Crysis (series)

Crysis is a first-person shooter video game series developed by German developer Crytek and published by Electronic Arts. The series revolves around a group of military protagonists with "nanosuits," technologically advanced suits of armor that allow them to gain enhanced physical strength, speed, defense, and cloaking abilities. The protagonists face off against hostile North Korean soldiers, heavily armed mercenaries, and a race of technologically advanced aliens known as the Ceph, who arrived on Earth millions of years ago for unclear reasons, and have recently been awakened. The series consists of three main installments, a standalone spinoff of the first game with a separate multiplayer title, and a compilation.

Common gameplay elements
Characters in Crysis use nanosuits, advanced powered exoskeletons developed by the U.S. military that grant them special abilities through dedicated "modes", as well as the ability to switch between them at will. Nanosuit's "armor mode" enhances the suit's ability to withstand bullet and shrapnel impacts, "strength mode" greatly enhances the wearer's physical strength, to the point of being able to punch cars through the air; and "speed mode" allows the wearer to run and act extremely fast. Lastly, "cloak mode" activates the suit's optical cloaking device that makes the wearer near-invisible.

The first two games, Crysis and Crysis Warhead, take place in 2020 on the fictional Lingshan Islands, off the Philippines. The protagonists of both games both belong to the fictitious "Raptor Team," a United States special forces operation that is sent to the island to investigate aggressive behavior by North Korea. The player uses various weapons, including traditional projectile weapons like handguns, submachine guns, assault rifles, and sniper rifles (all of which can be modified with scopes and attachments in real time), as well as explosives and the nanosuit's natural abilities. Multiplayer gameplay modes introduce fictional futuristic weapons based on the ice technology introduced by the alien antagonists who are later found to reside on the island. In single-player, Raptor Team faces off against both the North Korean military and these alien foes.

Crysis 2, the sequel to the original game, takes place in 2023 in New York City (as does the later Crysis 3), where characters from the previous games appear or are mentioned, but the protagonist is a new character, a U.S. Marine named Alcatraz. The nanosuit in the game (dubbed "Nanosuit 2") is a streamlined version of the original, without separate "strength" and "speed" modes, rather performing context-sensitive acts of enhanced strength or agility, but retaining the separate "armor" and "cloak" modes.

Player characters

 * Nomad, real name Jake Dunn, is the protagonist of the first Crysis, a member of Raptor Team. His backstory is alluded to in Crysis Warhead, where it is revealed he replaced O'Neill as a member of Raptor Team. Nomad survives the events of the first game and is, as of its ending, returning to the island with the intent to find Prophet and stop the alien threat at its source.
 * Psycho, real name Michael Sykes, is the protagonist of the spinoff Crysis Warhead and another member of Raptor Team. He appears throughout the first half of Crysis and then returns in the last level, and Warhead fills in the intermediary time as Psycho attempts to stop the North Koreans led by Colonel Lee from extracting a captured alien and reverse-engineering its technology. As of the end of the first game, Psycho is returning to the island with Nomad with the intent to find Prophet. Psycho returns in Crysis 3, as a member of the resistance against CELL. He no longer wears his Nanosuit, as CELL has skinned it from him.
 * Alcatraz, the silent protagonist of Crysis 2, a Force Reconnaissance Marine deployed to New York City to rescue the scientist Nathan Gould. Found near death by Prophet, he is equipped with Prophet's nanosuit, resuscitated and made to continue searching for Gould. As he battles his way through hostile CELL mercenaries, he eventually finds Gould (who believes the suit wearer to be Prophet), only to be ambushed by CELL operatives and become separated. Gould and Alcatraz eventually meet up again at Grand Central Station, where they plan to evacuate the remaining people left in New York City. After leaving Central Station, Alcatraz makes his way to the Prism, the island where the nanosuit's creator, Jacob Hargreave, resides, planning to study "deep layer protocols" stored in the suit by Prophet. After doing so, he evacuates the island after it self-destructs, making his way to Central Park. There, he completes the "Assimilation" and wipes out all alien forces in New York City. While presumed dead, he meets Prophet in the virtual reality of the suit. When Karl Rasch, joint creator of the Hargreave-Rasch biomedical company which developed the nanosuit, contacts Alcatraz as he rises out of the rubble of Central Park, and asks who is the wearer of "Jacob Hargreave's Nanoshell", he responds "They call me... Prophet." By the events of Crysis 3, Alcatraz's consciousness has been completely overridden by Prophet's.
 * Prophet, real name Laurence Barnes, is the leader of Raptor Team and appears in Crysis, Crysis 2 and Crysis 3 (though he can be heard in Warhead). Prophet guides Nomad throughout the first part of his mission, but is captured by an alien and presumed dead until Nomad finds him in the ice sphere. After being rescued, Prophet begins acting oddly, having unexplained knowledge of alien technologies and a drive to return to the island. He returns to the island during the final battle and is presumed dead again when the military nukes the island, but somehow sends a message to Nomad and Psycho and they head back to find him. He also appears in the beginning of Crysis 2 as the Nanosuit 2's first wearer, giving the suit to Alcatraz before killing himself to break his symbiosis with the suit. However, the Nanosuit appears to "store" Prophet's consciousness inside itself, and eventually lets it take full control over itself and Alcatraz. At some point during the events of Crysis 3, the Nanosuit's inhibitors are removed, allowing it to fully bond with the wearer by the end of the trilogy and take on Barnes' appearance, essentially resurrecting him.

