I'm late in the game and just played Crysis for the first time recently. I honestly don't see what the hype is all about. The mechanics are janky, the characters are cliche (especially Psycho), ammo is so scarce that I'm forced to cloak around the map instead of play this like a traditional FPS, and I just don't find the game very fun at all. Considering this game came out in 2007, I can think of several other FPS games around this time that were just far superior: Bioshock, Halo 3, Modern Warfare, Quake 4, F.E.A.R., Half-Life 2, just to name a few. Crysis tries to give you the opportunity to play this game "how you want", but it falls short in every area, from gunplay (ammo is way too scarce), to "power ups" (Bioshock did this way better), to stealth (I was cloaked and a helicopter just kept hovering and patrolling right above me the entire time).
I've had this game on my wishlist for a while and have read some good reviews for it. Apparently, it's one of the best rpgs of all time. Well, after playing it, it's one of the worst I've ever played. The story is mediocre at best, the combat is awful with some stupid boss fight mechanics, the world is very small and doesn't offer much to explore, and some of the final levels are literally mazes that you have to traverse through, with a bunch of enemies to get in your way. I honestly don't see where all the hype for this game is coming from. Even though I bought this game on sale, the 14 hours I spent on it felt like wasted time.
This game is fun, but insanely difficult. I played it on the easiest setting, and I still had a hard time with this game. The default way to play this game is with a certain amount of lives, and after you lose all your lives, you lose all your data and have to start all over. I honestly commend anyone who can play the game this way. For me, with how difficult the game already is, having to start all over again after losing your last life was just too hardcore. With that said, playing the game on "casual" mode, with infinite lives was more enjoyable. I was able to experiment and take some risks during the game, without the stress or fear of having to restart the game if I died. But even on casual mode, this game was still super difficult. And I'm not a newcomer to FPS games either. I've played FPS games from Bioshock to Wolfenstein to Call of Duty, the list goes on. I just have a feeling the developer wanted to make a hardcore, roguelike FPS, and he succeeded. Just know what you're getting yourself into.
I really wanted to like this game. The art style is great, the world building is fantastic, and the combat is super fun. The issue for me was that I could only enjoy the game 25% of the time. Of the 6 hours I've put in, I'm pretty sure less than two hours was actual game time. The rest of the time I've spent was on trying to figure out what to do next. Some of the puzzles are clever, and you feel good once you discover the solution. But others seem to be in there for the sole purpose of you pulling your hair out. For example, in one of the puzzles, you need to find a tablet thats been hidden in one of the bases. You literally have to pixel hunt the entire library of books to find the one that is slightly sticking out, then push it to open the passage way. That would be fine in a game with stellar graphics, but when you have these retro graphics, it's so hard to see anything and differentiate. It's puzzles like these that were frustrating and a huge waste of time. I really really wanted to like this game. 25% of the game was almost perfect. But the other 75% was a frustrating quest on trying to figure out what to do next.
