Of all the big-name ports that have arrived on Switch thus far, there's something about Crysis that makes it feel a little extra special. Here is a game that absolutely beasted even the most high-end PCs when it released back in November of 2007 with its GPU-melting graphics – light-years ahead of everything else at the time – and a destructible, semi-open world sandbox that put a real strain on even the most expensive of processors.
Fast-forward thirteen years and all of this has, somehow, been shrunk right down and stuffed onto Nintendo's hybrid platform in a port that not only impresses but actually manages to beat the 2011 PS3 and Xbox 360 versions of the game in terms of both presentation and performance. There are a few niggles here and there which we'll discuss in due course but, overall, this is Crysis running impressively well on a handheld system and – more importantly, perhaps – it's still an absolute blast to spend time with.
For those who may have missed out the first time around, Crysis tells the story of Raptor Team, a nano suit-clad special forces outfit sent on a covert op to the fictional islands of Lingshan when an American team of archaeologists send a distress call alerting their government that they've found something otherworldly whilst also being encircled by invading North Korean troops.
Taking control of main protagonist Nomad, players blast into battle in a superpowered exo-suit that enables them to jump incredible heights, punch their fists through walls, toss trees, fling heavy objects – and enemy soldiers – high into the air and switch between an armour mode that soaks up heavy weapons damage and stealth that gives them Predator-style camouflage. Utilising all of these suit skills and a plethora of punchy weaponry, Nomad embarks on a bombastic, Michael Bay-esque rampage across Lingshan in an effort to rescue the archaeologists, secure whatever it is they've found, batter the North Koreans and deal with a frosty alien threat. All in a day's work for these special ops lads.
While it was the graphical prowess of Crysis that was the main talking point upon its release back in 2007, returning to Lingshan reveals gameplay that has stood the test of time impressively well. Running amok in this semi-open sandbox and employing all of the powers and weapons at your disposal to mess with the North Korean forces is a constantly engaging and often thrilling gameplay loop. The enemy AI also still impresses, with your North Korean foes making proper use of cover, charging your position and retreating when things get too heated – they'll even pull rather clever flanking manoeuvres around you to get into a better attacking position.
Watching these guys try to figure out where you've disappeared to before screaming in terror and firing their guns wildly as you materialise out of nowhere to fling them over a railing, choke them out or tear them to shreds with a shotgun is a frequently hilarious and massively addictive good time, every bit as enjoyable now as it was back when the game originally released. Also, the explosions. The explosions in Crysis deserve special mention; the way they rock the screen, tear nearby buildings and foliage to pieces and temporarily blur your vision, they honestly might still be the best explosions in a game to date.
Things do taper off a little as the campaign enters its third act and the alien enemies take centre stage; this one is at its very best when you're tooling around on sunny beaches and through dense jungles making fools out of your human foes and, in comparison, the extra-terrestrials just aren't as engaging. Still, the story does manage to hold up and keeps things interesting right up to the grandstanding final battle. Everything also feels pleasingly streamlined and slick in comparison to many more modern single-player shooters; you'll blast through this campaign in around ten hours and there's a refreshing lack of bloat to it – no time-wasting or attempts to artificially beef up proceedings by having you run a ton of pointless side quests or hoover up millions of collectables from every nook and cranny of Lingshan.
Of course, by now everyone's pretty familiar with the ins and outs of Crysis' gameplay and story and it's really the performance of this port that's the main talking point here. In this regard, it's hard to imagine how Saber Interactive – the team behind The Witcher 3 Switch port – could have done a better job. In comparison to the 2011 PS3 and Xbox 360 ports, this one comes off as the best console version of the game currently available, running at a pretty consistent 30fps for the most part (there are dips to the mid and low 20s during some heavy action sequences) and with a brand new lighting system that has significantly rejigged and improved the overall look of things. In docked mode, the resolution shifts from around the 900p mark to 540p in order to keep that framerate steady and anywhere from 700p to 540p in handheld. This dynamic resolution does mean things can get a little blurry when the action heats up, but overall, the image quality here is remarkably clear – much more so than what we've seen with the likes of Doom and even the Witcher 3 port, prior to its game-changing patch.
