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Need for Speed: Most Wanted

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 05/08/2014

Posted in: Editor's Choice, iOS, Microsoft Consoles, Mobile Reviews, PC Reviews, PlayStation 3, Sony Consoles, Steam Deck Unsupported, Steam Deck Verification, Xbox 360. Tagged: 360, cars, directx 11, Microsoft, most wanted, need for speed, origin, pc, playstation, ps3, psvita, racing, Sony, vita, xbox. Leave a comment

Publisher: EA

Developer: Criterion Games

Release Date: 10/30/2012

Also Available On

Need for Speed has had a great comeback over the last few years and Most Wanted seems to have topped it. Being a remake of 2005’s excellent Most Wanted; this version is a whole new beast. The streamlined menus, AutoLog, the massive amount of real-world cars, and the huge world to drive in are something to get excited about.

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My favorite feature has to be the new navigation menu. Being able to select races, customize your car, and jump to various cards with just the D-pad is great. There’s not even a need for a map. Select the race you want and it will put the GPS line on your mini-map. Want to drive a different car? 3 D-pad clicks and you’re there. This just seems nearly revolutionary for the racing genre as they have been plagued with nasty menus for years. Outside of the menu are the excellent racing moments and various types of races to do.

Sprints, circuits, fastest speed, and losing the cops the fastest; are just a few types of races in Most Wanted. The whole goal is to find all the jump areas where cars are hidden throughout the entire world. Win first in each race for each car and you will win part upgrades to make your car faster and better to drive. Some parts are better for certain areas like offroad but will slow you down on the asphalt. There are also various parts to help the cops like re-inflating tires if you hit a spike strip or a stronger chassis for ramming through roadblocks. Like previous Need for Speed games (and any Criterion racer), you can take down vehicles for more points to work your way to the number one most wanted.

A fun feature here (and it threw me for a loop) was having to take down a most wanted car to win their car. Sure you can beat them in a race, but what about taking them down? It adds a greater challenge, but if you miss them you can always summon the car back via the navigation menu. It’s not hard to work your way up to the top if you try to get first in every race. Even long after you beat the most wanted vehicle you can earn parts and find every hidden vehicle in the city.

If that’s not enough try AutoLog recommended objectives or try to find and hit every billboard in the game. There’s a lot to do in this game, and even though it can feel repetitive after a while there’s just a great sense of accomplishment from getting first in every race. Let’s talk about graphics. Most Wanted is one of the best-looking games on Vita period. The sense of speed is great and the controls are amazing. It doesn’t look like the game took much of a hit from being downgraded graphically, but was hand-tailored to the system. The game even sounds great and I spent hours just racing around completing races without ever getting bored. Is there anything bad about Most Wanted? Mainly how repetitive the races can get overall, but the variety of cars keeps this played down a bit. Crashing every 5 seconds can get annoying, but that’s expected. Most Wanted is a must-have racer for any system you can own it on.

Dead Space 3

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 03/01/2013

Posted in: Microsoft Consoles, PC Reviews, PlayStation 3, Sony Consoles, Steam Deck Unsupported, Steam Deck Verification, Xbox 360. Tagged: dead space 3, ea, horror, monsters, necromorph, origin, pc, scary, shooter, visceral. Leave a comment

Publisher: EA

Developer: Visceral Games

Release Date: 2/5/2013

Also Available On

Dead Space is one of my favorite franchises of all time. The first game was the most memorable with its deformed and twisted monsters, a very deep and intriguing plot, and revolutionary HUD that was very minimal. Dead Space 2 was more of the same, but not enough new to make it as memorable. It also had so-so multiplayer that was fun for a few hours then quickly got boring. Dead Space 3 is here with a co-op and a new more open design. Is it better than 2? In a way.

The story is pretty epic and is told on a larger scale now. You are no longer stuck on a derelict ship or space colony. You start out on Earth in your run-down apartment where we find out Isaac has turned himself into a depressive bum. Ellie has recently left Isaac for another man, but they soon get brought back together to save humanity once again. A crazy man named Danik is trying to find a way to bring humanity to “Ascension” and “rebirth” by wanting the Necromorphs to destroy everything. You and a team cast-off to the Marker homeworld to stop all this once and for all. The problem here is that the game is stretched out so much that the story is hard to follow during the first half. Cutscenes are too far apart and so little is told because it is saved for the end. The story is a bit disappointing and the ending doesn’t have the wow factor that it should. You just finish it and think, “That’s it?” It’s one of those trilogy endings.

