Crysis Warhead (Game)

Crysis Warhead

GAME » on September 16, 2008

A standalone expansion pack to Crysis, Warhead's campaign follows Sergeant Michael 'Psycho' Sykes, as he faces his own trials and challenges on the other side of the island, parallel to the events of the first game.

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Overview

Crysis: Warhead tells the same story Crysis (Game) did, but from a different point of view. Crysis was about a squad of Nanosuit (Object)-equipped special forces operators, Raptor Team, sent in to Lingshen Island, to rescue a team of American archaeologists who were captured by North Korean soldiers. Raptor Team was successful in making contact with the archaeologists, only to discover that during their excavation, they had uncovered an alien starship, dormant for thousands of years while buried in the earth. Uncovering it activated a chain reaction that reawakened the aliens, who quickly spread out from the ship and began a hostile invasion of the planet Earth (Location).

Warhead's storyline begins shortly before the protagonist from the original game, Nomad (Character), discovers the alien threat. While Nomad was closing in on the digsite, his squadmate Psycho (Character) had been on a secret mission of his own on the opposite side of the island. In Warhead, players take control of Psycho and experience this mission: Psycho has been ordered to steal a cargo container, believed to contain a nuclear warhead, from the North Koreans.

Warhead uses a more optimized version of CryEngine2 - the same engine that powered Crysis. CryTek's primary aim was make the game more accessible to the general audience, while slightly improving the visual fidelity. Warhead's load times are also slightly shorter than the original. Following Warhead, a CryEngine2 SDK was released in 2009.

The game also comes with Crysis Wars, a stand alone multiplayer component featuring new modes.

Gameplay Updates

The Exosuit makes more frequent appearances this time.

Several gameplay changes were made for Warhead:

Linear Level Design - The large sandbox approach from the original was dropped for a more linear but tightly paced campaign. Players encounter enemies more often now.
New weaponry - Fully automatic pistols, grenade launchers & Plasma Accumulator Cannon (PAX) were added, while a few weapons from the original were removed. The customization options largely remain the same.
Ammo auto-pickup - Works on all except the highest "Delta" difficulty setting.
Weapon Re-balancing - All weapon damage has been rebalanced. The most significant change was made to the Gauss rifle, which does less damage against the aliens now but it reloads faster to compensate for the change.
Enemy AI - The enemy AI reacts better to player actions now. Several glitches from the original were removed. Korean soldiers do less damage but are able to zero-in on player position much faster than the original. They also pursue players for much longer, if they try to cloak or sprint out of a situation.
Cutscene changes - In the original, the camera never broke Nomad's first person perspective. But here, the camera frequently shows Pscyho from a third person perspective, including several flashback cutscenes.

Improvements to CryEngine 2

A better scaling graphical engine.

Crysis has specifically stated that the core CryEngine 2 (Concept) is undergoing many changes most of which will enable Crysis Warhead to perform better on all systems and to have lower minimum system requirements as well as being optimized to all PC hardware. One of the notable changes is that Warhead will have more number of enemies on screen for a lesser frame-rate hit than the original. It has been pointed out that this may simply be a smokescreen for the fact that while the gear required to play Crysis was considered bleeding-edge at the time of its release, the same technology was fairly mainstream by the time Crysis: Warhead came out.

The developers have also added three predetermined graphics levels -- Mainstream, Gamer, and Enthusiast -- which will help gamers to run the game on a variety of systems right off the bat without optimizing or changing specific settings. Though the developers have also specifically stated that Enthusiast may not provide the highest level of visual detail possible in the game.

Enemy AI has also been greatly improved to suit the playing style of Psycho as well as to provide a better experience overall in general. The developers have stated in many interviews that, whereas in Crysis sometimes enemies might pause for a moment once the player appears in view, the AI in Warhead will be more tighter with enemies flanking and taking out the player quickly and effectively.

Weapons

Weapon Customization makes a return.

Pistol
Submachine Gun
Shotgun
SCAR
FY71
Precision Rifle
Minigun
Gauss Rifle
Missile Launcher
Fragmentation Grenades
Smoke Grenades
Flashbang Grenades
EMP Grenades
Plasma Accumulator Cannon

Note: for more info on these weapons, refer to the Crysis (Game) wiki page.

Crysis Wars (Multiplayer)

Crysis: Warhead ships on two discs. The first one being Crysis: Warhead, and the second disc being Crysis Wars. Crysis Wars, a standalone multiplayer mode, still has the two multiplayer modes from the original Crysis, Instant Action and Power Struggle, but also introduces a new mode called Team Instant Action. Team Instant Action is essentially the same thing as Instant Action, but played with teams. Crytek has also rebalanced the nanosuit, so players can still rely on the suit in the unlikely event that they are out of ammo. The game ships with 21 multiplayer maps and supports up to 32 players online.

System Requirements

CPU: Intel Pentium 4 2.8 GHz (3.2 GHz for Vista), Intel Core 2.0 GHz (2.2 GHz for Vista), AMD Athlon 2800 (3200 for Vista) or better
RAM: 1GB (1.5GB on Windows Vista)
Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT, ATI Radeon 9800 Pro (Radeon X800 Pro for Vista) or better
VRAM: 256MB of Graphics Memory
Storage: 15GB
Sound Card: DirectX 9.0c Compatible
ODD: DVD-ROM
OS: Microsoft Windows XP with Service Pack 2 or Microsoft Vista
DirectX: DX9.0c or DX10

Crysis-branded PCs

Electronic Arts (Company) has announced plans to market PCs branded with the Crysis name, in order to coincide with the release of Crysis: Warhead. The purpose of the PCs will be to get people who don't usually use their PCs to game to buy the PCs simply so they can run the game. The PCs will be priced between $600-$800, depending on how well you want the game to run. UltraPC are the company that manufacture the Crysis PC.

The Specs of the PC are as follows:

Ultra X-Blaster ATX Mid-Tower Case Black
NVIDIA GeForce 9800GT 512MB PCIe Video Card
G31 mATX Motherboard
Inter Core 2 Duo E7300 2.66GHz 3M Processor
2GB DDR2 800Mhz PC6400 Memory (1GB x 2)
250GB 7200RPM 3G SATA II Hard Drive
500 Watt Power Supply
16X DVD-ROM Drive
Integrated 10/100/1000 Network Adapter
Integrated Realtek High-Def Audio
Keyboard & Mouse Included
1 Year Parts & Labor Warranty

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