Cheatbook - Crysis Preview and Screenshots

Crytek created an everlasting impact on the minds of first-person shooters with Farcry. Though Farcry was a game with immense graphics and environment effects, it cannot match up to the game which is yet to be released in the quarter half of 2007. This game is also developed by Crytek only and is published by Electronic Arts. Yes, we are talking about the game Crysis which with its release will bring with itself a new horizon that will change the future of gaming. With the most advanced engine CryENGINE 2 and the first game that is based on Microsoft Direct X 10, Crysis is going to come out as a game with the most advanced graphics, lighting effects, environment effects and so on. Some of the technology it will utilize include dynamic day/night cycle, fully interactive environments, sunrays and diffuse transmission, real time soft shadows, soft particles, interactive/destructible environments, volumetric clouds, and advanced shader technology.

The story of the game goes like this. Cyris is set in the year 2019 when a giant asteroid from the atmosphere hits an island (in Spratly Island chain) in the South China Sea. As soon as the news of the unidentified flying object reached the North Korean Government they rush their troops to the island to find out about the object. After blockading the island they soon discover a large mysterious asteroid. After some time the United States also sends in their Delta Force squad to investigate what is going on in the island. Here you take up the role of Jake Dunn who is a member of this squad. When the Americans arrive on the island they are welcomed by attacks from the North Korean Troops and this rivalry grows intense between the two nations. While tempers flare and fighting continues between the North Koreans and Americans, the asteroid opens up revealing a large alien mother ship. The ship encloses itself inside a large sphere causing a large part of the island to become frozen (including anyone who was unlucky enough to get caught in its reach) and also causes variances in the weather. Thus nearly more than half of the part of the island is frozen thus making access into the deeper parts to reach the ship more difficult.

Once the ship is revealed and the fighting between the Americans and the North Koreans continues, there is the entry of the villains, i.e. the Alien troops from the ship. This Alien enemy brings with it some extremely high tech and dangerous weapons - to such an extent that the North Koreans and Americans join forces. At this point, we have to fight our way through a raft of different environments and enemies to save the world. A feature which has been given to you as you fight all your enemies is your armor suit packed with the latest technologies. The best part about this tremendous suit is that energy can be directed to different parts of the armor to give players different options for their use. If the player wants to get to a place very fast before time runs out, then the armor can be configured to send energy to the legs to increase the speed so that you can reach the desired place on time. Sometimes it is also possible to provide the energy to give enough of strength to carry enough of those heavy loaded weapons as well as armor for extra protection. This suite is also designed in such a way that if your health level goes down then after some time the suite gradually restores your health level.

The best part of this game is the details, the visuals and the effects. Using the Direct X 10 based design this game is sure to be a hit amongst others for its most advanced graphics. The gameplay environment is almost amazing, thanks to the newly developed cryENGINE 2. The reaction of the surrounding particles, for e.g. when we pass through a bush the leaves react to our contact with them by bending outwards or even falling off. Almost everything can be destroyed in this game in which you can also shoot down branches of a tree over an enemy to cause enough damage to him. The suns rays, the clouds, the sparkling water look almost real and it is really amazing to see such work done by the developers in creating such a game. The enemies in the game have an excellent AI and I am sure like other games this game won’t let you down in enemy interaction. An interesting enemy in this game is a giant bug called the Hunter. The Hunter is one hell of a beast. Lit up with all sorts of great glowing lights, outfitted with tentacle arms that grab and chuck objects at its enemies, and a massive beam weapon, it's an awesome spectacle. A few rockets right into the maw of the giant alien machine is enough to take it down, but in the final game the enemy AI should prove to be more adaptable. As the player progresses through levels he is encountered by various helpful additions to his weaponry. The player character, along with having very adaptable armor, will have customizable weaponry and customizable bullets. This means additions like vision, infrared, and microphone scopes along with silencers for those trickier situations where being quiet is important. Bullets on the other hand can be adapted to put an enemy to sleep or even act as a sound beacon to attract enemies away from an area.

The game also has a multiplayer option which will also be very good if the game is installed on PCs with the latest Direct X 10 card, the NVIDIA GeForce 8800(even though the cost is heart breaking).

So, in order to try out a game with the most advanced game engine and which works on Direct X 10 based graphics card, we will have to just wait till it releases.

By Clive D’Souza