I wrote this up a couple of weeks ago for VGRC [http://www.vgrc.net/]. Link to the original article here [http://www.vgrc.net/2008/09/crysis-warhead-review.php]. It's prettier and has pictures, too.
A year ago, German developer Crytek unleashed its spiritual successor to Far Cry upon the PC gaming world. Crysis was received as one of the best games of 2007 (there sure were a lot of them, weren't there?) and was seen as a return to prominence for PC gaming, which for a couple of years before-hand had slowed as fewer and fewer blockbuster exclusive titles were released for the platform. Despite its very positive reception, the game did not sell according to initial expectations. Although the pirates are willing to throw around just about every excuse in the book for as to why they didn't purchase Crysis, the most common one is that the game's system requirements were simply too high for most people to handle. Crysis was hyped up to be the best-looking videogame ever made, and it definitely delivered on that promise, but the price was the hardware required to run the game: nothing short of a top-end system at the game's release was fit enough to run Crysis in its full glory without grinding to a halt in the process. Now, a year later, Crytek's new Budapest studio has revistited the Crysis world with Crysis Warhead, in the hopes of providing gamers with a new look at the original game's storyline while addressing some of the complaints that the first game received; namely, performance and pacing.
Warhead isn't quite a sequel to Crysis, nor is it quite a straight expansion pack, either. Much like titles such as Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts, Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance and S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky, Crysis Warhead is billed as a stand-alone expansion or side-story to the original Crysis. More so than those other stand-alone expansions, though, Warhead feels like its own self-contained experience rather than an add-on. The game's story follows Sergeant ?Psycho? Sykes after he runs off about a third of the way into Crysis, only to conveniently reappear in the end sequence with a giant alien carcass on his mantlepiece. Since Warhead is a parallel story to Crysis, new players might have trouble getting into the game; while the developers try their best to give Warhead its own plot, without the context of the original Crysis, there's a lot of stuff that might leave newbies scratching their heads. That's not to say it can't be enjoyed or understood by new players, but those that played through the first title will definitely get more out of Warhead.
Warhead's plot is actually in many ways much more developed than the one in Crysis; while it lacks the sheer scope of its predecessor, there's a lot more behind the characters this time around. The main character in Crysis, Nomad, was intentionally left as an everyman, but this didn't prove to be the best of decisions as he simply came off as being incredibly bland and boring. This time, by placing the player in Psycho's nitro-fueled nanosuit, Warhead gives itself a needed shot of personality. On top of Psycho, there is a supporting cast including an old rival of Psycho's, Sean O'Neill, and one of the most evil villains in a game I've seen recently, KPA Colonel Lee. The writing for all the game's characters is much better this time around, and while isn't exactly Hemingway, it provides for a more emotionally engaging experience. Lee, despite his few lines, comes off as an incredibly sadistic guy who you'll love to hate, and O'Neill, while a bit cookie-cutter, provides a nice overarching banter with Psycho as well as a clichéd but interesting subplot. While it's true that a lot of the dialogue, characters, etc. are very B-movie, it's B-movie in the best possible way: executed with a self-aware yet serious tone, more like Aliens than Rambo.
In fact, just about everything about Warhead screams B-movie, including the writing and story, the faster-paced gameplay, and, perhaps most tellingly, the constant supply of things that go "boom". There's always a rocket launcher or cache of grenades waiting around the corner, and you likely won't be running low on ammo too often throughout the game. For those who found Crysis to be too slow for their tastes, Warhead ups the pace considerably by giving you more vehicles and guns (especially explosives) to play with. The missions are slightly more linear than those in Crysis, but they aren't disproportionately so; whereas Crysis' second half was almost entirely linear, Warhead retains its openness for most of the game while at the same time keeping the environments just a little smaller and direct, gently nudging you forward rather than inviting you to get lost. Whether or not you'll like this is a matter of taste, but fortunately the game accommodates all types of player as much as possible; just like in Crysis, it's possible to get through the game by sneaking through most conflicts, by tactically taking enemies out from a distance, or by blowing everything up (or a combination of all three when your plans go to Hell). The game definitely favours the latter approach, but save for the last couple of missions, it's possible to get through the game with very little bloodshed (which I managed to do, although I gave in once or twice... that new grenade launcher was impossible to resist!).