The gameplay is pretty much the same and untouched. Things feel a bit more smooth and streamlined, but nothing has changed there. The first big change you will notice is that you can create your own weapons. A crafting system has been implemented where you get loot off of dead bodies to craft various items. You can build weapons from blueprints or build your own. You start out with a frame, then add an upper tool, lower tool, then a tip for each tool. After that, you can add chips that increase the gun’s stats more than two support modules such as more ammo, stasis-coated bullets, and various other things. This is really awesome and allows you to combine your favorite weapons. Stick a flamethrower under your shotgun. How about a blade gun under your plasma gun? Do whatever you want. The problem here is that you can only carry two weapons now. This really sucked. I guess they thought that each gun had two weapons so it really was four. Doesn’t really work that way. It also takes a really long time to gather enough materials to craft anything. I couldn’t really do much until I was nearly halfway through the game. This is to encourage people to spend money on microtransactions and sucker them into buying materials. Taking advantage of impatient gamers isn’t a nice thing to do, but what can you expect from a greedy corporation like EA?

The crafting system is similar to your suit because you can gather materials to upgrade them like air capacity, stasis, telekinesis, health, and armor. Another major addition is side missions. There are only 7 of them in the game, but three additional ones are added for co-op only. I found these side missions boring because they are all the same. Go through the same identical compound killing hordes of Necromorphs to find a chest of stuff. The stuff isn’t even that good. The loot packs don’t give you much, so these side missions were disappointing. At least the main missions are fun and varied with some fun scripted events. You can set out scavenger bots to help find loot if you want, but that’s just a distraction than a mission. I felt EA really tried too hard with this game. Instead of making the game memorable like the first one with scares they just make it completely action-based and stretch out the world.

The first half consists of you floating around several ships in space trying to find information and various other things. Humans are a new enemy in this game and were a nice change of pace, but the same old Necromorphs pop up. Sure they are cool, but there weren’t enough new ones. By the end of the game, I was so sick of these damn things. I honestly don’t want to see another Necromorph again, not because they’re scary but because I’m tired of seeing them. The game just isn’t as scary as it used to be. In the beginning, it felt a bit eerie, but after that, it was just the same hordes of monsters coming at you. Once you are done being in space you crash land on an icy planet which is the “homeworld” but things just feel the same here too.

The game just suffers from fatigue at this point. Fans will enjoy this game for sure, but you long for a good scare or something to really change. There is a lot of backtracking towards the end of the game with you running back and forth through the same area several times. It is almost like the developers ran out of ideas towards the end. I would have loved a shorter more solid campaign, but what is here is fun. The graphics look good on PC, but the textures still suck. Up close shots really show that this is a console port. There are some nicer lighting effects, but they are subtle. Even an older rig can handle this game maxed out.

Should you buy this game? If you are a hardcore fan sure, but I just suggest waiting for a price drop. When you finish this 15-hour campaign you will be slightly disappointed. Sure, it’s fun and all, and crafting weapons is neat, but the scare factor that people expect when they play a Dead Space game is nearly gone.

Battlefield 3

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 11/11/2011

Posted in: Editor's Choice, Microsoft Consoles, PC Reviews, PlayStation 3, Sony Consoles, Steam Deck Unsupported, Steam Deck Verification, Xbox 360. Tagged: battlefield 3, dice, directx 11, ea, fps, frostbite 2, multiplayer, online, origin, pc, shooter. Leave a comment

Publisher: EA

Developer: DICE

Release Date: 10/25/2011

Also Available On

So the military shooters march on and seem to bring with them new multiplayer ideas, updated graphics, and at least trying to make more realistic and tenser single-player campaigns. Battlefield 3 drops the Bad Company name and picks up off the original name. It has nothing to do with BF2 or that line in the series, but keeps the Bad Company multiplayer, so it mixes it up a bit. BF3’s single-player mode gives you a taste of the new graphics engine, Frostbite 2, as well as a chance to test out some guns. The story is actually interesting with a couple of plot twists but nothing sophisticated. You jump around different people trying to find a portable nuke that was stolen. You go from the Middle East to Russia, to a few other parts of the world, and BF3 tries throwing a few new things out there.

