It’s worth remembering though that the big bang at the start isn’t the thing that necessarily makes a game great, and if there isn’t any substance or zest to be had when the smoke clears then that big bang can work to the detriment of the final game. The old stuff is fairly simple. The predictably evil Korean army has found some alien technology on a tropical island and specially outfitted groups of America super-soldiers go into investigate. The obvious redshirts are quickly culled and the sleeping xenomorphs promptly wake up and start unleashing hell – starting by flash freezing the island. In the original game you take the role of Nomad and start leading a major offensive at the hostiles. Like Crysis, the heart of Warhead is its combination of sandbox gameplay with the nanosuit, the high-tech body armor that can give you superhuman strength or speed, or cloak you from detection. Used correctly, the nanosuit lets you basically be the alien Predator from the movies, and the open nature of the levels means that you can dictate the terms of the battle. It’s a blast to hurl grenades at long range at a squad of bad guys, then use speed to close the distance, strength to pick up a survivor and hurl him into his buddies, and then to finish them off with a few rounds of rifle fire. You can cloak and sneak right up to your opponents, or have them follow you only to cloak and then change direction. It’s all up to you. Combine that ad lib style of gameplay with the generally smart AI, and each play-through of Warhead can be completely different.
Next, we’ll see if the game play holds up to the same scrutiny, or if Crytek forgot to include any of that either - though, to be honest, as long as the game still includes the ability to shoot the tires out on cars as they come speeding round a corner, sending them rolling into the underbrush faster than child with a magnifying glass searching for an ants nest, then we’ll be happy. That isn’t to say that the game is going to constantly force you to play it as a shooter instead of an sniping gallery though – the island is still free roaming and there are still multiple ways to victory, but stealth is now the less-attractive option for sure. There’s too much stuff to blow up and the AI seems to be more alert and responsive, catching onto you far quicker initially despite the occasional enemy who will just stare blankly at you while you shoot him.
There are a lot of reasons and, to put it bluntly, it’s still clear that Crytek is a company that focuses on the tech first and creating a truly driven, engaging experience afterwards. For every benefit, there’s a drawback in practically every area. That of course raises the issues of how one should judge the game – as a self-contained game, or as an accompaniment to the original. If we use the former scale then Crysis Warhead is a competent, if slightly incomprehensible experience given the initial lack of exposition. It’s fun, but not something you’d find hugely essential. Let’s put it this way; If you’re new to the series, or didn’t care all that much for the original then Crysis Warhead is to Crysis as Blue Shift was to Half-Life. It’s an essentially fun game, but a little bit flawed and disappointing on a story-telling level, feeling more like a mod than a real game.
