--Prophet, Crysis Remastered
The original release of Crysis introduced a science fiction shooter franchise that is often remembered fondly and held in high regard. 2020 has brought a remaster of this modern classic to the Switch (and to other current generation consoles), and it is easily one of the best games of its genre on the system. Players observe events through the first-person gaze of Nomad, a member of an elite American group of soldiers outfitted with nanosuits, with the suit being one of the core gameplay functions that somewhat distinguishes Crysis from many other shooters. Crysis Remastered succeeds as a strategic action shooter featuring the mystery of alien antagonists that have been present on Earth for millennia.
Production Values
Very smooth and clear graphics bring the digital portrayal of North Korea and an alien force to the Switch's small screen (at least it is small on the Switch Lite), making Crysis Remastered one of the better Switch ports of its kind as far as visuals are concerned, except for when close views of the vegetation are concerned. Despite the general clarity of the graphics, encounters with multiple enemies can bring brief but very obvious slowdown. Otherwise, there is little to criticize about the visuals of Crysis on the Switch besides occasional problems with environmental details suddenly appearing as the player approaches. The voice acting is likewise handled well, and the North Korean soldiers are supposed to actually speak in Korean instead of English on the highest difficulty level!
Gameplay
Partially destructible environments and different options for how to approach enemies are some of the foundational components of how Crysis approaches combat. Concerning the latter, players can sneak by enemies altogether using careful movements or a cloaking function (which is addressed further below), leave or reposition themselves during active firefights by crouching behind cover and using the cloaking function (as unaware enemies continue firing where they once were), or engage North Koreans and aliens directly.
Nomad's suit, equipped with several abilities that can make combat or moving to objectives easier, can be vital to navigating certain encounters. The suit has "Maximum Speed," "Maximum Armor," and "Cloaking" settings that can be activated one at a time until an energy reserve runs out and needs several seconds to recharge. As helpful as these abilities can be, they actually do little to prevent player deaths thanks to the AI's tendency to still shoot at you even when cloaked and to overpower the enhanced armor setting in only a handful of shots.
Even on normal difficulty, Crysis can be a very challenging game. Enemies only need to shoot you about three to five times at almost any range to kill you. When they are using submachine guns or assault rifles, it does not take long for them to fire that many rounds at you unless there is cover in the way. Frequent autosaves at checkpoints does lessen the impact of the difficulty somewhat, but it is still very easy to die even when using the suit's cloaking and armor abilities.
Story
Some spoilers are below.
A team of American marines outfitted with special nanosuits attempts to extract a captive scientist from an island near North Korea, but an entity of unknown origin kills a member of the group and several North Koreans, alerting the marines that some other faction with advanced technology is present. North Korean forces have actually mined their way to a resting site for alien beings that seem on the precipice of launching a larger assault on the planet.
Intellectual Content
International politics and the issue of extraterrestrial life are distinctly philosophical matters, but Crysis uses them to build a fictional world rather than prompt philosophical themes. Collectible hunting is absent from Crysis, so exploration is largely profitable only because it can lead to finding ammunition and avoiding certain enemies. There is still a potentially intellectual side to the combat, however. The ease of dying and the abilities of the playable character's suit mean that strategizing can be highly advantageous in some cases.
Conclusion
Crysis Remastered is one of the relatively few shooters that have been ported from other consoles to the Switch (alongside titles like Doom and Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus), and its presence will be a welcome thing to fans of iconic first-person shooters from the last two console generations. Once again, the Switch has been demonstrated to be capable of handling console shooters that were considered massive and technically challenging for a handheld gaming system! This remaster has its own technical issues, most notably the periodic slowdown during combat, but it is yet another victory for Switch ports. Crysis is not a particularly long game, as a competent or experienced player could easily finish the campaign in less than 10 hours, although it has other distinct strengths that could appease genre fans.
Content:
1. Violence: Enemies can be grabbed and thrown a short distance or shot. Only mild blood is shown.
2. Profanity: Variants of "damn" and "fuck" are used.
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