PCGamer Reviews Crysis

Dr. Zoidberg said:
When the last time in a game were enemies reacted to building being bashed apart while they are inside? When was the last time they shot down trees so that they would fall on the player? When was the last time they dodged a bunch of logs rolling down at them? When was the last time AI actually snuck around behind me while I was shooting every one else then killed me?
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1. They "react" by dying instantly.
2. I have yet to see that happen.
3. They don't. They generally just die when objects come at them, and cower when you jump towards them.
4. Almost every FPS since Doom.
 
Dr. Zoidberg said:
When the last time in a game were enemies reacted to building being bashed apart while they are inside?
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That's not difficult to do.
when was the last time they shot down trees so that they would fall on the player?
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That's just the enemies being terrible shots. What good can possibly come of trying to shoot trees down onto you when a bullet is more accurate and will almost surely do more damage?
When was the last time they dodged a bunch of logs rolling down at them? When was the last time AI actually snuck around behind me while I was shooting every one else then killed me?
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I'll give you those two, they're legitimate.
 
Stigmata said:
1: That's not difficult to do.

2: That's just the enemies being terrible shots.
What good can possibly come of trying to shoot trees down onto you when a bullet is more accurate and will almost surely do more damage?

3: I'll give you those two, they're legitimate.
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1: Your not a C++/LUA AI engineer with knowledge about programming for the Cryegnine so I do not see how you could make that statement with confidence.

2: While normally I would agree, I have gone through a few situations were that, while possible, is not likely. But then again I could be mistaken.

theotherguy said:
1. They "react" by dying instantly.

4. Almost every FPS since Doom.
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1: Actually, I have witnessed them crawling out of the wreckage and pushing the pieces off of them.

4: Now I know not to take any of your crits with weight.
 
Oh, wait, sorry. For the fourth one I somehow missed the "When's the last time" at the beginning, so I'm also gonna say "almost every FPS since Doom", because the ability to flank you is pretty much a fundamental requirement of half-decent AI.
 
Stigmata said:
Oh, wait, sorry. For the fourth one I somehow missed the "When's the last time" at the beginning, so I'm also gonna say "almost every FPS since Doom", because the ability to flank you is pretty much a fundamental requirement of half-decent AI.
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Then HL2's AI must be way below half decent as I have never experienced that. Also forget Bioshock, Doom 3, and most quake 3 driven games, etc.

I am not talking about simple flanking. In the experience I referenced to, most of the AI were in front of me, and by the time I had killed them all and was collecting ammo, one had snuck behind me and got in close enough to get a couple chest then head shots. The neat thing was he waited until I was not in a "combat mode" to kill me.
 
I got flanked all the time in HL2 and Bioshock. Doom and Quake have shit AI so they don't count.
 
Stigmata said:
I got flanked all the time in HL2 and Bioshock.
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Did we play the same games? In HL2 all the combine ever did was fart about in plain sight while I put bullets in them, and the splicers in Bioshock displayed somewhat masochistic urges to leap into flaming puddles of oil or file directly into the path of my wrench/machine gun fire. I'm not saying that the AI in Crysis is anywhere near perfect, because it isn't, but it's certainly a lot more impressive than you guys make it out to be.

Besides, what are we going off for this comparison? A non-gold code demo of part of the first (read: tutorial) level of the game, which you guys apparently haven't bothered to play at full difficulty yet? Come on.
 
If you don't consider HL2 and Bioshock to be examples of AI, how about FEAR, and oh...lemme think for a second... FAR CRY.

Crysis AI feels like a carbon copy of Far Cry's (just like the rest of the game) except Crysis AI doesn't know what to do when you shoot at them from a distance with a silencer and they take a longer to call in reinforcements.

And yes...I played it on Delta. It doesn't change AI behavior one iota. It only ups the damage they do, removes some of your hud/binoc. features and makes them speak Korean. The demo is still a piece of cake.

EDIT: I'm tired of the "It's not gold" argument. This demo came out like 3-4 days before the game went gold. Do you think they'd make vast improvements to AI code in that time or code in a change in the way the AI behaves past the first level?

No.
 
No, that would be silly, but apparently it's the same build that they've been showing to magazines and such for a while now, which explains why key features such as multicore support (especially for quad core CPUS) are not properly represented in the demo. Maybe there are a couple of AI bugs present in this build that they have since ironed out, who knows. Wait for the full version, then we can all agree on whether this or that is lacking.

Also, changing difficulties does modify the AI's behaviour. A quick glance into the config files for each difficulty proves this.

