I’M BRITISH YOU MUPPET!

And I am as well actually, just like our boy Syke. Well, okay, he’s a dirty, louse Cockney, I’m a good old Northern lad, but the important thing is that neither of us is a Yank. So you tell ‘em Sykes (see attached video for context -ed). And this brings us to the crux of the matter. This review was a very long time in the coming. I swear to all that is made of peanuts, I must have watched that sodding cinematic over three hundred times, and it kept on bloody freezing at the worst possible moment. The bit with General Lee. It became so bad, actually, that I uninstalled the game for four months and swore I would never play it ever again. Then I bought myself a swishdy new HD 2900XT (the 1gb model no less) and my vitriol faded. Yeah, okay, I know it isn’t the bee’s knees of all graphics cards EVER! But it is one hell of a lot better than my previous card.

Anyway, enough of my self agrandisement, it’s irrelevant to the current situation beyond the fact that it allowed me to finally record that Gods damned video. Which brings us to the meat and two veg. Is the game any good? We already know Crysis has teh graffix, but does this offering do anything with them? Is it just more of the same, or does it push the envelope? Well, let’s talk about the graphics then. Everyone else seems to fixate on that with Crysis, so why not? And let me tell you, the Cry Engine has seen no small amount of tweaking. Most notable in the fact that full acceleration is now available even in DX9. No more greyed out “Very High” settings for those of us staying with XP. Nice touch. Though your system will take a pretty hefty hit from maxing out like that all the same.

But who cares about the pretty shinyness? Well, okay, quite a lot of people. Even Yahtzee commented on how mind blowing the visuals are in his review of the first game. But he and I agree, it’s the story which really grabs us. And this is something WARHEAD also has. On the surface, it seems like something of a cop out, just an excuse to make some more money out of the shiny shiny. Let’s go back, and retell the story from Psycho’s point of view. He was a well liked character, so people will be happy to play through everything again from his perspective right? Yeah, probably right as well. But do you remember that container that Syke’s brought on board the carrier at the end of the game? No? Well go and play it then, really *shakes head* anyway. The point is, whilst Nomad was being all grr and bitchslapping some Omlins, Psycho wasn’t just resting on his laurels. He actually did a fair bit of work on his own. And this is where WARHEAD comes in.

It becomes obvious rather quickly that this was, at the very least, planned for ahead of time. Perhaps even written alongside the main story. You know when you watch a film, and the people in the background do a load of stuff off screen, and you’re like “I wonder what actually went on with them?”. Well, this is your chance to actually find out exactly what Psycho was doing. And he did quite a lot as it turns out. Meaning that this isn’t just a six hour meander through familiar places, but a full blown game all of its own. A lot of new locations, some new gadgets, even new vehicles. And a bunch of new characters that Nomad knew nothing about. As well as a few little snippets that add some quite interesting context to the developing story.

I could go on a lot more, but frankly, it’s best you play for yourself. Fans of shooters, the first game, and well written conspiracy theory type stuff will all find something for them in this game, as will a large number of other people. It’s very much a case of more of the same, but with it’s own flavour, so to speak. And yes, it has a lot more to offer than just the stunning visuals. Including an amusing little sidenote down in the bottom right corner of your screen. Yes, that’s right, Sykes Mod ^^

Graphics: 9.5/10
Gameplay: 9/10
Audio/Music: 9/10
Plot/Scripting: 9.5/10
Overall: 9.5/10

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