Inside Crysis

DirectX 10 is hurtling steadily towards us, and hurtling with it, Crysis. We see how it's shaping up.

In many ways, Crysis looks like the Far Cry we know and love. There’s the verdant jungle packed full of places to go, people to shoot, vehicles to drive and sharks to place in awkward positions; the story is a fusion of just the right amounts of reality and sci-fi; and the graphics… well, the graphics have to be seen – and experienced – to be believed. Crysis was easily the most luscious game on show at E3 2006; a diamond of a title way above much of the exhibition’s notorious fluster.



It’s just one of a new breed of more intelligent and engaging shooters, the genre already borrowing much from its fellows. Role-playing elements are close to a standard feature now, with everything from permanently increasing the player’s maximum health in FEAR through power-ups, to Boiling Point’s full-blown RPG implementation, complete with drug addiction and bleeding simulation.

Crysis is no exception and we simply had to corner senior game designer Bernd Diemer and R&D programmer Martin Mittring to quiz them on Crytek’s ambitious new project.

Crying out loud
Diemer explains that Crytek, fresh from the Far Cry experience, was eager to start working on its next game. While the team was confident about staging the title in a jungle setting, there was a strong desire to forge ahead with a new intellectual property; to create an expansive, vibrant world much like Far Cry.
‘[We] had a concept artist overdraw a jungle picture with snow and ice. This started the “What if..” process that evolved into the concept for Crysis. In fact, for a long time the working title was “Frozen Paradise”’.

According to the Diemer, the team was eager to deliver more to Far Cry’s fan base without deviating too much – to keep the original game’s feel but expand on its scope.

‘We wanted to surprise our fans as well,’ he says.



And indeed the story shares little with the developer’s first game. Set in 2019, the player controls Delta Force operative Jake Dunn who, like any futuristic Spec Ops guy, is armed to the teeth with an array of high-tech toys, including a special Nano Muscle Suit that puts Gordon Freeman’s HEV to shame.

After a meteorite crashes into an island in the South China Sea, the US Government sends Dunn’s team to investigate. North Korea is already on top of it however, and the team has little choice but to load up and infiltrate. What follows is an involving, original story, with plenty of gunplay, freedom and interactivity – not to mention a delicious journey through the best visuals modern graphics technology has to offer.

Veni, vidi, vici
According to Crytek, Crysis unravels its plot in three sections. The first has the Delta Force team carving its way through North Korean forces to check out the meteorite. As Jake, the player has numerous options available to progress, be it stealth, strategy or all-out devastation.

‘Crysis improves on the Far Cry model of open, non-linear gameplay where the player has the choice how to overcome the challenges in ‘Action Bubbles’, as we call it. Every bubble usually has multiple paths the player can choose from, with a focus on tactical and stealth gameplay,’ explains Diemer.

‘Outsmarting the enemy is the way to play Crysis, instead of reactive run-and-gun gameplay. We call this type of design ‘Veni, vidi, vici’ [‘I came, I saw, I conquered’] which means the player can approach the situation, view and gauge for himself how to tactically defeat it and use the tools available to conquer it.’



And conquer you will, until your Delta Force team reaches the meteorite – that’s when part two of the game unfolds. From the extraterrestrial rock emerges an alien craft that immediately encases itself in a shell of ice, freezing everything in its vicinity. Thanks to his suit, Jake’s protected from the effects – but that doesn’t make things any less dangerous. The world inside the ice shell is a fragile one, a few bullets enough to shatter the frozen objects within. From here, the suit plays a huge role in protecting Jake, who can use its abilities to defend against the invaders. If that wasn’t enough, the protective shell will disrupt natural weather and global conditions, so don’t be surprised by the odd earthquake, tsunami
or tornado.

The Nano Muscle Suit (also called the Nano Fibre Suit) is perhaps the most interesting aspect of the new game. Similar in function to the ‘feral abilities’ in Far Cry: Instincts on Xbox, the player can choose to expend energy to achieve various superhero-like effects.

‘Taking inspiration from the Future Warrior 2020 program, we developed the Nano Fibre Suit that can enhance strength, speed and armour levels. The player can max the speed to dash across an open field, change to the strength setting and silently punch out a sentry,’ says Diemer. The suit will also reportedly feature stealth options and an emergency ‘shockwave’ weapon when things get too tough.



Taking a page from THQ’s Stalker, weapons can be customised to add that extra little something. According to Diemer, every weapon in the game will feature a ‘rail system’ that can accept a silencer, flashlight or scope. There’s also ‘Tactical Bullets’, or smart rounds that can knock enemies out, track them and even pack small charges that can be remotely detonated.

‘All customisation is done on the fly without stopping the game,’ says Diemer. We did say Jake had a lot of high-tech toys, didn’t we?