There are a few niggles here and there, however, with consistent hitching every time the game autosaves as you move into a new area or complete an objective. You'll also notice quite a lot of foliage pop-in whilst driving a vehicle or running flat out across scenery. Distant enemies can be a little hard to make out in handheld mode and we also experienced a handful of crashes back to the Switch home screen during our time with the game.
Apart from these problems though, this is still an impressively smooth and good-looking version of Crysis with none of the performance problems we've listed really impacting in any huge way on our enjoyment of the game's campaign. Saber Interactive has also seen fit to include those all-important gyroscopic controls for fine-tuning your shots and between this and the game's aim-assist, the whole thing controls well and feels slick, even on the system's default Joy-Con controllers. Blasting through Crytek's seminal shooter thirteen years later has been an absolute ball and this really has to go down as one of the most impressive Switch ports to date, as well as one of the very best shooter experiences currently available on Nintendo's console.
Conclusion
Thirteen years after it originally set about melting the PC of anyone who dared to try to play it, Crysis arrives on Nintendo Switch in a port that's more impressive than anyone could perhaps have realistically expected. Performance for the most part here is slick and smooth – albeit with a few dips and stutters here and there – while new lighting and global illumination techniques make this a better-looking version than any other console port to date. The addition of gyro controls is just the cherry on top of an excellent job on the part of Saber Interactive. The gameplay here has aged surprisingly well, too, and rampaging across the sandbox of Lingshan taking out human and alien foes with your nano suit technology is just as much fun now as it was way back in 2007. Crysis is easily one very best shooters currently available on Switch.
Comments 96
This is a maybe if it's on sale game for me with the loss of steam and blurriness.
Insert “But can it run crysis?” meme here.
These latest port-success make me hope Doom gets revisited to remove some of the blurriness in handheld. Impressive though that port is - it seems things have moved on and it could be improved to the standards here, and on the Witcher.
Anyway, I think I'll be buying Crysis.
£1000 self built pc owning Nintendo haters are notable by their absence!
For what it's worth, I saw a video review that said, contrary to what is suggested here, the gyro controls are sluggish to the extent of being unusable.
I thought the devs were just really happy to get a good looking shooter on Switch when it came to emphasizing the graphics of this gam. Learning the history of it, it really puts into perspective how impressive it is that a game which hampered the high-end PC's of its time can run on a tablet.
This is going onto my 'To Buy' list. I'll be finished up with Bug Fables soon, and I've been antsy about finally playing Paper Mario (and avoiding that game breaking glitch mentioned everywhere). I'm not into shooters much, but this and Doom sound like a wonderful time.
I can only say that I'm having a lot of fun playing this game for the first time.
At the moment I've only been able to play it in handheld mode and the game runs absolutely fine.
Highly recommended for anyone that likes FPS games.
@Rodan2000 Well yeah, they’re sitting with their far superior version of the game. The only thing PC players are jealous of when it comes to Nintendo are first-party games and even then, give it a few years and emulation will have caught up. It’s just silly to compare Switch and PC versions of games when it’s like night and day. They both have strengths, Switch has portability and PC has... everything else.
I missed this the first time round so may well jump in. Would prefer a physical copy though, any news on that happening?
Good to hear it's a swell port.
That said, can we stop being shocked every time a good game from 10, 20, or more years ago is — gasp — still good? Mentioning how "the gameplay has aged surprisingly well" strikes me as condescending, even if that's obviously not the intention.
I've heard all the arguments: videogames age like milk, the industry moves on, technology progresses, rose-tinted glasses are sold out on Amazon, etc.
But frankly, most of the time, when a game "ages badly" it's because we overestimated it at the time of release, since it was novel or technically impressive, and we're just now seeing the faults that were always there to begin with. And other times, it's the fault of gamers not accepting that old games will inevitably do things differently from modern games. Which can be bad or very good, depending on what the thing in question is.
Yeah, I'm enjoying it too. I've never played Crysis, so it's interesting how it doesn't seem like an older game. It's fun! I wonder what Saber will do next?!
Playing it right now and having lots of fun, remembering my old days of PC gaming.
Can anyone confirm if this has all the levels of the PC version?
The previous port cut out a flying level. I was wondering if this version puts the level back in, or it's still missing the level?
Information here would be greatly appreciated. Thanks
An impressive port, and the only option if you want to play this portable... Just wish it was available physically though, it could have fit on a 8gb cart....
