REVIEW: Crysis Warhead

North Korean soldiers on one side, Independence Day-style aliens on the other, and me in my patented nanosuit, smack dab in the middle, fending them off frantically with whatever weapons I have at hand. Humvees are exploding, aliens are falling out of the sky, and my pulse is skyrocketing. This is Crysis: Warhead, and it’s probably one of the most action-packed games I have ever played.

If the review seems a bit dated, that’s because the game actually came out in the fall of 2008. I bought it upon release, but neglected to play it because my computer setup wasn’t too great at the time. I recently purchased a new video card, and being a huge fan of the game’s predecessor Crysis, I fired it up to see how well it ran with the new card. The fast pace of the game and intense amount of action right from the start grabbed me immediately, and around 8 hours of playtime later, the credits were rolling.

The original Crysis was a huge release for the PC in 2007, and they followed it up with Crysis: Warhead, a standalone expansion which followed the same events of the first game, but from the perspective of a different character, “Psycho” Sykes, another member of the Delta Forces Raptor Team. Psycho is tasked with following a North Korean cargo shipment all over the island; originally suspected to be carrying nuclear weapons, Psycho discovers that the shipment contains a dead alien specimen that hasn’t self destructed. The game is focused on getting the specimen into US hands, or at least making sure the North Koreans don’t get their hands on it first. There is some minor backstory involved too, between Psycho and a former Delta Forces operative named O’Neill, who is now a VTOL pilot. O’Neill washed out of the Delta Forces program four years prior, and was replaced with Jake “Nomad” Dunn (the character you play in the first game). O’Neill now provides Psycho with support.

The gameplay is largely similar to that in Crysis and Far Cry – you’re given a primary objective (and at times, several secondary objectives) and a wide-open space to play around with. Barring one or two missions (where the objective is down a set path, or you’re indoors like an aircraft carrier or mineshaft), you’re given free reign to finish off your objectives in whatever direction or manner you want. Assaulting an enemy base? You can approach stealthily and take out the North Korean soldiers with your silenced submachine guns. Snipe them from over a kilometer away with a Precision sniper rifle. Slap a pack of C4 onto a Humvee and drive it into the base and detonate. There are tons of possibilities, and that’s the point of the game – the freedom is there for you to do nearly whatever you want. It really is the thinking man’s action game. Enemies range from regular North Korean forces, elite North Korean special forces who wear knockoffs of your nanosuit, aliens flying around in their suits, and massive exosuit aliens who can take you down with a swipe of their claws. New weapons include a micro SMG that can be dual-wielded, a two handed SMG that is excellent at close range, and EMP grenades that disrupt nanosuit and alien function.

GOOD: Action-packed, balls-to-the-wall gameplay, the new weapons pack a huge punch, better focus than the original game, nearly perfectly paced, a great addition to the series.
BAD: Even with the optimized engine, it can be strenuous for a lot of computers, can be a bit difficult even for FPS veterans, the multiplayer component is not that great.
BOTTOM LINE: If you like first person shooters on the PC, you have a decent rig and somehow you haven’t picked up this little gem, then I really recommend you go buy it now. More than likely you can pick up a retail copy or purchase it over Steam at a reduced price, seeing as it’s nearly a year old.

We don't have a scoring system in place, not yet at least, but for now, I can give it a score out of 5, which will be 4.5. This is a game I absolutely recommend.

PS: I'll be doing a really quick Audioboo later today regarding the high and low points of the game. Hopefully it'll help readers/listeners make an informed decision!