Reviewed by Barry Little - October 22, 2008

ESRB Rating: M (Mature 17+)

In Crytek's 2007 PC Game of The Year Crysis, you engaged in an adapt-or-die struggle to save the planet. In Crysis Warhead, you take up the fight once more in an all-new, dangerous and challenging mission with the fate of mankind hanging in the balance. How does this expansion pack to one of the most highly anticipated and talked-about Sci-Fi first person shooters stack-up? Let's take a look.

Crytek's goal was not only to make Crysis a game that raised the bar above and beyond the norm for first-person shooters in terms of immersion and gameplay, but to make a shooter without peer or equal in terms of visual fidelity that blurred the line between the real world and the virtual world of PC gaming. Pretty lofty goals for any game studio, but keep in mind that we're talking about the company that set the same goals for their debut title back in 2004—Far Cry—a critically-acclaimed first-person shooter that was ahead of its time.

The CryEngine that powered Far Cry was taken to the next level—CryEngine 2—for Crysis. As a result, the game world in Crysis was much larger and more lifelike with even more complex physics and sophisticated enemy AI than the game that started it all. The incredible visuals encompassing every aspect of Crysis were not only the centerpiece for its impressive technology, but served as the ultimate litmus test for establishing Windows Vista with its DirectX 10 API as the OS of choice over Windows XP for next-generation PC games.

In Crysis, the player assumed the role of a Delta Force Operator 1^st Lieutenant Jake Dunn, code-named “Nomad.” Parachuting onto the Lingshan Islands under the cover of darkness, Nomad and his five-man team are sent in to rescue a group of scientists being held by the North Koreans who have committed a massive invasion force to secure the islands and seize a startling extraterrestrial discovery made by the scientists—and I don't mean Stephen Spielberg's cute-and-cuddly E.T. With the team leader MIA and only one other surviving member of the squad left, Nomad and the supporting U.S. Task Force find themselves almost outnumbered by the KPA (Korean Peoples Army), and the previously dormant aliens now preying on both sides with the intention of turning the entire planet into a deep freezer.

Fortunately the player is equipped with a state-of-the-art nanosuit that protects the wearer from most battlefield hazards while enhancing their speed and strength to near-superhuman levels and allowing brief periods of near-invisibility. The need to adapt both the nanosuit's capabilities and modify available weaponry to meet the increasing number of challenges and threats added a welcome tactical element to Crysis that is not often found in most first-person shooters.

Although Crysis won critical acclaim, it wasn't without its faults—namely CryEngine 2 raised the visual bar so high when Crysis was released, existing hardware wasn't powerful enough to play the game smoothly at high resolutions with anti-aliasing and anisotropic filtering enabled and all of the visual effects maxed-out, as the devs at Crytek originally envisioned. Hopes that Crysis would be the one title that would finally convince the majority of gamers to switch to Windows Vista were quickly dashed. This was not only due to poorer performance under Vista than Windows XP, but the fact that a hack was discovered that allowed simulation of some of Vista's DirectX 10-only visual effects to be enabled under XP and DirectX 9.0 without the huge performance hit. One of the vehicle-based missions was criticized as playing like a poorly-executed rail shooter sequence. Crysis also lost some of its open-ended and dynamic feel during the last half of the single player campaign against the aliens.

But that was then. Service Pack 1 for Windows Vista and a regular stream of updated video card drivers from NVIDIA and AMD, have steadily improved stability and performance for games under Vista, including Crysis. Crytek released several patches for Crysis to deal with the usual bugs, address some gameplay issues and tweak performance. And the ending of the game suggested that the battle with the aliens and keeping their technology out of North Korean hands was far from over.

Fast-forward to now—and Crysis Warhead.

A stand-alone expansion pack rather than a full-fledged sequel, in Crysis Warhead you don the nanosuit of Sergeant Michael "Psycho" Sykes of Raptor Team, as events from the original game involving Nomad unfolds on the other side of the island. After surviving a KPA ambush of a Marine convoy he was defending, Sykes is ordered by JSOC Commander Emerson to pursue and capture a container being transported off the island by Colonel Ji-Sung Lee of the KPA. Emerson believes that there's a nuclear warhead inside the container (hence the second part of the expansion pack's title) which Colonel Lee is planning to use against the U.S. fleet.