The characters are good and the voice acting is great, but you won’t get much out of a military single-player campaign. The campaign nails the atmosphere with lots of explosions, the excellent Battlefield ambiance is back and sounds more realistic than ever thanks to the new engine. The campaign does lack the scripted cinematic set-pieces we grow to enjoy these types of games. There are a few such as the earthquake in Iraq, the beginning train scene, and the jet scene in the middle of the game, but the rest is just running a gunning through open terrain and buildings. The pacing is good, but I wanted more action and some more scripted sets to make the campaign feel more punchy. BF3 does add some detail that other military shooters haven’t done such as great animations. One scene has a Russian jet shooting your squad down. Running from cover to cover and ducking shows your character sliding into cover and falling down like you actually would if you died. Getting up is just as great to look at because you stumble out of being prone so it feels so real and awesome.

The graphics are probably some of the best ever seen so far. Being on the PC the game is DirectX11 only so you get just some amazing lighting, excellent looking textures, and the most realistic water I have ever seen. The lights and coronas off the sun and flashlights blind you, everything reflects like it would in real life. Plus the sound is amazing and is actually useful in multiplayer because distance makes a difference in sound here. Gunfire sounds different at different ranges rather than just quieter. Bullets whip and whizz past you with realistic sounds, gunfire sounds incredible and the explosions look too real. The game does require a seriously (like within the last year) powerful rig to run because there’s no DirectX9 option here.

While the graphics are really the only major thing going for the campaign it is nice to play and has some replay value just to look at everything alone. The difficulty is all over the place and some spots are just extremely tough and you can die very quickly in this game. This isn’t a run-and-gun arcade shooter like Modern Warfare or other military shooters. My only other complaint is that the game doesn’t recognize gamepads very well even the Xbox 360 controller which most games have a built-in standard. I did notice the mouse and keyboard felt better because it seems the game was built around these controls.

The multiplayer is where the money’s at and BF3 delivers with new modes and some great maps. Using EA’s Origin client you get a browser-based experience with filters and all the greatness of using a PC. The new model is deathmatch which is greatly welcomed and back are Rush and Conquest. This time you get to play on large maps which can hold 64 players and it really does feel like a battlefield. The new maps are great and deathmatch is addictive, but DICE refined the unlock system. You don’t get perks, but you do get to add things to your loadout like an infinite sprint, defibrillators, med packs, etc. It does take a long time to start unlocking good stuff and you’re stuck with crappy load-outs. Weapons have no scopes (except the sniper rifle), plus you only get one main weapon per class to start with. Be patient and wait to unlock scopes for rifles, stick to close-range combat and just tough it out.

Using vehicles is back, and standard, on Rush and Conquest, and while these remain the same, they never get old. The new engine helps make the online fights feel bigger and badder with the sound coming into play, plus shooting down boats and helicopters with 4 guys in a tank never gets old. I didn’t find any stability issues and EA is constantly updating Origin and the browser experience for online play so just stick with it and enjoy them. Battlefield 3 may not deliver a riveting single-player, but the new engine and excellent multiplayer will keep you hooked. You can also jump in for a co-op campaign ride, but you will come back for the multiplayer thanks to the slow, yet steady unlocks which make you feel like you truly earned them.

Crysis 2

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 08/11/2011

Posted in: Microsoft Consoles, PC Reviews, PlayStation 3, Sony Consoles, Steam Deck Playable, Steam Deck Verification, Xbox 360. Tagged: crysis 2, crytek, directx 11, ea, fps, multiplayer, online, origin, pc, shooter, steam. Leave a comment

Publisher: EA

Developer: Crytek

Release Date: 3/22/2011

Also Available On

Being a regular human in a shooter has been done hundreds of times, but being a true one-man army with technology built into your nano-suit is something that hasn’t really been done before. Meet Alcatraz. The poor dying soldier/nobody who Prophet chose to stick his suit on and kill himself. Now you are thrown into the war that you wanted nothing to do with and are the key to helping stop the invasion of Manhattan.

