Crysis Remastered Trilogy (PlayStation 5)
Official GBAtemp Review
Product Information:
- Release Date (NA): October 15, 2021
- Release Date (EU): October 15, 2021
- Publisher: Crytek GMBH
- Developer: Crytek GMBH
- Genres: FPS
- Also For: Computer, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S
Game Features:
Back in 2007, Crysis promised to be revolutionary. It would have more expansive and destructible environments, more cinematics and more effects all at once than you could shake a stick at thanks to its propriety CryEngine 2. It focussed on a rather familiar, yet incredibly upgraded, jungle and beach style environment similar to Far Cry from the same developer, though it definitely deviated further and further into a sci-fi extravaganza as it hurtled through hives and decimated post-apocalyptic landscapes.
2011's sequel was a far more refined jaunt that felt akin to how Half-Life 2 propelled the original out the window and became THE version to play. Crysis 2 massively outdid the original which was effectively a sandbox demonstration of what the series could be capable of, but then again it had taken CryTek 4 years to make. This was the game I wanted the original to be, and this was my clear favourite when I finally got it for my PS3 on release and got to witness the power of the CryEngine 3 SDK. Procedural damage, dynamic day-night lighting, upgraded AI with advanced cover and attack tactics, and most importantly new facial animation tech meant we would be getting something a lot more polished and incredibly nice to experience throughout.
The third and final instalment was an altogether beefier animal. As the evolution of this series demonstrates there were huge advancements in graphical fidelity and post-processing effect that would see Crysis 3 still using the CryEngine 3 but looking leaps and bounds ahead of the majority of games available in 2013. The graphics were superb, the presentation immense, and the storyline almost literally out of this world. I remember the showcase for it touting incredibly realistic water effects, lens flares, particle generation, volumetric shadows, tessellated vegetation, wind and weather including clouds and rain, and procedurally generated lighting that just blew the socks off of everything around it to give it the most hyper-realistic look that you could possibly get on your hardware without needing to buy an uber PC to run it. The game itself was set in 2047 and definitely had that sci-fi aesthetic nailed down, from the corridors to the sprawling city; it was incredible, but it was shorter than the others and lacked the thrilling, all-encompassing grip of the second game.
Playing through the original Crysis again I was shocked at just how unmoved I was at getting to re-play a game that became a meme for how demanding it was to run Sure, it looks great, and it's an open-world sandbox of possibilities and exploration for Nomad and his crew, but to me, it feels murky and bland to have to endure again, even with gorgeously upscaled graphics and massively improved visuals. Add into this some horrendous frame drops and some heinous stuttering around every single save point, and you are reminded of actually how bad the underlying code of the game can be, regardless of SSD loading and modern methods of adding graphical spit and polish to the incredibly technical visuals of the time. In the opening options you can choose Quality, Performance or Ray Tracing, and I opted for the latter for most of it to see how it would shine on the PS5. However, the frame rates noticeably fluctuated wildly unless I reduced this to Performance mode, whereby you seem to get a more solid 60FPs on the PS5. I have to ask: why did they even offer Ray Tracing if it can't handle it, and why can't it, especially on a 14-year-old game? Perhaps patches will fix this along the way, but why wasn't that a day one feature for the PS5 version? The answer may lie in the fact that these are essentially the PS4 versions running in PS5's backwards compatibility mode, but still, there are clear graphical enhancements over its initial release such as massively improved models and textures, enhanced draw distance, refreshed (read: less washed out) colour pallet, better HDR colour contrast and far less bloom on lit objects, but all this pales into obscurity when it's so laggy and underwhelmingly boring to play. As a technical showcase for a game a decade and a half ago there is definitely some merit in seeing heaps of effects that just weren't commonplace such as fire, water, breakable scenery, and ragdoll physics, but that's just about the long and short of it; it's effectively included as part of the time-capsule of the FPS games we used to play and where they inevitably had to begin their evolution before metamorphosing into something far more spectacular.
Replaying Crysis 2 I immediately felt right at home. The sequel's initial urban environments feel nicer to stalk as Alcatraz, and less visually cluttered with muddy, distracting vegetation. The core mechanics also matured greatly in this title with the Nano suit being more rounded and less reliant on heaps of buttons to remember for each function, making the game feel far more of a natural 10hr experience. This time around the game plays smoother, it feels less laggy and ultimately more modern and familiar to dive back into, though again the save and load points definitely stuttered, but not as hard as in the first game. The graphics are equally enhanced with higher definition assets and textures, and the blue hue that made this game stylistically stick out in 2011 has been reworked into a warmer tone to make it visually more realistic and natural-looking as opposed to the original release's processed and stylised visuals. I kind of missed the original look to this title and hoped there would be options to restore the original pallet or play in either mode, but alas this is a barebones port with nothing much added in barring the controller options, which is sad to see when they could even have added in something to further reinvigorate the game, like a co-operative mode, and add a little more longevity and replayability.
Crysis 3 upped the ante yet again and gave you a further six or so hours of missions to smash through, and whereas some people say this is the weaker of the three games, I want to more than disagree and dropkick your rose-tinted specs out the window with an R3-button, nano suit-enhanced power kick. I found this one just as fun to jump back into, and just as engaging to forge through until the end. The evolution of the series may have peaked at 2, but three ran with those advancements and gave us more of the same, though more technically finessed and intricately presented. I really enjoyed replaying and rewatching the cinematics in this game, and the cut scenes definitely improved on the other two with character lighting, actual shadows and more, making the story seem grittier and more compelling.
It has to be said that the stealth element of this game holds up well - really well - having to balance Nano suit power vs cloaking or strength to track down targets, hacking and blasting your way through the Nanodome of New York, the difficulty spikes still stand and I honestly still had major issues getting through some sections at some points. One of these issues stemmed from the save reloading at a point where I had just picked up a weapon, but upon dying and reloading the save it automatically dropped the weapon, meaning I had to manually pick the new weapon back up in order to progress with it.
Installation of the games is interesting to see with Crysis weighing in at 14.7GB, Crysis 2 18.3GB and the third and final, Crysis 3, at just 10.6GB in stature. The total 43.6GB is up from the original trilogy's (12GB/9GB/17GB) 38GB total install size, but given modern compression methods and the increased size of 4K textures and assets, it's not a far cry from their original sizes even with the upgraded specs and overheads if you'll pardon the pun. With a total of 115 trophies across the three games, there is plenty to sink your teeth into for those achievement hunters, with a slew of hidden collectibles scattered throughout each game in the series, but nothing added, and notably no photo modes or anything of that ilk.
Crysis Trilogy Remastered is a £40 time-capsule of how first-person shooters evolved from a simple sandbox concept to almost Hollywood levels of storytelling and scale. At first, I questioned why there hasn't been a new Crysis game in the last 8 years, but then finishing 3 makes you realise that this is the entire game, all three parts, the entire story for now. Playing these games could be a Marmite experience for players of modern shooters that are old enough to partake in this PEGI 16 blast from the past, and even as a veteran of playing these games originally I only really enjoyed 66% of the offerings here, and even then it wasn't without its flaws. While I cannot honestly fully recommend the trilogy as a whole, I certainly suggest you check out the second and third installments of these games as they offer a massively kinder more palatable experience overall, so unless you are a die-hard fan of the entire series I think you could afford to skip that first one!
Verdict
- The best looking version of each game to date
- Two and Three are still a blast to play
- Faster loading times in general
- Tired old feel to the first game
- Inexplicably stuttery save points
- Lack of additional content or any multiplayer