After engaging in numerous battles and secondary missions to assist the U.S. forces in their efforts on the island, you soon discover that the contents of the container is potentially more dangerous than a nuke. Colonel Lee has managed to capture one of the alien drones to take back to North Korea for study and weapons development. As events unfold on the island showing the incredible threat that the aliens represent, it's clear that neither Emerson or you can permit that—though stopping Lee will prove to be another matter...

Like any expansion pack, Crysis Warhead plays pretty much like the original game. If you've already played Crysis, much of what is in Warhead from the incredibly beautiful and life-like environments of the Lingshan islands, to enemies, weapons and vehicles, will already be familiar to you. The only noticeable differences aside from the less-than-a-handful of new vehicles and weapons, are mostly cosmetic. Psycho's HUD is amber rather than green like Nomad's in the original game. His SCAR Assault Rifle is painted with a camouflage pattern rather than its natural color (even though it wasn't that way in Crysis). “Sykes Mod,” surprisingly, appears in the lower right-hand corner of the HUD, which should have been removed before Warhead went gold. Its presence, harmless though it may be, only adds to the criticism that Crysis Warhead may have been rushed a bit too quickly to market.

"Sykes Mod" aside, Crytek did listen to much of the criticism fans had about Crysis, particularly when it came to improving the enemy AI. Not only will you find KPA forces a bit more alert, tenacious and aggressive, but the AI of the alien invaders has improved dramatically. The alien war drones now openly “communicate” with one another, which reinforces that they are autonomous and have an intelligence of their own. And they no longer blindly charge and attack the player, but use the same flanking, cover and ambush tactics as the North Koreans, making them even more of a threat—which makes mastering the use of your nanosuit's four combat modes even more important than in Crysis:

Maximum Strength—doubles your physical strength, allowing you to lift and throw heavy objects, jump higher, do more damage with melee attacks, and steady your aim with high-recoil weapons like the Sniper Rifle, Gauss Rifle and Minigun. The nanosuit glows red in this mode.

 

Maximum Speed—Enhances the player’s ability to move faster than normal. The suit glows yellow when this mode activated. While you can move faster, your suit is also more susceptible to damage.

 

Cloak Engaged—Makes you and any selected weapon partially invisible. You become visible again as soon as you engage in combat or the battery powering the cloak temporarily discharges—whichever comes first.

 

Maximum Armor—The default mode for your nanosuit that allows it to absorb most but not all battlefield damage. The suit briefly glows purple when switching from one of the other modes.

While these abilities which are easily and quickly accessible from a pop-up menu activated by keystroke or mouse-button, gives you a major advantage over your non-augmented enemies, they also have a downside. First, you can only use one mode at a time. Second, using the modes taxes your suit's power reserves. How much and how fast depends on what you're doing with the mode engaged and what's happening to it while it's engaged. Once your reserves are drained, you must wait for them to recharge. How long that takes depends on the difficulty level you're playing the game at (the higher the difficulty level, the longer the recharge time). Fifteen to thirty seconds may not seem like a long time, but it can be an eternity in the middle of a firefight—especially if you allow yourself to be surrounded and your nanosuit's protection is compromised. All it takes is one well-placed shot or grenade. Fortunately, Warhead's checkpoint auto-save feature and the ability to manually save the game wherever and whenever you want, can help alleviate those frustrating "Game Over" moments.

Of course, the best cure for frustration in any respectable first-person shooter is lots of firepower with plenty of things to shoot and “blow-up-good.” You won't find any shortages of either in Crysis Warhead. In addition to the standard arsenal of U.S. and North Korean weapons and upgrades from the original game, Crytek has thrown in a few new items for your killing pleasure and a new way to use some of them.