In any case, your mileage will definitely vary depending on how you play the game. As mentioned, Warhead is a side-story to Crysis and therefore isn't quite as big, with seven levels instead of ten. Each will take roughly an hour, but depending on your play-style and skill level, it's possible to complete the game in as little as five hours, and as many as ten. I actually managed to take just as long beating Warhead as I did with Crysis (ten hours), but this also involved me playing on the hardest difficulty setting (a requirement for the real Crysis fans) and skipping some of the vehicle sections in the game in favour of on-foot combat. Understandably, there is less content in Warhead than in Crysis, but for a $30 side-story Warhead offers up far more gameplay than most full-priced titles do these days (I'm looking at you, Call of Duty 4).
I should point out that, while some will be quick to condemn Warhead for a lack of new features, I don't agree with that at all. The nanosuit in Crysis is one of the coolest features in a game in many years, perhaps up there with the Gravity Gun in its impact on gameplay. The ability to change your tactics at any time in order to outsmart and out-maneuver your enemies is one that went vastly under-appreciated by gamers; even with its slower pace, Crysis was made so much more than just a Far Cry clone by its addition, and Warhead really lets it shine. Using the nanosuit starts out as cumbersome, but quickly becomes second nature, so much so that I find it hard to go back to nanosuit-less shooters afterwards. Hopefully Warhead will cause more people to take note.
Crysis Warhead also features a new multiplayer game mode, aptly called Crysis Wars (technically a separate game, but it comes included with Warhead). This is more of an expansion on the multiplayer mode in the original Crysis, featuring new maps, some balance changes, and a couple of added modes. Crysis wasn't known for its multiplayer and Warhead likely won't get you to neglect your current favourites, but it's certainly a much larger and more capable package than what the first game offered, featuring a more fleshed-out deathmatch mode and a more straightforward Battlefield-like Power Struggle. It even comes on its own DVD and has its own separate install, so if you're not interested in the multiplayer you don't have to bother with it at all.
Unfortunately, Crysis is remembered nowadays more as a benchmarking utility, which is rather a shame considering how good a game it is. However, it's also the prettiest game ever made, so perhaps that's a well-deserved legacy. Or, at least, I should say that it was the prettiest game ever made, because Crysis Warhead looks even better, which, yes, is actually possible. It's hard to pinpoint the precise differences, but I think it mostly comes down to some minor changes in the art style and lighting. The lighting is much more dramatic and defined this time around and really makes the geography stand out, but the art still manages to show through all the special effects as well. Warhead features much more variety than Crysis, with environments ranging from the patented jungles and beaches, to a frozen lake with its distinct waves caught in time, to an ice-crusted aircraft carrier, to an eerie cave system, to a military airstrip. While it's true that many of the assets are reused and modified from the first title, this gives Warhead a sense of consistency. However, it's impossible to truly do the game justice in words, and even screenshots and a few video clips aren't enough to convey just how fantastic the graphics are; suffice is to say that it delivers visuals on a level consistent with the special effects from most Hollywood films, all in real-time, at smooth framerates.
What's that? Smooth framerates? Yes, it's true, you can actually run Warhead smoothly, and on a reasonable computer to boot. Crytek has gone back and made a lot of optimisations to their engine, and the result is very pleasing; the game not only looks better, but runs better than the original. Admittedly, many of the improvements come for lower-spec machines (I've heard reports claiming the game runs worse than the original for some with beefier hardware), but most gamers should be pleased. I played the game on my GeForce 8800 GT and Athlon 64 X2 6000+ with 2 GB of RAM, all modestly overclocked, and while the game wasn't without its hiccups, my average framerates were a good 5-10 fps higher than the original Crysis, and at higher settings to boot (you can now use the very high settings on Windows XP without tweaking the game's config files, it should be noted). Since Crysis isn't a lightning-fast game like Unreal Tournament, this makes a huge difference in practice. In general, running Warhead at all very high settings, 1024x768, produced better results than just vanilla high settings in Crysis.
