Crysis Warhead ReviewOnce more unto the island, dear friends, once more.by Jason OcampoUS, September 12, 2008 - Crysis Warhead is the videogame equivalent of a summer action movie, and while it's more action-heavy than its highly acclaimed predecessor, it still retains its brains. Like Crysis, Warhead is a sandbox shooter that gives you large amounts of freedom as to how you approach each tactical situation. And there are plenty of tactical situations, because Warhead seems aimed at those who felt that Crysis was a bit too slow-paced and cerebral at times. But while it doesn't quite match the over-the-top insanity of a Call of Duty game, Warhead does prove that Crytek can deliver an intense action game.

Warhead is a companion game to Crysis, with a story that runs concurrently to that in the first game. An alien artifact has been discovered on a tropical island, and after the United States and North Korea race to seize it, an alien invasion erupts, flash freezing the island and putting the world at risk. The difference is in perspective; you now get to play as British Sergeant Michael Sykes, aka Psycho, the blowhard from the first game. Warhead takes place on "the other side of the island" that Crysis takes place on. If you played that game you already know the beginning and the end, so what matters here is the journey.



The opening cinematic establishes the kind of character Psycho is, and the kind of game Warhead will be. With aplomb, he leaps off of cliffs into moving trucks, manhandles North Koreans, and generally sneers at danger. Warhead is a much more cinematic game than its predecessor, partly due to third-person cutscenes (they were totally absent in Crysis), but also because it feels like Crytek openly borrowed a page or two from director Michael Bay. This goes right down to the overwrought emotional scenes to the driving musical score full of Japanese takio drums and soaring movements.

Like Crysis, the heart of Warhead is its combination of sandbox gameplay with the nanosuit, the high-tech body armor that can give you superhuman strength or speed, or cloak you from detection. Used correctly, the nanosuit lets you basically be the alien Predator from the movies, and the open nature of the levels means that you can dictate the terms of the battle. It's a blast to hurl grenades at long range at a squad of bad guys, then use speed to close the distance, strength to pick up a survivor and hurl him into his buddies, and then to finish them off with a few rounds of rifle fire. You can cloak and sneak right up to your opponents, or have them follow you only to cloak and then change direction. It's all up to you. Combine that ad lib style of gameplay with the generally smart AI, and each play-through of Warhead can be completely different.

The grenade launcher is your new best friend. Seriously.The emphasis is on large battles, whether you're assaulting a beach resort full of North Korean troops, barreling down a road in an APC and shooting up the villages you drive through, or defending a group of soldiers from alien assault. Crytek reduced the downtime between battles to a bare minimum; you're often no sooner out of a fight before stumbling into another one. And sometimes, you might even drag one fight into another. That happened quite a bit during the alien levels, when the aliens attacked me with numbers that forced me to engage in a running battle. I'd have one group chasing me only to stumble into another. And, yes, the alien battles in Warhead are a lot tougher than they are in Crysis. Gone are the short, linear sequences; now you're in the sandbox with the aliens, so it's a fast-paced cat-and-mouse game of shoot, move, and cover. The aliens dart around; they like to pelt you from a distance. There are also some new alien types, including a new shield alien that protects his buddies; you have to take him out first in a fight, which isn't easy.

You get some new toys; my favorite is the six-shot grenade launcher that provides some personal artillery, as well as a submachine gun and equipment like antitank mines. Still, for the most part, many of the weapons remain the same, though the lower difficulty levels now allow you to automatically pick up ammo by walking over it, which is more user friendly. And your most potent weapon remains your nanosuit; used smartly, you can survive just about any situation.

Bring your thermal underwear.While shorter and slightly less epic than Crysis, Warhead still provides a fun ride. Crytek definitely learned some lessons and have applied them to Warhead. I also like how Crytek has a lot more fun with the frozen paradise that the island becomes once the aliens freeze it. There are definitely some memorable scenes, like when you're piloting a hovercraft and hitting jumps off of frozen waves. Or how the brittle, iced-over jungle shatters when the bullets fly in a firefight.
Warhead is a great value considering that it retails at $29.99, or $20 less than most games. For that, you get a single-player campaign that I powered through in about five hours, but your mileage may vary. I played at the Normal difficulty setting, and there are two harder settings that will certainly require you to slow down a bit and be more careful in battle. And, of course, you can experiment with different approaches, like being completely stealthy and ninja-like. However, there's also a much-improved multiplayer suite called Crysis Wars that comes on its own disc, and it makes Warhead an even better deal.