The AY69 is the North Korean version of the venerable Uzi submachine gun. Compatible with the game's pistol accessories, it's a good substitute for the standard issue sidearm with the added benefit of additional firepower from its full-automatic firing mode—the drawback being that it burns up ammunition much quicker when used that way. Like the pistol, the AY69 can be dual-wielded when you really need to lay down some serious close-range pain (while churning through double your ammo reserves for the weapon). To keep ammo consumption under control, dual-wielding has been modified in Warhead. You can now fire each weapon independently, rather than being forced to fire both at the same time as in Crysis. Crytek achieved this by hard-coding firing of the right-hand weapon to the right mouse button. This isn't a problem so long as you don't have another function in mind for the right mouse button. If you do, you're going to have to find a substitue for it.

EMP (Electromagnetic Pulse) Grenades make their debut in Warhead. The good news is, the EMP Grenade is quite useful for temporarily disabling anything hi-tech, including your nanosuit-wearing enemies and alien drones. The bad news is, if you aren't careful on how or where you use them, the fairly wide blast radius from the grenade can temporarily short-circuit your nanosuit. Did I mention that the elite KPA troops also have EMP Grenades as standard issue?

There's also the new FGL40 Grenade Launcher—another KPA weapon. In addition to firing frag rounds, you can also fire EMP rounds. In secondary fire mode, you can delay the explosion of the launched grenade until you manually trigger it—perfect for setting a nasty surprise or two for pursuing enemies. In addition, there are two new turrets in the game for you to use and steer clear of if you happen to find yourself on the wrong end of them. The first is a larger and more powerful version of the Minigun. The other is a 20mm Machine gun that uses explosive rounds.

Players of Warhead aren't the only ones expected to adapt their nanosuit armor and upgrade their weapons to face the game's challenges. Apparently, the aliens are also quite adept at adapting against their human foes. In addition to updated AI routines that make the alien war machines more formidable and difficult to take down, Crysis Warhead pits you against two new alien drone variations. The first is the standard “Grunt” Drone upgraded with an energy shield impervious to most of the conventional weapons in your repertoire, making them a real pain—both literally and figuratively—to deal with. The second are the larger, high-flying octopus-like “Assault” Drones that carry up to four grunt drones at the end of their legs. These “Carrier” Drones dive towards their enemies before deploying the four Grunt Drones at close range, who gang up on the target while the Carrier flies away to safety.

For the drones armed with energy shields, you'll need a two-pronged attack—hit 'em with an EMP Grenade and follow up with a good dose of hot lead. You'll need to be quick though, as they can easily scoot away from the blast radius of the EMP Grenade before it goes off and momentarily disables their shields. Also keep in mind that it you focus too much on them, the ones without the shields are likely to flank you. Carriers are a bit more problematic, as you'll need to take them out before it can get too close to deploy the Grunts. Use turrets, the Gauss Rifle and Missile Launcher to nail and down them at a distance. They're tougher than regular Assault Drones, so make every shot count.

You could chase Colonel Lee and the container all over the island on foot. But there are times in Crysis Warhead where riding is much quicker and convenient, though you'll definitely draw more attention to yourself from any nearby enemies—something Warhead seems to have no shortage of. The new vehicles that you can drive are the Armored Scout Vehicle—ASV for short. You'll encounter variants with either the Minigun or 20mm with explosive rounds. The other is a Hovercraft, ideal for traveling over land or water in a hurry—provided that you avoid combat, as it has no onboard weaponry.

Most protagonists in first-person shooters are little more than “placeholders” devoid of any character or personality, useful only as a means for the player to interact with the game world. While some gamers have no objection to this and would rather just “get on with the action,” there's no denying that playing a character without any “life” or sense of who they are and what motivates them, can and does make the first-person shooter genre seem rather bland in its sameness from one title to the next. This issue had been raised about Far Cry's ex-Green Beret Jack Carver. Sure, he was the square-jawed, get-it-done-come-hell-or-high-water type, always sprouting B-movie one-liners and wise-cracks with his trademark Hawaiian shirt. But many took him for just another clichéd first-person shooter hero with the real star of the game being the visuals—though I admit it always drew a smile or chuckle from me when the bad guys would yell “You!! In the shirt!!” before sending a hail of gunfire his way.

