The downside of all of the freedom in the game is that you can get yourself into some real binds. Typical shooters put more constraints on play, but these constraints allow the level designers to control the situation. They can build things into the levels to ensure that you don't get stuck with no way out or that you have the weapons and ammo that you need to complete the level. In Crysis it is quite possible and not all that uncommon for you to get yourself into situations in which you are stuck in a long cycle of deaths and reloads. Ammo will often be in short supply and you can find yourself woefully misarmed for the situation - such as facing down a couple of tanks with a rifle and shotgun because you haven't come across a rocket launcher tucked away somewhere in a sprawling village. Inevitably this will prove frustrating for many gamers, but diligently relying on stealthier tactics and saving your game often will help to minimize the number of hopeless situations you get yourself into. Eventually the game begins to constrain your freedom, simply because it needs to funnel you towards the endgame at some point. Once you near the end Crysis begins to play more like a conventional shooter, but getting to that point is definitely worth the trip.

Other games in the past have given the player the freedom to approach objectives in multiple ways, but very few have come close to creating an environment in which you really felt that you were free to do anything. Crysis is one of those select few. The island on which the game takes place feels like a real island. You can climb to high ground and survey the area around you, not just to enjoy the view but to scout out enemy positions and base locations. When they're not aware that you're around, enemies converse with each other and go about their duties as you'd expect to see if you peered in on a real world military post. Palms sway in the breeze, birds fly in the sky, crabs scuttle across the sandy beaches, and fish swim in the shallow waters lapping the shoreline. The game's physics engine is impressive as well. Gunfire can shear a tree in half and cause it to come crashing down on a vehicle and smash its windshield. You can feel the power of explosions as they push away men and equipment. And you can pick up and throw around just about any object that you see - next time you run out of ammo, set your suit for super strength and try killing an enemy by throwing a laptop computer or two at his head; it can work! All of this world-building and those pretty island views come at the cost of processing power, though. It's possible that the computer that can run this game with all of the graphics options maxed out hasn't been built yet, and won't be for some time to come.

Once you complete the game you've got a couple of options. The first is to simply replay it. Sure the cutscenes and storyline will be the same, but your experience in the fights will undoubtedly be different. It can be fun just to load up the same stage of the game a few times and try a different approach to taking out an enemy base each time. The game also includes a couple of multiplayer modes. The first is your standard deathmatch, but the second is a unique mode called Power Struggle. In this mode two teams fight to capture spawn points and factories on the map, with the ultimate prize being the special prototype factory. Capturing this factory allows a team to work to produce a super weapon such as a nuke-armed tank that can be used to wipe out the enemy's base. This mode can be a lot of fun, and players who spend some time with it are rewarded with the ability to purchase more powerful weapons before entering a battle.

Crysis has a lot going for it, even though you'll need a pretty powerful computer to get the full experience. It does have its shortcomings though, and among other things I think that it may prove to be pretty frustrating for casual gamers and that a fair number of gamers won't be too pleased with the endgame. However, in a genre filled with mediocre titles it stands well above the crowd and is definitely worth a look.

In The End, This Game Hath Been Rated: 88%. Crysis can be an enjoyable experience as long as you're not a mediocre gamer with a mediocre system.

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