytek hopes that this mode will be developed by the modding community.[5] Crytek CEO Cevat Yerli also said that Team Action would not be included as a multiplayer mode, because players would gravitate towards either Instant Action, or Power Struggle.[6]
An official multiplayer map pack that contains three power struggle maps and two instant action maps was released on December 24, 2007, given the title: Crysis Tournament Map Pack. [7]
Plot
Set in August 2020, Crysis plot follows Lieutenant Jake Dunn — codenamed "Nomad" — a United States Army Delta Force operative.[8] As Crysis begins, an American team of archaeologists are taken captive by the North Korean Army, just as they were making an important discovery in the South China Sea. The United States responds by deploying a team of Delta Force soldiers — supported by the USS Constitution Carrier Strike Group — who begin to engage the North Koreans' large military installations. During this phase of the game, the setting is a tropical environment, similar to that in Far Cry, Crytek's previous game. At the end of the first section, the mountain at the center of the island begins to crumble revealing a two-kilometer high alien structure beneath the surface, out of which aliens begin attacking both the US Military and North Koreans.
Nomad enters the alien ship in this section and begins to explore the zero gravity environment, retrieving valuable information about the alien invaders, who periodically attack him. On exiting, Nomad discovers the ship has affected the surrounding area around the island by creating an ice sphere, killing every living being within it. After narrowly escaping the sphere using a VTOL, the final section of the game takes place on the USS Constitution.
The squad leader, Prophet, keeps telling everyone that they must go back to the island, but they do not listen. Prophet then takes the alien weapon that he acquired while inside the ice sphere and goes AWOL and flies back to the island. A nuclear strike is ordered on the island, but this just gives the alien ship more energy to put into the shield, also doubling the shield in size. Prophet is presumably killed when the nuke hits the island. Nomad and the other Delta Force operatives battle with a large alien vessel, resulting in the destruction of both the USS Constitution and the alien vessel. The entire Carrier Strike Group is destroyed also. Helena informs Nomad that a U.S. Navy fleet is en route from Japan, and will arrive within the hour. They then get a transmission from Prophet, who is indeed alive, and inside the Ice Sphere on the island. Nomad, Helena, and Psycho then home in on Prophet's position and start flying towards the ice sphere, at which point the game ends.
Military of the United States
United States Army
Raptor Team is the U.S. Army Delta Force detail that the protagonist, Nomad, is a part of. At full strength, it consisted of Aztec, Jester, Psycho, Nomad and the team leader, Prophet. The true names of the characters are revealed in the CryEngine 2 Sandbox 2 Editor that comes with the game. Aztec and Jester die quickly during the course of the game, leaving just three alive. Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) is their ultimate overseer, though later in the game they are more directly in touch with USS Constitution personnel.
- Nomad (1st Lieutenant Jake Dunn): the protagonist. His face is unseen (except in concept artwork), and he pursues mission goals with single-minded fervor.
- Aztec (Harold Cortez): Rapidly mutilated at the start of the game along with a four-man KPA patrol. Was fluent in Spanish.
- Jester (Martin Hawker): While at the site of a strange discovery, a boat far inland and frozen, is captured by an alien machine. It takes him a short distance away before discarding him, at which point his mutilated body is discovered.
- Psycho (Michael Sykes): A former British SAS operative; later joined Delta Force. He tends to use British profanity, and has the SAS insignia tattooed on the back of his head.
- Prophet (Major Laurence Barnes): The Delta Force squad leader, who after some time into the game is kidnapped by an alien machine and presumed killed; at that point, Strickland assumes mission command. He miraculously reappears at the point of the story where Nomad exits the alien ship, but exhibiting strange behavior. He has somehow managed to steal a complex alien weapon, and seems to have a much deeper understanding of the aliens than anyone else. At the end of the game, he heads back to the island announcing that he intends to destroy them himself.
United States Marine Corps
Locally led by Major Strickland, the U.S.M.C. contributes most of the ground Military hardware in the game along with the Marines themselves. They operate from the USS Constitution carrier strike group, deploying via a sizable number of US Navy VTOL Aircraft. Major Strickland takes over mission command after Prophet goes missing, but Major Strickland himself falls in battle later on: to distract a massive alien machine from attacking nearby evacuating aircraft, he deliberately stays behind to draw its attention.
Locally represented by the USS Constitution carrier strike group, and led by Admiral Richard Morrison, USN. The American aircraft seen throughout the game belong to the U.S. Navy, and also seem to be carrying considerable ordinance, as seen when they deploy an F-35C fighter jet armed with a nuclear missile. The carrier strike group meets its ultimate demise at the hands of relentless waves of alien machines and also an alien "War Ship". At the conclusion of the game Helena informs Nomad that there is another U.S. Navy fleet incoming from Japan, and will arrive within the hour.
