When Crysis Remastered was first announced, many fans of the original were indubitably excited. Crysis was once a benchmark title to compare to all other games in terms of graphic quality, spurring many memes of, “but can it run Crysis?” Unfortunately, this is not something that can be said of the remaster, which drops the ball far more often than not. The game has its moments and the graphics can be gorgeous, but it releases to a ton of expectations that it cannot uphold.
At its core, it’s still Crysis. Players drop on an island occupied by North Korean forces that quickly becomes a fight for survival against an alien species, and to differentiate itself from other shooters, Crysis players get the use of a nano suit. The overarching story is nothing impressive, but it is more original than more generic shooters. Those who haven’t experienced it before will be in for a decent treat, but the story is undermined by the gameplay. The aforementioned nano suit allows for cloaking, superhuman defense, superhuman speed, and more, but beyond that, the basics of a first-person shooter fill in the rest of the gameplay to lackluster appeal.
In 2007, the nano suit was something complemented by the sheer quality of the game. In 2020, Crysis Remastered quickly becomes an example of what can go wrong so quickly. In terms of gameplay, the first-person shooter aspects are basic and cannot really hold a bar to a variety of other shooters available on the market. The suit itself feels very clunky in this remaster, bringing it down even further. For example, while activating cloak mode or maximum armor mode, it worked smoothly enough. But activating super speed would often require multiple tries, something we were unable to produce when sprinting in any other game.
This gameplay could have used a ton of tweaks, but it is worth noting that this has been sold as a remaster, not a remake. Expecting much more than graphical enhancements is expecting too much, and it completely feels like playing a relatively decent 2007 game. With the remaster slapped on it, though, many expect better graphics. It delivers on this, unlike much else, but it only does so at the bare minimum. After all, fans of the franchise should be aware that the game’s build is based on the original console version, not the superior PC version of Crysis.
Crysis Remastered‘s graphics are a mixed batch, depending on what players want. The remaster feels less like an improvement and more like a completely different take. Whereas the original went for a less-detailed gritty vibe, this is more of a highly-detailed and bright approach. Perhaps where it succeeds most are the environments, which pop more, have better lighting, and deliver more detail than the original game. That being said, the game’s lackluster models and textures take away from the overall graphical experience.
This comes across as odd too, as Crysis Remastered boasts a graphics mode, a performance mode, and a mode for ray-tracing on the Xbox One X. None of these really have a discernible difference, despite the obvious differences between them. There are a few spots that seemed to look better in graphics mode – there’s a time or two where the ray-tracing seems clear – but overall, these seem like filler. They don’t add anything of value to the experience.
Furthermore, no matter which of the aforementioned modes we played on, there was a significant struggle with frame rate drops. It was never too severe, but it was frequent to the point that it impacted the overall fun factor of the game. Nothing specific would ever seem to cause them and there wasn’t anything that would quickly fix it. It would happen during big fights in Crysis Remastered as often as it would simply traveling to the next objective. None of this was particularly game-breaking, but it killed the fun of it on multiple occasions.
One place the Crysis Remastered still shines is the level and mission design, and while the gameplay itself didn’t do much to complement this, it doesn’t really have to. Each mission has an open-ended feel to it where players are given an overall objective to complete but are also free to complete several secondary objectives off the beaten path. Each of these objectives ties into the overarching story but remains completely optional, allowing players to pick and choose if they so wish. Crysis Remastered‘s sandbox level design allows players to easily grab those close or trek off into the wilderness to complete others. This part of Crysis Remastered has aged well and does a lot to push the less fun aspects of the game to the side for a short time.
With decent graphics, technical issues, barebone first-person shooter elements, and a better-than-most story, Crysis Remastered quickly becomes a one-and-done game with little-to-no replay value. Crytek marketed it as a “console-breaking game,” but it doesn’t seem like it broke it in the right ways. However, that perhaps ties into its best trait.
Crysis Remastered is not a full-price retail release, instead opting for $29.99 on the Microsoft Store and other retailers. As such, it’s best to see this game for what it is: a budget game that won’t particularly wow but contains some levels of nostalgia. Even if it’s far below what was expected of the original, there is still fun to be had with this remaster.
Crysis Remastered is out now for PC, PS4, Switch, and Xbox One. Game Rant was provided an Xbox One code for the purposes of this review.
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