Hi Crysis Community,

After playing this game since the BETA with all different types of players, from all over the world, I've finally put my finger on what breaks this game more than anything else. What?
I know if you are reading this, you already love this game, and so that last statement will come off like heresy, but there is a fundamental problem with the cloaking is this game. It's why WE love the game but THEY still predominantly play Modern Warfare, BF3, and various other shooters. But What is it about cloak that is broke? It looks very cool, and it's truely unique tech that has rendered the ability to pass dynamic lights straight through so as to not obstruct view of the natural environment. The answer is what you seek, and it came to me like an epitome after playing extensively on Crysis 1 for PSN, this past week. Simply it's the speed.

You see for those of you that did not play Crysis 1, the game mechanics are very different. You have an ability to sprint that is quite faster than its Crysis 2 counterpart. But you'll notice that something seems a bit off in the cloak speed. If you're running full sprint and activate cloak, your speed is significantly slowed. Then it becomes clear that this old way wasn't broke, so why did Crytek fix it? I find it hard to believe that polls were conducted, and that players of the PC game demanded longer sprint times in cloak, or a sprint speed that doesn't differ whether in or out of cloak. But that's beside the point. Whoever made that decision curtailed the life span of this game significantly. We often say it's because of the lag, or the netcode, or ping times, or Aim Enhance, or Melees. But at the base of all these complaints is an issue that we all feel and rarely say, and it's an issue with the cloak speed.


Many a time, I've entered a room, to find several people camping in corners just like they would in Gears of War, BF3, and MW3. But in this game, I enter the room, and even a group of level 30s get mopped up who were all camping the room. How did this happen? In any other shooter a well placed camper, almost always kills me! Clearly this is a good thing right?! I mean I'm alive and they, well they...are not. But deep in my gut I get this feeling like the playing field isn't even at all. I think these players cannot kill me, because they can't see me, they can't react to the blur that they may have seen without giving away their position. So they sit tight until they are sure they have seen something, but by the time they have reacted its Killcam Time. Day in and day out, I'll see these same players, and I'll notice that so few show signs of improving on this ability to see cloaked at this speed. That is the key. You see, several times in a mixed room (elites and new players) we elites will comment that we could tell who the other was just based on movement speeds?! Because the new players so rarely hit that L3 button, especially in cloak. They think that they are invisible when they are in cloak?! But what has given them this impression, are the elites that move so fast in cloak. They mispercieve what is causing them to struggle with the game.


Recently during E3, CryTek saw Unreal Engine 4 and commented that its engine Cry3 Engine was capable of what was on display by EPIC nearly 3 years ago. All the techy mumbo jumbo exceeds my knowledge. I have a basic understanding of Dynamic Lighting, Photo-realsim, Texture difference at DX9 vs DX11. But I'm certainly no expert in those things. Maybe, hell, I'm sure Crytek was speaking the truth when it says that "Cry3 Engine was developed with the next-gen (of consoles and PC) in mind." However I have major criticisms of that remark. I'm a firm believer that Xbox and PS3 can handle Crysis 2 flawlessly, but what is holding the assimilation of this franchise back from the masses, is the fact that the current ISPs and TV manufactures will not be next-gen optimized. While the console tech will be uniform and able to support faster Frames Per Sec, and better textures, and lighting, the next batch of TVs will be made with technology that creates drastic differences in what we see when we play. On some Standard Tube TVs you may notice that Crysis 2 cloaks actually appear more visible (Check out GILTSPIRE's Crysis 2 videos for an example--he was playing custom against good players and recorded over the shoulder, and cloaks still appeared better than they do on my Panasonic Vierra 50" Plasma with 3D and wifi built in. This issue really became an issue for me once I switched from a Philips 42 inch 720p Plasma to the aforementioned model. I played less during the days of my former model, but whenever I got on it was the best of the best, or S2K as you might remember. How is it that I'm suddenly struggling to see cloaked? My eyes were checked this year. I play games with glasses that actually give me better than 20/20 vision, so says my eye Doctor anyway. I'd ask Mr Goodman to take a look at Noobified for me, but he is all booked :). Recently Dynamo switched to a smaller TV, and I've seen drastic increases in his performance as a result. He also attributes his playing better to a model with less latency, or a better refresh rate.