Other protagonists

 * Helena Rosenthal is a scientist on the island who is captured by the North Korean army. She is rescued by Nomad and returned to the US carrier fleet. She, Nomad, and Psycho survive the alien attack and intend to return to the island to find Prophet.
 * Sean O'Neill is a major character in Warhead who is an old friend of Psycho's. He was originally supposed to be a member of Raptor Team, but was replaced by Nomad after failing an evaluation test. He assists Psycho several times despite being told not to by the military, and eventually escapes the island with Psycho. It is not known what happened to him during the alien attack on the carrier fleet.

Antagonists

 * General Kyong is the leader of the KPA military detachment to the island and the primary antagonist of Crysis; he intends to use the aliens' technology to turn North Korea into a world-dominating superpower.
 * Colonel Lee is one of the leaders of the North Korean army on the island and the primary antagonist of Warhead. He captures an alien and intends to bring it to Korea for reverse-engineering, but is stopped several times by Psycho. At the end of the game, Lee is finally defeated and presumably killed by the alien warship.
 * The Ceph are an initially-unnamed extraterrestrial race that has been dormant on the island in a large mountain. Their units range from small, robotic creatures and powered exoskeletons to enormous warships. In the first game they use ice-based technologies and can grow in strength when they absorb energy. The purpose of the aliens on Earth is unclear, but they are antagonistic towards both the American and Korean armies. They remained unnamed until the 'Prophets Journey' trailer and the multiplayer demo. In the second game it is revealed that they possess multiple buried structures around the planet, like the ones in the Lingshan islands and beneath New York City.
 * Commander Dominic Lockhart is the primary antagonist of the first half of Crysis 2 and the leader of C.E.L.L. (Crynet Enforcement & Local Logistics), he is attempting to kill Alcatraz, whom he thinks is Prophet. Lockhart is a sociopath who will do anything to achieve his goals, including betraying his employer and going against orders given to him by his superior officer. He is killed when Alcatraz throws him out of a second story window.
 * C.E.L.L. Agents are members of Crynet, the Company behind the quarantining of New York City. They, along with the Ceph, are the main enemies that Alcatraz faces in Crysis 2. They are human and use armor along with a wide variety of guns. Though they are generally weak foes, they have more powers in numbers. They can use vehicles, such as trucks, tanks, and helicopters.
 * Jacob Hargreave is the true antagonist of Crysis 2. He is one of the co-founders of Hargreave-Rasch and at first guides Alcatraz through many of the levels following Gould's capture until Alcatraz kills Lockhart, but then betrays Alcatraz and reveals his true motive to take Alcatraz's suit so he can fight the Ceph himself. However, before he can kill Alcatraz, he is in turn betrayed by one of his subordinates, Tara Strickland, who was in truth an undercover CIA operative; she reveals to Alcatraz that Hargreave was the one behind the events of the original Crysis, orchestrating the encounter between the US military and the Ceph, and that he came in contact with the Ceph in Tunguska over a century ago. Alcatraz confronts him in his office, where it is revealed that he is actually in a vegetative state and floating in a green fluid filled chamber. He is presumed dead by the end of Crysis 2 when the Hargreave-Rasch building collapses after an attack by the Ceph.