Added to my wish list.
No physical copy means I'll wait for a sale that drops the price at least below 15 (that's a maybe then), preferably below 10 (that's a buy).
@nessisonett True. Depending on who you are that portability can be a biiiiiiig deal.
@pip_muzz The flying level was still cut from the Switch version
@pip_muzz Unfortunately the level remains cut in the Switch version.
@VegasKeith Pretty safe to say that if someone payed £1,000 for a PC to play games. Portability is not the main "Big Deal" to them.
@Burning_Spear That's a shame if true, would make the game literally unplayable for me so it's a good thing I'm holding off until it goes on sale anyway. I'll look around for most impressions when the time comes I suppose. Nintendo Life generally isn't a good source of information when it comes to whether a game has good gyro aiming or not.
@judaspete Thanks for the info. I'll give it a miss then. Seems they took the existing port as an upgrade rather than working down from the PC version. Good for switch owners but disappointing for me. Thanks again
I had never owned or played this on any other platform so seeing some good reviews I made the purchase.
However having attempted to play this I find it very buggy right now. I’ve had seven game closures due to error in a 3 hrs session.
Added to this I found that some of the distant scenery had patches of what could only best be described as obvious cross hatching which took away any realism in the scenery.
The AI although intelligent seem to have random hit damage. I shot several head shots from behind. I could see the hit as blood splattered yet they didn’t go down. However head shots from the front took the enemy down immediately. In general I found the enemies to have some sort of thicker Kevlar or something strapped to their backs as a shot from behind did little but alert them to where you were. (Maybe this was always the case with Crisis on other platforms).
The vehicle driving and shooting is not smooth and in precise; looking down a scope of your weapon causes the game to stutter (probably a frame rate drop) which isn’t good in a fight and lastly I couldn’t figure out how to relinquish control of a static machine gun implacement once I pressed Y to take control of it. In the end I had to restart the checkpoint.
I have no doubt this game is a technical achievement in getting it running on Switch but it seriously needs more work in the form of a patch or two before I return to playing it. For me this is more like a 6/10 right now.
@Agramonte That's a good point. As someone who has both a Switch and a gaming pc, I find myself playing the Switch much more.
@pip_muzz Digital Foundry confirmed in their analysis that the “Ascension” mission (the flying one) is still missing in this port.
@VegasKeith Absolutely, personally the portability isn’t really a big deal to me at the minute being stuck in the house! My Switch hasn’t seen as much use because of that.
@BenAV Yeah, it's strange that the reviewer here seems to imply he used gyro without a problem. On the review I watched, the reviewer had gyro set to the most sensitive setting and was demonstrating how sluggish it was. Not saying anyone is wrong; just pointing out an inconsistency.
I'll encourage anyone who's even remotely on the fence to just jump in. You will not be disappointed.
In my eyes Crysis is still the best campaign FPS ever. It just has all the ingredients to make it so. The story is mysterious and intriguing especially going in blind for the first time. In the beginning it looks like you're just starting off your next generic military shooter story, but you'll go on to discover it's a whole lot more than that. And the vague hints that tease you about this along the way are just awesome.
The gameplay is so versatile. Crysis can be anything you want. It can go from being your next arcade CoD-like corridor shooter if that's what you really desire, to being a deep and tactical war simulator. Firstly, the maps are huge and give you many entrance points to any enemy camp or objective.
Secondly, with every one of those can choose to enter however you want; use stealth and destroy them from within, run and gun, use the destructible surroundings to kill or distract enemies or create otherwise impossible paths to flank them, you can use a range of different vehicles to your advantage, blow up cars or gas stations near enemies... the list goes on and on.
Thirdly, the different nanosuit functions can once again make any situation play out differently every time, especially with...
Fourthly, the many different weapon mods and special weapons.
Combining all these different elements within all these different situations will never turn out the same again. Probably not even if you tried. No playthrough will ever be the same, not even any battle will ever really be the same. It's the ultimate replayability.
I'll admit I first installed it back in the day because of the graphics as well. But I came out of it thinking the graphics were of minor importance. I love this game, played through it countless times on PC because I liked the universe and gameplay so much. And as I just started my second playthrough on Switch that trend seems to live on. The insane graphics, and the even more insane experience of now playing this on a handheld in such a fine shape, are just the icing on the cake. A nice bonus. It still feels too good to be true though. And the fact that even in this final aspect the game pretty much tops every other game on its platform, makes me conclude I think this is the finest FPS ever made.
