The first of the two biggest problems with Crytek's previous game, Far Cry, was that the end-game consisted of streams of mindless bullet-sponges lumbering at you with reckless abandon. The other was that the first three quarters of the game set your expectations much higher, with excellent enemy AI and requirements for the player to think and use tactics. The bad news with Crysis is that there are a fair amount of dumb, lumbering bullet-sponges to encounter. The other bad newsis ... well, there really isn't anything else significantly bad about the game, actually, which is the good news - Crytek have produced a remarkable shooter in what has turned out to be a landmark year for shooters.

What makes Crysis so good isn't that it looks gorgeous - while that is true, we all know that last year's beauty is this year's eyesore and that gorgeous presentation will awe us for only a few minutes, at which point some solid gameplay is needed to keep us hooked. In addition, the story is not so compelling that it draws players in with a simple summary. Listen to this: you are part of a Delta Force team sent to an island to rescue an archaeological team that has been captured by North Koreans. Almost immediately the situation takes an unexpected turn and an alien presence figures heavily in the strange happenings. Pretty soon the entire game - and world - is wrapped up in a planet in peril from alien invasion' crisis ... oh yeah, crYsis. The various cut scenes and plot-advancing moments wrap around the story and integrate into the game in a way typical for modern story-based FPS games. It is interesting and engaging, but not anything that will have you on the edge of you seat or thinking "they oughta make a movie out of this!"

In a year with some great multiplayer shooters - Halo 3, Team Fortress 2 and Call of Duty 4 spring to mind - Crysis can only just claim to have some decent multiplayer as an addition to the staple single player campaign. Instant Action is your basic deathmatch mode with Nanosuits, whereas Power Struggle is a sort of a control point domination mode paired up with a 'kill your enemy's base' element added in. It is reasonable fun and a solid addition, but it's not the main draw of the game. If you are in the game for multiplayer then you should look elsewhere - Crysis is about the single player action first and foremost. Additionally, some of the cool features planned for multiplayer - full game physics and a day/night system - are limited to the Vista/DirectX 10 version of the game only and since pretty much none of the servers I tried were running that version, it meant getting a pretty standard experience.

So what is it about this game that makes it one of the best shooters in recent memory? Three things: gameplay, gameplay, gameplay. At the core of Crysis you have the same basic gameplay that fueled Far Cry, updated and modernized to feel completely fresh. Add to that level design that encompasses linear corridor elements alongside non-linear, open areas with many possible paths, optional vehicle usage just about everywhere with only a few spots where it is required, and you have a varied experience that offers something for everyone. There are plenty of scripted set piece battles as well, but only occasionally do you feel that you are being led by the nose through the designer's vision of how you should approach things. Also, the enemy AI does a great job of running the gamut from bullet-sponge aliens to quick thinking grunts to advanced soldiers with technology matching your own. You never know what you will face next, but you can be sure it will be challenging.

Let's get the boring technical description out of the way now - Crysis is technically a stock-standard first person shooter that uses the battle-hardened WASD + mouse control setup. It features leaning, aim-down-the-sights, fully configurable controls, sounds and visuals, plus everything else we have come to expect in a modern shooter. You might be disappointed when you see that the game has assigned your graphics card fairly low settings - but don't despair, because it looks fabulous at just about any setting. I ran it on two different systems with high and low settings and the game performed nicely on both. However, both of those systems are very powerful computers and you will need a very powerful computer to run the game at all.

'Looks fabulous' really isn't adequate to describe the setting. You move through lush jungles and everything feels right - leaves on trees are detailed and have a true 3D look, so you constantly feel as though you could just reach out and touch them; in some ways the level of interactivity and use of realistic physics is unparalleled in Crysis. You can pick up just about anything you see around the game and use it for just about any purpose. Sometimes this can be strategic - distracting enemies or blocking them off while you reload is something I found useful.

The soundtrack and effects are extremely well done too - the voice acting is excellent, the music integrates perfectly with the experience and the sound effects are highly realistic. The surround sound effects are noticeable even in an age of excellent audio in almost every game - the accuracy of sound positioning is stunning and really adds to the feeling of immersion. I found the soundtrack rising and falling in time with the action appropriately and this really energized me while taking on difficult objectives against overwhelming odds.

Speaking of missions, one of the best things about Far Cry that is also great in Crysis is the ability to complete objectives in a variety of ways from just about any direction. You can create chaos and just blast your way through or gain a vantage point and pick off enemies one at a time, or any mix of these tactics in between. In fact, until the last few missions, the game feels wide open in terms of where you can go - you know it isn't, but the developers have done a great job of nudging you in the correct direction without making you feel constrained. As you venture through the game you come upon secondary objectives that are optional - these range from picking up intelligence to destroying key targets and they come with rewards. You might get to call in an air strike or gain early use of a weapon that you wouldn't otherwise see until much later, which makes seeking out these extras really worthwhile.

There are two special features that aren't really anything new but are integrated so nicely into the entirety of the game design as to really add to the gameplay in a way that feels innovative, and these are the powered 'Nanosuit' and the ability to upgrade and modify weapons. The Nanosuit offers four enhancements - Strength, Speed, Armor and Cloaking and integrating these into your tactical arsenal can dramatically change your gaming experience. If you want to play the tough grunt then make use of Strength, while silent killers should rely on the Cloak and so on. The only problem is that the game forces you to make sparing use of the Nanosuit features by making it drain power rather quickly. You can only rely on it for a few seconds before you need to recharge, but generally that is plenty of time to effectively move around unseen or take out an enemy, which is where making strategic choices becomes important.

Each weapon meanwhile comes with slots and options, and as you pick up more weapons you can start to change them. If you prefer stealth, for example, then you are unlikely to take a laser sight as an option, since it gives away your position. You can also add enhancements such as silencers or scopes to almost any weapon, each with its own advantages and disadvantages. It is great to be able to have one automatic weapon equipped for silent kills and another for maximum carnage! This is yet another way the developers have put you in charge of the gameplay experience, allowing you to tailor it to your preferences.

I really need to mention that you need a PC with Cray-style specs (i.e. a supercomputer for those of you too young to remember) to run at a reasonable frame rate with reasonable settings though. At those settings the game looks fantastic, but pushing any of the settings in an attempt to get just a bit more eye candy will result in watching textures ooze onto the screen - or worse yet, having the game slow to a crawl whenever more than a single enemy is onscreen. The requirements on paper look staggering, but in reality they are even worse - a system that will play Bioshock perfectly well will struggle to draw the screen in Crysis. Be aware of this before buying - you might need a serious upgrade!

I admit to being somewhat disappointed when the game world closed in on me towards the end - until then the wild ride had been of my own design (or so I felt), but now I was being carried by the rushing currents through an amazing but heavily scripted action ending. After I played through a second time I didn't see any other way to have done things, but it still took a slight edge off an otherwise nearly perfect experience - making it instead merely an excellent game. It is really hard to go from a completely open world to nearly a 'corridor shooter' ... even if it is an excellent 'corridor shooter'. But the take-away message is clear - Crysis is the best shooter of the year, in a year full of great shooters - and anyone who is a fan of the genre really needs to pick this up ... even if it means having to upgrade your video card!

Reviewed by Michael Anderson for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).