Crysis SP Demo Preview

Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3

Introduction

The Crysis Sp Demo was released yesterday and I thought you might want to see whether it was worth the 1.77Gb download. I even made a Preview Teaser video for your viewing pleasure.

Life’s a Beach!

Who hasn’t heard of Crysis, nobody who visits this website I dare say. Anyway, you probably seen many videos and viewed the screenshots but how does it actually play. As with all preview or reviews this article will contain spoilers. If you simply want to know whether it’s worth the time and effort, the answer is yes! However, I should tell you I enjoyed the Timeshift demos more (The links to the old preview, new one coming soon!).

First Things First!

The demo starts with a clichéd scene of a group of hardcore marine-type soldiers, with names like Nomad (That’s you!), Psycho (Why do they always have to be on Englishman in these groups!),and Prophet, who is the Team Lead.

Anyway, you parachute out of the plane at something thousand feet and surprise, surprise something goes wrong. You land nowhere near the LZ and have to make you way there.

So far so good.

Gameplay!

I’m a n00b and I played on Easy and I found it quite hard. I disliked the jungle setting but FarCry lovers may revel in it. The North Koreans insulted me in English and either go down rather quickly or take a few rounds to the body to die.

The enemies are outlined with a red glow and I’ve yet to decide whether that’s cool or patronizing.

The Nanosuit menu is quite slick (See the video near the beginning). Basically you press you designated Nanosuit menu key and then use the mouse to chose between, speed, strength, armor, weapons and something I can’t be bothered to remember.

As with a lot of newer games I need a few more fingers or better control of the ones I have. This demo, along with the Timeshift one motivates me to get my Belkin N50 out from the box and really try it.

I died way too many times for the Easy mode and found ammo very difficult to find. In fact I eventually figured out that I had to collect the weapons from my dead North Korean friends.

You get to drive a number of vehicles including a jeep and a speedboat which is not particualrly exciting..

The gameplay style seems quite strategic and planned and I prefer a more arcade type style, but that’s an observation rather than a criticism.

The destructible jungle is pretty cool, see the video for a palm tree split in two, and the phsyics are also very cool, no doubt about that.

More to Go

I haven’t finished the demo, so what you see is really only about 20 minutes of uninterrupted play, who knows how much more there is.

The Video and My System

The system I used was a Dell 4600, 3.4 Ghz, 1Gb ram, Sapphire ATIX1650 card and a basic sound card. I originally played it at 1024×768 but dropped it down to 800×600 hoping to improve the video quality. The game decided my rig required everything on low.

I apologize for the quality of the video, both technically and creatively it one of the first few times I’ve done it. I will get better, I promise.

Conclusion

Crysis certainly interests me much more than Bioshock did but I am cautious about stating it’s great. I generally am the odd one out when it comes to liking games, so there’s a good chance that if I say it’s okay, most will say it’s superb!

Screenshots

Click on the thumbnails below to open a medium size image. WARNING: The screenshots may contain spoilers. I didn’t take too many screenshots becasue there are so many availble on the Net anyway.

Preview Feedback

Wa this the sort of preview you found useful or was it just a waste of time? Please take the time and effort to tell me what you want in the way of screenshots, videos, descriptions etc. Would you prefer commentary on the video? Send all feedback to feedback@planetphillip.com

Preview Teaser Video

Get the Flash Player to see the wordTube Media Player.

