Crysis was originally released for PCs in 2007, no less than 13 years ago. At this time, I was still in journalism college, and as the console gamer I’ve always been, I didn’t really care about the exclusives of PRAÇA.
Despite this, the “noise” of Crysis it was great, and of course it came to me, I like to be “inside” the subject. The game became a technological benchmark, as it required a robust machine to run decently. Not by chance, this became a recurring joke in the gaming world: “run Crysis” was proof that a PRAÇA It was good.
The game was invariably released for last generation consoles, but I, traumatized by motion sickness and frustrated by games like mirror’s edge (which to this day almost makes me vomit), I never went after him. I would need to overcome my FPS “trauma” before I wanted to venture into the genre — and maybe I’ll do an article to specifically address this in the future.
The fact is: play this Crysis Remastered at the Playstation 4 Pro it was, in many ways, a completely new experience for me. I know the importance and legacy of the game, but I’ve never actually played it. And do you know he’s pretty cool?
Tech super soldier
Crysis is relatively familiar to anyone who has played a game. Far cry, and this is no coincidence: although nowadays the series belongs to the Ubisoft, went to crytek who developed the first title in the series. The difference is that Crysis follows a more science fiction path, while Far cry it’s more “down to earth”.
Perhaps the most emblematic technological component of Crysis be the nanosuit used by the protagonist Nomad and your squad. It is practically an amalgamation of superpowers: whoever wears it can run faster, jump higher, go invisible and increase your shooting resistance. In addition, it conveniently and functionally integrates night vision features and informational HUDs typical of video games — life bar, ammo, etc.
The game’s plot takes place in North Korea, where mysterious fossils have been found by American scientists. The discovery seems all too important, and when scientists find themselves cornered by North Korean soldiers, the Delta Force, an elite US squad designed to rescue the scientists and find out what’s going on there.
As we progress through the campaign, the game gets more sci fi because fossils are actually remnants of alien artifacts (?!), and soon we will not only be facing enemy soldiers, but also alien sentries and even entire spaceships.
Phases & Objectives
Crysis it’s not an open world game, it’s a level game. Although, each stage takes place on a huge map, with a lot of freedom of movement — there are even vehicles to drive — and some secondary objectives popping up here and there. These sidequests are usually enemy bases where you must gather information or destroy a signal blocker. These aren’t particularly creative goals, but they put a little more “stuffing” into the game.
One thing I found really cool about the game is that, although we have the “superpowers” of the nanosuit, it it’s very challenging. Enemies are good at aiming, and the suit’s “power” bar deflates pretty quickly, requiring you to use all your skills sparingly. Even running and jumping consume the nanosuit’s strength, and even though it regenerates quickly, living or dying is something that happens in a fraction of a second.
This requires a tactical approach that I like a lot — that’s how I usually play Far cry, to be honest. Going invisible, taking enemies by surprise, abusing the silencer and looking for strategic points is what kept me alive in the game. bank the rambo it’s certain death in a matter of seconds, there’s no nanosuit to save. All that was needed was a bow and arrow for stealth to be perfect — unfortunately, such a weapon did not appear until the third game in the series.
The distance between checkpoints can cause some frustration, but even there the game surprises by offering options: in very intense combat areas, I simply kept invisible and moved forward little by little, crouching in bushes and behind trees for the costume to recover the power. Many confrontations can be completely avoided. That’s not a very heroic approach, but hey, if it’s in the game it’s because it can be done, and between being a dead hero and a living coward, I occasionally preferred the latter. :FOR
In general, even though I have more than a decade of life, Crysis gameplay still works perfectly. Most likely optimizations have been made, but overall the game owes nothing to current FPS, and delivers fluid, responsive, and well-calibrated gameplay, with good weapons, good shot feedback, and good action sequences.
Ray Tracing on current consoles? Crysis has!
One of the most talked about “new technologies” in the gaming world lately is the ray tracing. Basically, it creates much more realistic light effects and reflections by “simulating the path that light rays would travel in the real world”.
Although the industry makes us believe that this type of effect is only possible in PCs powerhouses and next-generation consoles, the folks at Knowing Interactive — who took care of this port — managed to get the ray tracing to work in the PS4 and in the Xbox one — at least in the enhanced versions of the consoles, I think the feature is not available in the “normal” version of the devices.
On the enhanced consoles — PS4 Pro and Xbox One X — it’s kind of normal to have 2 options to play: the “Performance” lowers the resolution in favor of a higher framerate, while the “Quality” prioritizes higher resolutions. In case of Crysis, we have a third option, “Ray Tracing“, which basically serves to apply the famous effect to the game.
And so… it’s nice to have more realistic reflections on water and certain surfaces, but I really didn’t find it so extraordinary. If ray tracing is the “great evolution” of the new generation, I confess that I already enter it a little disappointed. And yes, I know that for PRAÇA gamers this is nothing new, but morally, I do not see why so much commotion on account of a handful of reflections in real time. It’s not a “game changing” for me, it’s just graphic jewelry.
Regardless of the ray tracing thing, it is a fact that Crysis is still a very nice game, and remastering enhances its qualities. Its look is rich and detailed, and overall the game only delivers age on human faces, which are quite dated. The forests are particularly impressive, especially considering the colossal size of each map.
By the way, Crysis also demonstrates its avant-garde when delivering completely destructible scenarios, something that a lot of 2020 game still doesn’t do. It’s possible to fell trees, blow up shacks, break windows, tables… anything, basically. Physics does a lot of work here, and that’s probably one of the reasons the game was so “heavy” back in 2007. The result of all this destruction is impressive even in 2020.
This remastered version was made based on the port for the game consoles (released in 2011), that is, this is not Crysis “full power”, as they did not use the game of PRAÇA as a base. Despite that, this remastered game manages to be more impressive than certain generic FPS that were produced for the current generation.
Unfortunately the game has not received any kind of localization for our language: there are several languages available, but none of them are ours. The sound department matches the quality of the look, and delivers Realistic and immersive shootings and explosions, as well as competent dubbing work. I found it curious that we can even choose whether we want the “voice” of the nanosuit to be male or female.
Conclusion
As someone who had never played Crysis rather, I leave with a very positive impression. The game is intense and fun, with a cool story and a gameplay that uses the resources of the nanosuit to be tactical and capable of improvisation. That greatly enriches the experience, moving the game away from the “standard” FPS, which generally delivers scripted cinematic moments, and a more linear, more “guided” experience.
Crysis was an important evolutionary step in the gaming world, and I think having played it — even though it’s 13 years late — puts another little star in my “gaming curriculum”. And the best thing is to realize that, save for a few details, the game has aged very well, and it’s still an audiovisual spectacle that doesn’t owe much to modern titles.
The ray tracing turns out to be just a detail, the “icing on the cake” that is there as a differential, but does not transform the experience into something superior. And, it’s in “ray tracing mode” that the game runs the most choppy, so I tried it for an hour or two, but soon went back to performance mode, as a higher FPS rate always makes gameplay more fluid.
In short, Crysis was a milestone in gaming history, and it’s always good to see this kind of legacy being valued. If you’ve already played it, you’ll love to revisit it, and if you haven’t had the chance, well, here’s a good opportunity… and this time you don’t even need to have one. PRAÇA “gives NASA“, because even Switch received Crysys Remastered — in a version without ray tracing, but it’s working.
Crysis Remastered was released in September, with versions for PRAÇA, Playstation 4 and Xbox one. A few months before, the Nintendo Switch received its own port of the game.
