Crysis: A technological masterpiece that changed the future of the industry

Whenever players across the world speak about games that have changed the industry, Crysis is one that tends to pop up on many lists.

This is simply because Crysis was more than just a game. It was a vision by the developers at Crytek who wanted to push the industry beyond its own limits.

Even today, in 2021, Crysis is considered a benchmark for technological excellence simply because of what that game achieved back in the day. While the first game was released back in 2007, it had the ability to push computers to their limits even in 2015-2016.

However, merely stating that Crysis was a big deal back in the day is not enough. There is a lot to discuss on what it truly achieved and the way it transformed the games of the future.

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Crysis is a result of Crytek’s vision to go beyond the ordinary and take risks that no one was willing to

When Crysis was released back in 2007, only a handful of PC’s managed to run the game properly. In fact, the PCs that could run the game had to be equipped with the highest end products across the board.

Crysis is a technological masterpiece that was developed in 2007 (Image via Crysis)

Despite that, this game would push those systems to their limits. Crysis was a game that was made for PCs. It was developed to showcase to the world the power that a PC can hold when it comes to games.

Developed on CryEngine, it was one of the most complex games that was created back in the day. This game had over 1 Gigabytes of texture data and over 85000 shaders. The entire code for this game spanned over 3000 pages.

This shows how deep the game was when it came out. In the modern day, it might seem like nothing, but back in 2007, this was quite abnormal. Crysis was a technological masterpiece which was made to run on high-end machines.

The game did not care about the masses, rather it cared about sending a message. It always meant to convey that as long as there is ambition within the industry, development will never stop.

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Did Crysis go overboard with its technological development?

One of the biggest questions that is often asked by people in the current day is whether Crysis goes overboard with its technological enhancements. However, that is definitely a tough question to answer, as the failure of a game is often reflected by public reception.

Crysis, despite the major technological enhancements, was well-received all across the fanbase. Players who had high-end PCs would play it and have immense amounts of fun.

Despite the major leap, Crysis was well received by fans (Image via Crysis)

Those who did not, would aspire to own PCs and play it in the future. In fact, back in 2007 most people would think about building PCs so that it could run Crysis by the end.

That game managed to create an immense amount of craze that exists even today. Therefore, it is impossible to claim that Crytek went overboard, as the game was a success. In fact, it is termed as a masterpiece even today.

So this raises the question, how much impact has it had on progress in the industry?

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Impact of Crysis on the growth of the industry

Crysis was a major jump in the industry in terms of technological enhancements. In truth, no game has ever dared to make a jump as big as Crysis. This is obviously a double edged sword and there are pros and cons to it.

When it comes to pros, it has to be the way in which the industry was influenced. Crysis was a masterpiece from an artistic and technological viewpoint. Crysis increased the expectations of the players and made other developers try out new things.

Crysis helped push the gaming industry beyond its comfort zone (Image via Crysis)

It was a revolution that helped to create a sense of progression towards the industry. Graphics card developers started building equipment that could run a game like Crysis without dropping FPS. Other developers started to enhance their own engines so that they could match what Crysis did.

Crysis was probably the first game that used things like volumetric lighting, fog rendering, foliage rendering and depth-of-field. In fact, shadow rendering was something that did not exist in such details before Crysis. This game pretty much invented the idea of a destructable environment and real-life physics.

Crysis introduced features like Volumetric Lighting and depth-of-field on the highest scale (Image via Crysis)

It is unfortunate that the current market has definitely slowed down in progression, but there are always players who try to take risks. Crysis was the game that showed the way and inspired others to do the same.

However, the only con to this has to be from a business standpoint. Obviously, making a game without the security of mass sales is bound to incur losses. Games like Cyberpunk 2077 show that sometimes ambition can go wrong and it can lead to disaster.

However, despite that, even several years from now, Crysis will continue to be a beacon of hope for anyone who tries to think differently than others.

Note: This article reflects the personal opinion of the writer.