Product Reviews

Crysis has been a long time in the making, but it's been worth the wait. And if you're a fan of amusingly silly plotlines, it has one of the best. It's 2019, and a team of US scientists on an island in the South China Sea have made a chilling discovery. But before they have a chance to tell anyone, the North Koreans seal off the area. You, being a double-hard super-soldier, are sent on a mission to find out what's going on. Needless to say, the solution to the problem, in the tried and tested Arnold Schwarzenegger style that's so notably influenced the conduct of international affairs in our own decade, involves guns, explosions, and lots of violence.

You slip into the suit of Jake Dunn, codename Nomad, a Delta Force commando equipped with a 'Modular Tactical Exoskeleton', also known as a nanosuit. Far from just looking immensely cool (perish the thought), the nanosuit blesses your character with superhuman abilities: speed, strength, armour and invisibility. Just as well, too, because the island is teeming with North Korean soldiers, all of whom are more than up for popping off a few hundred rounds at anything that moves. We can't help feeling real North Korean soldiers

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would be more efficient and restrained. Maybe it's the shock of not being lined up in rows.

So far, so anodyne shoot-'em-up, but once you actually start playing, Crysis is a thrill a minute. With huge open-plan levels and your range of special abilities, you can play in any number of different ways. Sneaking past enemies in the undergrowth - or, thanks to your temporary invisibility cloak, right in front of them in broad daylight - makes for tense, thrilling moments when you're not just filling everything full of lead.

Fighting, fleeing and, er, upgrading

In this game, bullets aren't the only way to solve a problem. Thanks to your super strength, you can hurl objects at deadly speed, and your punch can knock over vehicles and destroy buildings. When you find yourself outgunned and outnumbered, your super speed can get you out of trouble fast.

Our one complaint is that on anything less than Hard difficulty your abilities can make the game seem a little too easy. But they do allow you to play the way you want. If you like to sneak about and evade detection, grabbing lone sentries in the bushes, you can, but if you prefer to be a one-man army mowing down all those who stray into your path, you can do that. If your ammo lasts.

Sadly, unless your PC has a dual core processor, 2GB of memory and a fast graphics card, Crysis' stunning visuals will prove too much of a strain. Ours had all of the above, and an extra graphics card too, and even at low resolutions (1024x768) it struggled. With a stonking PC, Crysis delivers an action-packed gaming experience like no other. Those with more modest hardware should stick to Valve's collection of less taxing but excellent games, The Orange Box, reviewed last issue.