Look, again, I am not saying the Crysis AI is perfect. Like you said, it has its flaws. But so does every AI. I have never played a single game where I couldn't pick out flaws in the AI. All I am saying is that it might be a good idea to wait until the final release before we lambaste it for it for its flaws
 
Stigmata said:
I got flanked all the time in HL2 and Bioshock.
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Having enemies spawned behind you (or enemies that you missed just happen to come up behind you) doesn't count, that is NOT the AI noticing that they'll get mowed down head on, and going around to flank you, that's you triggering a scripted event (like the scripted event you triggered 10 secs before that sent the wave of combines in front of you). The only games I've seen even simple flanking AI were the Brothers in Arms games, there are probably a few other games too, but it's not even remotely close to "Almost every FPS since Doom".
 
Agreed. The ai in HL2 was quite average - which is one of my main gripes - and in Bioshock the Splicers simply wondered around untill they saw you, choosing then to either run about for a bit or charge forward in a line. I certainly didn't find the ai in Far Cry any better, though, and have only dabbled with the Crysis demo on a friends machine, so can't really comment on that.
 
The HL2 ai is really rather good; it's just not able to actually work as well within the game design. Which is a bit silly really.
 
Nobody has compared the AI with STALKER (unless i missed that post) - the only game AI that is in any way similar, in that the enemy flanks, hears sounds and uses team tactics against you. I was happy with STALKER's behaviour and so far, Crysis hasn't disappointed me either.

One particular highlight in the demo that much impressed me was when I had snuck into an MG post on a beach and started cutting up a boat with the fixed gun, only to alert the patrol on my left to the sound. I cloaked and lay down in the small shelter and watched as the three soldiers crept slowly in a few feet away from me, guns aimed. I watched one lower his gun and look around in confusion, muttering in surprise to his mates at the lack of me, before I dropped a grenade at his feet. My cloak vanished and the three of them looked at me for a second before shouting in alarm and raising their guns again only for us all to be blown apart by the grenade. It was worth dying for.

I mean they react to individual situations instead of just insta-attacking on sight. They turn their heads to look at you before apparently thinking about what to do about it. Does HL2 do that? Does Doom 3? Does Bioshock?

AI will never quite be good enough, ever. But this works for me.
 
I like the fact that sometimes they run and launch flares for help
 
Haha, I agree, my highlight was getting two guys attention after walking through foliage, then I proceeded to cloak whilst behind a tree. One of them came looking for me, crouch walking slowly toward my position. As he got within a few meters I decloaked straight into strength mode.. his face was like :O and he actually went "whuuu?!" then looked at me in shock for a second then went to raise his rifle. At that point I layed my rifle butt into his forehead, knocking him back 10 meters to the ground.

And then I realised how perfect the moment was, the reaction, everything.. and I lol'd.
 
STALKER's AI blew me away. I remember in the very first mission you get, clearing out that area, 'which is still insanely hard to do. Jesus, it takes me a few times no matter how I do it.' I wnet in alone and stabbed some guy, then they all saw me and a ran away and took up a defensive position. Soon enough, I was surrounded.. I don't know what happened.. ;(
 
Acepilotf14 said:
STALKER's AI blew me away. I remember in the very first mission you get, clearing out that area, 'which is still insanely hard to do. Jesus, it takes me a few times no matter how I do it.' I wnet in alone and stabbed some guy, then they all saw me and a ran away and took up a defensive position. Soon enough, I was surrounded.. I don't know what happened.. ;(
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Agreed. I was really impressed by their AI. There were some bugs I encountered, but on the whole, the AI in that game was a lot better than any game I played before.
 
The following post isn't directed at anyone in particular.

Aliens and mutants are okay...unless it's FarCry/Crysis
Poor voice acting is okay...unless it's FarCry/Crysis
B-movie storylines are okay...unless it's FarCry/Crysis
Average AI is okay...unless it's FarCry/Crysis
FPS shooter cliches are okay...unless it's FarCry/Crysis

I mean seriously did FarCry/Crysis murder your parents and rape your sister? I understand not liking the game, but it's amazing people expect so much out of one game and overlook the same flaws in other games. Is this hate because it got a good review? Is the hate because you can't get it to run on your PC? Is it hated because it's not the most perfect FPS in history?

I've played the demo close to twenty times probably (on low settings even). I like it, it's fun. It's not the be all, end all of FPS gaming I fully admit. It's got flaws, the same flaws, that many other FPS games have. Those games have Half Life somewhere in the title though so all those flaws seem to be overlooked.

Where did some of you get the special edition of HL2 with enemy AI that is even the slightest bit competent? I must have gotten the dumb AI edition.
 
Like I said before, the problem most people have with it is that it is being regarded as the most perfect FPS in history by the hype, the fanboys, and the press, when we all here know that its going to be only a decent game. We're just trying to even out the hype.

