What could have been a legendary shooter settles for being merely good due to inconsistent quality.
Cons: Cinematic sections of the game fall flat; The game is much less interesting in the linear portions; Multiplayer is a convoluted, unpopulated mess; Requires one hell of a PC to run with graphic features turned up
2007. I would like to remind you that Crysis, arguably the most detailed game released yet (though not without a couple contenders) was released 3 years ago. That's just how ridiculously detailed this game is.
As I brush through thick foliage, light gliding down slowly through the branches, I come upon a beautifully flowing river flowing through the middle of the woods that go on for miles as far as I can see. I decide to take a swim and stop to admire the way the light creates little lines in the water, refracted by the surface. This may not be the most action-packed scene of the game (well, actually it was pretty action packed; I omitted the parts about fighting Kroean soldiers), but it illustrates the beauty of crisis. And without spoiling too much, the scenery changes about halfway through the game and still looks absolutely stunning.
This is at the cost of performance. I have a fairly modern gaming PC built within the last few months (as of this writing) and it could not run smoothly on Very High settings. And likely due to the draw distance, it even had a few frame hitches in a mix of Medium and High settings. Although Crysis may still look great on lower settings, to truly showcase what the game can do, you'll need a beefy PC, and likely a tolerance for frame rate hitches.
Luckily, Crysis isn't a glorified tech demo and has gameplay to back up these impressive visuals. The gameplay is centered around the nanosuit, which allows you to switch between shields (think Halo regenerating shields), speed (running speed, not the drug), power (which also lets you jump incredibly high), and cloak (my personal favorite, which turns you invisible as long as you don't fire). And despite these impressive superhero-esque powers, the game never feels unbalanced (you can't run most powers for too long and you can't take much damage). In fact, it's fairly challenging early on. You'll be given an open-ended scenario with a broad objective and will be tasked with using your powers to tackle the situation any way you please.
This is where Crysis excels. You might sneak up on an enemy, switch to power, fling him at his friends only to speedily run past play the role of a silent hunter, stalking your prey one by one and silently eliminating them. You might play a super-powered behemoth who jumps to high locations and flings barrels at foes. Or you might just flee at high speeds with your tail between your legs (I'm not above admitting that I did so a few times).
Unfortunately after a certain point in the campaign, things become less open, and less fun as a result. The game gets more cinematic, which doesn't work given its fairly uninteresting plot (your typical secretive government and sci-fi twist story), and the linearity ruins most of the chances to use the nanosuit effectively, transforming the game into a run-of-the-mill sci-fi shooter. Things get even worse in a confusing and sparsely populated online component that is hardly worth the time it takes to learn.
Recommending this one is a bit hard. On the one hand you have some fantastic early game scenarios that are among the best in the genre, and a great showcase of a PC's technical prowess. But on the other hand, the rest of the game ranges from lackluster at worst to run-of-the-mill at best. If you find the game cheaply or can borrow it from a friend, I can recommend giving it a go for those fantastic early stages alone, but otherwise this package is a bit too inconsistent to warrant the full price.