A lot that you remember from the first game is different now thanks to the game being streamlined for consoles. You no longer have a power wheel and two of them have been taken away and put into the other two. You get to switch between armor mode and stealth mode. You can use your superpower moves in armor modes such as powerful kicks and punches as well as absorbing long falls. Stealth mode allows you to cloak and sneak up on enemies or just go right in the past without being detected. Both of these are key to staying alive and you will be switching constantly.

Another thing that changed was that lush jungle you got to roam around in freely. You are now stuck in a concrete world and the game is more linear this time around. That’s not all bad because you still get to choose your approach to firefights and some areas are massive. Using your tactical visor the game will give you options to approach the battle such as certain weapons, high perches for sniping, or complete paths to totally avoid all enemies. This still gives you the sense of battle control like in the first game without making it feel like a Halo/Call of Duty hallway clone.

You have two enemies in the game: Ceph aliens and the CELL army trying to capture and use your technology for their own good. The story isn’t exactly the most cohesive thing we’ve seen wasn’t the first game either. The story is kind of confusing and you never really know what’s going on between all the characters, and it doesn’t get really good until the last couple of missions. In the middle of the game is a lot of back and forth between Hargreave and Gould who are two scientists with completely different views. The CELL enemies are just like regular humans, but later on, the game throws countless Ceph at you and they have different types of Ceph that come after you from grunts to huge walking tanks. Of course, this makes the game feel very repetitious due to the low enemy type and the game doesn’t really look different from area to the area except for different levels of destruction.

There is a little more to it than just shooting everything in sight. You can upgrade your powers this time around by collecting nanocatalysts from dead Ceph, and the stronger the Ceph the more you will get. Press the upgrade button and Alcatraz’s hand will be displayed with five different areas of upgrades on his fingers. A few examples are bullet tracers, longer stealth mode, and the ability to see cloaked enemies. While it does change the gameplay a bit it doesn’t do a lot to truly enhance the experience. Not to mention the fact that you have to watch your energy meter when using the power because it runs out in a matter of seconds. Using your night vision plus stealth while running will run it down in less than 10 seconds so you never truly feel powerful or get the ability to upgrade your energy meter.

Of course, you can still customize your weapons with different sights, silencers, and other attachments, but I wish we could use every attachment for every gun instead of each gun getting its special options. There are some new guns however and there are plenty, but they are fun to shoot so don’t think that the weapon selection is weak at all. There are some other things thrown in like a few turret sections, and some quick-time events are thrown into the cinematic parts of the game which are thrilling and very fun, but they are too short and too far apart from each other. The linearity of the game allows this type of cinematic control and it’s welcomed, but I would have liked to see more of it.

You’re probably wondering about the graphics. Since this is streamlined for consoles do we get DirectX 11? Do we get higher resolution textures and extra graphics options? When the game launched it was no. We got exactly what the consoles got, but a few months later the DirectX 11 patch was released as well as a high-resolution texture pack. With this, the game looks phenomenal and is probably the best-looking shooter to date. Of course, you need a monster rig to run the game with these settings enabled. Even my rig dropped in the single digits during certain scenes, but man is it gorgeous to look at. The game also supports 3D so if you have the GPU then enable it because it does enhance the experience a lot.

Overall there are a few bugs that can sometimes hinder the game, and it also is very long for an FPS running about 10-12 hours. The multiplayer is also very addictive and fun for a while with perks and upgrades and there is a good variety of maps available. I had a lot of fun since using the suit powers kind of makes playing an FPS different online. However, it still doesn’t have that addictive quality of Call of Duty or Halo to keep you playing for months or years after release. So, with an underwhelming story, and the low enemy variety just stomach the repetition for a while and you’ll be treated to one gorgeous and fun shooter.

Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 01/02/2011

Posted in: iOS, Microsoft Consoles, Mobile Reviews, Nintendo Consoles, PC Reviews, PlayStation 3, Sony Consoles, Steam Deck Playable, Steam Deck Verification, Wii, Xbox 360. Tagged: cars, criterion, ea, hot pursuit, need for speed, origin, pc, racer, racing. Leave a comment

Publisher: EA

Developer: Criterion

Release Date: 11/16/2010

Also Available On

The Need for Speed series has been seriously confused and hurting since Most Wanted. While Shift was a simulator, the other ones in between have been either subpar or bad. Hot Pursuit revives the classic entry with the Burnout team behind the wheels, and this feels more like Burnout than Need for Speed, however. Using the Paradise engine Criterion did a good job making the game both look pretty and giving us a Burnout feel with real-world cars. These are slick cars ranging from Mustangs to Maseratis.

