Crysis Outstanding Gaming Moment

GOOD GAMES are easy to come by these days, given the growth of the industry, the improvements in production quality and general focus on pushing the envelope again and again to keep pace with technology. Great games however are few and far between, and even when a great game is produced it doesn’t guarantee anything from its audience. Ultimately the success or failure of the game is driven not just by the sales performance but also by the cult status it achieves amongst gamers and the level and intensity of discussions it promotes online. Typically a really excellent game will have an outstanding gaming moment, hidden somewhere within it.

I have just experienced one of those outstanding ‘gaming moments’ in playing Crysis, a moment which – for me – has justified my investment in this game, because up to this point I was beginning to loose the faith and this game was falling into the category of so many other games before it; good, entertaining but nothing “that special“.

Before I tell you about this let me first clarify a few things. For starters, if you have not played this game, or you don’t want to have any information which may spoil your gameplaying experience – then don’t read any further, because in order to explain what happened I’m going to have to get into the details. In other words… SPOILER ALERT!

So what makes an outstanding ‘gaming moment’ for me? Well, it’s those elusive occasions when you’re playing a game and the combination of all elements of that game come together into something – an event, a challenge, a scene – some unique occurance that just causes your jaw to drop. It is generally accompanied by uncontrollable expletives like ‘Fuck me!’ or “You clever, clever bastards“, and it inevitably ends in a huge appreciative grin on behalf of the player for the game designers and developers, for it was their ingenuity and forethought which crafted this moment, this special unique thing within the game in question.

It doesn’t happen very often, so when it does it’s worthy of mention.

These outstanding ’gaming moments’ are rare events, often recalled and generally hard to beat. I’ve encountered such moments in games like Half Life, Deus Ex, Tribes, Bioshock etc. but for me the most outstanding moment of them all was a level called ‘The Asylum’ in a game called Thief 3: Deadly Shadows. It was one of the scariest levels I’ve ever played in any game, where the developers used the most basic human fears against the player. The use of shadow and darkness, the audio implementation, the number of false alarms and then the triggering of the actual threats all combined into an incredible, indelible and unforgetable gaming moment. If you doubt me just go search for any keywords related to this and I’m thinking you will find forum entry after forum entry praising the development team for crafting such a brilliantly scary and entertaining level within the game. In Crysis, I experienced that same feeling last night.

For those of you familiar with the game I had entered the mine shaft, rescued the hostage and then all hell broke loose and I end up in a zero gravity environment within an alien ship. Nothing particularly outstanding about that I hear you cry, and you’re right. Zero G has been done before. Alien ships have been done before. It’s all been done before… but not quite everything. There was an attention to detail here that surprised me, so much so that I just couldn’t help myself and started laughing out loud and of couse then I heard myself utter those immortal “You clever bastards!” words, and I knew the developers had scored a hit with this one.

So – what was it that got my attention then? Well, after floating around for a bit in Zero G, fighting my way through various scenarios I eventually came upon a large cavernous ante-chamber and upon dispatching the local enemies I then happened across some side chambers with lots of floating objects. I investigated, only to discover that the aliens had been collecting human items to study. As soon as I disturbed them a radio started to play, floating away from me, the tones fading due to battery power drain. All the bits and pieces started to float away at various angles, bouncing off walls and each other, careening in every direction and it was then that I realised that I could actually salvage some of said flotsam and jetsam for some badly needed ammo. I was just about running on empty, I was running out of options and here was my salvation… but in order to get to it I needed to try to navigate myself in and around the floating goodies in a Zero G environment and grab them before they just floated off into a huge dark cavern.

All the while the radio plays, fading in and out. The ambient noises kick in to constantly remind me I’m in an alien ship. Every time I make a mistake I curse and try again. Desperately required bits of ammo are just beyond my grasp, but I keep trying. Up is down, left is right, nothing is easy but I keep trying. Then I realise I’m not alone any more… but I need that ammo, and fast! I can’t help but be impressed by the level of detail applied to the flotsam and jetsam. Here floats the history of other humans, other victims, other families. It adds context to a basic run and gun (or in this case float and gun) cycle. It gives me pause to think about the implications. It made me stop and take in the surroundings. It put things in context within the game.

It was perfect timing, perfect presentation and almost perfectly executed. I am still smiling at the feeling of contentment with the way the scene played out, and it’s only a small piece of a very large game. You can keep the excellent graphics. Hold on your your fancy weaponry and Zero G implementation. Chew up as many trees and jungles as you like with mini-guns and Gauss guns. For me the real treat in Crysis is the way the developers paced out that scene, the way I desperately needed ammo and then found it in the most unexpected place, the way the logic unfolded (of course aliens would be studying human artefacts) and the way the story develops as a result. The way it made me as a player feel about the fate of others within the game. The way it immersed me in the game.

Reading back on this post I realise that it’s really difficult to convey in words just how special that moment was, just how outstanding the design and implementation of the various components (physics engine, graphics, sound, motion etc.) was and how it contributed to my enjoyment of the scene. This is about immersion within a virtual construct. This is what gaming is supposed to do for you as a player.

To the Crysis development and design team I have this to say: Thank You and well done. I hope there are more outstanding moments to come in this game, buf it not I shall be content with this one. Job well done.