At last another Crytek game, and another chance for nerds everywhere to cry over how their PC?s just can?t stack up to the god machine?s they apparently have at the Crytek dev labs. Fortunately, Crytek took the time to fine tune their engine, and this game runs a bit smoother than its predecessor (a godsend for the average PC gamer).
Crysis Warhead is a First Person Shooter and a standalone expansion for the previous game Crysis. It follows the story of the British snarky badass Sgt. ?Psycho? Sykes, and his adventures after he and Nomad (the first game?s protagonist) split off and go to opposite sides of the island. I personally grew to love Psycho with his sense of attitude from the first game, and thankfully Warhead keeps it up, and takes you a little further into his character. The storytelling in this installment is done in a rather different matter. Crysis featured first person cut scenes that were through the eyes of Nomad, but Warhead features third person cinematic cut scenes that really enhance the game?s feel. I distinctly remember a scene in which Psycho desperately tries to perform CPR on a fellow soldier only to watch him die, then, in anger and sorrow, seeks out the first semi-conscious Korean he sees, grabs him, beats the snot out of him, and subsequently drowns him and shoves him into the river. Simply great. The writing is quite good, and the dialogue between Sykes and the other characters is sure to keep you interested.
I won?t spoil the story for those of you who wish to play, but I will give you a basic rundown of what you?ll see. The game is split into chapters each of about half an hour in length depending on how you play, and they feature their own repertoire of story elements, gunfights, and vehicle battles. The keystone of the game play in Crysis is that every scenario is open to exploration. You have a set goal, but how you go about it is up to you. The environments are extremely open and you can you a variety of tactics to tackle each gunfight, and it gives the player a chance for their own unique experience. Despite the array of tactics involved in the gunplay, the vehicle sections are rather weak. There are only 2 or 3 varieties of vehicle and even though plowing through enemies with an armored car and a mini-gun turret can be an enriching experience, you may find it?s more efficient just to tackle the enemies on foot with the array of weapons available.
This game features a wide variety of weapons including rifles, missile launchers, dual sub-machine guns, pistol(s), and my personal favorite new addition the Auto Grenade Launcher. This gun may have a reload time slower than a late-night wal-mart cashier, but seeing crowds of Korean enemies go flying from your lobbed explosive is satisfying enough to make this weapon a staple in your personal armory. Each weapon is fully customizable with silencers, laser sights, flashlights, and scopes, on-the-fly in an easy to access menu, and can add even more strategy to your game play and gives you the chance to really fit your own tastes. This brings me to the keystone of the Crysis game play, the nanosuit. This high powered suit of armor gives you 4 abilities, Armor (default setting), Strength, Speed, and Stealth. Each one is useful in its own right, but I felt Strength mode could have been given a bigger role, rather than just being used for tackling rough terrain or steadying your aim. It seems to me that if you have the option of super strength (many people?s childhood dream *me included*) the game should at least allow you to utilize this more efficiently in combat rather than only having 2 melee options, punch and throw ( Super Strength Sparta Kicks FTMFW). Overall, the suit adds an interesting element to the game play and the controls are smooth and easy to use. The difficulty curve however is not so smooth and easy. The enemy AI is sharp and will use everything at their disposal to destroy you (Tanks and missile launchers included). The Boss battles are fun and challenging, so don?t expect to beat them on the first try, even on Easy difficulty, and the bosses themselves are epic enough to make your war-torn grandfather piss his bedpan.
However, despite its tight game play and storytelling, Crysis does have its flaws. If you know anything about Crysis and its beautiful graphics, you also know that they come with issues. Granted my setup is hardly godlike, but I fooled around with my settings and I got a decent frame rate with some damn good looking environments. It does run better than its predecessor, but it still seems a tad buggy. I got a few weird graphical artifacts while playing even though my video card was running at a safe temperature, and some crashing issues that demanded I restart my game. It was rather frustrating to finally take down a big tank or kill a massive number of Korean?s only to be greeted by a beautiful black screen followed by the Send Error Report menu I?ve come to know and love. Another problem is the lack of any puzzle game play, sure some people enjoy gunning their way through 5 hours of Koreans, but I like to stimulate some other nerves rather than just my trigger finger.
Overall, Crysis Warhead is a solid and beautiful shooter, if your PC can handle it, and if you played through Crysis and are looking for more, Crysis Warhead is a great place to turn for only $30. Warhead corrects on a lot of the flaws of its predecessor, and if you have a PC and like to kill things with explosions and guns, you should give Crysis Warhead a look.
