Crytek released their 2007 sci-fi shooter, Crysis, with updated graphics on Sept. 17, making it the latest in a list of unnecessary remastered graphics that do little else than remind players how bad the originals looked.
The journey of stealth, aliens and super suits certainly looks better than the 2007 release, equipped with more realistic lighting, reactive reflections and organic depth of field. It even has a maximum performance 8K setting called “Can It Run Crysis?”
Unfortunately, that’s all just a fresh coat of paint on a cardboard staircase. It still collapses under the weight of clunky character models and cannot compare to its modern peers.
Crysis Remastered is available now for $29.99. Crytek is planning to release Crysis 2 Remastered and Crysis 3 Remastered and will offer the trilogy in a bundle in October on PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch and PC.
[The Fortnite x Balenciaga collab is somehow the worst of both brands]
The price difference between the original and upgraded versions is only about $10, a modest gouge in the industry. Bethesda’s 2016 remaster of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is still nearly $20 more than the original.
Fans of the Crysis series may be celebrating its polished revival, but newcomers will be disappointed — especially if they usually play games built for modern machines. With the leaps made in gameplay and animation since 2007, Crysis feels like playing an antique through a modern filter — and not in a good way.
Crysis was one of the first games to have a play-it-your-way feature. The protagonist, Nomad, wears a “Nanosuit” to enhance his speed and strength in addition to providing brief armor or invisibility. You could either spend hours creeping up to compounds pausing a few times per minute to let the suit recharge or leap over the walls into a mess of bombs and bullets.
[Are you a hyperpop fan? Thank queer and nonbinary artists]
By today’s standards, neither option is particularly well-executed. The stealth system is hindered by enemies’ egregious detection radius. If Nomad uncloaks while a soldier can see him, he gets shot. And putting stealth aside essentially turns the game into Doom, which came out in 2016 and is cheaper and better than Crysis. If players really want to choose between sneaking and exploding, they can play any Far Cry game.
The Crysis series is worth revisiting on a lazy afternoon, but it isn’t worth repurchasing or remastering for a new audience in a market saturated with better alternatives.
