I played Crysis years ago on the PC. Not when it came out, of course, since basically nothing could run it, but quite some time ago nonetheless. Eventually PCs caught up to Crysis and it was actually playable and surprisingly solid as well! Now, Crytek has brought Crysis back with a completely remastered version of the game for PCs and consoles, Crysis Remastered!
For those of you who aren’t familiar, Crysis is a highly detailed FPS that pits elite US black ops soldiers in sci-fi battlesuits against the North Korean army and an alien invasion force! It’s a well thought out epic sci-fi adventure with tons of action, a fun plot, and overall an excellent title. But that’s not all! One of the best things that Crytek used to really make Crysis immersive was their incredible attention to detail. Animals on the island match the real local wildlife, trees are everywhere with thick jungle foliage that hides you, rock formations are realistic, and even guns are mostly quite realistic. This isn’t your average FPS. You’re going to have to aim. You’re going to run out of ammo and have to scavenge weapons. You’re going to have to sneak around and the AI will likely find you fairly quickly. It’s a game that pulls you deeply into its world. In fact, it’s so realistic that if you crank the difficulty up to hard, the North Koreans actually speak Korean, upping the difficulty substantially by stopping you from understanding their plan of attack!
Now, it’s been quite a few years since the original Crysis release and FPS design has moved ahead substantially since then. Some stuff is still standard, like rechargeable health, other elements are unique to Crysis, such as invisibility cloaking tech and rechargeable armor. Regardless, the core gameplay is still sneak, hunt down enemies, and kill them. Unfortunately, in terms of enemy AI and level design, Crysis hasn’t really aged that well. It’s easy to entirely bypass whole enemy checkpoints simply by climbing through the brush and around them, thus avoiding contact and preserving your ammo, leaving you heavily armed for encounters required to further the plot. Level design is beyond problematic at this point and really highlights the age of the game. Additionally, the enemies are surprisingly dumb, walking directly into ambushes one after another and standing above bodies of their comrades, then getting distracted and walking away. This makes the game ridiculously easy in any sections where you’re fighting the Korean army. Aliens are overall more challenging but suffer from similar AI issues.
Depending on what difficulty you select, Crysis can be extremely difficult on the Xbox due to the accuracy required by your shots. This is a game that’s noticeably intended for mouse and keyboard and translates only fairly well to a controller. On Easy and Normal, you can miss a few shots here and there. Any higher on the scale and every missed shot pretty much spells your doom as the enemies are crack shots and you won’t get a second chance. Run in guns blazing and you’re dead. Lure soldiers one by one into the brush? A more simple solution that’s effective but time consuming. On Easy, you can still storm a compound fairly safely though, especially with a shotgun.
That’s not what you’re here for though. Crysis Remasted is, well, remastered. And if there’s one thing Crysis is known for, it’s an intense visual experience. So how are those updated graphics on a modern console? Sadly, the answer is more lackluster than you might expect. While there’s a lot going on, a lot of set pieces, and a high level of detail here, there are also plenty of glitches and issues. Foliage looks neat but has no physical parameters, allowing you to walk directly through plant undergrowth without disturbing it. Looking out from under the cover of jungle bushes often leads to a fractured viewpoint and noticeable polygons popping up. Some foliage and rocks look great up close, but others are poorly texture mapped and it shows, almost like there was no expectation you’d go off path and find your own way. Even the water effects are somewhat lifeless, especially on the surface. This is a game that is definitely starting to look dated. As long as the action is fast and frantic, you don’t really notice and everything seems slick and modern. But once you start creeping around cloaked to grab enemies, you’ll see there’s some serious aging going on here. Combine that with the limited AI and erratic level design and you end up with a game that doesn’t feel all that remastered.
Make no mistake, the core game of Crysis is amazing. It’s a great sci-fi epic with a solid story and it’s fun to play. And at $30, you’re getting your money’s worth, especially when you get the full game plus a multiplayer component. Overall it looks good too. However, it’s simply not the technological masterpiece that it was when it originally came out in 2007, almost 13 years ago now. The dialogue is hokier, some of the Koreans say things in English that are perhaps a tad questionable, and accuracy and response time on a controller are less than ideal. Essentially, this is a bit of a mixed bag. On one hand, a fun game that has an awesome narrative, and on another, expectations are likely higher than they should be for a remaster like this.
It’s hard not to recommend Crysis Remastered. It checks every box, but it doesn’t feel as fulfilling the second time around as it did when playing through the first time all those years ago. The game hasn’t changed, other than adding a bevy of HD textures, but maybe we have as gamers because even with all the complexity, Crysis Remastered no longer comes off feeling like the AAA release it was when it originally came out. Maybe that’s just due to how jaded the industry has become or maybe it’s because we’re so spoiled by titles like Doom Eternal that it’s simply too hard to go backwards. And that’s what it feels like to play Crysis Remastered. Going backwards.
If you’ve never played Crysis before, Crysis Remastered is definitely worth picking up, especially if you like a solid single player campaign mode. If you’ve made your way through the game before and happen to want to play it on a console, it’s hard to say that you’re going to get anything new out of this one. Perhaps the remaster is more impressive on the PC but for the Xbox One X, there’s really no noticeably boost that makes Crysis Remastered worth replaying. It’s a good game with solid gameplay at a reasonable price, but it’s not a great game anymore and there are certainly plenty of great games out there. Check it out, but temper your expectations and you’ll definitely have a good time!
This review was based on a digital copy of Crysis Remastered provided by the publisher. It was played on an Xbox One X using a Sony 55” 1080p LED TV. Crysis Remastered is also available for PS4, PC on Steam, and Nintendo Switch, which we previously reviewed here. Screenshots are a mix of actual gameplay and press shots from both PC and Xbox One.