Crysis

This article is about the series. For the video game, see Crysis (video game).
Crysis
Genres First-person shooter
Developers Crytek
Publishers Electronic Arts
Platforms Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360
First release Crysis
November 13, 2007
Latest release Crysis 3
February 19, 2013

Crysis is a first-person shooter video game series developed by German developer Crytek and published by Electronic Arts. The series revolves around a group of military protagonists with "nanosuits," technologically advanced suits of armor that allow them to gain enhanced physical strength, speed, defense, and cloaking abilities. The protagonists face off against hostile North Korean soldiers, heavily armed mercenaries, and a race of technologically advanced aliens known as the Ceph, who arrived on Earth millions of years ago for unclear reasons, and have recently been awakened.

As of 2015, the series consists of three main installments, a standalone spinoff of the first game with a separate multiplayer title, and a compilation.

Common gameplay elements

Characters in Crysis use nanosuits, advanced powered exoskeletons developed by the military that grant them special abilities. "Maximum Armor" enhances the suit's ability to withstand bullet and shrapnel impacts, "Maximum Strength" greatly enhances the wearer's physical strength, to the point of being able to punch cars through the air; and "Maximum Speed" allows the wearer to run and act extremely fast. "Cloak" activates the suits cloaking device that makes the user near-invisible.

The first two games, Crysis and Crysis Warhead, take place in 2020 on the fictional Lingshan Islands, off the Philippines. The protagonists of both games both belong to "Raptor Team," a United States special forces operation that is sent to the island to investigate aggressive behavior by North Korea. The player uses various weapons, including traditional projectile weapons like handguns, submachine guns, assault rifles, and sniper rifles (all of which can be modified with scopes and attachments in real time), as well as explosives and the nanosuit's natural abilities. Multiplayer gameplay modes introduce fictional futuristic weapons based on the ice technology introduced by the alien antagonists who reside on the island. In single-player, Raptor Team faces off against both the North Korean military and these alien foes.

Crysis 2, the sequel to the original game, takes place in 2023 in New York City, where characters from the previous games appear or are mentioned, but the protagonist is a new character, a US Marine named Alcatraz. The nanosuit in the game (dubbed "Nanosuit 2") is a streamlined version of the original, without separate "strength" and "speed" modes, rather performing context-sensitive acts of enhanced strength or agility, although it retains the separate "armour" and "stealth" modes.

Characters

Player characters

Other protagonists

Antagonists

Games

Timeline of release years
2007Crysis
2008Crysis Warhead
2009
2010
2011Crysis 2
2012
2013Crysis 3

Main series

Crysis (2007)

Main article: Crysis (video game)

After Helena Rosenthal sends a distress signal saying the North Koreans are invading the seemingly unimportant island on which her team is working, the US government dispatches Raptor Team, a group of nanosuit-clad soldiers. After arriving on the island, however, Raptor Team's ranks are thinned by mysterious flying creatures, eventually leaving only Nomad, Psycho, and Prophet, who is subsequently kidnapped by the organisms later called the Ceph. Nomad rescues Helena but is eventually trapped in the alien ship after it unleashes an "ice sphere" on the island, freezing a great deal of the island. Nomad escapes the island with Helena and an oddly-behaving Prophet, and returns to the US carrier fleet, where he finds Psycho. Prophet returns to the island, which is subsequently nuked in the attempt to kill the aliens. However, they only grow stronger from the energy. The aliens launch a massive attack on the carrier fleet, successfully destroying it. Nomad, Psycho, and Helena escape and receive a distress signal from the still-alive Prophet, and decide to return to the island.

Crysis Warhead (2008)

Main article: Crysis Warhead

During Psycho's own mission, he was sent to retrieve a captured alien from Colonel Lee and the Koreans. After numerous setbacks and the assistance of his friend O'Neill, Psycho successfully defeats Lee, obtains the alien, and brings it back to the carrier fleet. At this point, the story continues in the original title.

Crysis 2 (2011)

Main article: Crysis 2

A sequel set 3 years after the original game, Crysis 2 takes place in New York City in 2023, which is infected by an unknown virus. The player controls Alcatraz, a US Marine who is found almost dead by Prophet, and given the upgraded Nanosuit 2 before he (Prophet) commits suicide. He is then tasked by Prophet to rescue a scientist named Nathan Gould. At first, Alcatraz has to face Crynet's CELL agents, a mercenary force who is hired by the US Department of Defense to police the chaotic Manhattan, still thinking that Alcatraz is Prophet who is infected by the virus. After discovering Ceph capsules and Catalyst, the Ceph take over as the main antagonists for the rest of the game. Alcatraz and Gould team up with Tara Strickland, an undercover CIA lieutenant, and Jacob Hargreave, the original creator of the nanosuit. Alcatraz eventually enters the Ceph core spire and wipes out all the Ceph in New York. Now facing death again, he meets a memory pattern of Prophet, whose DNA is merged into Alcatraz's. The game closes with Alcatraz being contacted by Karl Rasch, a nanosuit scientist, and vowing to continue the war against the Ceph.

Crysis 3 (2013)

Main article: Crysis 3

As with its predecessor, Crysis 3 again takes place in New York. Set in 2047, the game sees Prophet return to the now nanodome-encased New York City, on a mission of revenge against CELL, having uncovered the truth behind CELL's motives for building the quarantined Nanodomes.[1]

Other games

Crysis Wars (2008)

Main article: Crysis Wars

Warhead also contains Crysis Wars, a separate multiplayer game that improves upon the original game's multiplayer.