About this entry

Published:: 27th October 2007 at 8:07 pm

Category:: Phillip's Blog

Responses:: 19 Comments (add)

AI 27th October 2007 at 22:00 1

I DL’d this demo last nite, gave it a run this morn, like you Phillip only about 20-30min so far! It’s like a sooped up FarCry!! I hope they got my favorite, a good sniper rifle! I do agree with you on too many commands and buttons to remember(comes with age!) I have found out that I need more horsepower to run the graphics better! My 8500gt card has 512mb vid, and runs everything else fine, but is getting a workout here!! I do think I’ll get this when I can!
Kerberos 27th October 2007 at 23:30 2

Hey Phillip, not that you are the odd one, but it is probably because of our rigs. I also score games clearly lower than most of reviewers, but you and me, well I got a 6800XT (Yuck) GFX. It is pretty bad but thats what I have to play… Anyway, besides that, those who review’s are 8800GTX primarily, just go to IGN, Gamespot and others to see the North-American “true Gamer” reality. *which is not my case*. I will not even bother downloading this.
macc 28th October 2007 at 11:53 3

I play it on a 7800GS (which is not a lot beter than 6800XT). I have to play it on low settings, but even then it still looks awesome.

Only too bad the story is pretty weak. Really unoriginal. Some aliens on an island, and of course there are North Koreans too, who speak English.. And like philip said, the really cliched characters.

Nonetheless it is still fun to play and the looks and physics are awesome, but I think Far Cry 2 will be a lot better.
planetphillip 28th October 2007 at 12:11 4

I’m not too worried about the graphical aspects. My PC is nearly 5 years old and I expect it to have trouble running newer games.

What I am worried about is that so far the demo is only okay to play and I was expecting something more, much more.

Perhaps this is a perfect example of over-hype?

MAybe the later levels really are great but the jungle area is nothing special.
Zockopa 28th October 2007 at 19:31 5

Well,yeah,everbody knows Crysis will be a real powerhungry game. I guess everthing lower in specs than 8800GTS and a 2,4 Gig Dualcore must
deal with hefty grafical compomises. However,is it worth it ? Im not sure. The demo was not very convincing. Clearly a new step in high-tec gamedesign,but gameplaywise its just the old thing with nothing interesting new added.
planetphillip 28th October 2007 at 20:14 6

planetphillip Said:

The demo was not very convincing. Clearly a new step in high-tec gamedesign,but gameplaywise its just the old thing with nothing interesting new added.

My thoughts exactly. That’s why I would have liked to play against the Aliens or get a look inside the ship.

Persoanlly I believe they should build specific levels just for the demos. In fact I’m going to write a new piece about that tomorrow!
cubedude89 30th October 2007 at 15:13 7

Phillip did you even try on medium or high?

I have kind of the same rig as you and I could almost play on medium but not quite

Low looks HORRIBLE

medium is pretty good.

and high is amazing

Im saving up money to upgrade my hardware so i can mod for this game with leon after strider mountain.
planetphillip 30th October 2007 at 23:23 8

I’ve just finsihed the mod and have to say:

Not because it’s great but because it’s definitely worth trying.

I upped my settings to both medium and high and on high it is absolutely beautiful but unplayable.

I’m interested to see what kinds of mods are made with the game becasue there’s only so many jungles and spaceships you can make.

That’s the great thing about HL2, there were quite a few different environments that could be used for modding.

I suppose until we see the whole game, we’ll never know.
Matt Glanville 31st October 2007 at 01:56 9

I went to the ‘Sense of Play’ talk in London on Friday and had the pleasure of meeting the lead level designer of Crysis at the bar. I had a thoroughly inciteful discussion with him about level design, game design and what German people think of killing Germans in World War II games.

Unfortunately my computer is out of action at the moment, so I have to wait to be able to play this…
andyb 31st October 2007 at 02:06 10

andyb Said:

I’m interested to see what kinds of mods are made with the game becasue there’s only so many jungles and spaceships you can make.

