I would say yes. In terms of a single player campaign i just cant see how anything surpasses it. Forget the graphics, from a strictly gameplay perspective it just manages to get things so right. Is there a more satisfiying sequence of events in the fps genre then to lie prone on a clifftop, overlooking a military base, identifiying enemy numbers, weapons, vehicles and points of entry through your binoculars, planning your attack, then creeping down through the foliage and executing your plan, using the cloak for concealment, picking the enemies off predator-like one by one, emerging from the shadows to silently dispose of your prey before disappearing away without a trace?
A good imagination is a prerequisite of course... imagining the enemy, petrified as this imperceptible assassin drifts through their ranks slaughtering all in his wake. Its just all so extremely cool, play it on hard or delta and there is simply nothing that comes close. Perhaps its the stealth element that pushes crysis head and shoulder above other fps for me, after all we are hardly spoiled for choice in this genre on pc. You are one man against an entire army, yet it feels like it is you who has the upper hand, the hunted becomes the hunter! But one wrong move, one slip up, and it could very well spell disaster. Its a tightrope you walk, but makes the game all the more thrilling for it, and if your tactics pay off it feels extremely satifiying. And this is just one way to play the game. There is no linear route to follow, no holding your hand down a predetermined path, you are shown the target, the area, then the rest is up to you.
Anyway, enough over embelishment, down to brass tacks.. for it to lay claim to the title of greatest fps this gen then lets plonk it in the ring, nose to nose, with some of the heavy hitters of this gen and see which lands the KO blow. So lets start with the console favourite call of duty 4 - looking at the first level of each we get a sense of the games and what theyre all about. COD 4 gives you a brief intro by a cockney sounding remarkably like Psycho from crysis and then starts off with a tutorial in a shooting range and then on to an obstacle course.
Crysis's tutorial is more in the baptism of fire vein, seamlessly weaved into the start of the game, and straight in to the action from the start. Washed up on a beach and disorientated, with your teammates scattered haphazardly around the coast of the island, you stumble across a korean soldier patrol and with a slight jig of your weapon config and the use of your cloak dispose of them with satisfiying aplomb. Meeting up with one of your teammates, you discover the body of another from your squad, skinned and hanging from a tree. So far, so very Predator... cool.
Complete the tutorials in cod4 and you're thrust into a daring assault on a cargoship in the bering strait to rescue a package. With your squad mates leading the way, giving the orders and taking the initiative, you can't help but feel like a passenger, never essential to the success of the mission - more of a spectator.
The visuals are great, the guns feel substantial, the pacing is fast but it feels... ultra linear. We'll give it the benefit of the doubt though, after all you are on a ship so how much freedom can they really give? Lets move on to the second mission.
So.. to Russia and on the move through the marshlands, led by your teammates to meet up with a Russian associate who takes you to an area your contact is holed up in. Overlooking the battle ground you snipe several enemy troops, before being led round the path to the cliff top and into a ferocious firefight with enemy troops. Try to deviate from this path and there are invisible barriers preventing you from doing so. And this is essentially where the game falls down. The linear route is never concealed, its a corridor shooter without the corridors. You move along a fixed path from shootout to shootout, killing x amount of respawning enemies and then moving on down the predestined narrow passage to the next set piece battle.
In comparison Crysis offers something different. Just minutes from starting the game, as the sun begins to rise, you find yourself peering out overlooking a bay patrolled by enemies in boats and on the beach. Your orders? Unblock the device on the beach preventing you from communicating with your team and then make your way around the coast to rescue a hostage. That is all.... That is all! Freedom! Or the illusion of freedom. In FPS terms its the same thing. Use stealth, or go in all guns blazing. Comandeer the boat and speed across the bay bypassing all the beaches, hijack the jeep sent to look for you and make your way round, highly conspicuous yet with the use of a powerful gun turret, or make your way on foot, along the beach, or over the hills, or go around the hills coming out on the beach round the corner... Any way you wish!
And this is what tips the scales in crysis's favour. Both have predictable but easy to follow storylines (even though its probably its weakest pount I still prefer Crysis' story tbh), both have pretty graphics (no prizes for guessing which is better though) and satisfiying gunplay. Both have some epic and memorable moments (Crysis beats it again in this respect though), yet it is the perceived freedom that crysis gives you that really delivers the telling blow. Cod4 staggers against the ropes... Oh, and the nano suit... K.O.
So who else do we have? Half life 2 episode 2? More of the same really wasn't it? Revolutionary in 2004, by 2007 it was just great. Not quite the exceptional slice of gaming excellence some claim, the final set piece, for the first time in the series, felt like a computer game set piece. Drive round in a buggy with the Magnusson devices attached, find a strider, jump out, gravity gun the device on to the strider and then shoot it to explode. Hmmmm... it was fun, for a while, but i soon found myself cursing this Magnusson fellow for not having the gumption to include the option to explode the devices by remote control or something far less.. fiddly.
Crysis is new, fresh, different - new suit, new powers, new guns, half life 2 simply cant compete with this onslaught of modern-ness, not in fps terms thats for sure. And despite a few tweaks in the visual department it's beginning to look out of date. Stick it side by side with crysis and wow... its practically archaic (see above pic of crysis!).
Other shooters deserve a mention - halo 3 was great fun but did nothing that was new or revolutionary, r6lv likewise was great, a fps which required some pre planning and intelligent teamwork, not to the standard of previous rainbow 6 games but still great, satisfiying and certainly worthy of a mention. Someone forgot to tell them though that its not 1991 when they made the cutscenes (see below).
Anything else? Cod waw? More of the same. Far cry 2? (laughs hysterically). Errr.. Gears of war? Tps yes, but its still a shooter and a big blockbusting steroid fuelled shooter at that, trouble was it got a little repetitive after a while despite the hollywood visuals, but was fun and had enough in the good looks department to get people to stick with it. All fur coat and no knickers though really. STALKER? Hmmm not sure exactly what sort of that game that was, a FPS with stats? Its a bit too different to consider in this category anyway, file with bioshock, fallout 3, mass effect and games of that ilk.
So the last one standing is crysis. All hail the fps king of this gen.
oh dear. and not a one off bad screen. take a look at a couple of others..
^ One of the flashback scenes from early on in the game with your huskys pulling you towards the ship trapped in the ice at the north pole.
^ The frozen ship upon entering, with your stamina and heat meter in the bottom left corner. One look inside and i'd be straight back out tbh..
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