ISPs. Or Internet Service Providers, greatly differ in the kinds of speeds, services, and packages they off. This difference becomes even more noticable as you move across the country from rich to poor neighborhoods or from country to country. We all know by now that there is a clear advantage to host, just like there is a clear advantage to being rich in America. But Why should the rich be "better" at games just because they can optimize their performance by buying the best TV and ISP Package available for a particular game? Class struggle should not rear its ugly face in video games. Fiber Optics should not give someone a competative edge.


In conclusion, the engine which is optimized for the current generation of ISPs and TVs will maximize its chance to succeed next generation. Just because you can do something doesn't mean you should. On some TVs the BF3 flashlight is so bad, it has caused people to put the game down. I firmly believe that Crysis could have been fixed by either nerfing the speed in cloak OR fixing the perks designed to allow you to see cloak, such as Nano Vision, Cloak Tracker, and Visor Enhance. They don't work well enough to combat the significant difference in TV specs and lag, and some just don't work at all like NANO VISION. I've heard that it works on PC, but that doesn't effect me because we play on 360, for now.

Lag exists in many shooters. There are more people playing Gears 1 online, and that is as laggy as it gets. We always make it seem that fixing the netcode or lag will fix this game. But I believe optimizing your engine for all popular TVs and ISPs will be the biggest factor moving forward. If it's not consistent performance for all involved then how good does it feel to be considered "Elite"?

Seems like a good hypothesis. but i dunno. Besides, i like it the way it is.

Oh by the way mike, wanna write my research paper?

good one! I use to get all As, so it will cost you. What's the paper on. Actually doesnt matter cuz I know all tings ;)

Oh and did anyone else feel as I did about the mechanics being better in Crysis 1?

you are apsolutely right Mike. I began playing on a 37" lcd tv with 1080i and than went out out a bought a 60" Sharp Qaudtron LED. The picture on it was incredible and it had one of the best "game modes" on the market which is suppose to make input lag unoticable. However, I noticed that i was not able to see cloaked enemies as well. However, I found something new that produced immediate results. I never bought a smaller tv, but a 27" LED computer monitor with HDMI input. (2 ms responce time). I noticed the difference as soon as I hooked it up. Everything was incredibly responsive and zero input lag. I could also see cloaked enemies better and the smaller screen was easier to look at because it requires less movement from the eyes. I still have horrible latency problems due to my location but this definity helped.

Thanks for the input DYNAMO. I expted a bit more reponses today. Maybe it's too long? Maybe so few actually played Crysis 1? Or maybe just maybe some dont want to ackowledge the differences created by MONEY and not SKILL. I mean if you are still here on mycrysis.com you are hardcore about this game, whether or not you have the most skills, so admitting there is a problem such as what I speak of magnifies a type a problem that doesnt seem like it could be fixed as easily as adopting dedicated servers for a game.

We need more people to speak up about their experiences switching TVs or ISPs while playing Crysis online. Specifics are key, so that if by the smallest of chances Crytek actually reads this, perhaps they could test the various models and figure out if what we say is in fact true, and then start making the fixes now before Crysis 3 drops.

Ya this is mostly true.

I don't think the cloak mechanic itself is the issue, because that speed it allows you to maintain is what keeps the general pace of the game incredibly quick compared to other titles. It requires some getting used to, and some people of course just never seem to catch on, but overall it's great because it distinguishes the game and allows for very tactical play even at very fast pace.

The problem really is the input lag on varying TVs. I know Dan (BloodiedSamurai) had a lot of issues with this when he switched from an old tube TV to a newer flat screen model. It's a plasma I think. As I recall he found the game quite unplayable for some time after he made this change. He noticed that the lag was immensely increased, and I did notice a dip in his performance.

Crytek definitely needs to address this (among many other things) moving forward.

Thanks for your insightful and valued reponse. Perhaps Dan could come chime in on specifics such as the exact models. Perhaps we will see some correlation if enough people reply. For example my 720p 42 Inch Philips > 1080P 50 inch Panasonic. Etc. Thanks again.