25 bucks will always be worth it. Jump in guys! Maximum speed!
Nice, here's hoping Crytek reconsidered a physical version soon.
@nessisonett My wife occupying the television and/or the computer has meant much increased Switch time.
@Burning_Spear While I'm generally not one to play demos, but I do wish that all shooters on the Switch had one just so I could test the gyro aiming for myself before committing to buying something that I might not even be able to play.
@Burning_Spear gyro for me, has worked better while I’m playing on my TV with the Pro Controller. When I play on Portable mode, it doesn’t work well. I hope they update the game, and add the option to adjust the sensitivity of the gyro controllers.
@Edu23XWiiU The review I watched was demonstrating it in handheld, so there may be the difference.
I’m enjoying this, good stuff
@Laxeybobby oof SEVEN closures in 3 hours. If a game closes itself once during my whole play through, I’m left with a bitter taste. Seven in such a short time? That’s deep into unacceptable territory
I'll get it if they fix the controls. Allow separate sensitivity settings for gyro and invert Y axis on the right stick and I'm sold. Keeping these settings tied to the analog stick is insane.
@judaspete Good job too, Ascension requires serious horse power to run - however feelings were mixed about that level on PC back in the day. I think alot of gamers don't want to admit their 8800GTX's were running this level at 10fps in 720p literally. I know I cut down to 600p with all settings to medium just to enjoy that level on the top tier 8800GTX, even then I'd hazard a guess I played it at 20fps. Infact I played all of Crysis with settings around medium to high - just to keep it 20-30fps and looking incredible for its time.
I will get this eventually. Just shows what can be done on Switch
Why this review does not mention the crappy gyro implementation is beyond me. All of the sensitivity and control options are laughable. It will sit on my system unplayed until more patches arrive. I honestly expected more from this as a total package. Especially for $30.00. USD.
@pip_muzz It does not have the ascension mission, that is the flying level you are referring to.
The problem I got with this game is that I am just not too sure of if it's the type of game that will really stand out to me on a handheld. Plus I already got a great variety of FPS by now and I am not exactly desperate for more.
@Laxeybobby The frame rate drop when using a scope is mentioned in the Digital Foundry video. They said the developers called that a bug and said it will be patched out soon. I don't know if they're working on the other stuff you mention though...
@Dark_Magician this game is NOT blurry at all. I ONLY play in handheld and it looks sharp and crisp 80% of the time. This is NOTHING like Doom or Wolfenstein which can be vasaline messes in handheld mode. Sometimes when you have vehicles, explosions, and tons of men on screen it takes a quality hit but not often. It also has great AI, way above any game I've ever played on the switch (or many other consoles for that matter). I bought this one originally just to support Saber interactive. They're quality can't be topped on the switch, heck the Outterworlds team needs to call then to fix their game.
@Sculptor Thanks
Played Crysis on PS3 years ago and never knew the background to it. Really had a good time and the power suit is awesome. Remember the last boss being really hard. Not sure I'll buy it again though as there's no physical version yet.
@MajorasLapdog I’ve also had the game freeze several times with the sound fx continuing when I transition from hip firing to using the sight.
This happens only when under fire.
As I say the Sound fx continue but the game stay frozen and the controller doesn’t work unless the home button is pressed and game is shut down.
I can’t be the only one that experiences these issues. I know that some YouTube reviews have mentioned these under performance.
Its not that good. The original PC game is a 6/10 at best and this is a port of the lesser console game. Worth a buy if its £5. There are way better FPS games on Switch like ANY Doom, Bulletstorm, any Borderlands, Duke Nukem 3D, Wolfenstein the first one that was ported...
Digital Foundry did a full comparison and this is the best console version to date overall from their findings, this also takes into consideration any drawbacks this version might have over others but the consensus is until the other versions come out this is the best one.
Well deserved, what Great game!!
@nessisonett
I am going to guess they won't be playing their far superior version of the game on the Train or while sitting on the can!!!
