As you may have noticed, we’ve had a lot of articles for Crysis Remastered these past two days. And, to be honest, this was to be expected. Crysis Remastered was one of the most anticipated games of 2020 on the PC. Therefore, and before benchmarking the game, we’ve decided to re-install the original Crysis game and compare these two versions.

First things first. Crysis Remastered, as we’ve already reported, is based on the PS3/X360 version. As such, the game does no longer have the Ascension mission. The writing was on the wall when the Nintendo Switch version came out, though apparently some of you thought that Crytek was developing a separate version of Crysis Remastered.

Now as I’ve already said, Crysis Remastered can look gorgeous on the PC. And that is true. However, and since this is based on the PS3/X360 version, some effects have been cut out or reduced.

For instance, grenades do no longer affect bushes. In the original PC version, most – if not all bushes – were affected by the grenades. In the remaster, they remain static. All trees and bushes do not sway as much as they did in the original game, giving the remaster a somehow “static” feeling. This is a personal preference though as all trees and bushes do have “wind/air effects“. They are just not as “in your face” as in the original game. Crytek and Saber have also changed the game’s Parallax Occlusion Mapping effects. As such, and while some areas look better in the remaster, some other areas are “more flat” than in the original game. Below you can find an example. The original Crysis is on the left, whereas Crysis Remastered is on the right.

Crysis Remastered also has worse PC controls, especially when using the old/classic nanosuit. In the original game, players could immediately power jump (when using the Strength mode) by simply hitting the spacebar. In Crysis Remastered, players must keep pressing the spacebar key in order to power jump. Not only that, but there is latency/lag issue when using regular jump (it takes almost half a second between issuing the command and Nomad actually jumping). This lag issue makes the game feel weird and unresponsive when using K&M. Furthermore, you can no longer run diagonally in Speed Mode. Oh, and there aren’t any more any leaning control options.

Before closing, I have to say that I was shocked by the GPU requirements of the first Crysis game. Without any mods, there were frequent drops below 60fps in 4K/Very High settings in DX10. Do note that these framerate drops were NOT due to the game’s single-thread CPU issues. It’s really surprising witnessing a 2007 game pushing the RTX2080Ti to its limits. Not only that, but Crysis can still look great, even in its vanilla version. I mean, you will immediately notice some technical shortcomings, as well as a lot of blurry textures. However, and given its big environments, Crysis Original can still look great. Below you can find some screenshots from the vanilla version, in 4K/Very High, that perfectly showcase how demanding this game remains.

I also have to mention a weird PC performance issue in the original PC version of Crysis. For some unknown reason, the game performs significantly slower when moving around (we’re talking about 25-30fps). Below you can find two screenshots. The left screenshot was captured while I was moving whereas the right one was when I stopped moving. As you can see, there is a HUGE 36fps difference between them. Pay also attention to the GPU usage (it remains at 98%, so this isn’t due to the game’s single-thread CPU issues).

So yeah, Crysis Remastered is a mixed bag. PC gamers will be undoubtedly annoyed by the new PC controls, and we can’t really blame them. The game also lacks the Ascension mission. There are also some graphical/tech changes that may – or may not – appeal to you. To its credit, Crytek and Saber did surprise us with that old/classic nanosuit mode. However, the jumping mechanics did not translate well, and there are some awful control latency issues.

In conclusion, and since Crysis Remastered still suffers from major single-thread CPU issues, we suggest sticking with the original version. The original version – at least for now – play better with K&M. It can also look almost as good as Crysis Remastered with the Crysis Enhanced Edition Mod.

Stay tuned for our PC Performance Analysis!