The developers of Far Cry return to the first-person shooter genre in their first game for publishing giant Electronic Arts. The year is 2019 and a massive asteroid has crash-landed somewhere within North Korea. Soon it is revealed that the asteroid is in fact a gigantic alien vessel whose malevolent mission is to eradicate mankind. As part of a covert Delta Force squad from the United States, players must fend off alien advances through tropical jungles, frozen terrain, and other climate-altered regions in an attempt to board the gravity-free mother ship. Created using Crytek's proprietary game engine, Crysis offers a dynamic world featuring earthquakes, tornados, landslides, and breakaway ice.

The perpetually changing environment requires adaptive techniques for the squad to survive, and players can commandeer trucks, tanks, boats, helicopters, and other vehicles to help reach their objectives. The alien AI is also designed to challenge, adopting real-world military tactics and coordinating attacks to fight as an enterprising entity. Crysis features a number of options for soldiers in combat, with the ability to grab and use nearly any item found in each destructible environment. Online multiplayer support is available for up to 32 combatants, and a toolset is included for creative players to construct levels for use in either solo or multiplayer action.