The same criticism had been made of Nomad in Crysis, as many players simply weren't able to connect with him on an emotional level as a character—even though it had been implied once in an interview with Crytek CEO Cevat Yerli that the story, and especially the characters in Crysis would have somewhat more depth than those in Far Cry. Of course, what game developers would like to do and what they ultimately end up having to do in a game for any number of reasons, are two different things. Suffice it to say that character development and plot fell a tad short of what Cevat was initially shooting for when he talked with GameInformer back in August 2006.

However, never let it be said that Crytek doesn't listen to its fans or critics. In Warhead, the player is given a bit of insight on the type of man and soldier Sergeant Michael Sykes is, via numerous cut scenes throughout the game—particularly, his relationship with Marine Corps Aviator Sean O'Neil. Turns out Sykes was forced to intervene against him awhile back during a training exercise, which got O'Neil thrown out of Special Forces for good. Nomad, ironically ended up taking the slot on Raptor Team that would have gone to O'Neil. In spite of the tensions between them, when O'Neil's F-35C Fighter Jet is shot down and Emerson orders Sykes to retrieve its black box recorder before the North Koreans can get their hands on it, Sykes disobeys a direct order from Emerson to leave O'Neil to Search & Rescue, and rescues him himself. Later on, as Sykes faces growing opposition from the KPA as he closes in on Colonel Lee and the container, O'Neil defies Emerson's orders and provides support and intelligence for Sykes from the VTOL he has been reassigned to fly. There are some other memorable cut scenes that add a bit more drama to the game and fleshes out Sykes' character, but I'll leave those for you to discover and ponder.

When it was released last year, Crysis was hailed as one the few shooters that allowed the player more than one way to solve tactical problems when engaging the enemy. Naturally, since this concept worked so well in the original game, it is also implemented in Warhead. A resort on the beach provides a number of opportunities in eliminating the KPA forces occupying it. Do you go in with guns blazing Rambo style and risk having to take on the additional reinforcements they'll call in? After all, Sykes earned the nickname/call-sign “Psycho” for a reason. Do you sneak in cloaked, and neutralize all enemy personnel methodically with a silenced weapon? Or do you blow up the tank patrolling the road behind the resort, then watch the soldiers come running out to investigate—only to get blown to bits by the mines you've strategically planted while you pick off any survivors from cover?

“Rail-shooting” sequences where the player is riding in some type of vehicle controlled by the game's AI and engages enemies while moving from Point A to B, always brings up the dreaded “L” word (Linear) from critics and gamers alike. Because they are used quite frequently in first person shooters, they run the risk of being just another stale gameplay gimmick. There are exceptions of course. Done right, they can provide a change of pace to the game to keep it interesting, rather than bog things down. In one such Crysis Warhead sequence, Sykes manages to board an automated train carrying the container. Naturally it doesn't take long for the KPA to realize he's on the train. All of the checkpoints along the way go on full alert while troops and armored vehicles are dispatched to intercept him.

Normally you occupy a single weapon in a rail-shooting sequence and blast away at the bad guys until the sequence is over. In the Warhead scenario, there are multiple turrets for defense strategically located along the length of the train. You could, if you wanted, occupy one of the central turrets to fight your attackers. Or, you could jump between the turrets on each side of the train, which has its advantages and disadvantages. First, you can avoid overheating a single turret and keep the enemy on the defensive (soldiers will abandon vehicles about to explode and their posts near turrets if they can). Second, when you're running between turrets, you make yourself a more difficult target to hit. On the other hand, it takes skill and timing to run back and forth between weapon emplacements on a moving train while trying to avoid getting shot or falling off.