@Burning_Spear you mean the gamexplain video. you should turn off auto-aim when using gyro, as mentioned by Switch-Up. It’ll help immensely
@Amrulez I have a laptop that funnily enough can run Crysis. I’ve played plenty games on the train before so it’s not completely out of the question even if Switch is more suited to portability.
@BenAV just have to turn off auto-aim, as the yt channel switchup says
@nessisonett
Nothing stops you I see, good for you man. I have a solid laptop, really considering buying a great gaming laptop. Not sure I want to spend the 2000-2500 bucks it will cost.
Those wonderful motion controls are broken for anyone who favors an inverted y-axis as it will invert the motion controls making them unusable
@Burning_Spear As already mentioned above, yeah, you can't invert Gyro yet. The game allows Invert for the R-Stick, but not the Gyro. I play with Invert Y on both, so I can't actually play it with Gyro controls yet. I'm hoping they patch in a fix soon.
Other than that. Great port. Looks quite brilliant with the mClassic in tow, too!
@Burning_Spear @BenAV As a counterpoint, DF was really happy with the gyro implementation. Maybe some kind of differences in the settings?
@VegasKeith I see. I am the opposite, My Steam collection is my main library and eats up most of my time.
@Rodan2000 I don't really see the relevance of this unless you're just talking about people making fun of Nintendo flexing it's hardware can run a game that's 13 years old. Crysis was impressive technology-wise a decade ago, but it hasn't been impressive for a long, long time. And in the end the only version of the game that's worth playing anyway is Crysis: Warhead. The base game sucked beyond being a fantastic tech demo.
@Cevil i agree and they need to fix certain issues as well.
@AJB83 there are a bunch of games that have the same issue with the motion controls being tied to the y-axis inversion and to my knowledge has never been patched on any of them, Resident Evil revelations 1&2, morphite, call of juarez to name a few so im not holding my breath. It doesn't help that not a single reviewer ever notices or mentions this shortcoming when reviewing these games
@Agramonte if the laptop is open i'll usually do steam. my backlog on all four systems is embarrassing. i have enough games to never buy a game again.
and yet i bought two more today. i need to stop. tell me to stop.
I bought it, not true on the gyro controls being sluggish at all. Now to not just sound biased like I think it’s a perfect port, it is not, but almost none of them are as expected. I’m just happy the solid port list continues to grow.
In my 3-4hrs in, every once in a while the frame rate gets choppy for 1-2sec then is stable again. It’s a perfectly fine port with not a single patch yet...@Burning_Spear
I’ll wait for a sale on this one, current price is too much for this 13 year old game.
@Beaucine I don’t think I agree. I actually think saying that the game has aged well is a compliment to the game in this context. Also, I think you’re missing what actually occurs most often. When a game is first released, we love the game. As the years pass, technology improves, game design improves, etc., we get used to playing better games and, in hindsight, that original and older game that we used to think was amazing isn’t quite so amazing. Not always but sometimes.
I will always remember playing SMB for the first time. It was the best game that I’d ever played in my life. Over the years, now that I look back on it and see how the series has evolved, it is no longer my favorite game to play in the SMB catalog of games. But it has aged incredibly well and is a testament and compliment to the game, itself.
@nessisonett Switch is still the most powerful handheld on the planet, and i doubt anyone is beating that anytime soon.
A 1000$ phone have more power than Switch, but doesen't have the games or even the controls.
Gamepad controls were a thing many years ago on phones, and then as good as all developers stopped supporting it.
You can easily run Crysis and Doom Eternal on todays phones, but no good developer cares about phones at all.
Most expensive Phones with the power of PS4 is sadly stuck with simple cheap puzzle games designed to grind wallets.
This is why Switch sold so good. Gaming on phones is barely a thing, and phones have no AAA games.
@Ventilator Exactly, no matter how expensive the mobile phones are once the major factor is the file size being an issue. Phones can only hold so much storage and most AAA games have massive file sizes. A mobile device (even a tablet) could not hold 40GB for a game like Fallout 4 for example. This restriction alone have killed any hope of a solid AAA games for mobile phone devices.
@VegasKeith Stop! Don't be Quick Man. Be Flash Man.
@Sleazy-Skuzzy I’m talking about the pc owners on here who love to troll the Switch. My comment clearly went way over your head!
This review shows how week the Switch is. Calling a 13 year old game downgraded and ported to the Switch and with issues, is called "easily one very best shooters currently available on Switch".