North Korean People's Army
Led in the game by Colonel General Kyong, known for being a brutal person. Their intent to hang onto the islands is clear, shown by the significant allocation of forces ranging from infantry to tanks and military aircraft. It is later revealed that they have nanosuit technology, which Nomad thinks "look like cheap knockoffs" in his opinion. Their Nanosuits are limited solely to Kyong himself and his elite personal guard. Kyong is encountered midway during the game as a boss character, complete with nano-suit. However, he is notoriously well known for being very easily defeated, with only constant physical attacks generally being sufficient.
Aliens
Operating out of their massive ship embedded in the rock, the aliens themselves have streamlined bodies with which they "swim" through the weightless internal environment. Their organic war machines comprise the bulk of their forces, ranging from small ones able to maneuver indoors to flying ships that can sink destroyers by ramming them head-on. The massive number of machines that deploy at the end of the game, along with filler text for multiplayer maps, indicate their interest in Earth is on a global scale.
In terms of offensive technology, most of their weapons are portrayed as being centered around coldness, shown in-game by the presence of weapons that either freeze targets outright or launch ice shards at high speed. These weapons do not require ammunition in-game, merely having a short "cool down" time after periods of prolonged firing. They do however have weapons outside of this type, such as the sci-fi "singularity" cannon, or more traditional implements such as blades and spikes directly built into their war machines.
Development
Game engine
Crysis uses a new engine—the CryEngine 2—that is the successor to Far Cry's CryEngine. CryEngine 2 is among the first engines to use the Direct3D 10 (DirectX 10) framework of Windows Vista, but can also run using DirectX 9, both on Vista and Windows XP.[9]
Roy Taylor, Vice President of Content Relations at NVIDIA, has spoken on the subject of the engine's complexity, stating that Crysis has over a million lines of code, 1GB of texture data, and 85,000 shaders.[10]
Sandbox editor
Crysis contains a Sandbox Editor, much like Far Cry's, in which new levels can be created and edited. Such levels will have full support in all multiplayer modes. This will allow the player to easily build their own levels, seeing everything in real time within the editor. The player can also jump into the map they are working on at any time to test it. The editor is the same one that was used by Crytek to create the game.[11]
As stated in the readme file accompanying Sandbox, Windows XP Professional x64 Edition or Windows Vista x64 are the only officially supported OS's for running the editor. According to Crytek, using a 32-bit OS can lead to instabilities with production size levels due to the low amount of virtual memory available and is therefore not supported.
Demo
On August 27, 2007, Crytek announced a single-player demo would be released on September 25, however, the date was pushed back to October 26.[12] The demo featured the entire first level, Contact, as well as the sand box editor.[13][14] On October 26, Crytek announced that the demo would be postponed for at least one more day and was released to the public on October 27.[15] However, on many sites it was provided a day early, and an oversight allowed people to grab the file directly off an EA server earlier than intended.
Shortly after the demo's release some enthusiasts found that, by manipulating the configuration files, most of the “very high” graphics settings (normally reserved for DX10) could be activated under DX9. The "very high" DX9 graphics mode looks almost identical to the DX10 mode, with certain graphical features not being able to be reproduced correctly under DX9, such as Object Motion Blur.[16]
Soundtrack
Special Edition
The three disc special edition of Crysis contains the following:[17]
- Crysis game DVD
- "Steelbook box" casing
- "Making of Crysis" featurette
- An exclusive multiplayer amphibious APC vehicle
- "Meet the Developers" vignettes with Crytek's lead designers
- Initial Crysis concept video
- Additional "key trailers"
- Show reel of concept and production artwork
- 16 page concept art book
- Official soundtrack by composer Inon Zur
Note that the Amphibious APC is currently unavailable to most pre-orders and special edition owners. EA is still working out a solution[18]. Also note the PAL version for Australia includes a Small Ad for Logitech products.
