Tropical Islands, aliens and North Koreans!

CryTek, the developers behind acclaimed FPS game Far Cry are busy at work creating the sequel. They are using a new stunning graphics engine and lifelike AI, they plan to make Crysis even better than their first venture.

This time around, you play Jack Dunn, a special-forces operative, sent in with a team to investigate an island where an asteroid recently crashed. The American government isn't exactly sure what's going on, but since North Korea and China have interests in obtaining whatever there is on that island, a team is sent to investigate.

Upon further investigation, the asteroid in question turns out to be an alien craft and the aliens that are found inside aren't exactly friendly. The result is that you have to cooperate with the North Koreans and the Chinese to kill the aliens. If you spend the first part of the game killing North Koreans and Chinese soldiers at will and not caring too much about the consequences, you'll have a hard time cooperating with them later in the game.

The aliens in question have a very large weakness, they are need temperatures below zero degrees to survive. To compensate, they pack technology to turn large areas into frozen tundra. So you can look forward to different climates in the game.

Along with the ability to modify your rifle seemingly at will, you also have a suit which is equipped with nano technology. These suits allow you to stealth yourself and send out special waves to knock out nearby enemies. The suit can also increase your speed and has the ability to heal you if you are injured. You can change the "mode" of your suit to allow for better sneaking, better attacks, or better healing.

The game is supposed to have ten hours worth of single player gameplay, which includes alternative endings and romance options (a female soldier). If one of your squadmates die, he or she is permanently gone.

Far Cry was impressive for its graphics, but in my personal opinion, I felt the story belonged in a movie starring Steven Segal or Jean Claude Van Damme. But it appears that a good storyline has been one of the team’s highest priorities with Crysis and hopefully the story will be deeper and better than Far Cry.


Crysis will take full advantage of DirectX 10 and with that comes a whole new degree of visual goodness which has impressed crowds and critics at E3. I was impressed with how the grass moves when you or an enemy walks in it and the destructible environment.

No launch date has been set, but the game is expected to be on shelves before the end of the year. Crysis will be published by Electronic Arts.

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