Crysis Warhead review (PC)

And so the mission pack to the game no one could play properly and wasn't really worth upgrading for rolls around at last, just in time to butt heads with Far Cry 2.

This is probably why it's a 'standalone parallel story' rather than the usual add-on fare, as EA are presumably desperate to steal some of Ubisoft's thunder (allegedly - litigious Ed).

Unfortunately for them, Far Cry 2 is looking pretty good, so it'll take a lot of firepower to overcome it. And you'll need a lot of power here, for this is Crysis, arguably the best reason for buying an Xbox 360 and forgetting about PCs altogether.

Yes, it runs slightly better, as promised, but perhaps only because prices of graphics cards have gone down too.

It's still a pain in the arse that I can't run it in more than Medium settings (here cunningly dubbed 'Mainstream') and having to keep reminding myself that it's the game that counts, not the graphics.

This is a good thing to remember when reviewing a game like this, something a number of my esteemed colleagues in the gaming press have forgotten.





Suffice it to say, if you have the Scrooge McDuck-like money vault that can buy a computer to run this on 'Very High' settings, you'll be getting a . very nice looking game, I suppose.

The game itself is very much a mission pack, despite Crytek's attempts to describe it as an Opposing Force-style 'parallel story'. Here you play Psycho, the gruff cockney and one of the few survivors of the first game, telling the story of where the hell he was for most of Nomad's longer adventure.





Let's get the mission pack thing out the way: much of Warhead is cut-and-pasted from Crysis. You'll find yourself in plenty of similar-looking situations, which you'll more than likely handle the same way you did before.

Or not, perhaps - that was always the great thing about Crysis and that hasn't changed here. You still have plenty of choice in the way you take down enemies, with the Exosuit on its own offering many opportunities for strategy, stealth and mischief-making.

The AI, which in the previous/proper game veered between great and ridiculously stupid, has now been fixed permanently, never straying into the realms of idiocy.





In short, soldiers aren't handcuffed to their machinegun fixtures anymore. Even the much-maligned aliens are similarly good.

This brings me neatly to the point where the original Crysis shot itself in the foot. By introducing Matrix Sentinel-like aliens to completely replace the Korean soldiers, the game became far less fun and a lot more generic.

It was a completely different game. Warhead corrects this mistake, so the Koreans are a threat right until the very end and we finally have pleasing moments of Psycho's enemies fighting each other.

There are some really superb levels, like an assault on a submarine base, a nice train stage and the utterly fantastic end section, but all too often you'll be feeling déjà vu, a "didn't I play this in a game that came out last year?" sort of feeling.





It's also got a couple of dodgy moments, like a hovercraft chase that comes to an abrupt halt at the hands of Bazooka-wielding Koreans.

The ending goes a long way to making up for this. After the lacklustre boss battle of Crytek's previous efforts, I wasn't expecting much, but they've really knocked this one out of the park.

I don't want to spoil any of it, but it plays to every one of Crysis's strengths and ups the ante beyond any game I've ever played. I can't remember when I've encountered a more satisfying finale to a game (Medal of Honour: Allied Assault? - sarcastic Ed).

There's a lot of good stuff about Warhead, and it's definitely worth the price (for the ending alone, really). It may be a mission pack sporting a cheap comedy moustache, but it's a pretty great one. Just don't upgrade especially for it.

8/10

Chris Capel