Also the special AI edition of HL2 came out last year and was a limited time only release. Sorry, you missed out.
 
Samon said:
The HL2 ai is really rather good; it's just not able to actually work as well within the game design. Which is a bit silly really.
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Although it's off topic I'd be interested to hear more on this. What is the AI truly capable of exactly?
 
Krynn72 said:
Like I said before, the problem most people have with it is that it is being regarded as the most perfect FPS in history by the hype, the fanboys, and the press, when we all here know that its going to be only a decent game. We're just trying to even out the hype.
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So the hate is more or less attributable to the hype? Fair enough, I suppose I give HL2 a little crap for the very same reasons. (Even though I like HL2)

Krynn72 said:
Also the special AI edition of HL2 came out last year and was a limited time only release. Sorry, you missed out.
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:D
 
"we just wanted to make a great looking fps using the best technology around at the time."
[/some Yerli interview]

I've said it before and i'll continue saying it because i'm stubborn like that. They have never hyped or promised anything new other than the nice pretties.

Compared to the infamous steenkin Bethesda and GSC lying sprees, I would class this as one of the least hyped games of recent years.
 
CR0M said:
Compared to the infamous steenkin Bethesda and GSC lying sprees, I would class this as one of the least hyped games of recent years.
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I think the hype surrounding the game has been more about the supposed DX10 graphical features than the game itself. It was obvious from an early stage that this was going to be, for all intents & purposes, Far Cry 2. At least that's the way it looked because the setting i.e. tropical island, was exactly the same as Far Cry!

I was as suprised as anyone to see that there is actually going to be a Far Cry 2 that is set in Africa! Anyway, the point is that Crysis was always going to be Far Cry with all the trimmings. i think Crytek have learnt from Far Cry & built on it for Crysis. It's nothing revolutionary by any stretch of the imagination but it's certainly is a cracking game.
 
Beerdude26 said:
Ooh you'd be surprised; very impressive stuff sometimes
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Examples. Indulge me. What is the HL2 AI capable of that hasn't been demonstrated in the existing catalogue of games. I'm curious to know.
 
Kadayi Polokov said:
Examples. Indulge me. What is the HL2 AI capable of that hasn't been demonstrated in the existing catalogue of games. I'm curious to know.
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I suppose your experience with the AI has been pretty bad, but anyways:

1. The enemy soldiers have been able to melee me in Highway 17 and other open chapters. This rarely happens to me in other games not even in supposedly "open" games like Farcry, Halo 2 etc. Maybe this is just because of the level design, but I enjoy having to watch two or three directions at once.

2. They don't camp behind cover like the 'tards from Farcry or FEAR. They use cover only between bursts or when reloading. They charge, throw grenades, and flank in every firefight.

3. They throw grenades back often, and use their own grenades and AR2 orbs well. It's not a rarity like in some shooters. It forces you to keep moving, and never lets you feel completely safe.
 
99.vikram said:
I suppose your experience with the AI has been pretty bad, but anyways:

1. The enemy soldiers have been able to melee me in Highway 17 and other open chapters. This rarely happens to me in other games not even in supposedly "open" games like Farcry, Halo 2 etc. Maybe this is just because of the level design, but I enjoy having to watch two or three directions at once.

2. They don't camp behind cover like the 'tards from Farcry or FEAR. They use cover only between bursts or when reloading. They charge, throw grenades, and flank in every firefight.

3. They throw grenades back often, and use their own grenades and AR2 orbs well. It's not a rarity like in some shooters. It forces you to keep moving, and never lets you feel completely safe.
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Now-a-days they do because Valve has been able to upgrade or rather unrestrict the A.I. thanks to everyone slowly upgrading over time. Back when HL2 first came out it was pretty average A.I.

When i played Episode 2 the A.I. was much better than when i'd last played HL2.
 
Actually, I think it's pretty much the same AI that was in HL2. It's just the design of the game has changed slightly.
 
So they don't stand in the open letting you shoot them any more?
 
You certainly don't fight them as much in EP2 as in the other two episodes. I was genuinly surprised when they appeared in EP2.
 
The soldier AI can occationally be impressive. I've seen soldiers getting behind walls to reload and his squad-mates covering him. I don't know if this was intentional or just a coincidence, but back before I was used to using the gravity gun for fighting soldiers, this happened to me twice: I was in an enclosed space on little health (A building and a cargo container) and a soldier threw a grenade in and I paniced and ran out. There was a soldier with a shotgun waiting at the door, who gave me a double blast as soon as I was out and killed me. I've some assaults that looked very well co-ordinated, ie, soldiers with rifles staying in cover behind and using grenades, while shotgunners charge forward and one or two soldiers with SMGs or shotguns also try to flank.

