One of the more surprising things about Crysis is how much effort has been put into its multiplayer component. There are two modes, and they are as different as can be: one is a standard deathmatch with four maps available, and the other is an incredibly involved team-based objective game called Power Struggle with five maps available.

Power Struggle has each team attempting to destroy to the opposing headquarters, either with a nuke-equipped vehicle or with captured alien technology. This is done by capturing a tech factory or alien crash sites, and is augmented by capturing auxilliary factories that produce other useful goodies such as tanks or boats.

Meanwhile, you gain points which to purchase personal weapons and equipment, in a Counter-Strike-like fashion. Items can be bought at spawn points, which are also generated by capturing bunkers on behalf of your team.

It's all quite deep, certainly moreso than I expected. It may almost be too deep. In most of the matches I played, I felt that there was much more being offered than my team was able to competently use in any realistic way. It feels like if it were a bit more focused, like the similar mode in Unreal Tournament 2004, it would be less overwhelming. I was rarely able to play a game in which my team had meaningful coordination.

There will surely be a contingent of players that gets deep into Power Struggle, because the potential is there. It is a very fleshed-out multiplayer mode, and one with a lot of opportunity for rewarding teamwork, but I suspect it will be a bit daunting for many players.

The fact that the playerbase will be somewhat fractured by DirectX version will not help the community overall: while DirectX 10 players can join DirectX 9 servers, the reverse is not true. This is due to a variety of gameplay-affecting graphics and physics features only enabled in the DirectX 10 version of the game.

Deathmatch has largely the opposite problem; it feels too simplistic and standard. It's what you would expect: a bunch of players are dropped into a map and given a time or frag limit. This is fine, but little details like the game not checking for enemy proximity when spawning you in often turn deathmatches into nonstop spawn-kill-fests, and the presence of the nanosuit doesn't really add enough to the overall multiplayer dynamic to make Crysis' deathmatch more attractive than any number of other big-name multiplayer offerings this season.

The Whole Package
I don't think most gamers have been thinking of Crysis as a multiplayer-oriented game--I certainly haven't--so, if anything, the ambitious but flawed multiplayer mode will likely be a pleasant surprise, at least to try out. It doesn't add lots of value, but the Power Struggle mode might be right up some players' alley.

What does add more value is the impressive Sandbox Editor that is included with the game. It's quite user-friendly compared to many game editing tools, and hell, you can do ridiculous things with enormous chickens. Hooray!

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