What do you say about a game that has been released 3 times since 2007? I guess this is the same struggle people who are given the latest port of Skyrim have to deal with, same game, different hardware?
Crysis is a strange beast, It’s an idea I absolutely adore, a futuristic uber warrior is sent on a mission to recover assets on an island riddled with bad guys and Alien doodads. Equipped with a “Nanosuit” the player character Nomad (Love that name) drops in and can use his suits abilities to run faster, take more hits and turn almost completely invisible. All this sounds amazing but unfortunately, it’s trapped in a game that at most, is just alright.
When it was first released, Crysis was hailed as a PC killer, a trial by fire for anyone who took the time and expense to build themselves a devoted gaming machine and ascend from the lowly console peasants they used to among. You would stick this in your CD drive or download it from Steam and pray to whichever god you fancied that your PC wouldn’t immediately burst into flames from the struggle and melt through your floor as red-hot slag. It was always noticeable to me though that regardless of who I asked, no one ever really had much to say about the game besides how pretty it looked or how many buckets of water it took to stop their machine going supernova.
The reason no one said much is because at it’s core, Crysis is really just another shooter game in a world that is already saturated, even the grand idea of the Nano suit doesn’t really do much to make the title stand out, since its abilities while cool sounding are about as useful as a chocolate teapot in game. The Cloak is only effective if the bad guys are about 50 yards away from you and not already alerted, and frankly their AI is so poor most of the time you can lose them by just hiding behind a well-placed rock for a minute. The Armour mode should make you feel like a tank busting through foes and taking bullets like a pro, but really, it’s just adding a second health bar which depletes at twice the rate and makes the bullets have a fun ricochet noise as they bounce off your armour-plated breasts. In fact, really the only useful skill of the suit is speed mode… which is basically just sprinting, game changer right?
The latest port has done nothing to address some of the more irritating problems with the originally release like its dull story and average gameplay, using the control scheme from the original console ports, Suit abilities are tied to the shoulder buttons, R1 for cloak L1 for armour and press the left stick in for speed. This makes it easy to keep track of what you’re doing in a hectic firefight sure, but it also leaves no room for more important things, changing weapons for example can be a really nuisance with a menu being the only clear way to work out what fun or explosive you’ll pull into your hands next. Too many times was I the victim of the wrath of bad guys because I pulled out a shotgun when facing down a tank, rather than my trusty rocket launcher.
I’ve seen a few comments online by fans of the series bemoaning the graphical updates since its launch. The remaster looks basically the same as the original release, which with 13 years between them just isn’t good enough. Crysis looked amazing in 2007, but its 2020 now and people expect a little more than glossy oceans and a few nice-looking trees. During my time playing for the review I also encountered my fair share of bugs and glitches as sun beams took physical form and barrels jumped all over the shop as though they had been brought to life to mess with my assault on a compound!
Overall, Crysis Remastered is noting special and honestly? Probably wasn’t ever that special, it will forever be known as a test of your PC specs but as a game, it just doesn’t have enough going for it to make it a great title. Clunky controls and boring story aside, Crysis isn’t all that memorable or exciting. This is one Remaster the world really didn’t need that badly and could have just remained in the annals of history and second-hand video game store shelves.
I give Crysis Remastered 5/10