Crysis shipped with a multiplayer mode called Power Struggle that is, in hindsight, far too complicated for its own good. It tries to emulate a Battlefield-style experience, but is crippled by a mess of confusing rules and moving parts. As a result, Crysis never built up much of a multiplayer community. Crysis Wars makes things better and more fun by introducing a slew of new maps geared toward good ol' fashioned team deathmatch gameplay, but with the added bonus of everyone having nanosuits. The same kind of dynamic abilities that you have in single-player can be used in multiplayer to great extent. Have to expose yourself while climbing up a long ladder? Cloak and don't let an enemy sniper have a free shot at you. Run out of bullets? Go to strength mode and try and get in a punch. Or speed lets you dart between cover before the enemy can draw a bead on you.

These things get horrible mileage.The Crysis Wars levels that I played were beautiful and varied, from a vertical assault on a mountain peak in the harsh morning light to a foggy battle in a graveyard. While most of the maps that we saw were infantry-only, there was one vehicle map that was a blast, with plenty of tanks and APCs and helicopters to play with, but also enough anti-vehicle weaponry that infantry can also play a crucial role. Hopefully Crytek delivers on the promise to add new content to Crysis Wars over time, because only one vehicle map is definitely not enough. About the only thing missing from multiplayer but found in a lot of new games is some kind of persistent stat tracking. It'd be nice if you could keep track of your kill/death ratio, your success with various weapons, and if you take the idea further, introduce medals and unlocks to reward long-term play.

Finally, we get to the part of the review everyone wants to know about: performance. Crytek claims that Warhead is better optimized than Crysis, and everything I experienced confirms this. In fact, what's amazing is that Warhead not only runs better than Crysis, it looks better than Crysis. Keep in mind, a year has passed since Crysis shipped and there still isn't a non-Crytek game that approaches it in terms of visuals. Warhead features more definition to the terrain, and the lighting and particle effects have gotten big boosts. I found myself walking through jungle with the morning light piercing the canopy and had to stop and just absorb the moment. It had a level of atmosphere that I can't recall from the first game.

The dark clouds portend trouble. And so does the freeze beam.I played Warhead on a high-end machine with a quad core CPU and the latest Nvidia graphics card at high resolution (1680x1050) with all the details set to Enthusiast, which is essentially very high. It looked cutting edge and the frame rate was solid. Next, I checked the game on a slightly older PC with a two-year old 8800GTS and I was still able to crank it to Enthusiast settings and the same resolution and get solid results. Finally, I checked it out on the "$700 PC" that Crytek and EA have been touting. It really is a $700 machine built on the latest mainstream parts (the video card is a 9800GT), and I was able to play the final boss battle at the same resolution and at Enthusiast settings and get solid frame rates. I also tried it the Gamer setting, which is essentially high, and the frame rate was buttery smooth. You do lose some visual quality stepping down from Enthusiast, but even at Gamer Warhead still looks better than almost every game out there.
Multiplayer is a blast, finally.

 

Closing Comments
For $30, Crysis Warhead is an incredible value, and you’d be hard pressed to find a better shooter on the PC this year. The single- player campaign is tight and superb, and the multiplayer portion delivers something that you can have fun with. I love the intelligent gameplay of Warhead; this isn’t a game where you simply react to highly scripted events, but one where you have to think on your feet, and you’re rewarded for doing so. Crytek once again proves that its one of the premiere shooter developers in the industry, even if it does get an unfair rep as being “just” a technology company. Comments like that make it seem as if the Crytek had a chip on its shoulder, because it addressed almost every complaint about Crysis and then some. I found Warhead to be challenging, exciting, wild, and, yes, very much full of swagger and fury.

IGN Ratings for Crysis Warhead (PC)RatingDescription

out of 10	click here for ratings guide
9.0	Presentation The story is a bit overwrought at times, but, in Warhead, action is more important than words. The atmosphere is better than before, and it's still great to tweak graphics settings in mid-game.
10	Graphics Crysis Warhead raises the bar that its predecessor established while at the same time offering better performance.The visuals remain unmatched.
9.0	Sound The voice work and sound are on par with the first game, and the driving musical score will make you think Hollywood.
9.5	Gameplay The gameplay still rewards thinking on your feet, but it ramps up the intensity with a lot more action. Warhead still has the capability to surprise you, too, with some cool sequences.
9.0	Lasting Appeal The sandbox gameplay and the nanosuit offer plenty of replay value, and the multiplayer is a lot more engaging than before.
9.4 Outstanding	OVERALL (out of 10 / not an average)