Crysis (2007)
After Helena Rosenthal sends a distress signal saying the North Koreans are invading the seemingly unimportant island on which her team is working, the US government dispatches Raptor Team, a group of nanosuit-clad soldiers. After arriving on the island, however, Raptor Team's ranks are thinned by mysterious flying creatures, eventually leaving only Nomad, Psycho, and Prophet, who is subsequently kidnapped by the organisms later called the Ceph. Nomad rescues Helena but is eventually trapped in the alien ship after it unleashes an "ice sphere" on the island, freezing a great deal of the island. Nomad escapes the island with Helena and an oddly-behaving Prophet, and returns to the US carrier fleet, where he finds Psycho. Prophet returns to the island, which is subsequently nuked in the attempt to kill the aliens. However, they only grow stronger from the energy. The aliens launch a massive attack on the carrier fleet, successfully destroying it. Nomad, Psycho, and Helena escape and receive a distress signal from the still-alive Prophet, and decide to return to the island.

Crysis Warhead (2008)
During Psycho's own mission, he was sent to retrieve a captured alien from Colonel Lee and the Koreans. After numerous setbacks and the assistance of his friend O'Neill, Psycho successfully defeats Lee, obtains the alien, and brings it back to the carrier fleet. At this point, the story continues in the original title.

Crysis 2 (2011)
A sequel set 3 years after the original game, Crysis 2 takes place in New York City in 2023, which is infected by an unknown virus. The player controls Alcatraz, a U.S. Marine who is found almost dead by Prophet, and given the upgraded Nanosuit 2 before Prophet commits suicide. He is then tasked by Prophet to rescue a scientist named Nathan Gould. At first, Alcatraz has to face Crynet's CELL agents, a mercenary force who is hired by the U.S. Department of Defense to police the chaotic Manhattan, still thinking that Alcatraz is Prophet who is infected by the virus. After discovering Ceph capsules and Catalyst, the Ceph take over as the main antagonists for the rest of the game. Alcatraz and Gould team up with Tara Strickland, an undercover CIA lieutenant, and Jacob Hargreave, the original creator of the nanosuit. Alcatraz eventually enters the Ceph core spire and wipes out all the Ceph in New York. Now facing death again, he meets a memory pattern of Prophet, whose DNA is merged into Alcatraz's. The game closes with Alcatraz being contacted by Karl Rasch, a nanosuit scientist, and vowing to continue the war against the Ceph.

Crysis 3 (2013)
As with its predecessor, Crysis 3 again takes place in New York. Set in 2047, the game sees Prophet return to the now nanodome-encased New York City, on a mission of revenge against CELL, having uncovered the truth behind their motives for building the quarantined nanodomes.

With Crysis 3 being the end of the Crysis trilogy, Crytek teased that the series would have a "radical future". Yerli confirmed that the next installment would not be called Crysis 4, as he considered such a title "misleading". On 12 June 2012, it was revealed that Crytek would focus only on free-to-play titles following the release of Crysis 3.

Board game spin-off
A turn-based strategy board game based on the Crysis mythos, subtitled Analogue Edition, is currently being developed by Frame6. A Kickstarter campaign was held, but eventually cancelled following a decision over the funding and marketing.

Reception
Crysis was awarded a 98% in the PC Gamer U.S. Holiday 2007 issue, making it one of the highest rated games in PC Gamer, tying with Half-Life 2 and Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri. The UK edition of the magazine awarded the game 92%, describing the game as "A spectacular and beautiful sci-fi epic." GameSpot awarded Crysis a score of 9.5 out of 10, describing it as "easily one of the greatest shooters ever made." GameSpy gave it a 4.5 out of 5 stating that the suit powers were fun but also criticizing the multiplayer portion of the game for not having a team deathmatch. X-Play gave it a 3 out of 5 on its "Holiday Buyer's Guide" special episode, praising the graphics and physics, but criticized the steep hardware requirements as well as stating that the game is overhyped with average gameplay. GamePro honored Crysis with a score of 4.75 out of 5, saying it was "a great step forward for PC gaming", but criticized the steep hardware requirements. IGN awarded it a 9.4 out of 10, hailing it as "one of the more entertaining ballistic showdowns in quite some time."

Crysis Warhead, developed by Crytek Budapest, received largely positive reviews. Most reviewers praised the improvements over the original Crysis in areas like AI and gameplay pacing, citing the original game's criticism that battles were few and far between. The new protagonist, Psycho, was also received better than the original's less developed Nomad. The revamped multiplayer mode, Crysis Wars, was also praised for adding a team deathmatch mode, the lack of which most reviewers criticised in the original game. Criticism of the game by reviewers includes the short story mode and a lack of new features over the original game. Some continued to cite the game's high system requirements as unacceptable even a year after the original game, which has the same requirements. Indeed, some reviewers did not see any significant performance improvement with Warhead compared with Crysis, stating that only high-end GPUs could handle the game comfortably at decent frame rates.