As the name would suggest it’s about cops versus racers, and each opponent gets a set of four weapons. Cops get EMP, Helicopter, Spike Strip, and Road Block. Each is pretty self-explanatory, but this feels like a glorified version of Burnout’s Road Rage mode. Racers get the same, but instead of a helicopter, and roadblock, they get a Jammer and Turbo which is an extra boost of NOS. Now you can earn turbo by doing crazy stuff as well.

The world map is also classic Burnout style with each icon labeled for racer or cop and there are previews, time trials, and special events for each side. There is also Autolog which is a social networking type setup. Your friend’s best scores will be posted, and you can post screenshots and videos of your races. If a friend beats your score you can jump right into that race and try to beat it. While the single-player is fun it’s the online stuff that makes the game shine with all the weapons. The single-player feels predictable and stale compared to multiplayer because it feels like this game was made with multiplayer in mind. You earn a bounty and have to hit certain goals in single-player, but it’s nothing we haven’t seen in racing games already.

Once you race everything feels fine, but the steering tends to suffer drastically depending on road conditions and the car. Despite awesome damage modeling, the cars all feel pretty much the same, and the sense of speed is so fast that you don’t notice speed differences. This also concludes the repetition because once you unlock all weapons it’s just the same events over and over again, and some people may never even finish the single-player due to this. The game can also look pretty good at times, but in other ways, it doesn’t.

The chaos comes from the fact that in multiplayer you never know what anyone is going to do. You can see a roadblock ahead and get your shot lined up to dodge it, but just then someone deploys a spike strip right in your face and you hit both losing a crap ton of health. You can take off again and try to shake off a helicopter, but then get hit by an EMP. It’s the same with racers, but this can also feel a bit unbalanced since racers’ biggest weapon is the jammer so cops can’t use their weapons for a few seconds. It all depends on the players’ skills and how they race really.

Despite the repetition and lack of weapons, the game works, but also notice all the Burnout references? There’s hardly any Need for Speed in this game despite the real-world cards and the Hot Pursuit title. This is just a weird mix-up of game identity, but it’s probably better a Burnout feeling than an old crappy NFS game rehashed. Criterion already had the engine built for something like this, so I expect to see a sequel in the near future. I do recommend this is Burnout fans more than NFS however, but old-school Hot Pursuit fans will dig this completely.

2010 Game of the Year Awards — Genre — Driving

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 12/17/2010

Posted in: 2010, Game of the Year Awards. Tagged: 2010, activision, apple, awards, blur, cars, codemasters, criterion, disney, driving, ea, f1, game of the year, gran turismo 5, hot pursuit, iOS, iphone, ipod, itunes, Microsoft, need for speed, origin, pc, playstation, playstation 3, polyphony digital, psp, racer, racing, simulator, Sony, split second, steam, touch, xbox, Xbox 360. Leave a comment

Driving games are all about the cars whether it’s a simulator or arcade racer. A good driving game has responsive controls, slick cars, fun tracks, and customization options that suit the game.

Gran Turismo 5

While it has its flaws and was overhyped there’s no denying the attention to detail in GT5. With over 500 cars, tons of real-world tracks detailed to every crack, excellent tuning options, and a slick interface what’s there not to like? With the new special events, GT5 is oozing with awesome content for car lovers. So flaws aside it’s the attention to detail that won this over the rest.

Runner-Ups

Split/Second

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Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit

Blur

F1 2010

Medal of Honor

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 10/30/2010

Posted in: Microsoft Consoles, PC Reviews, PlayStation 3, Sony Consoles, Steam Deck Unsupported, Steam Deck Verification, Xbox 360. Tagged: danger close, ea, fps, medal of honor, military, multiplayer, online, origin, pc, shooter, steam, tier 1, unreal. Leave a comment

Publisher: EA

Developer: Danger Close, DICE

Release Date: 10/12/2010

Also Available On

All the great World War II shooters are going away from that genre since it’s been beaten to death. Medal of Honor went the way for Call of Duty and adapted to modern warfare which works for this series. The single-player campaign is nothing really too special, but it does showcase the realism of war and really makes you feel like a helpless nobody warrior in the middle of a Taliban shootout. It does this better than Modern Warfare, but not the multiplayer.