Crysis Warhead is a First Person Shooter and a standalone expansion for the previous game Crysis. It follows the story of the British snarky badass Sgt. ?Psycho? Sykes, and his adventures after he and Nomad (the first game?s protagonist) split off and go to opposite sides of the island. I personally grew to love Psycho with his sense of attitude from the first game, and thankfully Warhead keeps it up, and takes you a little further into his character. The storytelling in this installment is done in a rather different matter. Crysis featured first person cut scenes that were through the eyes of Nomad, but Warhead features third person cinematic cut scenes that really enhance the game?s feel. I distinctly remember a scene in which Psycho desperately tries to perform CPR on a fellow soldier only to watch him die, then, in anger and sorrow, seeks out the first semi-conscious Korean he sees, grabs him, beats the snot out of him, and subsequently drowns him and shoves him into the river. Simply great. The writing is quite good, and the dialogue between Sykes and the other characters is sure to keep you interested.
I won?t spoil the story for those of you who wish to play, but I will give you a basic rundown of what you?ll see. The game is split into chapters each of about half an hour in length depending on how you play, and they feature their own repertoire of story elements, gunfights, and vehicle battles. The keystone of the game play in Crysis is that every scenario is open to exploration. You have a set goal, but how you go about it is up to you. The environments are extremely open and you can you a variety of tactics to tackle each gunfight, and it gives the player a chance for their own unique experience. Despite the array of tactics involved in the gunplay, the vehicle sections are rather weak. There are only 2 or 3 varieties of vehicle and even though plowing through enemies with an armored car and a mini-gun turret can be an enriching experience, you may find it?s more efficient just to tackle the enemies on foot with the array of weapons available.
This game features a wide variety of weapons including rifles, missile launchers, dual sub-machine guns, pistol(s), and my personal favorite new addition the Auto Grenade Launcher. This gun may have a reload time slower than a late-night wal-mart cashier, but seeing crowds of Korean enemies go flying from your lobbed explosive is satisfying enough to make this weapon a staple in your personal armory. Each weapon is fully customizable with silencers, laser sights, flashlights, and scopes, on-the-fly in an easy to access menu, and can add even more strategy to your game play and gives you the chance to really fit your own tastes. This brings me to the keystone of the Crysis game play, the nanosuit. This high powered suit of armor gives you 4 abilities, Armor (default setting), Strength, Speed, and Stealth. Each one is useful in its own right, but I felt Strength mode could have been given a bigger role, rather than just being used for tackling rough terrain or steadying your aim. It seems to me that if you have the option of super strength (many people?s childhood dream *me included*) the game should at least allow you to utilize this more efficiently in combat rather than only having 2 melee options, punch and throw ( Super Strength Sparta Kicks FTMFW). Overall, the suit adds an interesting element to the game play and the controls are smooth and easy to use. The difficulty curve however is not so smooth and easy. The enemy AI is sharp and will use everything at their disposal to destroy you (Tanks and missile launchers included). The Boss battles are fun and challenging, so don?t expect to beat them on the first try, even on Easy difficulty, and the bosses themselves are epic enough to make your war-torn grandfather piss his bedpan.
However, despite its tight game play and storytelling, Crysis does have its flaws. If you know anything about Crysis and its beautiful graphics, you also know that they come with issues. Granted my setup is hardly godlike, but I fooled around with my settings and I got a decent frame rate with some damn good looking environments. It does run better than its predecessor, but it still seems a tad buggy. I got a few weird graphical artifacts while playing even though my video card was running at a safe temperature, and some crashing issues that demanded I restart my game. It was rather frustrating to finally take down a big tank or kill a massive number of Korean?s only to be greeted by a beautiful black screen followed by the Send Error Report menu I?ve come to know and love. Another problem is the lack of any puzzle game play, sure some people enjoy gunning their way through 5 hours of Koreans, but I like to stimulate some other nerves rather than just my trigger finger.
Overall, Crysis Warhead is a solid and beautiful shooter, if your PC can handle it, and if you played through Crysis and are looking for more, Crysis Warhead is a great place to turn for only $30. Warhead corrects on a lot of the flaws of its predecessor, and if you have a PC and like to kill things with explosions and guns, you should give Crysis Warhead a look.
