So far, there are five tanks and four lighter vehicles that are known to aid the human’s land-based assault. The aliens possess four-legged machines known as hunters, which can hurl objects with its’ massive claws or fire at enemies with an ice gun. In addition, they possess “scouts” that transport the hunters and the most common alien foe: a pilotless robotic airborne unit dubbed “the trooper.” As for heavy aircraft, there are several types of jets and helicopters, not to mention even more sea-based units, such as destroyers and submarines. Not much has been announced regarding how the player will control and interact with the myriad of vehicles.
Oh yes, there will be explosions.
Although Far Cry’s multiplayer mode was prone to many bugs, glitches, and cheaters, Crysis promises to make a fresh start with completely new networking code. Seven official maps have been announced, each supporting up to 32 players at once. There will be three different modes: Tactical Deathmatch, Team Tactical Deathmatch, and Power Struggle. The first two are simply what they imply; the classic match going to a certain number of kills. The tactical aspect of it refers to players being able to customize their soldier and weapons to suit their own gameplay style. However, the mode that everyone is keeping their eye on is Power Struggle, which integrates many ideas from older games. The player will start out as a stripped down soldier with only the most basic equipment, but can buy better weapons with credits that are accumulated from kills and other objectives. Each team will have either an offshore submarine or an inland structure for a base, which will be equipped with automated turrets to prevent the enemy from camping near the spawn points. The key to attaining victory in Power Struggle is to acquire and maintain control of certain strategic locations on the map. Although this is similar to the Battlefield 1942 system found in many war games, the zones will not just be marked as a circle on the ground, but rather they are factories or sea ports which will manufacture vehicles that are essential in battle. Once a zone is captured, the player will be able to buy vehicles for a certain number of credits via a purchase screen. While a player may have multiple vehicles, only one can be controlled at a time, while the others remain locked away in a relatively secure position. However, the enemy can still find and get access to these vehicles by sneaking by and picking locks, as well as jumping into any vehicle that has been abandoned.
Everyone playing will have a dynamic rank that changes based on the number of credits accumulated, and this rank will determine how many vehicles and weapons a player can access. The ranking system will also help maintain the balance in the game – an issue that has ruined many multiplayer games in the past – as more advanced players will not gain as many credits from killing new players. So, players that are only armed with a pistol should not worry about being hunted down by someone in a tank, although the higher ranked players will need to be more careful, since players will be rewarded much more from defeating someone above them. This scoring system is expected to help keep players fighting against others of the same skill level. Crysis will also bring a new level of realism to gaming, as players will not simply run over objects, collecting materials. If a fighter plane runs out of ammo, players will actually have to land and retrieve more themselves, and damage will be patched up by using welders, not by collecting health kits. Perhaps the most thrilling aspect of the multiplayer mode will be the way alien technology is incorporated into the game. Each map will have from one to five alien crash sites in randomly selected regions, and these will contain special cores, which can be used to integrate the alien machinery into human gear. For example, a tank could be modified to use molecular arrestor cannons, capable of shooting ice shards. However, these cores must be brought to a captured point in order to be used, and that won’t exactly be a cakewalk since the other team will know where it is and will come after it. Once a team starts to get more of the cores in their possession, the game will gradually shift in their favor, so attaining these cores is essential to claiming victory. There are several ways to win in Power Struggle, but the most momentous method would be to construct a nuclear bomb, made possible by the alien cores, and destroy the enemy base in one shot. One last noteworthy bit on multiplayer is that matches can last up to five in-game days – the equivalent of ten hours in real life.
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