VGPRO.com | Disappointing Ending to a Fantastic Game

Disappointing Ending to a Fantastic Game

Review written by Jonc on May 28, 2008 at 08:39 PM | 2 Comments

6/10

I've been playing Crysis lately, the game is a marvel of technical achievement, the graphics are some of the best I've seen in a game to date, especially on the right hardware. The storyline is also incredible, well at least for the first half of the game. This is where I am a little disappointed. From the word go the gameplay leads you on a stealth fest with short bursts of action sequences thrown into the mix. The pace is perfect and you can decide how you want to complete an objective, the developer having given you multiple paths to victory all contained within wide-open linear objective-based gameplay, but only for the first half of the game.

The build up of the thrilling story is greatly executed and there's a real feeling of suspense as you progress. Everything is perfect right up to the point of entering the Alien Ship, then suddenly the gameplay degenerates to this arcade style shoot-em-up fest that feels as if you're playing a different game, and this continues all the way up to the end. The final boss sequence was a complete joke. Throughout the game you could take your time in deciding how to tackle an objective but the final boss was a scene straight out of Xenon2 or those other top-down scrolling shooting games where you have to destroy 4 cannons, then 2 more cannons, then one more badass cannon and then you have to open a hatch and launch a nuke (That's how it ends by the way). Even though they left the story open for a sequel, or a trilogy as some people on the Crysis forums have been saying, this was the most disappointing and ridiculously out-of-place ending to a stealth/action game that I've ever seen.

Technical achievements and potential trilogy aside the fact of the matter is the ending of the game was not in alignment with the pace of the first half of the game.

Anyone else feel the same?