Crysis Warhead

In the year 2007 came Crysis, a First-Person Shooter from Crytek, the game that set new levels of excellence for others to follow. Its graphics were the best around, on all platforms. However, it did have its problems which for some people ruined the experience. Still, the game earned a plethora of award for setting new standards in gaming.Crytek promised us an expansion, with better AI and improved performance (PCs costing less than $1000 would be able to run it lol). Did they keep their words? Lets find out.Crysis Warhead is a open-world base FPS that gives you a freedom of how you can approach each tactical situation. Crytek has done a great job in making a fast pace and intense action based game in form of Crysis: Warhead to overcome the previous drawbacks of the Crysis, and this proved that Crytek has the full potential of delivering a intense action game with outstanding visuals.Story OutlineIn Crysis Warhead, you will play as the Sergeant Sykes, also known as ‘Psycho’, one of the most memorable characters from Crysis. More brash and aggressive than his Delta Force squadmate Nomad, players will experience Psycho’s parallel story during the events of the original game, finding that life on the other side of the island is even more intense and explosive than they ever could have imagined.The events of Crysis Warhead take place at the same time as the original Crysis, but on the other side of the Island. No, it’s not confusing at all. It doesn’t ‘advance’ the story, but it does make it interesting. Psycho was mentioned in the original Crysis, as a member of the 5-member team that parachuted onto the Island.Most of the story involves Psycho running after a mysterious container that the KPA is protecting.

SoundThe game’s music is… Well its there, and its pretty OK. The voice acting is great. O’Neil sounds just the way you expect him to. There are times when the dialogue gets just a bit corny, but that’s all. Just like the original Crysis, if you choose to play the game in the hardest mode, all the KPA members will talk in Korean only, so that you can’t understand a word they’re saying. How cool is that?The other sound effects are all very good. Definitely better than the original Crysis. Now you can hear splashing sounds when you walk/run in water. The weapons sound nice, not very powerful, but still nice and sort of realistic.Oh and there is the occasional use of the F-word in the game.

GameplayCrysis Warhead, just like the original Crysis, plays well. The control scheme is great, and there is full controller support. The nanosuit functionality is just as great. It makes the game very interesting. There are several ways you can kill your enemies. Snipe them from far away (shoot their head off), or sneak up on them using the Cloak Mode. The most fun way to kill the Koreans is to punch them in the Maximum Strength mode. One punch – One kill. You can be really creative that way. I grabbed a Korean and went high up a tower and threw him down from there, just for fun.The enemy AI is better as well. The original Crysis’ enemies were a bit dumb. Especially the aliens. Well the aliens are still dumb, but a little less. The KPA also have some of their old flaws, but in general, they are more intelligent. They hide in bushes more often, flank you, and try to find better cover. The AI in Crysis is better at times that some of the best games around. But then again… All of the KPA fighters seem part-deaf. They can’t seem to understand where the bullets are coming from if you snipe them. Moreover, Psycho can sneak-up on them without any problem. You can run towards them, and they won’t hear you. This is a bit stupid, but like I said, you only notice this at times. The enemies are not Call of Duty like. You can’t kill them with a couple of shots if you shot them in their stomachs. Head-shots are a different matter. One proper shot, one kill.

Oh and there are more enemies with nanosuits on them. The nanosuit enemies also use their powers more efficiently. They use their Maximum Armor mode too (you can tell by the color) to absorb damage.The Alien AI has been improved a lot. In Crysis, some of the Aliens would just float above you without actually attacking you. The ones that did attack didn’t do it with any strategy. In Warhead, the aliens are a bit sensible. They tend to hit you more often with their ice-beams, and their movement is more random, making them harder to target. Still, with the right weapon, the Aliens are not hard to take out. There are less of them anyways.The weapons… Crysis had some good weapons, but according to some, they didn’t FEEL powerful. I disagreed. Anyways, there are cooler weapons in Warhead. I especially like the EMP grenades, which are extremely effective against both the Aliens and the nanosuit guys. There is another ‘experimental’ weapon that you get to use near the end. One word, it’s awesome.The vehicles also handle better. I didn’t really use them much, as I’m more into direct confrontation. But they are good if you want to get to your objective quickly.

GraphicsOh the good stuff. I intentionally kept this part for the ending part of the review. Based on Crytek’s own CryEngine 2 both the Crysis games are graphically the BEST game out there on any platform. There is simply no arguing that fact. Warhead improves on the original Crysis but adding some more cool effects to the game, and by ‘optimizing’ the game so that it can run well on a wider range of computers. The result is awesome. It really is. While playing the game, you’d go WOW at its beautiful graphics. Believe me, the game’s graphics look prettier than some of the hottest chicks at Iqra.The cutscenes in the game could’ve been better in my opinion, but hey, that’s just one thing right? The rest of it is pure gold. There are little additions that make the game look even better. Dive into water, the come out. You’d see the difference. The sunsets somehow seem prettier, the water reflection look better, there are new birds in the game and the explosion look awesome as usual. You can now see frost on weapons, that changes with conditions. I can’t really explain, but anyone who has played Crysis will see various little improvements when they first play Warhead.

The game runs smoothly on a lot of different configurations. Even with the added effects, I ran the game at Enthusiast Settings on an ATI Radeon 4850, getting very playable framerates.ConclusionCrysis Warhead will WOW anyone who isn’t blind, or dumb; graphics being its strongest point. The little tweaks and improvements are just what Crysis needed, and while there are still minor problems that should’ve been addressed, the game remains one of the best shooters released this year. The gameplay is absorbing, the graphics are awesome and the enemies are smarter, all for a very modest price tag of $29 (in Pakistan, you know what is the actual price of the game :P so no comments please..).One of the best games of 2007 just got better. Get it NOW.