This game is perhaps one of the best ways to spend 30 bucks.
Crysis Warhead is the psuedo sequel to last year's futurstic PC shooter Crysis, and for those who played the original I can say it doesnt stray far from the original.
The game for those who dont know is about you a special forces marine who are infiltrating an island filled with koreans, and also homicidal aliens who seeks to destroy mankind. Now this might be tough for the regular solider but you have this nanosuit, which grants you special powers like super strenght, super speed, and cloaking. These powers works amazingly well, and it makes you feel god damn strong, and the time it takes to change suit modes are minimal due to the fantastic controls.
The singelplayer in this game is pretty short and as it is a 30 dollar deal, it is ok. The campaign is about 5-6 hours long on delta, I would imagine on easy no more than 3-4 hours which is relatively short, but the amount of quality in the level design and just overall quality in these few hours are staggering. There will be moments when things get so damn intense that you almost are sitting on the edge of your seat sweating like a madman.
For those of you who played Crysis, know that the story was not particulary impressive, it was in many ways almost boring because the character you were playing as was nothing more than a blank canvas, however now you play as his buddy Psycho who is a charismatic guy, and also Crytek has managed to come up with alot of interesting backstory for him. And some shadows from his past has come back for this game to in a weird way hunt him. I am not saying that the story is at a half-life 2 level, I am saying that you will get involved with the characters and ultimately attached to them, and as a sidenote this game made me play the original Crysis a second time because of the story in a weird way.
But lets not dance around anymore, we all know whats coming next, right? yes thats right the graphics, to put it Crysis is the best looking game this generation, and this game 1ups it and also makes it easier to run. It looks phenomenal, and at times almost photorealistic. Everything about the artistic quality to the raw technical prowess exhibited by Crytek is amazing, and you will not find any game that looks better than this. But the flipside of this is that the game has some steep system requirements, but that has been changed it doesnt take that much to run Crysis Warhead, the engine has been optimized the levels are smarter designed, and it just runs better while looking better aswell. With a 8800 level graphics card you should run this with the "gamer" AKA "high" settings with the resolution cranked down a bit just fine.
Crysis wars also ships with a complete multiplayer addon called "Crysis wars" which is unusual for a 30$ expansion, and it in many ways fixes the original Crysis' multiplayer. It still has the mode Power struggle which seems to be the only thing people are playing, it is still a mix between Counter-strike's weapon systems and Battlefield's flag capture and ticket system. And it also features Vehicles from regular pickups to futuristic helicopters. The vehicles feel kind of strange, however the gunplay still feels totally fine and the fact that you still have you nanosuit powers in multiplayer adds another layer of madness in it. However make no mistake this is not the next Counter-Strike or Call of Duty multiplayer its a fun little distraction that last for about 10 hours or so, since it does not feature unlockables or any sort of incentive to keep playing. Also the multiplayer features Deathmatch and Team Deathmatch where you also use your nanosuit in a deathmatch against each other.
However seeing as this is a standalone expansion the question will arise "is this worth playing if you havent played the original?" My answer is yes, you dont need to know whats going on you can still enjoy the sharp gameplay and its outstanding visuals, however I do recommend going through the original before starting on this one so that you know whats going on.
All in all Crysis Warhead is an outstanding achievement and I wish this is what the original was all along it has sharper level design sharper graphics and a great story to boot. And the final question is this worth you 30$?
I would say it depends on how much you value 30$. Howeve I will say that if you are looking for a awesome shooter with beautiful graphics and stunning gameplay look no further than Crysis Warhead....
