Crysis Warhead

Posted 4 years ago By - Brian Edey

Crysis Warhead is the stand alone expansion following the adventures of Sgt. Sykes aka Psycho, who had a brief part in the first Crysis game from Crytek. Psycho follows his namesake well and is more then a bit off balanced and we see this through out the game as he has emotional experiences from his past brought up in audio files and there are a couple of moments in the game when he has to deal with some nasty moments. The experiences are fairly cliché, as is the entire story which reminds me of something Michael Bay would direct, such as a popcorn movie with an over the top story, big explosions and with an over the top lead actor. It is just as short as the average movie it seems, single player wise the game runs around three hours in length, but for 30 bucks it’s not bad.

Warhead’s story follows Psycho as he traverses the other side of the same island we saw in the first game, following a secret container which holds a secret that all three factions on the island wants for themselves, the Americans, the North Koreans and the Aliens. Following the container on train, plane and automobile (basically), leading to one massive final battle which is incredible and very fun.

Crytek said Warhead will run better then Crysis did on the same system and they were right on my system it was incredible at high settings with only the slight lag at certain times. It is amazing that still today a year after the original Crysis hit stores we have not seen any game come close to it visually and hopefully this trend will continue with their next game, but let us hope they add some major gameplay improvements when that game is released.


Crysis Warhead is exactly the same as Crysis gameplay wise for the single player game, except for the addition of three new weapons, your new best friend, a grenade launcher with FRAG and EMP grenades and a machine pistol which can be dual wielded for some very effective up close and personal perforation of your foes and a thrown anti-Nano/EMP grenade which is handy when you fight the large number of enemies who wear Nano-suits like the one you wear.

The vehicles seem to handle much better this time around then the first game and even the new vehicles, an armored APC with a heavy weapon on top and a hovercraft which is fun to drive, but you only drive it once in the entire game, which is sad. The APC is great because it is powerful with its weapon but I found that it explodes faster then the other vehicles you drive.

Unlike in the first game you will have plenty of access to a wide variety of weapons and ammo, so if you want to play one style through out it is very easy. This is perfect for the player who likes to sneak and snipe or go in hard and heavy, something which was very hard to do in the first game when you would run out of ammo for your favorite weapon very quickly.

The first Crysis game had a very disappointing multiplayer which never took off and overall felt like a bad Battlefield clone then a real attempt at a multiplayer game. This time around Crytek gives us Crysis Wars which is worth the purchase price alone if you are a fan of multiplayer gaming. Now in Crysis all the players have Nano-suits so the action from the single player is translated to the multiplayer arena, so imagine going invisible to sneak around, zoom from cover to cover or if you run out of ammo turn your strength on and knock the guy out. It is fun and full filling to say the least. The maps are excellent and it shows that the Crysis level design team put more effort into the multiplayer level design then the single player because it offers more of a true gaming fun experience then anything we have experienced before.


Crysis was the graphic Holy Grail for PC gamers in many ways with near photo realistic graphics, the island setting looked and felt real. From the water to the trees it was one amazing experience which only failed to impress with the building models and the few interiors we experienced.

Crysis Warhead is just as well done and the graphics even seem to be slightly better at times, except for the buildings again which are rather disappointing. The most impressive graphic level of the entire game for me was the mine level you had to walkthrough while killing plenty of enemies while searching for the way out. This mine level almost felt like it could be a dungeon from the latest RPG with its gorgeous graphics, roots growing out of the walls, broken lumber and the like.

Most of the levels are very well designed, with a few different paths and interesting gameplay experiences in each level, ranging from a few vehicle driving segments to some large and very hectic battles that are very fun to replay over and over again. I would have enjoyed to have seen some larger maps and levels but for a budget priced title it was well done.


Audio wise the game is great with some of the best sound effects we have heard since the last Crysis, with heavy sounding weapons, wonderful environmental sound effects and some, but not all of the voice chat that is in the game. Some of the characters are well spoken, but others are just bad and feel out of place and the lead character Psycho sounds like he has two different people at different times speaking for him. It was annoying at times, especially in the beginning of the game, but by the end it was not as noticeable.

The overall value of the game is low if you are only a single player gamer because the single player is very short as you can beat the entire single player campaign in one sitting in three hours with out any trouble. But where the real value comes in is the extremely awesome multiplayer which has some great maps, plenty of nano-suit action (unlike the original) and one good vehicle map.

If you enjoyed the original Crysis and are a fan of the big ‘Summer’ action game, this is the game to pick up, especially at its low price tag and wonderful multiplayer. So buy this one and enjoy it.

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