Crysis®

Its a nice FPS at the beginning but becomes increasingly problematic later on. Crashes a lot, and/or screen locks. Way too many missions where you are just lost unsure what to do or where to go. I didn't finish it due to getting caught in a no ammo monster swarming death loop on the aircraft carrier flight deck. At 75% off for $5 it was worth what I played, but ultimately dissapointing not being able to finish due to not being willing to go back and replay that level over and over again.

I'd call this a very well-made military drama, mainly a shooter. The engine is so powerful, gameplay is smooth even after almost 10 years. A must-have!

Crysis is a game about finding out, what shenanigans you can do with the nanosuit, against the bad North Korean AI. Crysis when it comes to gameplay feels very loose. it gives you Freedom to tackle things how you want, and gives you the ability in most of the first half, to just run by enemies and not do the Combat. Which is very nice if you play the game on delta difficulty. It is fun, there are many moments, where it's shines in its almost sandbox elements. But the combat just doesn't feel that good to do, because of the lack of gore or good feedback, it feels most like you are pushing ragdolls around, but they are fun ragdolls. Where you can see they put most of the efforts, was the graphics. it looks phenomenal still to this day, this does not look like a 2007 game. And other than looking pretty, many of the places have destructible elements, and things that can be pushed around, like houses that can be completely destroyed. It's just so fun how interactive the world can be. and of course throwing Turtles. Story is not that interesting, but it is acted well, and has a good feeling of a summer action movie, with hella good Productions. Where are game shines, is playing it on the highest difficulty, seeing some enemies walking by and the camo slowly going down, and feeling like your heart is in your throat. finding sneaky ways to do the objective because the high difficult to make you a paper towel, it is fun. memorable game, not the greatly designed one. but fun is fun, would recommend.

In the aspect of graphics, the game aged nicely. But the many bugs and bad level design frustrated me. I stopped playing it after the game crashed on the last level for no reason. I wouldn't recommend it.

Recently, I picked up Far Cry, Crytek's first, on GOG to give it a shot. That game both amazed me and frustrated me to no end. As gorgeous as its world is 16(!) years later and as pioneering as its freeform open-ended sandbox levels were, the difficulty balancing was waaaaaay off. Hitscan weapons coupled with enemies that could spot you, even when shrouded in thick, verdant underbrush, across the sizable maps made the over 15 hour campaign a slog by the third act. And, before I had an aneurysm, I put it on the backburner to be completed at a later date. Its spiritual sequel, Crysis, is equally as impressive for a now 13(!) year old game; if not moreso. And, hey, they fixed the enemy balancing! It's an altogether more polished experience, with a story so drenched in salty popcorn butter and nonsensically over-the-top explosions that Jerry Bruckheimer would be proud. It's fun, light, silly stuff, but so beautifully-paced that the roughly 11 hours I spent playing it flew by. Everyone has talked Crysis's unbelievably impressive graphics to death, so I'll leave it at this; though the underlying asset work is undeniably mid-2000s era work, the texture work, particle effects, fluid rendering, etc are all so impeccable that, in motion, this game could pass for a late-gen modern console release. Gameplay, however, is where this game truly wowed me. Crysis's open-ended sandbox levels and on-the-fly weapon customization feel slick and intuitive even by today's standards. It's clear to see the inspiration games like Metro Exodus from Crytek's classic. There's a real sense of experimentation here that stands out even amongst modern games. And, the gunplay feels smooth as butter. I wish Crytek gave me a little more juice in my suit battery to experiment with flowing one suit mode into another as it would have allowed for more expressive play, but given the balance they had to strike between making you feel like the Predator and challenging you, it's understandable.