Equally impressive is the audio package, though it will likely go overlooked by some. Although Inon Zur isn't around for Warhead, flourishes from his excellent original score still show through. Warhead's music is fully dynamic, just like the first one's, but is more percussion-based, featuring drums that seamlessly switch from tense to warlike as the action heats up or slows down, while the game's most riveting sequences are scored appropriately and emotionally. I won't say I don't miss Inon Zur's more orchestral work, but Peter Antovszki's soundtrack is excellent in every respect, and he brings a different flavour to Crysis that is equally effective. The rest of the audio package is impeccable, from the voice-acting to the sound effects. Warhead uses the FMOD audio system so you don't get any effects such as EAX if your hardware supports it, but you wouldn't know it from listening to the game. I haven't heard such great audio in a game since BioShock (and the original Crysis, of course). And yes, you can still hear the birds stop chirping and flutter away when you fire a shot in the jungle, for those of you who were wondering. Warhead's focus on action and explosions still hasn't removed the subtlety that brings the game to life.
So, what is Crysis Warhead in the end? Essentially, it's more of the same, but in the case of Crysis, that is a very good thing. I don't feel that the original game got nearly enough credit for its gameplay innovations, and Warhead addresses nearly all of the concerns leveled at the first one. It's true that it doesn't stand on its own quite as well as the first, but as a side-story that's to be expected. It is worth noting that I did encounter a few bugs while playing through the game, specifically a few crashes and one troubling instance where I kept falling through the floor of a level (restarting the game fixed this), but these issues are still relatively minor in the grand scheme of things, and I'm confident a patch will be released to get rid of these problems. Crysis Warhead offers a phenomenal and surprisingly well-developed single-player package that takes the best parts of Crysis and improves upon them while still delivering sufficient variety and replayability, while the multiplayer game has been expanded upon and improved; for $30, this is some of the best value I've seen from a package since The Orange Box, especially considering that EA could have released them both separately with few objections. If you absolutely hated Crysis then Warhead probably won't change your mind, but if you tried Crysis and found it to be a bit too slow-paced and unfocused, then you may find yourself much more engaged with Warhead (and better yet, it might convince you to give the first game another go). If you're a Crysis fan, meanwhile, you've probably already bought the game, and rightly so. Even with its lower price and slightly shorter campaign, it stands out as one of the best games of the year, and certainly in the top few PC games. If you've got the hardware, you owe it to yourself (and your computer) to buy this game.
Final Score: 9/10
The Good:
Expands on Crysis' great gameplay, better pacing, better graphics, better performance
The Bad:
Occasional crashes and other minor bugs
A year ago, German developer Crytek unleashed its spiritual successor to Far Cry upon the PC gaming world. Crysis was received as one of the best games of 2007 (there sure were a lot of them, weren't there?) and was seen as a return to prominence for PC gaming, which for a couple of years before-hand had slowed as fewer and fewer blockbuster exclusive titles were released for the platform. Despite its very positive reception, the game did not sell according to initial expectations. Although the pirates are willing to throw around just about every excuse in the book for as to why they didn't purchase Crysis, the most common one is that the game's system requirements were simply too high for most people to handle. Crysis was hyped up to be the best-looking videogame ever made, and it definitely delivered on that promise, but the price was the hardware required to run the game: nothing short of a top-end system at the game's release was fit enough to run Crysis in its full glory without grinding to a halt in the process. Now, a year later, Crytek's new Budapest studio has revistited the Crysis world with Crysis Warhead, in the hopes of providing gamers with a new look at the original game's storyline while addressing some of the complaints that the first game received; namely, performance and pacing.
Warhead isn't quite a sequel to Crysis, nor is it quite a straight expansion pack, either. Much like titles such as Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts, Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance and S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky, Crysis Warhead is billed as a stand-alone expansion or side-story to the original Crysis. More so than those other stand-alone expansions, though, Warhead feels like its own self-contained experience rather than an add-on. The game's story follows Sergeant ?Psycho? Sykes after he runs off about a third of the way into Crysis, only to conveniently reappear in the end sequence with a giant alien carcass on his mantlepiece. Since Warhead is a parallel story to Crysis, new players might have trouble getting into the game; while the developers try their best to give Warhead its own plot, without the context of the original Crysis, there's a lot of stuff that might leave newbies scratching their heads. That's not to say it can't be enjoyed or understood by new players, but those that played through the first title will definitely get more out of Warhead.
