Once more unto the island, dear friends, once more.
Crysis Warhead is the videogame equivalent of a summer action movie, and while it's more action-heavy than its highly acclaimed predecessor, it still retains its brains. Like Crysis, Warhead is a sandbox shooter that gives you large amounts of freedom as to how you approach each tactical situation. And there are plenty of tactical situations, because Warhead seems aimed at those who felt that Crysis was a bit too slow-paced and cerebral at times. But while it doesn't quite match the over-the-top insanity of a Call of Duty game, Warhead does prove that Crytek can deliver an intense action game.
Warhead is a companion game to Crysis, with a story that runs concurrently to that in the first game. An alien artifact has been discovered on a tropical island, and after the United States and North Korea race to seize it, an alien invasion erupts, flash freezing the island and putting the world at risk. The difference is in perspective; you now get to play as British Sergeant Michael Sykes, aka Psycho, the blowhard from the first game. Warhead takes place on "the other side of the island" that Crysis takes place on. If you played that game you already know the beginning and the end, so what matters here is the journey.
The opening cinematic establishes the kind of character Psycho is, and the kind of game Warhead will be. With aplomb, he leaps off of cliffs into moving trucks, manhandles North Koreans, and generally sneers at danger. Warhead is a much more cinematic game than its predecessor, partly due to third-person cutscenes (they were totally absent in Crysis), but also because it feels like Crytek openly borrowed a page or two from director Michael Bay. This goes right down to the overwrought emotional scenes to the driving musical score full of Japanese takio drums and soaring movements.
Like Crysis, the heart of Warhead is its combination of sandbox gameplay with the nanosuit, the high-tech body armor that can give you superhuman strength or speed, or cloak you from detection. Used correctly, the nanosuit lets you basically be the alien Predator from the movies, and the open nature of the levels means that you can dictate the terms of the battle. It's a blast to hurl grenades at long range at a squad of bad guys, then use speed to close the distance, strength to pick up a survivor and hurl him into his buddies, and then to finish them off with a few rounds of rifle fire. You can cloak and sneak right up to your opponents, or have them follow you only to cloak and then change direction. It's all up to you. Combine that ad lib style of gameplay with the generally smart AI, and each play through of Warhead can be completely different.
You get some new toys; my favorite is the six-shot grenade launcher that provides some personal artillery, as well as a submachine gun and equipment like antitank mines. Still, for the most part, many of the weapons remain the same, though the lower difficulty levels now allow you to automatically pick up ammo by walking over it, which is more user friendly. And your most potent weapon remains your nanosuit; used smartly, you can survive just about any situation.
Crysis Warhead is the videogame equivalent of a summer action movie, and while it's more action-heavy than its highly acclaimed predecessor, it still retains its brains. Like Crysis, Warhead is a sandbox shooter that gives you large amounts of freedom as to how you approach each tactical situation. And there are plenty of tactical situations, because Warhead seems aimed at those who felt that Crysis was a bit too slow-paced and cerebral at times. But while it doesn't quite match the over-the-top insanity of a Call of Duty game, Warhead does prove that Crytek can deliver an intense action game.
Warhead is a companion game to Crysis, with a story that runs concurrently to that in the first game. An alien artifact has been discovered on a tropical island, and after the United States and North Korea race to seize it, an alien invasion erupts, flash freezing the island and putting the world at risk. The difference is in perspective; you now get to play as British Sergeant Michael Sykes, aka Psycho, the blowhard from the first game. Warhead takes place on "the other side of the island" that Crysis takes place on. If you played that game you already know the beginning and the end, so what matters here is the journey.
The opening cinematic establishes the kind of character Psycho is, and the kind of game Warhead will be. With aplomb, he leaps off of cliffs into moving trucks, manhandles North Koreans, and generally sneers at danger. Warhead is a much more cinematic game than its predecessor, partly due to third-person cutscenes (they were totally absent in Crysis), but also because it feels like Crytek openly borrowed a page or two from director Michael Bay. This goes right down to the overwrought emotional scenes to the driving musical score full of Japanese takio drums and soaring movements.
Like Crysis, the heart of Warhead is its combination of sandbox gameplay with the nanosuit, the high-tech body armor that can give you superhuman strength or speed, or cloak you from detection. Used correctly, the nanosuit lets you basically be the alien Predator from the movies, and the open nature of the levels means that you can dictate the terms of the battle. It's a blast to hurl grenades at long range at a squad of bad guys, then use speed to close the distance, strength to pick up a survivor and hurl him into his buddies, and then to finish them off with a few rounds of rifle fire. You can cloak and sneak right up to your opponents, or have them follow you only to cloak and then change direction. It's all up to you. Combine that ad lib style of gameplay with the generally smart AI, and each play through of Warhead can be completely different.
You get some new toys; my favorite is the six-shot grenade launcher that provides some personal artillery, as well as a submachine gun and equipment like antitank mines. Still, for the most part, many of the weapons remain the same, though the lower difficulty levels now allow you to automatically pick up ammo by walking over it, which is more user friendly. And your most potent weapon remains your nanosuit; used smartly, you can survive just about any situation.