The Island of Dr. Moreau meets Quake on a Tropical island.
What I like :
Graphics: Realistic island paradise, with white sand beaches, lush rainforest, tropical fish swimming in the turquoise ocean, wild animals and colorful birds. Incredible Draw distance. In addition, the lighting and shadows are truly amazing. The shadows of trees will move as the wind blows, and cast over your character.
Computer AI: Is very good, the mercs are tough ambries who will use basic squad tactics to close in your position. They are able to call in for reinforcements, and use vehicles to try to stop you from finishing your mission. These people also do not sit still and are constantly moving through the forest to use it to their advantage. They are also tough to take down in later stages of the game. The monsters are less intelligent and more brute force. Though they will gang up on you. But, what would you expect for a geneticaly engineered mutant.
Sound: Besides the music, the sound affects are great. There are distinct sounds for everything on the islands. From wildlife, ocean, different ground types, and even insects. Each vehicle has a realistic sound such as the Humvees diesel engine rumbling to life, or the flapping of canvas when soaring with the hang glider. Every gun also has a very stratifying sound when used. One is also able to listen in on the mercs truly humors conversations with each other when using the Binos with the directional microphone. I did have some problems early on with a glitch where I was unable to hear some of the dialogue, and had terrible static through the speakers. I was able to fix it with updates to my Creative Audigy 4 sound card driver. However, I never had this problem with any other games I have played.
Story: Is like a cross of Island of Dr Moreau and Quake. Mad scientist tries to make super soldiers by genetics and mutants. Luckily, this game does not take itself too seriously. Much like a B movie, it is entertaining, and funny with the cheesy dialogue. However, at times it is too forced and contrived. There could have been alot more done with the story.
Negatives:
The biggest issues are the glitches. Even with all the updates applied I still had problems with animations not performing properly, stuck looping sound effects, and even a glitch that crashed the game. In almost every cut scene the animations and sound never seemed to be properly sinked together. All telling that this game was clearly rushed to market without CryTek addressing the problems. The updates help with some of the more serious problems, but still there are too many glitches in this game.
The dialogue can be very repetitive. When the mercs are coming after you, they are constantly saying the same repetitive statements. Such as “I’m going to drop your ass",” You're ass is grass" or “I'm going to shoot you in the face." There where a few others but all where annoying by level six. Valire also has some bad dialogue. She come across as very pushy, hyper critical of everything Jack does and says. Doyle is less annoying though he has a more linear role in the game.The overall story itself is a bit thin and not original at all. They could have done a lot more with the plot and dialogue.
I also found that the human rendering in this game is not as good compared to newer games. In the cut scenes, the bodies movements are rough, and do not seam natural at all. In general, the human’s models are not as refined in their movement or facially detailed as in HL2.
Conclusion :
This is a very ambitious first game from a new company. Its shows CryTek has a lot of creative genius in the company. Since they made a highly addictive game, with excellent game play, graphics, and sound. It has everything going for it. To bad Crytek had to release it with out fully addressing many of the glitches and the poor auto save design in the game. They also could have done alot more with the story. Overall it is still a great game and worth the now bargin price.