Crysis

To deal with the odds the island puts you up against, your Nano suit allows you to switch between different modes – Maximum Speed, Maximum Strength, Maximum Armor and cloaking. You can use these different modes to fulfill your mission objectives whichever way you want. You can be extremely stealthy, using your suit’s cloaking ability; or you could charge into a group of enemies, guns blazing, relying on your Maximum Armor mode to protect you. Every mode you use drains your suit’s energy, so you’ve got to plan your moves in such a way that you get to safety before the energy runs out. As you can see, while the game’s storyline is quite linear, the action isn’t.

What makes the singleplayer campaign even more immersive is the island itself. When we spoke with Cevat Yerli, co-founder and president of Crytek studios, he told us a little about how Crysis was born:

"Crysis was born in November 2003, with a piece of Concept Artwork. I asked Magnus Labrant, Art Director on Crysis, to create a great vista screenshot from Far Cry and overpaint it into a frozen paradise. I like working with contrasts; they create interest in the user. The goal was to provide an imagery that would naturally imply a new experience. Upon that we defined the other shooter elements... the hero, weapons, enemies, world and set the plan out to maximize the non-linearity and interactivity."

As you can see, the island was the first character created for the game; everything was designed around it. This is quite different from the conventional approach, where a story is written first and then the world is conjured around the storyline. This approach works amazingly well for Crysis since it makes the island more than just a place where the game’s set – it almost feels like a living, breathing entity that you’re bound to fall in love with.