Putting the player in the role of “one-man-army-against-the-world” is another common and overused scenario in first-person shooters. Where is it written that the player must always face extraordinary odds when trying to save the day/humanity? One thing missing from Crysis that was really needed, was the player's ability to fight alongside other soldiers on some of the missions. In Crysis Warhead, you have the opportunity to fight alongside Eagle Team, another squad of nanosuit-augmented Delta Force operators on several missions. Eagle Team functions pretty much like your squad in Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. You can't issue orders to them, but they will follow just about any path you take to your current objective, dispatching any enemies along the way and waiting for you if you happed to go too far off track. For the relatively short period of time they're in the game, they, along with Emerson and O'Neil at least help reinforce that you're part of a larger effort on the island in dealing with the North Koreans and aliens.

Not everything in the game flows well. In particular, the segment where you commandeer a hovercraft to pursue Colonel Lee in a hovercraft with the container in tow over a frozen, mine-filled lake and battle-scarred terrain littered with the wreckage of armored vehicles and soldiers in the wrong place at the wrong time turned into ice statues. No sooner than you begin your pursuit, aliens suddenly burst through the icy surface attacking anything that moves. Surviving KPA armor units make a last-ditch and futile stand against the aliens. You whiz by, hoping that neither of them notice you in all the mayhem. No such luck though...

By the sound of it, you would think this would be a very intense, exciting, action-packed sequence. Unfortunately, thanks to the absolutely horrendous handling of the hovercraft (think the infamous VTOL jet extraction mission in Crysis—except this is on the ground rather than in the air), the only thing intense about it is the frustration you'll experience trying to keep the hovercraft under control. Fortunately, there are several things in your favor. First, in spite of Emerson's nagging for you to pick up the pace, the hovercraft and container you're pursuing will patiently wait for you to almost catch-up before taking off again if you get too far off track trying to keep up (how thoughtful). Second, the entire scenario is over rather quickly.

Crytek supposedly fine-tuned CryEngine 2 for Warhead so that it would be a bit more forgiving in terms of its already legendary performance drain on existing hardware when you play at high resolutions with the visuals ramped up. For this review, I played and evaluated Warhead on the following:

Crytek changed the name of their visual detail presets in Warhead. Instead of Low, Medium High and Very High as in Crysis, they are now (from lowest to highest):

I suspect this was done strictly for "marketing" purposes rather than any actual technical differences.

Interestingly enough in spite of having two GeForce 8800 GTS cards in SLI, Crysis Warhead auto-detected and configured my visual settings to Mainstream (which is equivalent to the Medium setting in Crysis) except for Shader Quality, which was set to Gamer (the equivalent of the High setting in Crysis) at 1680x1050 with antialiasing and Vsync disabled. I need to point out that this is what Warhead thought would be optimal for my particular configuration under DirectX 10. When I launched the game in DirectX 9 mode (which can be done by right-clicking the Crysis Warhead icon in Windows Vista's Game Explorer and selecting it from the pop-out context menu), and ran the auto-configuration routine again, Warhead chose the Mainstream setting for everything—including Shader Quality.

Since Warhead doesn't come with benchmark script files as does Crysis, I used FRAPS to record the frame rates as I did a run-through of the “Call Me Ishmael” level of the game. Because I hate jaggies and the texture tearing that occurs when you leave Vsync disabled gives me a splitting headache after fifteen minutes of gameplay, I set antialiasing to 2x and turned Vsync on. Warhead was play-tested at the Samsung 226BW's native 1680x1050 resolution in DirectX 10 mode first, then DirectX 9 mode. None of the settings in either the NVIDIA ForceWare control panel or the advanced graphic settings were changed from their default settings.

Keep in mind that the GeForce 8800 GTS with 640MB of RAM—even two of them in SLI mode—and the E6600 Core 2 Duo are yesterday's technology by today's standards. Activating any of the Gamer settings caused the frame rates on my particular set-up to take a noticeable hit, especially during large firefights with lots of enemies. The levels where the aliens had turned parts of the island into a deep freeze had the biggest decrease in frame rates. As you can see from the screenshots, like Crysis, Warhead is still one of the best-looking expansion packs out here, even under DirectX 9. So I wouldn't go crazy worrying about not having the latest and greatest video cards and processor (especially in these tough economic times).You can get the game to run acceptably and still look great (as the screenshots show), without taking out a second mortgage to build a new high-end rig.