Reception
Reviews
Template:Cleanup-section Crysis was awarded a 98% in the PC Gamer U.S. Holiday 2007 issue, making it one of the highest rated games ever in PC Gamer, tying with Half-Life 2 and Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri.[19] The UK edition of the magazine awarded the game 92%, describing the game as "A spectacular and beautiful sci-fi epic." Gamespot awarded Crysis a score of 9.5 out of 10, describing it as "easily one of the greatest shooters ever made."[20] GameSpy gave it a 4.5 out of 5 citing that the suit powers are fun but also criticize the multiplayer part of the game for not having a team deathmatch.Template:Fact X-Play gave it a 3 out of 5 on its "Holiday Buyer's Guide" special episode, praising the graphics and physics, but criticized the steep hardware requirements as well as stating that the game is overhyped with average gameplay.[21] Gamepro honored Crysis with a score of 4.75 out of 5, saying it was "a great step forward for PC gaming," but criticized the steep hardware requirements.[22] IGN.com awarded it a 9.4 out of 10, hailing it as "one of the more entertaining ballistic showdowns in quite some time."[23]
Awards
Gamespot awarded Crysis Best Shooter in its Best of 2007 awards, saying that "It was this open-ended, emergent gameplay--the ability to let us tackle our challenges in whatever way we wished." They also awarded it with Best Graphics: Technical and Best PC Game stating that "The firefights in the game are beautiful to look at, but extremely intense affairs that force you to think quickly--and reward you for doing so. It's a dynamic game, one that you can play several times to discover new things and to experiment with different approaches."[1]
PC Gamer awarded Crysis Game Of The Year and Action Game Of The Year in its March 2008, Games of the Year Awards issue. PC Gamer also remarked that "Crysis has pushed PC gaming to a new plateau, marrying the most advanced graphics engine ever created with phenomenal gameplay. From the cinematic opening to credits to its cliffhanger ending, Crysis is mesmerizing."
Gamereactor — who gave Crysis a perfect ten — awarded Crysis Best Action Game of 2007, saying that "the action genre is forever changed."
IGN.com editor Dan Adams awarded Crysis its Editor's Choice Award, musing that "the Halo 2 type ending...wasn’t enough to deter me from heartily recommending action fans pick this one up."
Sequels
Crysis was announced to be the first game in a trilogy by Crytek.[10] It is expected that the sequel will continue where the first game ended. In addition to seeking a United States trademark on the name Crysis,[24] Crytek is seeking to trademark the names Crysis Wars[25], Crysis Annihilation[26], World in Crysis,[27] and Crysis Warhead.[28]
References
- ↑ Multiplayer update. inCrysis (2007-09-13). Retrieved on 2007-09-23.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 Multiplayer. inCrysis. Retrieved on 2007-09-23.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Power Struggle summary. Joystiq (2007-08-22). Retrieved on 2007-09-23.
- ↑ GameSpy preview. GameSpy (2007-10-08). Retrieved on 2007-11-01.
- ↑ Template:Citeweb
- ↑ Template:Citeweb
- ↑ Template:Citeweb
- ↑ The Crysis Story. inCrysis. Retrieved on 2007-09-22.
- ↑ Technical details. GameSpot (2007-09-22). Retrieved on 2007-09-22.
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; no text was provided for refs namedInCrysis Interview with Cevat Yerli - ↑ Jason Ocampo (2007-10-05). GameSpot hands-on preview. GameSpot. Retrieved on 2007-10-08.
- ↑ Crysis demo release date pushed back. inCrysis (2007-09-21). Retrieved on September 21.
- ↑ Crysis demo coming September 25, to include "huge surprise". GamerNode. Retrieved on August 27, 2007.
- ↑ Crysis demo will include editor. inCrysis (2007-09-21). Retrieved on September 21.
- ↑ Crysis demo postponed. inCrysis (2007-10-26). Retrieved on October 26.
- ↑ Crysis: DirectX 10 vs. DirectX 9. gamespot (2007-11-05). Retrieved on November 5.
- ↑ Template:Citeweb
- ↑ Crysis Special Edition/Pre-Order APC Trouble. support.ea.com (2007-12-13). Retrieved on December 13.
- ↑ PC Gamer reviews Crysis: 98%. play™ (2007-10-31). Retrieved on November 13.
- ↑ PC Crysis Review. Gamespot (2007-11-13). Retrieved on November 13.
- ↑ Crysis Review. G4tv.com (2008-01-06). Retrieved on January 6.
- ↑ Morell, Chris (14 November 2007). Crysis review. GamePro. Retrieved on 2008-01-09.
- ↑ Adams, Dan IGN: Crysis Review. ign.com (2007-11-12). Retrieved on November 12.
- ↑ TARR system. (November 2007) Trademark Applications and Registrations Retrieval for 78709643. Obtained November 23, 2007.
- ↑ TARR system. (November 2007) Trademark Applications and Registrations Retrieval for 77120123. Obtained November 23, 2007.
- ↑ TARR system. (November 2007) Trademark Applications and Registrations Retrieval for 77120123. Obtained November 23, 2007.
- ↑ TARR system. (November 2007) Trademark Applications and Registrations Retrieval for 77120140. Obtained November 23, 2007.
- ↑ Crysis arming Crysis Warhead?. Retrieved on 2000-3-08.