Crysis

[reg42]

this review is longer than the game.

it is a really good looking game, that lasts about 5 hours, and has shitty multiplayer, with generic FPS gameplay.

Umm, I think you may be talking about

One thing that I dont like is the AI, they just seem to do always the same kind of behaviours, and they are not very well done. The look emotionless, not in terms of facial animation, is kind of hard to explain. Oh well... Its still a fun game and then we have the Cryengine Sandbox.

I thought the AI was very good. Of course AI in general still has a long way to go, but can you think of a shooter with better AI that Crysis'?

I didn't have any AI problems either, but theres tons of reports and youtube videos that shows some very strange behaviour

Maybe there were AI problems but they got fixed in patches long before I bought the game? I'm just guessing. When did you play it?

I played it about a year after release, but it wasn't patched as far as I know (it was at a friends play), but maybe I was just lucky.

 

[onelifecrisis]

I played it about a year after release, but it wasn't patched as far as I know (it was at a friends play), but maybe I was just lucky.

Hmm, strange. I've played it quite a lot, and I normally have a real knack (and a real hatred) for finding AI problems. I wonder if maybe the AI gets dumber on low-powered CPU's or something? Okay I'm clutching at straws now. Time to do some Googling.

 

[onelifecrisis]

Um, you are two years LATE XD

It took me that long to save up $10,000

 

[DalekJaas]

Crysis Wars is the best multiplayer game, only game I played on and off for about 2 years, now I play MW2 and it.

 

[JemJar]

Personally I'm just going to say that I disapprove of discussing third party mods as part of a review. No game deserves the grace of being good because other people fixed it - it annoys me to hear people say "Oh, Oblivion's amazing once you mod it to sort out the interface and this and that and blah blah blah".

I've always liked the Oblivion / Crysis / Bioshock trio, they're all interesting, very pretty FPS games with loads of annoying flaws in the actual gameplay.

 

[onelifecrisis]

Personally I'm just going to say that I disapprove of discussing third party mods as part of a review. No game deserves the grace of being good because other people fixed it - it annoys me to hear people say "Oh, Oblivion's amazing once you mod it to sort out the interface and this and that and blah blah blah".

Yer, I wrestled with this issue (mods in reviews) myself. For the record I've used no mods in Crysis, only tweaks to .cfg files. Of course you could argue that the distinction is irrelevant, and you could be right. Either way, and more to the point, I think mods and moddability have become too big in PC gaming to overlook them completely. Some of the most popular PC games of all time are actually mods or total conversions.

Whether or not a game has an SDK is seen by many as being more important than, for example, whether it has dedicated server files. Even if you think that mods should be left out of a review, I don't think you can say that moddability is not a factor.

Last but not least, I think/hope that I made it clear in the review that without the tweaks Crysis would have gotten a much lower "mark".

I've always liked the Oblivion / Crysis / Bioshock trio, they're all interesting, very pretty FPS games with loads of annoying flaws in the actual gameplay.

Never played Bioshock and don't intend to, but I completely agree WRT Oblivion.

 

[JemJar]

/snip

Fair response, thank you. I guess modability (one D? two?) can be a factor but I guess it's just one of those features that some people will adore and others will ignore entirely.

I'm a bit of a purist - bugs are bugs, but otherwise the interface / gameplay has been designed "just so" and the onus rests with the devs to fix it. To the point that I largely refused to slap mods all over WoW when everyone was insisting on CT Raid and guff like that...

My advice would be to try your best to experience the entire game "as (currently) released" for a review, before attempting to mods / tweak things to see what happens.

Having said that I can entirely understand why you did, my experience of Crysis was pretty much identical to yours - too hard to go in all-guns-blazing and too easy to snipe like a git. Particularly because I found the suit-mode switching to just be too slow - I couldn't find any way to map it to a selection of useful buttons (say, 1-4) so couldn't pop from mode to mode fast enough to kill relentlessly.

 

[onelifecrisis]

/snip

Fair response, thank you. I guess modability (one D? two?) can be a factor but I guess it's just one of those features that some people will adore and others will ignore entirely.

I'm a bit of a purist - bugs are bugs, but otherwise the interface / gameplay has been designed "just so" and the onus rests with the devs to fix it. To the point that I largely refused to slap mods all over WoW when everyone was insisting on CT Raid and guff like that...

My advice would be to try your best to experience the entire game "as (currently) released" for a review, before attempting to mods / tweak things to see what happens.

Having said that I can entirely understand why you did, my experience of Crysis was pretty much identical to yours - too hard to go in all-guns-blazing and too easy to snipe like a git. Particularly because I found the suit-mode switching to just be too slow - I couldn't find any way to map it to a selection of useful buttons (say, 1-4) so couldn't pop from mode to mode fast enough to kill relentlessly.

Maybe it's one D. I'm not sure it's even a word... yet. Anyway, I do agree. Or part of me strongly agrees. Actually I'm pretty torn on the issue, not to mention concerned. It has already become de facto for developers to release unfinished games hoping that they will have time/money to patch it if it sells well. In the future, will they shirk their responsibilities even further and start leaving it to the modders to finish off game features/content? Unlikely I suppose, but you never know.

 

[NickIsCool]

One thing that I dont like is the AI, they just seem to do always the same kind of behaviours, and they are not very well done. The look emotionless, not in terms of facial animation, is kind of hard to explain. Oh well... Its still a fun game and then we have the Cryengine Sandbox.

