The campaign is alot shorter, but its a blast the whole way through!
The Bad: the campaign is alot shorter than the original.
The original Crysis was an amazing expierence that showed you what the next generation of gaming was going to be and that still holds true for Crysis Warhead.
----If you havent play Crysis yet, please stop reading and play that game before Warhead as you wont be able to understand everything, and im not going over the features that carried over-----
I built a new computer just last June as it was time to upgrade, and not just for this game. I get high-some ultra high settings and good fps on windows XP DX9 with these specs:
Core 2 duo e8400, 3.0 GHZ
Nvidia 8800GT 512 mb OC'd (latest drivers)
4GB RAM
The bad----
Im going to cover this first so I can get it out of the way. Yes the campaign is shorter but that hardly breaks the game. The real bad news is that even though the game runs better you'll still need a decent computer to enjoy things on high settings. Object pop in is worse this time around but thats the trade off for improved performance. What i mean is when you walk through the dense jungle tiny random vegetation may pop into view only when you get within 10 feet or so, and its alot more noticable swimming when sea floor vegetation pops in all round in a 10 foot radius. Kind of a bummer when my comp could handle all that in the original crysis. But overall totally insignificant.
The other thing that bugs me is firing pistols in both hands is more tricky now, because you have to use both mouse buttons to fire each pistol; clicking the left mouse button will only fire the left pistol. Which is hard to maintain accurate fire tracking a moving target because tapping both buttons to shoot makes my mouse movement a little unsteady. I dont beleive there an option to disable this, in either case its not too difficult.
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The game starts right at the point where the ship in the harbor was destroyed in the original crysis, so already your about half way through the timeline of the events taking place on the island. "Psycho" leaves "Nomad" to carry on a seperate mission for the entire game, Nomad is not present at all save for a few verbal inserts in a cutscene or 2.
Weapons: The good news about starting so late in the storyline is you get access to the late game weapons (from Crysis) early on; Including the new Machingun pistol, the AY69. Using this gun is a blast and really helps for close quarters. The 2nd new gun is the grenade laucher FGL40; which is more useful againist groups of enemies than single targets, its also slow to reload since you must insert each round into the drum;6 total. This weapons fires both frag grenades and emp grenades, the emp being useful againist nanosuits, both enemy and friendly. But due to a lack of ammo until later in the game; you'll be quick to get rid of it.
All the old weapons return with the same attachments, alot of the guns have recieved a facelift. For example the Scar has a jungle camo on it, and once you get into the ice all your guns have frost on them. And I think the Scar has been beefed up in power, but i could be wrong. Also Scar Ammo is alot more plentiful through the entire game, so you wont have to use the KPA FY71 rifle as much.
AI: Its better than ever now for both human and alien enemies. I tested this early in the campaign by just walking uncloaked in the middle of a narrow road with bushes on each side, and even when i did a recon of both sides and i couldnt spot the enemy till they spotted me. They were actually a real pain in the ass this time around, they flanked me, almost never hesitating to rush me and keep the pressure on when they out number you. The enemy vehicles no longer sit after seeing you, they relocate or chase you down and infantry call for helicopter or reinforcments. The aliens are also alot smarter, they flank you, pressure you, and a few of them have special abilities now; such as the green eyed alien, which emit a bubble shield for 2 foes, the shield can be taken down by continuos fire, but its just easier to kill the shield maker. All enemies seek cover an nanosuit enemies will try emp grenades to disable your suit.
---I did play/beat the game on Delta so im unaware of what would be turn down on lesser difficulty. ---
Combat: Its as intense as ever, and at times you'll have trouble hiding just to reload and get a breather.
Plenty of stuff to blow up and an unlimited supply of enemyies to kill keep the action going and going.
Environments: jungles, frozen wastelands, tunnels, beaches..... are all done well and your never in one environment to long to get bored with it, your always on the move.
Sound: The music and voice acting is top notch, and the commentary from allied soldiers is alot funnier this time.
Story: The overall objective isnt that interesting, its the journey thats fun. Theres also plenty of cutscenes that paint a deeper picture of who Psycho really is. At the ned it leaves a few questions.
Multiplayer: Crysis' had problems with patches and multiplayer community, but already it seems ten times better, more stable, and the fact that its a seperate disk/seperate game proves they have learned from their mistakes last time. Team deathmatch is now inlcuded, plus 21 maps!
If you got the computer to enjoy this games visuals on medium or higher then I recommend you buy it right away, for only 30 bucks you cant deny this package.
Thanks for reading.