And the game can be bought on eBay for The Xbox for £6.
@Rpg-lover I have a new 256 GB card that fits both my switch and smartphone.
@zool size have been capped at 4gb tops for mobile phone applications.
I like that people still think those ultra expensive pc's are needed for top of the line games.
As a avid PC builder anno 2004, times have changed and you can get a monster PC for a few duckets. Mind you I was the guy who spent on average 900e for a graphicscard back then.
@zool it is tumbleweed season, indeed.
@Rpg-lover i bought a micro sd card 164gb and inserted into my phone.
@Amrulez You wont regret it. But, it is going to be producing a bit more noise than a tower. However in-ear headphones resolve that issue. Never going to tower again. Best thing i did, buy a high end gaming laptop<
@FrowningCoach it will function if that is what you want to hear! However, don't expect it to pass the 4gb max application/ file size. Unless a rooted phone.
Not sure why the Switch version bettering the PS3 version is so surprising given Switch is a more capable machine
No physical release = no buy for me
@MajorasLapdog Sorry but if you're getting hung up on a couple of crashes then I don't think games are for you. Bugs can be annoying, sure, but they are also a mark of the progress we have made as human beings. I don't think Buzz Alrdin packed it in when the Apollo didn't start first try. I think it's honestly a bit petty to drop something so quickly due to some errors, especially when so much work has gone into it! Hundreds of years developing technology just for the buck to stop at you not buying Crysis on the switch! Absurd! Also call me sometime man, what the flip!?
@Rpg-lover I didn't have much storage space issues on phones, but probably because i usually buy top models. My current Huawei P30 Pro have 256.GB internal Storage, and i can add Flash cart too with up to 1-2.TB or something.
Some Samsung phones have 1.TB internal flash now too.
On internal flash alone, i could probably install all Switch exclusives on my Huawei. Many exclusives is only 5.GB +/- each.
The price of phones with powerful GPU and alot of storage costs way more than a Switch, which makes the market smaller of course.
My 7 year old Galaxy Note 3 phone could run about any HD 3D Android game at 1080p/60.
Nintendo needs to make a Switch Pro already so that games can hit 1080p
@Rkulaski
I simply don't take it as a given that "game design improves" and that "we play better games" as time goes on.
I think the best games endure because every element in them fits. The rules, the graphics, the mechanics, etc. Everything works together, as a whole. If you modernize or change one element, you change the experience. Improvement is not such a linear affair.
You bring up the Mario franchise, but that's a great example of what I'm referring to. I don't think the franchise ever surpassed 3 at what 3 does. I think later installments tried new things. World focused more on exploration and secrets, with Yoshi's Island expanding upon that. But for pure platforming, I would argue 3 is still best.
Same with other classics. Take Doom. Now there's a game that's been copied and expanded upon like no other. Yet the original retains its purity and directness. You can add to the formula — and a lot has been added in the last 30 years — but then the experience will be different. Which is obviously valid. I mean, first-person shooters have evolved since then. But Doom still works because it works in terms of its internal logic.
And that's the key, for me: internal logic.
I mean, obviously, as we play more games, we reassess old favorites. But that happens with books, movies, paintings, or any art form. My point is that old games don't get any worse because we become more literate in the medium.
What I was criticizing in my previous post is the philosophy that underlies most videogame discourse: that videogames are disposable technology and are, therefore, always improving. I think that kills any interesting reflection on old videogames, because all we end up doing is assessing how closely the old videogame follows current fashions, instead of looking at the specific experience the old videogame provides, which might require adjusting to aspects that might seem antiquated in industry terms but that, within the logic of the game itself, are perfectly fine and even essential.
That's my issue with "the gameplay has aged surprisingly well." I think the question should be, "Is the gameplay good?" Full stop. Otherwise you're simply judging how well the game adapts to 2020, which isn't an interesting question because in six months it'll be 2021. Of course, playing the game in 2020, you can't help but look at it with 2020 eyes. But you can at least try to see a bit further. I think that can be a more interesting approach.