Warhead's plot is actually in many ways much more developed than the one in Crysis; while it lacks the sheer scope of its predecessor, there's a lot more behind the characters this time around. The main character in Crysis, Nomad, was intentionally left as an everyman, but this didn't prove to be the best of decisions as he simply came off as being incredibly bland and boring. This time, by placing the player in Psycho's nitro-fueled nanosuit, Warhead gives itself a needed shot of personality. On top of Psycho, there is a supporting cast including an old rival of Psycho's, Sean O'Neill, and one of the most evil villains in a game I've seen recently, KPA Colonel Lee. The writing for all the game's characters is much better this time around, and while isn't exactly Hemingway, it provides for a more emotionally engaging experience. Lee, despite his few lines, comes off as an incredibly sadistic guy who you'll love to hate, and O'Neill, while a bit cookie-cutter, provides a nice overarching banter with Psycho as well as a clichéd but interesting subplot. While it's true that a lot of the dialogue, characters, etc. are very B-movie, it's B-movie in the best possible way: executed with a self-aware yet serious tone, more like Aliens than Rambo.
In fact, just about everything about Warhead screams B-movie, including the writing and story, the faster-paced gameplay, and, perhaps most tellingly, the constant supply of things that go "boom". There's always a rocket launcher or cache of grenades waiting around the corner, and you likely won't be running low on ammo too often throughout the game. For those who found Crysis to be too slow for their tastes, Warhead ups the pace considerably by giving you more vehicles and guns (especially explosives) to play with. The missions are slightly more linear than those in Crysis, but they aren't disproportionately so; whereas Crysis' second half was almost entirely linear, Warhead retains its openness for most of the game while at the same time keeping the environments just a little smaller and direct, gently nudging you forward rather than inviting you to get lost. Whether or not you'll like this is a matter of taste, but fortunately the game accommodates all types of player as much as possible; just like in Crysis, it's possible to get through the game by sneaking through most conflicts, by tactically taking enemies out from a distance, or by blowing everything up (or a combination of all three when your plans go to Hell). The game definitely favours the latter approach, but save for the last couple of missions, it's possible to get through the game with very little bloodshed (which I managed to do, although I gave in once or twice... that new grenade launcher was impossible to resist!).
In any case, your mileage will definitely vary depending on how you play the game. As mentioned, Warhead is a side-story to Crysis and therefore isn't quite as big, with seven levels instead of ten. Each will take roughly an hour, but depending on your play-style and skill level, it's possible to complete the game in as little as five hours, and as many as ten. I actually managed to take just as long beating Warhead as I did with Crysis (ten hours), but this also involved me playing on the hardest difficulty setting (a requirement for the real Crysis fans) and skipping some of the vehicle sections in the game in favour of on-foot combat. Understandably, there is less content in Warhead than in Crysis, but for a $30 side-story Warhead offers up far more gameplay than most full-priced titles do these days (I'm looking at you, Call of Duty 4).
I should point out that, while some will be quick to condemn Warhead for a lack of new features, I don't agree with that at all. The nanosuit in Crysis is one of the coolest features in a game in many years, perhaps up there with the Gravity Gun in its impact on gameplay. The ability to change your tactics at any time in order to outsmart and out-maneuver your enemies is one that went vastly under-appreciated by gamers; even with its slower pace, Crysis was made so much more than just a Far Cry clone by its addition, and Warhead really lets it shine. Using the nanosuit starts out as cumbersome, but quickly becomes second nature, so much so that I find it hard to go back to nanosuit-less shooters afterwards. Hopefully Warhead will cause more people to take note.
Crysis Warhead also features a new multiplayer game mode, aptly called Crysis Wars (technically a separate game, but it comes included with Warhead). This is more of an expansion on the multiplayer mode in the original Crysis, featuring new maps, some balance changes, and a couple of added modes. Crysis wasn't known for its multiplayer and Warhead likely won't get you to neglect your current favourites, but it's certainly a much larger and more capable package than what the first game offered, featuring a more fleshed-out deathmatch mode and a more straightforward Battlefield-like Power Struggle. It even comes on its own DVD and has its own separate install, so if you're not interested in the multiplayer you don't have to bother with it at all.
