Crysis, Far Cry, Evolve, what do these games have in common? Besides at the time being graphically stunning, action packed games, they were all created using the powerful CRYENGINE. Crytek is a German independent game developer, who are behind famous titles such as Far Cry and Crysis.

They’re also the developers of the incredibly potent and groundbreaking CRYENGINE. A game engine that features the latest and greatest tools one needs to create their own video game. With it’s innovative UI and easy to understand tutorials, anyone can bring their visions to life in a graphically breathtaking and fun final product.

What it’s made

CRYENGINE’s first success was released back in March of 2004. Far Cry was created to premiere and showcase CRYENGINE’s capabilities, truly designating itself as one of the most robust game engines out there. Far Cry is a first person shooter, set in a rain forest on a south pacific archipelago. The game has elements of stealth, as the enemies you face react dynamically to your presence, encouraging you to use the dense foliage to your advantage. Far Cry was a success both commercially (selling 730,000 units four months after release) and critically, garnering favorable reviews and praised for it’s stunning graphics and unique takes on the first person shooter formula.

Crysis (see what they did there?) is another wildly successful first person shooter developed by Crytek. Released on November 13 2007, Crysis was infamous for it’s demanding system requirements needed to support it’s beautiful visuals. Crysis became almost like a benchmark for PC gamers, because if your rig could run it, it could run almost any game available at the time. Crysis received great reviews and was a success for Crytek and Electronic Arts in multiple ways. Praised as a beautiful sci-fi epic, Crysis spawned two sequels and several spin offs.

Hunt: Showdown is yet another first person shooter, but this time it’s a competitive PvP (player versus player) with heavy PvE elements. You play as a skilled bounty hunter, who has been tasked to join fellow hunters as they slay scary monsters from another world. This is one of Crytek’s first games to feature darker themes and a more sinister atmosphere. Hunt: Showdown was praised for being a high tension multiplayer shooter in an interesting setting, with AAA level graphics and quality. All things people have come to expect with Crytek and CRYENGINE.

What it can do

CRYENGINE prides itself in being an incredibly robust game engine. Offering a myriad of top quality resources and tools all in the engine itself to bring your gaming dream to life. Crytek also offers many tutorials to show you he ropes, and documentation for the different features and editors within the engine (the word powerful is probably gonna be used a lot as it’s just the best way to describe CRYENGINE and it’s capabilities,)

SANDBOX

This is the perfect way you can build your game, as it offers quality and competent ways to create it’s content. Their What You See Is What You Get array of tools gives you complete dominion over your game. Allowing you to tinker every aspect of it with the numerous advanced editors at your disposal.

AUDIO

CRYENGINE makes sure that you have complete freedom and flexibility when it comes to your game’s audio. It’s Audio Control Editor allows you to seamlessly choose when and where selected audios can play in game. CRYENGINE also gives you total freedom to choose what your audio middleware shall be, as it agnostically communicates with almost any middleware. It also houses a powerful 3D audio processor that gives your in game sounds a lifelike feel to them.

PHYSICS

Perhaps one of the most impressive features of CRYENGINE is it’s out of the box physics solution. Crytek truly strives to give your games a lifelike feel to them, as CRYENGINE has built in and realistic reactions to vegetation, buoyancy on water, and destruction of solid objects. From arbitrary objects to specifically articulated buildings, CRYENGINE almost perfectly simulates realistic effects, but also giving you freedom and control over your game. Making your imagination the very limit.

That’s not all of CRYENGINE’s features, but you can discover the rest when you download it for yourself. The engine is free to download, but with a 10% royalty fee if you ever decide to commercialize your game. There is also a dedicated community behind CRYENGINE, as users band together to assist each other and answer any questions one may have on the forums.

CRYENGINE allows you to fully explore your ideas with helpful hands to guide you, yet also ensuring your freedom to realize the limitless potential of your imagination. So, if you ever want to try your hand at making games, you may want to check it out.