Crysis hands-on

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[PC] We get intimate with Crytek's staggeringly impressive alien-invasion shooter

The next minute we were wading through the awesome smoke effects, surprised by a spindly alien that stalked after us, bright lights on its armour glowing from within the smog. Quickly pulling out a high-powered rifle, we flipped open a menu displaying ammo options and loaded up with incendiary rounds, pulping the alien into submission with the explosive shells.

Once on deck there was a nice shock waiting for us. Through the wreckage of raging fire and clouds of smoke came a Hunter - a gigantic walking alien tank-like thing, lashing out with metal tentacles and splitting our eardrums with a deafening roar. When we got too close to the Hunter, we were swept up and thrown across the deck in a dizzying roll, and immediately the alien craft spat out a huge beam of ice that froze everything it hit.

Fortunately we'd increased the armour power of the suit, protecting ourselves from too much freeze damage, and as we shook off the ice the Hunter was being strafed by what looked like hover-jets. But it merely speared one in mid air with a free arm, bashed it to the ground and hurled it over our heads and into the battleship's command tower, which toppled in an explosion that turned the night sky blister-red.

Non-stop action like this isn't a rarity in Crysis. You'll be pushed into one epic event after another. And to keep the action interesting, your surroundings will evolve around you. From thick, crowded and destructible jungle foliage you'll discover an area of island that is totally encrusted in ice, before a disorientating finale inside the alien mothership, fought almost entirely in zero gravity.

Ben_Richardson

Ben Richardson is a former Staff Writer for Official PlayStation 2 magazine and a former Content Editor of GamesRadar+. In the years since Ben left GR, he has worked as a columnist, communications officer, charity coach, and podcast host – but we still look back to his news stories from time to time, they are a window into a different era of video games.