Review of Crysis Remastered Trilogy – Dusted Legend

The current generation of shooters have moved on, but there were times when Crysis was almost at the top of imaginary ratings, thanks to its revolutionary technical side, as well as creative gameplay and an almost Hollywood “cinema” sci-fi set, supported by many films, scenarios and a very impressive orchestral music. After last year’s remaster of the first installment, now we’ve also experienced a remaster of the two remaining installments (unfortunately no data discs) so old and new fans can play the series together. While it’s somewhat controversial on PC to modernize a game, on consoles the games originally came out with such desperate technical parameters that this is more or less the first opportunity to experience these games the way the creators intended.

• Platform: PS5 (peer review), PS4, X1, XSX | S, PC (EGS), Switch
• Publication date: 15. 10. 2021
• Producer: Saber Interactive (USA)
• Genre: FPS
• Czech location: yes, subtitles
• Multiplayer: Not
• Data to download: 50 GB
• Game time: 30+ hours
• Price: 1249 CZK (Xzone)

Crysis – the evolution of Far Cry

The beginning of the series will introduce you to the Raptor team, armed with a prototype of a completely new nanosuit that serves not only as armor against enemy missiles, but also as a muscle strengthening or invisible cover for a soldier. Your mission is to infiltrate an island where the Korean army is conducting mysterious excavations. While at first you fight with human enemies on the coast of the island and in the depths of the jungle, as the game progresses, it gradually becomes clear that the excavations are of extraterrestrial origin and their owners are not entirely enthusiastic about human archaeologists. Imagine a more dynamic and narrative take on the original Predator movie.

The first part probably suffers somewhat from the fact that it was originally developed exclusively for PC and, in addition, it was the first remaster of this series and technology that Saber worked on. Whatever the exact reasons, unfortunately, they didn’t quite get the technical side or the controls of the game right. On the PS5, you’ll regularly encounter very annoying stutters when saving a checkpoint, and moving and aiming with the remote control is something of a punishment. However, the game runs smoothly and in high definition, so at least in this respect it can be commended. Since the plot of the trilogy is very closely connected, it makes sense to repeat it in order.

Crysis 2 is a Hollywood blockbuster

As in the movie Predator, in the second part Crysis decided to replace the literal tropical jungle with the proverbial concrete jungle, a modern city, in this case New York. As a soldier with the alias Alcatraz, you travel to another military unit to intervene in the escalation of a viral pandemic on the streets, where, after an initial “accident”, you are confronted by the dying Prophet from the previous game. He will leave you his nano-suit, which has undergone extraordinary mutations since the first part, assimilating more and more extraterrestrial tissues and technologies. The infection in the city, of course, is of extraterrestrial origin, and it is your mutating suit that will be the key to unraveling it. It is interesting to remember how competently the writers managed to approach the theme of the evolution of living armor in this game.

Crysis 2 was already released as a multi-platform game at one time (then PC, PS3 and X360), which is perhaps one of the reasons why the remaster turned out to be much better than the first, originally exclusively PC part. The controls are noticeably more precise, and thanks to the advanced suit control system (accompanied by even better effects and sound), playing on the console is a pleasure, especially since the PS5 uses DualSense here relatively little, but impressively (e.g. electrifying armor if you turn on invisibility) . Checkpoint saving is much smoother and the overall gaming experience on a new generation console is just very good, which of course reinforces the fact that this is probably the best part of the series, music for which was also composed by Hans Zimmer.

Crysis 3 – Supremacy

The third part of the series is again significantly different. It acts like a post-apocalyptic depressive drama with its setting and plot, helped by its setting in a former New York City, now rubble-heaped jungle (strikingly reminiscent of the TLOU games). Human civilization has changed drastically since the war with the aliens, and the survivors cannot agree on whether the big threat is a new class war or a prophecy about the existence of an alien ruler preparing to avenge his past defeat. The game goes to extremes in its ambitions, but at the same time it is the shortest in the line of all three, and many of them could consider it only an odd data disk. In my opinion, its atmosphere is harmed by excessive futurism and departure from the real world, which helped the atmosphere of the first two games.

The technically revised third part is practically no different from the second, so it’s very good. Unfortunately, its aesthetic is somewhat detrimental to it, much of which looks like a typically boring mix of gray ruins known from many war games. The exception is the opening pair of missions with a night storm and a march along a flooded river, as well as a slightly crazy, but impressive finale in orbit of the planet. The creators have slightly changed the skill improvement system, which in my opinion is not as clear and effective as in the second part. However, you will still feel like an unstoppable predator on the battlefield.