I can think of a few like deserts,ocean voyages,brush fire combat would be good.maybe something happening during a hurricane.How about a blizzard or even on the north or south pole.
cubedude89 31st October 2007 at 03:14 11

I want to make a mod based on the TV show LOST. Im a huge fan and the cryengine2 is perfect for it. And lucky me that Im a modeler and basically everying in crysis levels is a model (except the ground)
Our Lord and Savior Fluffy The Hamster 31st October 2007 at 03:18 12

Heart of Evil turned a game based in a nucular bunker (Half-Life) into a believable depiction of Vietnam. With mods, anything is possible!
cubedude89 31st October 2007 at 03:20 13

Oh and another cube mod! cryengine2 will allow me to make a much better cube mod then my previous hypercube source.
mmd 31st October 2007 at 05:43 14

mmd Said:

I’m interested to see what kinds of mods are made with the game becasue there’s only so many jungles and spaceships you can make.

If you take a peek at the Sandbox 2 editor (which, by the way, seems very intuitive and easy to use) there are many more environments than those two. From playing a user level I have already seen the desert area in use, and the editor has tons of textures. Couple that with a slew of weather effects and you have a large amount of possibilities.

Besides, just as with Half life 2 you can create custom textures and environments.
planetphillip 31st October 2007 at 12:03 15

planetphillip Said:

If you take a peek at the Sandbox 2 editor (which, by the way, seems very intuitive and easy to use) there are many more environments than those two.

I’ll check it out this weekend. I generally disagree with people reagrding “intuitive” becasue it competely depends on your experience. Sit somebody who has never seen an editor before and I don’t they will understand much. I digress.

planetphillip Said:

Besides, just as with Half life 2 you can create custom textures and environments.

Yes, I had little doubt of that but if you look at the first year or so after the release of a game most mods use the assets of the game.

Perhaps I am being too negative becasue I’m not a big fan of simple graphics and physics improvements.
macc 31st October 2007 at 17:33 16

I don’t mind if modders use mostly the original game’s textures. Then they can focus on story and good gameplay, something which 90% of the mods lack.

For example, some mods look awesome, but have terrible enemy placement (I hate those endless hordes of enemies), which ruins the gameplay. They were so busy creating new weapon models they forgot to add good gameplay and story (there are too many mods where you run around on a map without a goal). Frankly I dont really care if you use HL2 weapons or not. A lot of mod developers are so over ambitious, they forget what makes a game fun to play.

Minerva is a good example of an excellent mod using mostly HL2 textures, but providing excellent gameplay and story.
You should only create all your own models etcetera if you have the team and the resourses (like Black Mesa), otherwise it will end up dead anyway.
chuckanut 3rd November 2007 at 08:39 17

For those with older systems don’t let assumptions stop you form enjoying this demo. I have and GeForce 7800 GS (AGP) which the automatic configurator selected 800×600 “low”. Pretty dismal - BUT when I manually boosted to 10245/768 “med” I only dropped 2 FPS. The demo was so much more enjoyable that it was definately worth dropping the frames 2 notches.

Some comments above indicated to me that some reviewers haven’t either actually played the demo, failed to learn new weapon vesatility, or didn’t understood various menu and key commands. e.g. the North Koreans DO speak Korean in advanced mode. yes the environment is limited - It’s a demo; you’re only playing one level!, most rifles can be a sniper rifle (as well as silencer and flashlight attachment, alt fire, alt ammo) through in-game contols. In addition your suit has a number of in-game modes as well. Yes this is confusing compared to all previous shooters, including Far Cry and HL 1&2t but is far more versatile and leasds to more rewarding game play. While the demo is limited, check out the mod available on crysis-maps.com which will alter the original to provide all weapons so you can at least check them out.
cubedude89 25th December 2007 at 06:56 18

cubedude89 Said:

I’m interested to see what kinds of mods are made with the game becasue there’s only so many jungles and spaceships you can make

After playing through the mod. I felt the engine is quite versatile. Im very excited to mod for it.

When are you going to post up mods for it. ive been playing a few mods from another site.
I finally got the money to upgrade now i can play it on “Ultra High” lol, gotta love the light beams.
cubedude89 25th December 2007 at 06:57 19

cubedude89 Said:

After playing through the mod.

oops, after playing though the entire game.