A modern day FPS classic comes over to consoles with (almost) everything intact.
What this is, is Crysis running on the CryEngine 3 engine that powered Crysis 2 earlier this year. What this also is, is an excellent translation of a modern FPS classic finding a new home.
The first thing you always have to bring up when discussing Crysis are the amazing graphics. The PC version is 4 years old and it still ranks highly in the best looking games of all time. This console version isn't quite as pretty as it's big brother but make no mistake, this is one good looking game. The environments are full of vegetation and an attention to detail that makes it easy to get lost in a forest as you stalk unsuspecting enemies. Small villages and towns are cluttered with garbage and there are animals that scurry into the water as you run closer to them on a moonlit beach. There are some blurry textures and some graphical pop ins but nothing immediately noticeable or at all game breaking.
The game play has been tweaked a little bit. In the PC version you have a wheel that allows you to select your suits four main powers: speed, cloak, strength, and armor. On the PS3, however, you activate cloak and armor the same you way you do in Crysis 2: by pressing L2 and R2. Speed is no longer select-able, instead you just sprint and take off like a rocket. When Strength was activated in the original, you gained the abilities to super-strength punch someone and jump exceptionally high. That's different now, you can select your fists as weapons and to execute a super-jump you just holding the X button. It's actually an improvement because now you can mix and match abilities. Now you can be invisible with stealth mode, and execute a super jump without having to switch to strength. There are little combinations like this that make the control mapping a bit more comfortable.
The vast environments are all here as well. You have the options to go about finishing your mission anyway you see fit with a fun assortment of weapons (all with attachments), and it maintains replay-ability because of it. One play through you might stealth your way through a hostile village and the other you might run in guns a blazing. Or maybe you'll go completely out of your way to snipe them from a high ridge. Or maybe you'll just mix and match tactics. Whatever you want to do you can. It's a little disappointing they didn't incorporate stealth kills and sliding from Crysis 2, but it probably has something to do with remaining faithful to the original game.
Probably the most interesting thing about Crysis is that it runs smoothly, especially compared to Crysis 2 earlier this year which suffered from frame rate issues when things became a bit more intense. This game is more technically demanding, featuring larger enemies, much more open environments, and set pieces just as large yet it runs much smoother. There are few frame rate dips from time to time, but it's clear that Crytek learned the consoles better and used the technology more efficiently this time around.
The AI is also better. There are a few instances of "psychic snipers" that will call you out 200 yards away when you're trying to sneak through a bush, but for the most part the enemies are a convincing foe this time around.
This is a game that throws everything at you. You'll fight platoons of enemies, have a zero gravity fight inside an alien space ship, shoot down helicopters, run circles around a tank, battle other nano suit users, pick up a mini gun and shoot down waves of alien ships flying through the sky. It rewards you for experimenting. Put C4 on an explosive barrel, then throw it at a group of enemies and detonate the charge if you want. Do all of this, and the game will look great and run great. It's absolutely amazing Crytek managed to bring this over to consoles as well as they did.
However, not everything about the original Crysis is here. First off, there is no multiplayer. Not that there's any shortage of FPS multiplayer games out there that you need another one, but it is worth mentioning that when buying this game you're getting the single player campaign and that alone. Also, each level from the original Crysis game is present minus a stage called "Ascension" in which you piloted a VTOL aircraft for a few minutes (literally, that's the whole level). It doesn't dampen the experience and the level itself was never that fun to begin with, but purists might hate it's absence. However, if you never played the original you wouldn't even notice a stage is missing. None of the story or progression is missing because of it.
If you love shooters and never played Crysis before, there's little reason to pass this up. However, if you played and completed the PC version, there isn't a lot of reason to return. Unless you love getting trophies and are interesting in the complete-with-Platinum list this comes with, of course.