I thought the AI was very good. Of course AI in general still has a long way to go, but can you think of a shooter with better AI that Crysis'?

the original F.E.A.R. on the hardest difficulty

its like getting attacked by a swat team!!!

good thing i have my slo-mo

 

[onelifecrisis]

One thing that I dont like is the AI, they just seem to do always the same kind of behaviours, and they are not very well done. The look emotionless, not in terms of facial animation, is kind of hard to explain. Oh well... Its still a fun game and then we have the Cryengine Sandbox.

I thought the AI was very good. Of course AI in general still has a long way to go, but can you think of a shooter with better AI that Crysis'?

the original F.E.A.R. on the hardest difficulty

its like getting attacked by a swat team!!!

good thing i have my slo-mo

The AI in FEAR was superb, and challenging, but there's more to AI than challenge. The AI in Crysis dynamically navigates through, and takes cover within, a constantly changing environment. Okay, not everything is movable/destructible in Crysis (indeed some sections have quite static scenery in that regard) but a lot of stuff is, and the AI handles all of it. The environments are also an order of magnitude larger and more complex than FEAR's corridors, in which the AI had a choice of one or two routes through any given area. Then there's player detection. In Crysis you can hide behind just about anything, and you (and sometimes your opponents) can use smoke grenades, and the game handles all of it perfectly. Aside from the specific issues mentioned in the review, and despite the massive complexity of what's going on around you, there's never a moment when you think "how did he see me?" or "how did he not see me?" I could go on... the AI's dynamic decision making, it's use of literally anything as cover, it's search routines...

I just think one should consider all the factors when rating how good a game's AI is.

 

[NickIsCool]

One thing that I dont like is the AI, they just seem to do always the same kind of behaviours, and they are not very well done. The look emotionless, not in terms of facial animation, is kind of hard to explain. Oh well... Its still a fun game and then we have the Cryengine Sandbox.

I thought the AI was very good. Of course AI in general still has a long way to go, but can you think of a shooter with better AI that Crysis'?

the original F.E.A.R. on the hardest difficulty

its like getting attacked by a swat team!!!

good thing i have my slo-mo

The AI in FEAR was superb, and challenging, but there's more to AI than challenge. The AI in Crysis dynamically navigates through, and takes cover within, a constantly changing environment. Okay, not everything is movable/destructible in Crysis (indeed some sections have quite static scenery in that regard) but a lot of stuff is, and the AI handles all of it. The environments are also an order of magnitude larger and more complex than F.E.A.R.'s corridors, in which the AI had a choice of one or two routes through any given area. Then there's player detection. In Crysis you can hide behind just about anything, and you (and sometimes your opponents) can use smoke grenades, and the game handles all of it perfectly. Aside from the specific issues mentioned in the review, and despite the massive complexity of what's going on around you, there's never a moment when you think "how did he see me?" or "how did he not see me?" I could go on... the AI's dynamic decision making, it's use of literally anything as cover...

You should really consider all the factors when you rate how good a game's AI is.

:O

guess i didnt think that much into it

and when you put it that way, not much even comes close to crysis

but on the other hand, you shouldn't just rate AI on what it can do or how well it does it

but also as to how it affects the gameplay and if it was implemented well in the type of gaming experience game devs where trying to create

not trying to say anything bad about either game

both of them do what they are trying to do very well

i was just throwing that out there as something to think about

 

[QuickDEMOL1SHER]

Crysis is is a good game in the sense that Yahtzee is a lover of QTE.

I'm sure I will get flamed for this, but you know what? Here's my opinion anyway!

Lets review the game part by part.

AI: Absolute and complete crap. It either charges right at you or stands there staring you until you shoot it.

Nanosuit: While I admit that the suit LOOKS kind of cool, the powers are all so lackluster and weak that it's really just lame. The stealth is pretty much useless as you have to mostly hidden anyway for it to work, the speed boost is so short term and battery draining you really can't do much with it and the armor mode is just the same recharging shield that every game in the last five years has had. To the games credit the super jumping with strength is kinda cool, but you really can't do much else with it. You can't even KNOCK OVER a car.

Enemies in general: While the cloned Koreans are a fascinating study into repetition, the aliens are a slightly more fascinating study int SLIGHTLY less repetition. Instead of the same two Asians running at you, you have the same two aliens FLYING at you. Exciting.
Also, what is with the toughness of the enemies in this game? Even PC gamer pointed out how stupid the number of bullets you have to put into them is!

Vehicles: Horrible. Just Horrible. Horrible to drive, horrible to fight and worst of all HORRIBLE to fly! I don't even remember exactly what Yahtzee said but it was something about being drunk and flying around in a biplane with a hippo slung underneath.

Graphics: Ahhhh! HERE is the meat of the game. While I will openly admit that on the right computer, it's the most amazing thing I have ever seen. ON THE RIGHT COMPUTER!!! Like Yahtzee said, I think it was actually made in the future for some sort of computer THEN and it somehow wound up in our time.

Story/Character: The story is OK I guess, but it really only had the one epic moment at the end when you fight the ship and even that was only epic in looks.
The characters are about as developed as rocks, half of them are killed off in the first ten minutes and the whole twist with Prophet was just weird.

Overall Gameplay: Lackluster shooting mixed with wandering around the beautiful jungle

Added Note: Why the hell did the US send in this crack team of hyper advanced warriors with the latest weapons............AND FOUR CLIPS!?!?!???
It's just stupid.

Added Added Note: The anti-gravity section was pretty cool. WHEN YOU'RE NOT TRYING TO FIGURE OUT WHERE TO GO AND YOUR COMPUTER ISN'T FREEZING!!!


Well, there's my review(rant) of Crysis. Maybe the Xbox port will be even worse!!!
Apologies to anyone who liked it!