Common Sense Note
Parents need to know that this game is a mature-rated science-fiction shooter filled with a good deal of blood and strong language. Its military violence is on par with most other mature shooters, but the game's bar-raising graphics serve to intensify the combat experience by making everything seem hyper-realistic. Note also that its innovative visuals require high-end PC hardware, which means you may need to upgrade your computer in order to play it.
Families can talk about the difference between playing games on home computers as opposed to consoles. Which method of control do you prefer, a keyboard or a gamepad? What do the game's hyper-realistic graphics do for this game? How does this story line compare to other sci-fi shooter games?
Common Sense Review
Reviewed By: Chad Sapieha
CRYSIS, an adult-oriented sci-fi shooter that sees players fighting human soldiers and alien invaders on a remote desert island, is a dazzling visual achievement that makes even the latest Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 games appear quaint by comparison.
Swells of ocean water heave up and down. Gorgeous butterflies flit about flowers while crusty crabs crawl along the sand. Leaves, grass, and tree bark have surface textures that, when viewed from only a meter or so away, look like the real thing. And all of these objects obey real-world laws of physics. Fire a rifle into the jungle and its slugs will slice through branches and trunks, felling trees like invisible lumberjacks. Push a wooden crate into a stream and it will bob up and down as it floats away. Indeed, it is among the most visually realistic games ever made. And by virtue of this unmatched verisimilitude, Crysis immerses players in its world like no other game that has come before.
But all of this authenticity comes at a price, and that price is three or four thousand dollars -- the cost of a state-of-the-art gaming machine. Play without a technologically advanced rig and you'll have no choice but to run the game at the lowest visual settings, which has the unfortunate effect of making it feel more or less like an average PC shooter.
The story is straightforward: You take the role of a soldier of the future who dons a high tech nanosuit that augments natural human qualities like speed, strength, and fortitude. Your mission is to find out what happened to a group of American archaeologists who have stopped communicating with the outside world. Turns out the North Korean Army has invaded the island. But, before long, it becomes apparent that the true threat is something decidedly less terrestrial.
Firefights typically take place in massive environments with believable geography that allows for diverse strategies of attack. Will you take your time and sneak around an enemy encampment by skulking through the jungle and climbing up and down ravines, or hop into a truck and barrel through the front gates? If a group of enemies are hiding in a hut, you can roll a grenade into it, or shoot out load-bearing timbers to make the roof collapse. You can jump in any vehicle you run across, grab any weapon you find, and choose how gung-ho or stealthy you'd like to be.
This almost limitless gamut of possible tactics is impressive, but it's not unprecedented. From Assassin's Creed to the Grand Theft Auto games, open-ended play is de rigueur these days. And since most people don't own machines powerful enough to take advantage of Crysis' greatest strength -- namely, it's bar-raising graphics -- the majority of players probably won't find that it stands out from the pack in any significant way.
Other sci-fi shooters with realistic worlds and open-ended play include Half-Life 2: The Orange Box and Battlefield 2142. For a kids game that challenges players to take into account physical laws, try Super Mario Galaxy, which does some wonderful things with gravity.
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ViolenceThe vast majority of the action revolves around shooting enemy soldiers and aliens. Blood appears frequently, and lifelike rag doll physics makes bodies whirl and contort in startlingly realistic fashion when hit by bullets or impacted by explosions. |
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LanguagePlayers typically fight alone, so there isn't much dialogue (or profanity) during combat. However, expect to hear a full range of four-letter curse words ("f--k," "damn," "hell," "s--t") when soldiers talk to each other during story sequences. |
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Social BehaviorThis is a military game, so the player has to kill people, which is pretty much the most antisocial behavior imaginable. However, the conflict is morally justified within the context of the narrative, making combat more acceptable than it is in games in which players kill other characters just for the sake of killing. |
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