Am I the only person who thinks the open environment actually HURT this game? Even so, Crysis is a fun play.
Crysis is a fun game. It's also, a very beautiful one. Ambitious, too.
If you play it expecting nothing, you'll find it throughly enjoyable from beginning to end, which I've done now, twice, on two different difficulty settings.
If you're looking for game of the year material, and have actually played other games in that grouping, it might leave you wanting more.
There's a danger to sandbox games. If there isn't a significant and compelling reason to go outside the beaten path in a sandbox, there seems little point in doing so. And, outside of infiltrating a base from a different angle, there seems little reason for it in crysis, especially when driving a jeep or a guntruck can get you there twice as fast, and three times easier.
Which kinda makes the play in crysis a bit dissapointing to me. You can explore the world, but there's little to compel you, beyond idle curiousity, to want to do so. It's still a point A to point B shooter...they just opened up the corridor for you along the way.
Though, played as a point A to point B corridor shooter, it's a hell of alot of fun. Freedom in combat approach is delightful, weapon choices are abundant, and once the aliens show up, the game really does step it up a notch, and become alot faster and more intense (if a tad less realistic.)
I'm not certain the setting is as immersive as other games this year like COD4 or Bioshock, but I blame the sandbox for that. The open environent takes away from urgency, and in the absense of depth that an open environment has the potential to lend, the pace seemed slowed significantly for no good reason than saying "but you can take the beach OR the road to your next destination." But either path eventually funnel to the same location (geographical barriers like mountains and waterfalls make sure of that), so what's the point?
But, as a game played for the missions only, it plays great, the combat rocks, the nanosuit is terrific, and the story, actually, was pretty enjoyable, if cut abrubtly short at the ending.
And, it's absolutely beautiful! Which makes me wonder something...
...if the game didn't look so good, would I have played it at all?
I'm not sure I know the answer. But it was, and I had fun, and fun's no small thing for a game to give me.