Crysis Remastered review for Nintendo Switch, PS4, Xbox One

To some extent, it?s kind of crazy that Crysis Remastered even exists on the Switch. When it first came out on PC in 2007, it was considered the benchmark for graphics. Even when it first made the jump to consoles in 2011, I remember the first trophy that popped for it on PS3 was called something like ?Can it run Crysis?? (though that was obviously at least half in jest). Even accounting for the fact we?re talking about a decade-old game, it?s still absurdly good-looking, and, magically, it runs on a handheld.

What?s more, it mostly runs pretty well. There were a couple of hiccups here and there — a crash, a little pop-in, some slowdown when the game saved — but there weren?t any major issues. Even in handheld mode, where you might expect there to be some sacrifices, nothing jumped out as being particularly bad. There were places where the voice acting didn?t quite match the mouths, and when you get close to people and objects you see they don?t look all that lifelike, but all things considered, this is still a stunning game.

Unfortunately, the gameplay itself doesn?t feel quite as revolutionary. For all the effort that went into making the game look great, the action itself all feels kind of by the numbers. You go here, you shoot everything, you make stuff blow up, then you move on to the next goal. Even when the game switches from ?military dudes shooting North Koreans? to ?military dudes shooting aliens?, it all feels like it?s more in service of the game showing off what it can do graphically than the game giving you interesting things to do.

To be fair, what it can do is mostly pretty impressive. The environments are partly destructible, and even if you?re mainly blowing up shacks and trees, it?s still somewhat satisfying. There?s a decent array of weapons at your disposal, too, which means you have all kinds of ways of killing enemies — though the effect is dampened by the fact that they?re all massive bullet sponges, even on the easiest setting.

In the end, it?s kind of telling that all the commentary around Crysis — and Crysis Remastered — focuses on the graphics. As shooters go, there are plenty of better options out there, regardless of what platform you?re playing it on. In terms of looks, though? On that front, this is still one heck of an achievement.

Crytek provided us with a Crysis Remastered Switch code for review purposes.