Video Game Vintage Title: Crysis

Crysis

Crysis is a first-person shooter video game developed by Crytek in their headquarters in Frankfurt, Germany, published by Electronic Arts for Microsoft Windows and released in November 2007. It is the first game of a trilogy. A separate game entitled Crysis Warhead was released on September 16, 2008, and follows similar events as Crysis but from a different narrative perspective. At the time Crysis was released, and years thereafter, it has been praised for its milestones in graphical design .

The game is based in a future where a massive ancient space alien-constructed structure has been discovered buried inside a mountain on an island in the fictional Lingshan Islands, near the coast of the East Philippines. The single-player campaign has the player assume the role of U.S. Army Delta Force soldier Jake Dunn, referred to in-game by his callsign, Nomad. Nomad is armed with various futuristic weapons and equipment, most notably a "Nanosuit" which was inspired by a real-life military concept. In Crysis, the player fights both North Korean and extraterrestrial enemies in various environments on and around the island.

Crysis Plot

The game begins in 2020 when North Korean forces led by General Ri-Chan Kyong take control of the Lingshan Islands. A team of American civilian archaeologists, led by Dr. Rosenthal, send out a distress call indicating that they have discovered something that could change the world. Thus Raptor Team is dispatched to the islands, with the core mission of evacuating them and securing any valuable information that they have. The team consists of Nomad, Psycho, Aztec, Jester and team leader Prophet (all under code names); they are outfitted with Nanosuits, which help protect them from gunfire and explosions, as well as giving them superhuman strength and abilities. As they perform a high-altitude jump onto one of the islands, an unknown flying entity disrupts the jump by smashing into Nomad, and the team is separated. The crash deactivates Nomad's Nanosuit and destroys his parachute, but he is saved because he lands on water and his suit absorbs the impact of the landing. After he makes his way to shore, Prophet is able to reset Nomad's suit remotely, restoring its normal function.

As Raptor Team regroups after the jump, Aztec is killed by an unknown entity. When the team finds him, they discover that whatever killed him also killed and dismembered a nearby squad of KPA. The remaining members of Raptor Team proceed with the mission. Along the way they discover the hostages' boat frozen on a hill near the coast of the island. They also get their first look at the aliens who have been attacking their team, when a flying alien machine sneaks up on them and snatches Jester, killing him shortly thereafter. The first hostage the team rescues turns out to be a CIA agent who was sent to monitor Dr. Rosenthal's work. In the jungle, Nomad finds another hostage named Badowski dead with ice shards in his back, as the KPA battle an alien machine nearby. After Nomad regroups with Prophet, Prophet is suddenly snatched by another flying machine, which flies away with him in its grasp. Shortly after, Nomad is contacted over the radio by Major Clarence Strickland of the American military asking if he wishes to abort the mission since most of his team has been killed or missing; Nomad refuses, saying that he can still complete the mission.

A day/night cycle operates during the course of the single-player campaign.

Nomad makes his way to Dr. Rosenthal's research complex, where he has found a rare fossilized artifact predating humanity by two million years. The partially excavated artifact resembles one of the flying machines (designated "exosuits") that has been attacking the team. Rosenthal also references other discoveries of similar artifacts in Afghanistan and Siberia, suggesting that the aliens have a global presence, and are not just confined to the island. While Rosenthal is running a scan on the artifact, it emits a powerful energy pulse that freezes Dr. Rosenthal solid. Nomad's Nanosuit is able to maintain his internal temperature, saving his life. Nomad then rendezvous with a VTOL, after eliminating a Nanosuit-equipped four-man KPA special forces team near the landing site. He notifies his superiors about this, because the U.S. military had hoped to prevent the Koreans from acquiring Nanosuit technology.

The U.S. military then begins a full-scale invasion of the island, led by Major Strickland. As the U.S. forces continue to the main excavation site, the central mountain on the island begins to fall apart, revealing a huge alien structure inside, which is nearly the size of the mountain itself. Nomad enters the excavation site at the mountain's base, but is captured by Kyong's men. Kyong deactivates Nomad's Nanosuit, and Nomad watches, helpless, as Kyong shoots one of the hostages in the head and then detonates explosive charges to open the structure. An energy pulse emanates from the structure and kills Kyong's men; the pulse also reactivates Nomad's Nanosuit. Kyong, also wearing a Nanosuit, attacks Nomad, until Nomad is able to kill him. As the mountain continues to collapse, a VTOL evacuates the last hostage, Dr. Rosenthal's daughter Helena, but is unable to rescue Nomad.

Nomad gets trapped and decides to continue into the alien structure. It soon turns into a zero gravity environment. Nomad uses his hydro-thrusters to maneuver and encounters hostile sentient aliens. He also sees a possible invasion force consisting of many Alien machines. Nomad manages to escape, but the structure creates a massive sphere of energy that freezes everything inside its structure to -200�F (-129�C). Once outside, Nomad is attacked by various Alien machines before finding Prophet. Prophet was able to engineer a weapon using the aliens' technology, the Molecular Accelerator (MOAC). Prophet's Nanosuit malfunctions, requiring him to frequently stop and recharge using heat sources, such as the burning wrecks of military vehicles. The two leave the ice sphere and rescue Helena, whose VTOL has crashed. Prophet leaves with Helena on another VTOL. At the U.S. evacuation point, one of the last VTOLs rescues Nomad from an unstoppable quadrupedal alien exosuit. Just as the exosuit is about to destroy the VTOL, Major Strickland draws its attention by firing at it using a mounted machine gun and the exosuit kills Strickland instead. As they leave the island, the pilot is killed and the engines are damaged. Nomad flies the crippled VTOL back to the USS Constitution (CVN-80) carrier strike group while fighting off aliens along the way.