The single-player campaign has you playing as four different parties a regular soldier, a Navy SEAL, a pilot, and a Tier 1 operative. Like most war games you never get attached to the characters, but you do care for them enough towards the end. The game’s pacing is pretty good with you moving from night to day levels, and there is even an ATV level (why choose the loudest vehicle to do a night raid?), and the flying levels are pretty fun but extremely linear and limited in control. You can actually move the helicopter, but instead, just aim and shoot. There are some great moments like the Tier 1 sniping sections, and cinematic arts, but these are far and few between. Most of the game consists of moving cover to cover and shooting everything in sight. Sound familiar? Sure! Is it still fun? Why not! You seem to always be equipped with the right weapons and ammo is unlimited since you can just ask your fellow teammates. I never had to pick up a weapon off the ground, but it’s there for variety.

My favorite moment in the game has you playing as the army soldier Adams, and you and your squad are stuck on a hill inside a tiny little mud shack and the Taliban are raining down on you from the mountain. You hear military chatter an awful lot, but it sounds more authentic and not just silly babble. Your team slowly runs dry on ammo and after the cinematic music plays, almost all hope is lost comes to the helicopters! During this sequence, it seems it never ends, but the surrounding chatter makes the whole experience more intense and authentic to real-life battle warfare, but the whole game isn’t like this. There are a lot of moments that seem more like the rest of the shooters, so the pacing is off a bit, but it doesn’t fall apart.

You’ll mainly come back for multiplayer which is your standard military shooter affair. There are only three classes, a few maps, and that’s pretty much it. It’s fun since DICE (Battlefield: Bad Company) makes it, but it’s no Modern Warfare. You have your usual three classes of ranger, sniper, and specialist, so everyone is pretty much the same person. It basically shoots whatever moves and racks up a score. There is an objective-based type of game mode, but it’s essentially the same.

The game also does one of the weirdest things, and that uses two different game engines. The single-player uses an outdated version of the Unreal Engine, and it’s obvious that it looks outdated due to low-resolution textures, and some low models. It uses the Airborne engine which was a poor move on Danger Close’s part. The multiplayer uses the Frostbite engine that’s used in Bad Company 2 and it looks great! Why the weird design choices? I don’t know, but I hope MoH2 changes its engine. Is the game worth a purchase? Not really, but maybe a weekend rental. After about five or six hours of multiplayer you’ll be bored, and probably just switch back to a better shooter. If you get bored you can go into the Tier 1 mode which disables everything and times you. Yes, health restores slowly, no ammo refills, no reticle, nothing. So enjoy the super hard mode.

Crysis: Warhead

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 09/24/2010

Posted in: PC Reviews, Steam Deck Playable, Steam Deck Verification. Tagged: crysis, crytek, directx 10, ea, expansion, fps, origin, pc, shooter, steam, warhead. Leave a comment

Publisher: EA

Developer: Crytek

Release Date: 9/16/2008

Available Exclusively On

The original Crysis was a technical phenomenon with a lot of great elements that worked, and Warhead is the exact same game with a different setting. This is both good and bad, but more positives than anything. You play Psycho, one of the special forces soldiers who were sent in with the original game’s Nomad. This is his story and what happened to him while separated from Nomad. While the core story of Crysis wasn’t too interesting there is a better mix between the open world and corridors. The game still gives you the option to choose to approach each objective by sneaking, sniping, driving, or guns blazing.

The game has more of a variety of objectives such as a train ride and killing the larger aliens which can be pretty fun. There aren’t any new weapons, and everything is pretty much the same. If you’re looking for Crysis 2.5 with this you’re going to be disappointed. While the game plays exactly like the first there are more cinematic moments such as running from a giant alien, and towards the end, the game gets really epic. There are more aliens involved this time around instead of just mostly KPA soldiers. I still would have liked to see different alien types, and maybe make the game a bit more scripted since the game is so short.

