Crysis Warhead

Sep 16, 2008

Late last year, Crysis set a high-water mark for PC game graphics that even now has no equal (see our original Crysis review). If you had a gaming rig that could handle it, Crysis was pure shock-and-awe for your eyeballs, backed up by some terrific non-linear gameplay.

Electronic Arts took an interesting tack with the followup, Crysis Warhead. It's an expansion that isn't an expansion: Warhead features seven additional single-player levels that follow a story parallel to the action in the first game. It contains a new multiplayer mode, albeit a simple one, and is sold as a standalone game at a nicely affordable $29.99. You don't even need the original game to play. But while it's got some solid levels and good gameplay, Warhead isn't quite the must-have Crysis was. Dollar-for-dollar, the original title gives gamers more bang for the buck. But more of a good thing is usually good, so despite some issues, fans of the original might want to take a look.

Going in, Guns Blazing

Crysis Warhead follows the story of Sergeant "Psycho" Sykes, the hot-headed Englishman players might remember from the first game. Psycho is in many ways a more interesting character than the straight-laced hero Nomad from the original. He's the kind of guy to go off-mission to rescue a friend. More importantly from a gameplay perspective, he's a lot more likely to raid an enemy compound with guns blazing than to quietly stealth his way past it.

All the options from the original game are still on the table: Players can use their superhero-like nanosuit powers to dash past enemies, leap great distances, stealth past fortifications, or absorb tons of damage. But with more enemies on the screen at any given time, Warhead gently nudges players toward more action-oriented combat. Copious stockpiles of ammo, rockets, and grenades are available around every corner. Plenty of heavily-armed vehicles are ripe for the taking. And Psycho can dual-wield machine pistols or submachine guns. If you thought Crysis's stealth-based gameplay was too slow for your blood, Warhead addresses the problem by giving you every opportunity to unleash full-automatic havoc.

The real strength of the original game was found in the open-ended levels that supported any number of approaches. You'd creep up an enemy compound, scope it out with binoculars, then determine the best way to slip inside, sneak around it, or assault it. Crysis was most enjoyable during these levels and suffered when the game got too linear. While Warhead promises more of that open-world goodness, in practice, at least a couple of the seven levels were extremely linear. One level has you tromping through an abandoned mine, and it's a straightforward tunnel-crawl. Another level quite literally puts you "on rails" as you defend a train. It's an exciting sequence, but given that the expansion pack is so short (about seven hours of gameplay), it's a shame that parts of it are so locked down. Fortunately, despite dips in the middle, the beginning and end of the game feature some terrific wide-open levels in which to wreak havoc on your own terms.

Psycho's job in Warhead is to stop the North Koreans from smuggling some sort of mystery weapon off of the island, the nature of which is unveiled through gameplay. Along the way he contends with a rival pilot named O'Neil, with whom he has some history, as well as a North Korean commander who snarls some great dialogue during a memorable torture scene. All the ingredients are there for a great story but it never comes together in a meaningful way. Just as in the original, the ending left us wanting more.

Those who didn't play the original game will likely be confused by the story, as several key plot elements aren't really explained. Adding to this, Psycho doesn't seem shaken by the fact that half of the island mysteriously freezes halfway through the game, nor does the fact that aliens appear to be invading the planet invite more than a passing comment. It's as if Psycho isn't really a part of the story.

The graphics are certainly satisfying, however. The jungle island is lushly rendered with even more detail. The frozen sequences, which were admittedly drab in the first game, are ratcheted up to par and beyond. Among the highlights is a U.S. aircraft carrier locked in the ice, listing to one side amid waves frozen solid mid-curl. Warhead never quite reaches the sheer spectacle of the first game, but it certainly offers some terrific visuals.

Performance-wise we didn't notice much of a difference. The engine for Warhead can put more enemies and more ground details on the screen at once, but you'll still need a beefy machine to appreciate the game at a solid framerate. Fortunately, in the year since Crysis was released, that kind of power is a lot more affordable. And if you have a monstrous 2008 machine, the graphics scale up to meet you.

Our first playthrough of the game revealed some troublesome bugs, including one crash to desktop and one bug near the end of the single-player campaign where the game refused to allow us to select the rocket launcher... during a sequence where we were surrounded by tanks.

Mayhem in Multiplayer

Crysis Warhead actually includes two separate products -- one single-player and one multiplayer -- complete with two separate discs and install keys. Crysis Wars is the name of the multiplayer game, which contains 21 maps. 14 of these maps were released with Crysis, leaving seven new multiplayer maps in total. There's one new "Power Struggle" map, featuring a military airstrip. (Power Struggle is the complex team-oriented, objective-based gameplay mode that was the highlight of the original game's online component). Instant action, which is simple deathmatch gameplay, also makes a comeback.

Crysis Wars features one new mode: Team Instant-Action. This is basically the Crysis version of Team Deathmatch. It's a nice variant if you're looking for a quick gameplay fix. The maps are intricate and fast-paced, with lots of chokepoints and action. Teammates respawn close to one another, so the combat is constantly moving around the map. This mode really shines in maps where there are lots of vehicles, as the massive tank battles are truly spectacular. That said, Team Deathmatch doesn't really show off the best gameplay Crysis can offer. On a full server, turning off your shields for more than a second to use another ability is almost always a death sentence.

Frustratingly, even though Warhead contains many of the same maps as from the original Crysis, the servers aren't compatible. When you're playing Warhead you can only play on Warhead servers, and if you're playing Crysis you can only play with other Crysis gamers. Fracturing the community like this doesn't make any sense -- it's hard enough to find a quality game of the excellent Power Struggle mode to begin with! We're left hoping this issue will be addressed in a patch, as it's a real frustration for players looking for a game with a full server and a good ping.

Crysis was a fantastic PC game, and Crysis Warhead serves up more content with the same visual genius. If you're hungry for more, it's hard to go wrong with the $30 price tag -- just don't expect anything revolutionary.