Once there, he meets up again with Psycho and is then debriefed by Admiral Richard Morrison who explains that a nuclear strike has been ordered against the ice sphere. Helena warns him that the aliens might absorb the energy, but the Admiral ignores her. Prophet flies a VTOL back to the island against orders. Despite Prophet's departure, the nuclear missile is launched at the ice sphere. The explosion causes the ice sphere to expand and prompts a massive alien counterattack.

Nomad is ordered to repair one of the carrier's damaged nuclear reactors. The Nanosuit is resistant to high levels of radiation, although prolonged exposure proves deadly. While Nomad is in the reactor room, Helena sends an experimental signal through Nomad's suit that causes several alien machines to absorb too much power and overload, destroying them. As Nomad returns to the flight deck, Admiral Morrison is killed and Nomad takes the prototype TAC-Cannon. On the flight deck, Nomad fights an alien exosuit similar to the one that killed Strickland. A massive alien warship then emerges from the sea, and Helena manages to deactivate its shields by sending a signal through Nomad's Nanosuit. Nomad then uses the TAC-Cannon to destroy the alien warship, which crashes down onto the carrier and begins to sink it. Nomad runs across the flight deck and jumps off the carrier into the waiting VTOL, which is piloted by Psycho. As they fly away, Helena is nearly pulled out of the aircraft by the energy field created by the destroyed alien warship. The ship drags the Constitution beneath the surface and vaporizes, creating a massive vortex that engulfs and destroys the entire carrier fleet. Psycho then receives a transmission that there is another Carrier Strike Group en route to the island and suggests meeting them. Nomad protests, claiming that since they now know how to defeat the aliens, they need to continue fighting. A transmission from Prophet, who is inside the energy field on the island, is then received. The VTOL is then seen turning around and heading back to the island.

Crysis Gameplay

As with Crytek's previous game Far Cry, Crysis is a first-person shooter game with many ways to meet objectives.

The player controls a Delta Force soldier codenamed Nomad. The player's weapons can be customized without pausing the flow of time, for example changing firing modes, changing scopes or adding sound suppressors. The player is also capable of selecting various modes in Nomad's military "Nanosuit" which draw power from the suit's energy. When the suit's energy is depleted, no modes can be used and the player is more vulnerable to damage before the suit recharges. One of four modes can be selected: Armor deflects damage and recharges the suit's energy faster; Strength allows stronger hand-to-hand combat, the ability to throw objects and enemies with deadly force, higher jumps, steadier aiming and reduced weapon recoil;Speed increases running and swimming speed, as well as other forms of motion such as reloading weapons; and Cloak, which renders Nomad almost completely invisible and suppresses movement noise.

The suit's integral facemask has its own HUD, displaying typical data including a tactical map, health, current energy levels, and weapons information. The view is electronic in nature, shown in-game through things such as a booting readout and visual distortion during abnormal operation. A particularly useful utility is the binocular function, which allows the player to zoom in and electronically tag enemies and vehicles from afar, thereby tracking their movement on the tactical display.

The player can engage enemies in a variety of ways; using stealth or aggression, bullets or non-lethal tranquilizers, ranged rifles or short-range weaponry, and so on. Enemy soldiers employ tactical maneuvers and work as squads. AI soldiers will respond to noise caused by the player, including using signal flares to call for reinforcements. If the player has not been detected in the area, enemies will exhibit relaxed behaviour, but if aware of the player they will draw weapons and become combative.

Reception
Upon its release, Crysis was met with critical acclaim. Aggregating review websites GameRankings and Metacritic rated the PC version 90.23% and 91/100, the Xbox 360 version 83.98% and 81/100 and the PlayStation 3 version 80.90% and 81/100. The game was awarded a 98% in the PC Gamer U.S. Holiday 2007 issue, making it one of the highest rated games ever in PC Gamer, tying with Half-Life 2 and Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri. GameSpot awarded Crysis a score of 9.5 out of 10, describing it as "easily one of the greatest shooters ever made." GameSpy gave it a 4.5 out of 5 stating that the suit powers were fun but also criticizing the multiplayer portion of the game for not having a team deathmatch. X-Play gave it a 3 out of 5 on its "Holiday Buyer's Guide" special episode, praising the graphics and physics, but criticized the steep hardware requirements as well as stating that the game is overhyped with average gameplay. GamePro honored Crysis with a score of 4.75 out of 5, saying it was "a great step forward for PC gaming," but criticized the steep hardware requirements. IGN awarded it a 9.4 out of 10, hailing it as "one of the more entertaining ballistic showdowns in quite some time." A retrospective review for bit-tech.net in June 2010 criticized the game for failing to deliver on its pre-release promise, saying that the art direction was "boring and monotonous," that the nanosuit was underwhelming and that the plot could be summarized as "Rescue these people who look to be being held captive by Koreans. Oh no Aliens!" The review concluded by saying, "Crysis was the epitome of style over substance."