The eminent Crysis franchise is reborn in the cradle of ninth-generation hardware - telling the tale of the Ceph invasion in up to 60FPS.
Rarely does a game receive such high praise as did the original Crysis game, released by Crytek back in 2007. Critics and gamer alike lauded the game as a product far surpassing its time; the game was so graphically advanced that many a poor GPU crashed out trying to run it. Times have changed; coming on the 15th of October is the complete trilogy: Crysis 1, 2 and 3, excluding Warhead. Though our poor PCs might be quaking in their wires upon hearing this news – ‘can it run Crysis?’ – the hardware of modern-day consoles have no complaints in hosting the series who is no longer the graphical kingpin they once were.
What is the game series’ context?
Initially, the enemies of the militarised Raptor Team, the members of which we will play as throughout the series, are some opportunistic North Korean soldiers, yet a surprise enemy is quickly thrown into the ring – an extra-terrestrial race of invaders known as the Ceph. In a War of the Worlds type concept, the Ceph lay dormant, buried in the dirt for many millions of years only to strike modern man where and when he least expects it. The trilogy portrays the events that follow, taking us through the road the world takes to fight back against the invaders and all such battles entail. Crysis 2 for example tells the story of New York in 2023 as it is ravaged by a virus not yet understood while our team continues the concurrent war effort against the strengthened Ceph.
What goes gameplay involve?
The Crysis series is a fast-paced first-person action shooter revolving around playable soldiers donning upgradeable Halo-style Nanosuits. Soldiers are as a result of the Nanosuits endowed with ‘Modes’ such as improved physical strength so we can effortlessly pick up and fling enemies away in melee attacks, the speed needed to super jump and sprint across the battlefield, outwit and ambush enemies and enhanced defensive capabilities so we can get stuck into a skirmish without need to worry about singular bullets. Of course, the iconic Crysis cloaking abilities facilitating binocular-fuelled stealth attacks and sneaking also feature throughout. As the gritty, rough-and-ready and sangfroid soldiers we are, we exercise some firepower in Tanks, wreak havoc from the air in Helicopters and stage some notable offensives with some massive machine guns, grenades and C4. Especially in the latter entries to the series does thought given to attacks pay off; we have the ability to hack into the elaborate Ceph technology and have it revolt against them – playing smarter, not harder. As is often the case in newly released first-person shooters, the in-game enemy AI can at times be fairly oblivious and can negatively impact the buzz of battle – but we suspect that patches in the near-future will help to ameliorate this issue if they haven’t done so already.
'The gritty, rough-and-ready and sangfroid soldiers we are, we exercise some firepower in Tanks, wreak havoc from the air in Helicopters and stage some notable offensives with some massive machine guns, grenades and C4.'
How does the game look?
The original Crysis game was remastered last year and released exclusively to Epic Games but became widely available in September of this year to contribute the Trilogy. All three titles look to link up in spectacular 4k and 60fps fashion; each game of the Trilogy, particularly the original premier Crysis, were already far ahead of their time, but now come with ray-tracing support, improved lighting, high-definition textures, such as the quintessential Far Cry tropical island foliage Crysis employs, and visual enhancements across the game in weaponry, characters and environments - the overall atmosphere of the title is augmented by the remaster. I am a big fan of responsive sandbox gaming environments wherein our surroundings are not rigid but are dynamically moulded by our actions; Crysis games excel in this regard as we can shoot down shacks and blow-up buildings willy-nilly – it’s great. Crysis is now available on all major consoles including the Nintendo Switch – on which it is unequivocally one of the best-looking games around – the game, though possessing an obvious air of the late 2000’s and early 2010’s, performs exceptionally well and received generally favourable reviews.
'I am a big fan of responsive gaming environments wherein our surroundings are not rigid but are dynamically moulded by our actions; Crysis games excel in this regard as we can shoot down shacks and blow-up buildings willy-nilly.'
The world we find ourselves in today didn’t turn out quite how Crysis had envisioned, but the erroneous foretelling takes nothing away from the quality held by the Crysis saga; a timeless concept, fantastic gameplay for its time, but visuals that looked and felt dated, that was until the gem of a game went through a ninth-generation time machine – now we have a real winner on our hands. The greatest alterations are of course made to the older titles since they are further dated, but in truth all three games in the trilogy have had a needed revamp. If you haven’t yet been through the Crysis experience yet, or if you’re seeking a taste of nostalgia, get your gaming thumbs on Crysis Trilogy. Some fans are even hoping that the proceedings of the game will go to development of a fourth Crysis game – chance will be a fine thing.
If you’re looking solely for the first game, you can pick up the Crysis Remaster here, but if the trilogy is what looks to float your boat as it would mine, you can find that here.