Gamernode: Previews - Hands-on: Crysis

Hands-on: Crysis

Finally, the game that'll push millions of PCs to their absolute limits in a few weeks has finally got its long awaited demo! I've been anticipating Crysis for quite a while, due to being a huge fan of Crytek's Far Cry, so you can definitely tell how hooked I was in getting some hands-on time with the game.

At first glance, I immediately noticed how the voice acting was improved in Crysis. The voice acting in Far Cry was rather generic, so it's good to see that Crytek took some measures in bringing in some seasoned voice acting.

The open, sandbox gameplay is still the game's main focus, and thankfully it not only expands on Far Cry's sandbox gameplay but also doesn't punish you or escalate the difficulty. In Far Cry, you tended to be punished if you didn't have a plan due to the game's AI and escalating difficulty, especially later in the game. But in Crysis, since you're adorning an awesome suit, it feels like your really super-human. When you don't have a plan or just want to go in guns blazing, it'll be a thrilling experience much like if you have a specific plan.

Speaking about super-human abilities, the demo samples a few powers for you play with. Namely, you select a suit power, which will passively run and you have a regenerating amount of suit power. Whenever you use it, your suit's energy will wear down, so be careful when you're smashing down walls or throwing chickens. I was pretty surprised on the amount of different tactics you can use to take on a group of enemies. Go in with cloak on and take them out with silent weaponry -- or use your suit's strength to punch down walls and jump on roofs to get them from above.

One of the suit's abilities is that it can modify your weapons by selecting various attachments for them. Taking your standard AK-47, you can stick on a flashlight, a silencer, two different weapon-sights or a recoil suppressor. This is another example where you can change the game to suit your needs. Want to go in with dual silenced pistols with laser pointers or use a machine gun with an under-barrel grenade launcher? You can also change the attachments on the fly, so you can easily change your load out whenever the situation warrants it.

Crysis' physics seem pretty impressive. One of its main features are destructible environments and this ranges from grenades leaving craters in the ground to tearing down walls from a flimsy metal sheet shack. Dropping in on the enemy is given a whole new meaning when you can punch a hall in a metal sheet ceiling to jump in. I remember in one instance, I was taking cover in a forest behind a fallen tree and enemies were firing at me. A few bullets managed to chop down a few surrounding trees and one managed to fall on me!

I had an exciting time playing through the Crysis demo, and it presented a few new elements to the FPS genre while improving on a few aspects from Far Cry. Unfortunately though, I wouldn't call Crysis "the ultimate PC game" or whatever a lot of people are claiming. At this point it seems like your rather standard FPS with some neat features and nice visuals.

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