Crysis Maximum Edition (2012)

Crysis Maximum Edition is a compilation of all titles in the Crysis series released at the time: Crysis (2007) and Crysis Warhead and Crysis Wars (2008) published by Electronic Arts. Crytek states that the package is "the ultimate Crysis experience."[2][3]

The game does not feature any extra material. The package is primarily focused to be a low-priced combo pack. All system requirements remain the same.[2]

Crysis Trilogy (2014)

Crysis Trilogy is a compilation of all titles in the Crysis series released as of 2013. It was released on February 12, 2014 and available only on digital retailers. The compilation features all of the base games and their bonus contents.[4][5][6]

Crysis Analogue Edition: The Board Game (2015)

A turn-based strategy board game based on the Crysis mythos, subtitled Analogue Edition, is currently being developed by Frame6.[7] A Kickstarter campaign was held, but eventually cancelled following a decision over the game's funding and marketing.[8]

Reception

Aggregate review scores
As of June 9, 2012.
Game Metacritic
Crysis (PC) 91[9]
(X360) 81[10]
(PS3) 81[11]
Crysis Warhead (PC) 84[12]
Crysis 2 (PC) 86[13]
(PS3) 85[14]
(X360) 84[15]
Crysis 3 (PS3) 77[16]
(X360) 76[17]
(PC) 76[18]

Crysis was awarded a 98% in the PC Gamer U.S. Holiday 2007 issue, making it one of the highest rated games ever in PC Gamer, tying with Half-Life 2 and Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri.[19] The UK edition of the magazine awarded the game 92%, describing the game as "A spectacular and beautiful sci-fi epic." GameSpot awarded Crysis a score of 9.5 out of 10, describing it as "easily one of the greatest shooters ever made."[20] GameSpy gave it a 4.5 out of 5 stating that the suit powers were fun but also criticizing the multiplayer portion of the game for not having a team deathmatch.[21] X-Play gave it a 3 out of 5 on its "Holiday Buyer's Guide" special episode, praising the graphics and physics, but criticized the steep hardware requirements as well as stating that the game is overhyped with average gameplay.[22] GamePro honored Crysis with a score of 4.75 out of 5, saying it was "a great step forward for PC gaming," but criticized the steep hardware requirements.[23] IGN awarded it a 9.4 out of 10, hailing it as "one of the more entertaining ballistic showdowns in quite some time."[24]

Crysis Warhead, developed by Crytek Budapest, received largely positive reviews. Most reviewers praised the improvements over the original Crysis in areas like AI and gameplay pacing, citing the original game's criticism that battles were few and far between. The new protagonist, Psycho, was also received better than the original's less developed Nomad. The revamped multiplayer mode, Crysis Wars, was also praised for adding a team deathmatch mode, the lack of which most reviewers criticised in the original game. Criticism of the game by reviewers includes the short story mode and a lack of new features over the original game. Some continue to cite the game's high system requirements as unacceptable even a year after the original game, which has the same requirements. Indeed, some reviewers did not see any significant performance improvement with Warhead compared with Crysis, stating that only high-end GPUs could handle the game comfortably at decent frame rates.[25]

References

  1. Yin-Poole, Wesley. "Crysis 3 confirmed, set in New York, first story details". Eurogamer, April 16, 2012.
  2. 1 2 "Crysis Maximum Edition on Sale from May 5th". Crytek.com.
  3. "Crysis – Maximum Edition". CoverGalaxy.com.
  4. "Suit up with the entire collection of Crysis games". Origin.com.
  5. "Crysis Trilogy". GreenmanGaming.com.
  6. "Crysis Trilogy UK". GamerGate.com.
  7. Rad, Chloi (May 12, 2015). "Crysis Analogue Edition Turns Crytek's Sci-Fi FPS Into a Tactical Board Game". IGN. Retrieved September 8, 2015.
  8. Good, Owen. "The next installment of Crysis is a boardgame, if this Kickstarter is funded". Polygon. Retrieved September 8, 2015.
  9. "Crysis Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved June 9, 2012.
  10. "Crysis Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved June 9, 2012.
  11. "Crysis Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved June 9, 2012.
  12. "Crysis Warhead Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved June 9, 2012.
  13. "Crysis 2 Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved June 9, 2012.
  14. "Crysis 2 Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved June 9, 2012.
  15. "Crysis 2 Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved June 9, 2012.
  16. "Crysis 3 Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved June 9, 2012.
  17. "Crysis 3 Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved June 9, 2012.
  18. "Crysis 3 Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved June 9, 2012.
  19. "PC Gamer reviews Crysis: 98%". Play.tm. October 31, 2007. Retrieved November 13, 2007.
  20. "PC Crysis Review". GameSpot. November 13, 2007. Retrieved November 13, 2007.
  21. Kosak, Dave (December 5, 2007). "Crysis Review (PC)". GameSpy.com. Retrieved July 28, 2008.
  22. "Crysis Review". G4tv.com. January 6, 2008. Retrieved January 6, 2008.
  23. Morell, Chris (November 14, 2007). "Crysis review". GamePro. Archived from the original on November 13, 2007. Retrieved January 9, 2008.
  24. Adams, Dan (November 13, 2007). "IGN: Crysis Review". IGN. Retrieved November 12, 2007.
  25. "Crysis Warhead performance in-depth". TechSpot.com. September 23, 2008. Retrieved November 23, 2008. Realistically we do not believe the performance of Crysis Warhead is any better than the original, and we failed to see any substantial optimizations. Ideally gamers are going to require a current generation high-end graphics card to play this game in all its glory
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