Unfortunately, Crysis is remembered nowadays more as a benchmarking utility, which is rather a shame considering how good a game it is. However, it's also the prettiest game ever made, so perhaps that's a well-deserved legacy. Or, at least, I should say that it was the prettiest game ever made, because Crysis Warhead looks even better, which, yes, is actually possible. It's hard to pinpoint the precise differences, but I think it mostly comes down to some minor changes in the art style and lighting. The lighting is much more dramatic and defined this time around and really makes the geography stand out, but the art still manages to show through all the special effects as well. Warhead features much more variety than Crysis, with environments ranging from the patented jungles and beaches, to a frozen lake with its distinct waves caught in time, to an ice-crusted aircraft carrier, to an eerie cave system, to a military airstrip. While it's true that many of the assets are reused and modified from the first title, this gives Warhead a sense of consistency. However, it's impossible to truly do the game justice in words, and even screenshots and a few video clips aren't enough to convey just how fantastic the graphics are; suffice is to say that it delivers visuals on a level consistent with the special effects from most Hollywood films, all in real-time, at smooth framerates.
What's that? Smooth framerates? Yes, it's true, you can actually run Warhead smoothly, and on a reasonable computer to boot. Crytek has gone back and made a lot of optimisations to their engine, and the result is very pleasing; the game not only looks better, but runs better than the original. Admittedly, many of the improvements come for lower-spec machines (I've heard reports claiming the game runs worse than the original for some with beefier hardware), but most gamers should be pleased. I played the game on my GeForce 8800 GT and Athlon 64 X2 6000+ with 2 GB of RAM, all modestly overclocked, and while the game wasn't without its hiccups, my average framerates were a good 5-10 fps higher than the original Crysis, and at higher settings to boot (you can now use the very high settings on Windows XP without tweaking the game's config files, it should be noted). Since Crysis isn't a lightning-fast game like Unreal Tournament, this makes a huge difference in practice. In general, running Warhead at all very high settings, 1024x768, produced better results than just vanilla high settings in Crysis.
Equally impressive is the audio package, though it will likely go overlooked by some. Although Inon Zur isn't around for Warhead, flourishes from his excellent original score still show through. Warhead's music is fully dynamic, just like the first one's, but is more percussion-based, featuring drums that seamlessly switch from tense to warlike as the action heats up or slows down, while the game's most riveting sequences are scored appropriately and emotionally. I won't say I don't miss Inon Zur's more orchestral work, but Peter Antovszki's soundtrack is excellent in every respect, and he brings a different flavour to Crysis that is equally effective. The rest of the audio package is impeccable, from the voice-acting to the sound effects. Warhead uses the FMOD audio system so you don't get any effects such as EAX if your hardware supports it, but you wouldn't know it from listening to the game. I haven't heard such great audio in a game since BioShock (and the original Crysis, of course). And yes, you can still hear the birds stop chirping and flutter away when you fire a shot in the jungle, for those of you who were wondering. Warhead's focus on action and explosions still hasn't removed the subtlety that brings the game to life.
So, what is Crysis Warhead in the end? Essentially, it's more of the same, but in the case of Crysis, that is a very good thing. I don't feel that the original game got nearly enough credit for its gameplay innovations, and Warhead addresses nearly all of the concerns leveled at the first one. It's true that it doesn't stand on its own quite as well as the first, but as a side-story that's to be expected. It is worth noting that I did encounter a few bugs while playing through the game, specifically a few crashes and one troubling instance where I kept falling through the floor of a level (restarting the game fixed this), but these issues are still relatively minor in the grand scheme of things, and I'm confident a patch will be released to get rid of these problems. Crysis Warhead offers a phenomenal and surprisingly well-developed single-player package that takes the best parts of Crysis and improves upon them while still delivering sufficient variety and replayability, while the multiplayer game has been expanded upon and improved; for $30, this is some of the best value I've seen from a package since The Orange Box, especially considering that EA could have released them both separately with few objections. If you absolutely hated Crysis then Warhead probably won't change your mind, but if you tried Crysis and found it to be a bit too slow-paced and unfocused, then you may find yourself much more engaged with Warhead (and better yet, it might convince you to give the first game another go). If you're a Crysis fan, meanwhile, you've probably already bought the game, and rightly so. Even with its lower price and slightly shorter campaign, it stands out as one of the best games of the year, and certainly in the top few PC games. If you've got the hardware, you owe it to yourself (and your computer) to buy this game.
Final Score: 9/10
The Good:
Expands on Crysis' great gameplay, better pacing, better graphics, better performance
The Bad:
Occasional crashes and other minor bugs