Steel.Inferno said:
I would assume the loss of cloak energy is explained as the cloak trying to cover up the weapon flash, etc.

Also, I'm pretty sure whoever mentioned 'unsuspecting' headshots being the only fatal ones. Which is of course stupid as hell. Just because you're looking at the barrel of the gun does not make it any less dangerous.

But then, I haven't played the demo much.
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FEAR and HL2 do the same thing. I always hate that in games.
 
99.vikram said:
I suppose your experience with the AI has been pretty bad, but anyways:
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I played through HL2 again recently and can't say I noticed the AI acting any different in it since I first played it, and I've a beefy Rig of a PC. I thought more that beerdude & samon were hinting at some untapped potential within the AI code, which isn't accessed in the game in some way.
 
After experimenting alot in the demo I respect this game much more. The AI really is alot better than I thought before, and it becomes especially evident when you go into cloak mode and observe their behaviors.

Its really funny to scare them by going into strength mode and jumping straight up into the air, because it takes them some time to react. I got into a habit of hiding on the side of a mountain and jumping up over and over again just to hear the suprised reactions.

The worst AI I've seen though are the guys in vehicles, they're just terrible.
 
theotherguy said:
The worst AI I've seen though are the guys in vehicles, they're just terrible.
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They should have made it so, maybe, at least the driver takes out a gun & starts shooting at you when you are close. Especially with the boats. If you get close to these the drivers just sit there looking at you! Surely it wouldn't be hard to program AI so that, when you came within a certain distance of the vehicle, the driver would start shooting at you?

It's interesting though when you shot the gunner from a boat. In this instance the driver leaves the area, heads for sure & then gets out of the boat :) I think the drivers of the jeeps do actually get out & start shooting at you rather than just sitting there like the boat drivers.
 
Hopefully they fixed a lot of bugs since the "demo" because this game seems to be loaded with bugs. There were many times where there were 3 dialouges going on top of each other. I.e. "Nomad I found this radar station" and while hes in the middle of saying that your character would say something, ect. I'm not sure if anyone ever encountered that bug but it's very annoying. The physics system has plenty of bugs, I saw many NK soldiers spinning around on the ground like they're in a nightclub after I killed them. Also I ran up to the side of a jeep and crouched. The gunner in it was trying to shoot me even though he had no angle to do so (the gunfire was going right over my head). He just would not stop shooting the jeeps gun at me even though he could never hit instead of just getting out and shooting me. Also, I saw a few glitches with the game's shadows.

Hopefully all these bugs will be ironed out by release, I'll still get it anyway (even though it has securom which I hate)
 
Just got my copy of UK PC Zone who tend to more critical of games than most magazines and they've given crysis a score of 92% and pc zone gold award. A very good score from zone but bear in mind they gave HL2 97%.

Extreme reason for lower score spoiler ahead!!

They marked crysis down mainly due to its uninspired encouter with the aliens where the game changes from its korean soldier tomfoolery to a simple run and gun against the aliens. All your nanosuit tactics learned up to then simply go out of the second the aliens freeze the island and you join forces with your former far eastern enemies... Oh... one last thing... The reviewer says crysis has a shit ending. Much worse than far cry :/
 
Zeus said:
Hopefully they fixed a lot of bugs since the "demo" because this game seems to be loaded with bugs. There were many times where there were 3 dialouges going on top of each other. I.e. "Nomad I found this radar station" and while hes in the middle of saying that your character would say something, ect. I'm not sure if anyone ever encountered that bug but it's very annoying. The physics system has plenty of bugs, I saw many NK soldiers spinning around on the ground like they're in a nightclub after I killed them. Also I ran up to the side of a jeep and crouched. The gunner in it was trying to shoot me even though he had no angle to do so (the gunfire was going right over my head). He just would not stop shooting the jeeps gun at me even though he could never hit instead of just getting out and shooting me. Also, I saw a few glitches with the game's shadows.

Hopefully all these bugs will be ironed out by release, I'll still get it anyway (even though it has securom which I hate)
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Yeah, the first time I played through the demo I put the first two guys in the jungle to sleep with the gg-tranq. darts. They kept their conversation going in their sleep apparently :p The audio kept playing.
 
[Matt] said:
Just got my copy of UK PC Zone who tend to more critical of games than most magazines and they've given crysis a score of 92% and pc zone gold award. A very good score from zone but bear in mind they gave HL2 97%.

Extreme reason for lower score spoiler ahead!!

Spoilers Ahoy
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Then it looks like that script in the demo is the full thing.
 
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