@Nedtendo tbh i just can’t tolerate these kinds of bugs. For example, I’ve been playing the new Paper Mario but I had to stop when I found a bug where the boss of the first area is UNBEATABLE. Think it might just be me being bad at the game? THINK AGAIN. I asked my dad to do it and even he couldn’t. And in case you’re wondering, yes that is the same dad who lost a finger by beating a dog half to death (and then subsequently half again), so no, I don’t think that it’s just ‘too hard’, whatever you mean by that. It’s definitely the best game I’ve ever played in my life but I had to stop after 2 hours because it’s just BROKEN.
Look, i get what you mean and I’m sure NASA tried their hardest with Crysis but this one clearly just needed a little more time (2 months) in the oven (read: development studio).
If you STILL don’t get it, let me spell it out for you in three simple words: gamebreakingbugsjust won’tflywith me, pal.
It's kind of funny all the praise getting heaped on Crysis at this point. It actually is a pretty cool and memorable world and campaign on account of the aliens and settings involved...there's a few cool scenes.
But generally when it came out on PC it's claim to fame was a generic mediocre-shooter at best running as a tech demo for the engine, that was way too short in length to justify its price, and it was clear the budget fell out half way through and the rest was rushed out the door.
The game was almost a punchline for the joke of the industry where everything was about tech demos to push hardware and engine tech and games were a back seat at best. In that regard Crysis did better than average and provided something actually cool and memorable in its otherwise short tech demo. But it was still an afterthought game glued to a top budget engine and a ton of hardware vendor subsidy.
Jump ahead over a decade and it's now "one of the best campaign shooters evar!!"
@COVIDberry In these quarantine times, I'm mostly Bubble Man.
What I was criticizing in my previous post is the philosophy that underlies most videogame discourse: that videogames are disposable technology and are, therefore, always improving.
@Beaucine Your post should be promulgated widely on this site.
I do find it especially shocking that gamers (enthusiasts by definition) suffer from this perception of expendability. I often wonder if that partly underlies the incessant demand for new first-party titles. (I do often think, though, that the demand comes from younger or more frugal people who lack a significant backlog...)
@COVIDberry
Thanks for reading!
I think it's just how we're used to talking about technology: smart phones are disposable and so are laptops, desktops, graphic cards, microwaves, etc.
I work in UX and we discuss digital apps in the same vein: yesterday's app or website can be improved today and will be better tomorrow. We run dozens of AB tests to achieve better results, more engagement, more clicks, etc.
Thing is, videogames are not like other apps or tech products. They're not (usually) useful. They don't serve a cold, objective purpose. They're more like art. Their primary purpose is expressive, to inspire ideas and emotions. (Even if the emotion is simply: fun.) And this changes everything. Which is why I'm not comfortable with the "disposable tech" approach to videogames.
@Beaucine
Regarding your first paragraph, no it’s not a given that we play better games as time goes on. I didn’t mean to imply that we always do. As often, the answer lies somewhere in the middle.
There are so many more things we can do this day and age in the Zelda series that we couldn’t do 35 years ago. But you make a great point regarding gameplay. I had as much entertainment with the original Zelda as I do with the most recent.
Regarding your last paragraph, I think maybe this is a matter of context or even semantics. I think by stating that “the game has aged surprisingly well” answers your question “is the gameplay good” regarding Crysis. At least this is how I interpret all of this contextually. But I agree with with a lot what you said. I’ll give you final comment if you wish. Thanks for discussing.
@Rodan2000 Why would someone hate Nintendo just because they have a self built PC? I have two self built PC's and a Switch.
@Raw_Dawg it was humour, aimed at some of the PC owners on here who do nothing but troll the Switch
@60frames-please saber will turn water to wine! But in all seriousness, these developers are amazing. The witcher III, now crisis?? Is there a game they cant port to the switch? The skies the limit!
@PhhhCough Yeah, it's fun just to see what they turn out!
This game is totally worth the 30$ price tag, and I played it at least 3 times, I bought it and will play it on the switch too, and support Crytek and Saber. Maybe if the game does good enough we can expect the standalone expansion, Crysis Warhead, and the next two games in the series Crysis 2 and Crysis 3.
Hell I would love to see Ryse or event Hunt Showdown in the future, released for the switch, as I am a big Crytek fan
@NEStalgia I don't know about being short, add in the Warhead expansion and you get a pretty decent and long FPS.
But then again I am a bit biased, as I totally loved the Crysis franchise and also got to work on Crysis 2, back in 2009.
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