Crysis- Reckoning

“There’s something up here…something big.” ―Admiral Morrison

On board the USS Constitution, Nomad meets up again with Psycho and is then debriefed by Admiral Richard Morrison who explains that a nuclear strike has been ordered against the ice sphere. Helena warns him that the aliens might absorb the energy, but the Admiral ignores her. Prophet flies a VTOL back to the island against orders. Despite Prophet’s departure, the nuclear missile is launched at the ice sphere. The explosion causes the ice sphere to expand and prompts a massive alien counterattack. Nomad is ordered to repair one of the carrier’s nuclear reactors, damaged during the counterattack. The Nanosuit is resistant to high levels of radiation, although prolonged exposure proves deadly. While Nomad is in the reactor room, Helena sends an experimental signal through Nomad’s suit that causes several alien machines to absorb too much power and overload, destroying them. As Nomad returns to the flight deck, Admiral Morrison is killed and Nomad takes the prototype TAC-Cannon. On the flight deck, Nomad fights an alien exosuit similar to the one that killed Strickland. A massive alien warship then emerges from the sea, and Helena manages to deactivate its shields by sending a signal through Nomad’s Nanosuit. Nomad then uses the TAC-Cannon to destroy the alien warship, which falls on the carrier and begins to sink it. Nomad runs across the flight deck and jumps off the carrier into the waiting VTOL, which is piloted by Psycho. As they fly away, Helena is nearly pulled out of the aircraft by the energy field created by the destroyed alien warship. Psycho then receives a transmission that there is another Carrier Strike Group en route to the island and suggests meeting them. Nomad protests, claiming that since they now know how to defeat the aliens, they need to continue fighting. A transmission from Prophet, who is inside the energy field on the island, is then received. The VTOL is then seen turning around and heading back to the island.

• I was impressed three years ago by the level of detail found on the USS Constitution when I played Crysis at medium settings. At the highest settings possible, the game simply looks even better.

• Navigating a real aircraft carrier doubtlessly requires training, skill and an innate familiarity with the vessel’s layout. Fortunately, the Nanosuit is equipped with a mini-map, and this final mission is actually quite linear, so finding Admiral Morrison should be very straightforward. Afterwards, Nomad is directed to the armoury to obtain the information he acquired inside the Alien structure from his Nanosuit.

• I’ve jumped ahead a ways, after the Admiral receives permission to launch a limited nuclear strike on the island. As is expected, the nuclear strike isn’t particularly useful and causes more trouble for the US fleet, causing the aliens to attack and damage the carrier, causing the flooding seen here. The first time I was here, the movie 2012 was playing upstairs.

• Stablising the reactor is a simple enough task: rush in with strength mode and push a rod down, then exit the reactor core to allow the Nanosuit to recharge. Helena also establishes here that the Nanosuit can send a signal that disables the aliens: this tidbit will come in useful in a few moments. On my older review, things are written slightly differently; that difference represents the difference between how a first year and a graduate writes. The differences are minor, but I imagine that my current style is a little more polished.

• The first time I played through Crysis, I didn’t even know the suit had a night vision setting. It’s rather useful when things get really dark, such as in the bowels of the carrier, although there are places where the lighting is sufficient for one to see what is going on without using the night vision.

• To get back to the flight deck, Nomad must pass through several aircraft hangers below-deck. Players may opt to blast their way through, but naturally, cloaking and sneaking through the hangers undetected is a far simpler solution. Ammunition ranges from scarce to plentiful at different points in the mission, so using cloak is a good means of conserving ammunition. Because the enemies encountered are aliens, the Gauss rifle and shotgun remain an ideal combination.

• I think that Battlefield 3 looks slightly better with regards to graphics detailing a naval fleet, although the fact that Crysis looks nearly as good (despite being made four years earlier) bears testament to the effort that went into developing the latter.

• The time has come to obtain the Tactical Assault Cannon: this weapon is a prototype grenade launcher and it fires low-yield nuclear projectiles. It cannot be fired until permission is given later on.

• Helena’s findings allow Nomad to take down the exosuit: there is an unlimited supply of missile launchers on the Constitution’s deck. Once Helena transmits a signal to deactivate the exosuit’s shields, it is a simple matter of hammering it with missiles until it goes down.

• Players thinking that the exosuit was the final enemy are mistaken, but forgiven for doing so: the real final boss is the alien warship. Before it can be assaulted, there are four remote turrets that need to be destroyed. Missile launchers can be used to great effect here; players frozen by the beam can break free by rapidly pressing the movement keys to prevent a premature death. After the turrets are downed, Nomad relishes using the TAC: three shells later, the alien warship is defeated, and so ends the last of my Crysis posts. My next major project, as noted earlier, deals with the Anime no Chikara’s Sora no Woto. I have intended, for a very long time, to turn my considerable but hitherto unknown knowledge of Sora no Woto towards pointing out some of the cooler aspects and dispel any misconceptions about the anime: roughly 15 posts are expected. After that is done, I might begin my own talk about Valve’s Half-Life 2, but only time will tell…

Reckoning is the final mission to Crysis and acts as a thrilling conclusion to the game. Of course, I couldn’t help but notice that some of the graphical fidelity had been lost during Ascension, but thankfully, it makes a full return here in the finale. This mission marks the first time I had spent an entire mission on an aircraft carrier; it also has the most cutscenes of any of the missions in Crysis. During the first half of the mission, Nomad is running around between the bridge and armoury, but once things get started, and aliens attack the carrier, players are given what is essentially a virtual tour of a carrier. Players may have been wondering about the alien exosuit from earlier, having had no opportunity to challenge it, but it is in the game’s final moments where one has the satisfaction of destroying it. Even so, the the TAC is not used, foreshadowing an even greater enemy to defeat before the game closes. While the final battle feels like a classic scene from a bullet-hell game, it remains entertaining. Naturally, firing the TAC gun is immensely gratifying. The game itself, however, ends with a hint of there being a sequel: I played the game in March 2010, and Crysis 2 released a year later. At the end of the day, Crysis is an immensely fun journey that represents what graphics technology and high-performance GPUs are capable of: despite having a less-than-stellar story, the fact that Crysis continues to compete with some modern titles as a benchmarking tool reflects on just how innovative the game was back when it was first released in 2007.