REVIEW : Crysis Remastered Trilogy (XBOX Series X)
Crysis is a 14-year-old game. That’s a difficult fact for me to comprehend. God of War 2 was published on the PlayStation 2 in the same year. Crysis 3, the most recent trilogy game featured in this bundle, was released eight years ago. However, none of the games in this trio, which have all been updated for newer consoles, feel their age. These aren’t ideal games by any means, but the fact that they all feel at ease in 2021 is quite a feat.
To be clear, no one has time to go through three remasters for a single review (if you do, I’m jealous). As a result, I’ve included a sample of each of the games here, having played and completed them all when they first came out.
I’m not a pixel counter, visual effect analyzer, or frame rate detector, either. High-resolution games with good graphical effects and smooth frame rates appeal to me, but that’s about the extent of my knowledge. Check out our partners at Digital Foundry’s in-depth examination of Crysis 2 Remastered for more tech details.
The Crysis Remastered Trilogy appears to be fantastic. While I’m sure a brand-new entry in the franchise produced exclusively for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S would look a lot better, these games still dazzle graphically.
It’s worth mentioning that only the first game (which I played on an Xbox Series X) supports ray-tracing on consoles. Furthermore, there doesn’t appear to be any native support for the new consoles, implying that we won’t be seeing versions created expressly for those systems. Regrettably, PC appears to be the best option for the most significant improvements.
With that in mind, it’d be not easy to guess Crysis was released 14 years ago. However, it always pushed hardware to its limits, so it stands up well with a few adjustments.
It’s also the most Crysis-like of the three, in the sense that the subsequent games weren’t as open. Of course, they all have the same underlying DNA (super suit that makes you invisible or strong, stealth or pure carnage options), but the original feels the most unique, and it’s likely to be the one that fans will remember. But, of course, back in the day, that was a big deal.
Crysis 2 gave me a hard time when it first came out, owing to poor performance on consoles, but playing it now in 2021 feels fantastic. It did a Predator 2 and put you into the “urban jungle,” but because of mini-open areas rather than straight-up corridors, you can still approach combat in various ways.
In that way, it reminds me of Halo. If you’ve only played Crysis 2 on the PS3 or Xbox 360, you might be surprised at how much your view of the game changes after playing the remastered version. It’s a fantastic shooter.
Crysis 3 is a hybrid of the previous two games, and it’s also the most aesthetically stunning of the three. It’s quite a revelation to see it looking so sharp and running at 60 FPS after only playing it on the Xbox 360 (I’m not sure how those old systems managed to run it). However, it’s still a nice-looking game even without the PC bells and frills.
This is a fantastic bundle, offering three excellent shooters for less than the price of one new release, but it’s a shame it’s not quite perfect. For one thing, there’s no Crysis Warhead, which is bad because I enjoyed this expansion to the original game when it was released. Also disappointing is the lack of proper next-gen support, especially given how good the games look on high-end PCs.
Even on Xbox Series X, there are several graphic flaws, such as times when the level of detail is adjusted way too near the player, resulting in moments when posters appear as you approach a wall. But, again, a full-fledged next-gen version might have smoothed out these kinks.
Even without Warhead, this trio will take at least 25 hours to finish, which is a lot of FPS campaign gameplay in an era where most Calls of Duty campaigns are only five to six hours long. The Crysis campaigns are superior. There isn’t any multiplayer here, which I don’t mind, but if you require multiplayer in your FPS, this isn’t the package for you.
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