The game still looks the same with no graphical improvements at all. You still need an ultra-powerful machine to run this on the highest settings with DirectX10. Even my monster computer struggles to keep the FPS at a non-choppy rate during large firefights. The game is also more forgiving this time around as I only died maybe a dozen times during the whole campaign. The mass of enemies is easier to take on since the game seems to feel more balanced and the close quarter’s environments seem to be designed for this too.

While I wish there would have been new weapons, new enemies, and totally new locales it works with the game’s story. Warhead will really make Crysis fans happy and add an extra 4-to 5 hours and give you more of a backstory to what happened to the strange Psycho.

Crysis

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 06/19/2010

Posted in: Editor's Choice, Microsoft Consoles, Nintendo Consoles, PC Reviews, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Sony Consoles, Steam Deck Unsupported, Steam Deck Verification, Switch, Xbox 360, Xbox One. Tagged: crysis, crytek, directx 10, ea, fps, open world, origin, pc, sandbox, shooter, steam. Leave a comment

Publisher: EA

Developer: Crytek

Release Date: 11/13/2007

Also Available On

The biggest hype behind Crysis was it looks. Very few people have the hardware to run the game like it should be: All settings to very high and using DirectX 10, and I am one of the lucky few to have the hardware setup to do so. While most people can run this on ultra settings you won’t find too many who can run it above 30 FPS. My setup was able to handle most of the game at above 20 FPS but did dip into the single digits every once in a while. With that aside Crysis is just stunning even three years later. Every texture is high res and even when looking at something u close you can see all the detail in that texture and not just a blurry or pixelated mess. All the lighting is gorgeous and the physics seem almost real thanks to the super-advanced Crytek engine and DirectX 10. Everything in the game just looks amazing: Every blade of grass sways, trees crumble under fire, leaves on palm trees shear off when fired at. Throughout the whole game, you will never get sick of looking at this tropical technical feat.

Now a game can look as good as it wants, but it’s no use if the game doesn’t play well, and have a good story?. You play as a Special Forces agent called Nomad and are sent in with a team to investigate an island that the Koreans have occupied. It gets interesting right from the beginning and stays interesting throughout.

Thankfully Crysis is a solid shooter with some elements that other FPS games have never used before and the biggest thing is the Nano Suit. This thing lets you choose between four different modes to help you out on the battlefield. Stealth turns you invisible for an amount of time. The faster you move the more energy it depletes. Armor…well is pretty self-explanatory, and speed gives you a super boost that lets you dash dozens of yards in a matter of seconds, for a few seconds. Lastly, strength lets you throw enemies, and melee them to make them fly as well as extra height when jumping. All these are crucial to surviving in this hard and wide-open game.

Yeah, that’s right it’s not linear. Surprised? Well with so many linear FPS games out there *cough Halo cough* it’s a nice change. The island is huge and wide open and you can take different approaches to each situation. Most of the time you have to infiltrate Korean KPA camps and using stealth along with silenced weapons is a good start. Or you can go in guns blazing. If you prefer the back door approach maybe you can get there by truck or swim across the lake and take them all by surprise. The multi-approach system is useful, but stealth may not always be the best choice, and sometimes you don’t get one.

That brings me to the next element of customizing your weapons on the fly. Have a sub-machine gun and can get an accurate shot? Attach a silencer, and a sniper scope set it to single shot, and pop off some guys before charging in. Once inside attach a red dot sight, and add an ACOG scope to the top and even a grenade launcher. Being able to change one weapon to another on the fly is just awesome and really does help in every situation. This breaks the monotony of trying to find a gun for specific situations.

The game’s pacing takes a turn halfway through the game when you start fighting aliens. Of course, this makes the game more interesting and is almost like two games in one, and takes a more linear turn. Instead of infiltrating KPA camps, you fighting alongside squad mates against aliens. This is fun and I wish shooters would do stuff like this more often. It breaks up the monotony of the open jungle and kicks things up a notch.

Every element in the game works, but of course, everything could be better, and that’s why Crysis 2 is coming out. My biggest gripe with the game is the difficulty. Even on easy the game is brutal and seems unfair at times such as vehicles blowing up really fast, having 30+ guys come after you, and not being able to use stealth to get into a camp. This can drive you nuts, but the story is good enough for you to keep coming back for more. If you have the PC power Crysis is a must-have.