Crysis Wars is the multiplayer component of Crysis Warhead, and is included on a separate DVD with the game. As in the original game, the player can choose to be either on the U.S. Delta Force or KPA Special Forces nanosuit team. Certain weapons, vehicles and equipment are exclusive to Crysis Wars. You can play over the Internet with a GameSpy account, or over a LAN. Instant Action allows you to engage in a classic deathmatch battle that supports up to 32 players. Power Struggle is a blend of deathmatch and capture-the-flag, where you must secure prototype laboratories with alien technologies that will allow your team to build super-weapons, with the ultimate goal of destroying the opposing team's headquarters.

Rather than just recycle the same multiplayer modes from Crysis, Crytek has included the new Team Instant Action mode for Crysis Warhead, which combines Power Struggle's team strategy the kill-or-be-killed, last-man-standing elements of Instant Action. Whichever team reaches score limit or has the most kills within the time limit, wins the match. In the event of a tie, the game goes into three-minute overtime until there's a winner. There are six new maps and one exclusive to Power Struggle, which also gets an improved HUD. Crytek has removed the Tactical Attachment and Incendiary Ammo for the North Korean FY-71 assault rifle from multiplayer.

Crysis Warhead's single-player campaign can be completed in about 7 hours, compared to the 15 in the Crysis single-player campaign. It is an expansion pack after all, but that doesn't mean I would have opposed another 2 or 3 hours of gameplay. Overall, the pacing in Warhead is much tighter and faster with a somewhat greater sense of urgency than Crysis, thanks to more frequent firefights, improved enemy AI routines, and the non-contrived way obstacles impede your progress and challenge you as you try to catch up with Colonel Lee and the container. In Crysis, Sergeant Michael Sykes was little more than the clichéd hard-boiled, loose-cannon Brit with an equally clichéd nickname. In Crysis Warhead, it was good getting to know “Psycho” Sykes beyond the cliché, even if it was only through cut-scenes. In retrospect, I wish Cevat Yerli had simply ditched the nicknames for everyone in Raptor team and used their rank and full names instead. Seems more appropriate. I liked the concept behind the hovercraft pursuit, but the handling of the hovercraft itself brought back some unpleasant memories from Crysis that I could have done without. And I think the dual-wield mode in Crysis was much better implemented.

One thing a lot of gamers might not be happy with, is that Crysis Warhead has a DRM (Digital Rights Management) protection scheme. Face it, at the rate things are going with the whole piracy issue and DRM, honest people could very well end up spending an entire day on the phone with all the various software publishers to get authorization to re-install everything again if they upgrade or buy a new PC. Crytek has at least avoided the more idiotic and draconian methods of DRM used by other software publishers, and have come up with something that they and their customers can at least live with (you can read about how Crysis Warhead's DRM works here).

If Crysis Warhead has a major weakness, it's that there are a number of things central to the plot that assumes you've already played Crysis. If you haven't, you'll probably find yourself drawing a blank trying to fill in the blanks of what's going in the game and why. The final battle and ending, which was much better executed than in the original game, will probably leave anyone who hasn't played Crysis scratching their head and thinking. “OK that was cool—now what?” Other than borrowing a page from Valve's book on Half-Life 2 and its Episodes 1 and 2—weaving and interconnect enough plot elements together to maintain the continuity of the game's story so that someone who hasn't necessarily followed the series can grasp what's going on—I'm not sure much can be done about that, other than actually buying Crysis and playing through it before playing through Warhead.

With the price of Crysis close to what other expansion packs are going for, that probably wouldn't be such a bad thing. Crysis Warhead has the best of what made the original game such a hit, with just the right balance of new material to keep the saga fresh in the minds of its fans and anxiously waiting for the next installment.

Final Score: