Here at WayTooManyGames, we very rarely decide to tackle two versions of the same game released at the same time, but there’s always an exception to the rule. The novelty of Crysis Remastered Trilogy being available on the Nintendo Switch on the same day as the more obvious PS4 and Xbox One ports just made me want to take a look at that specific version while our own Kyle was cruising with his nanosuit on the Xbox One X. Having one Crysis on the Switch was already a crazy idea, but all three? And having all of them work way better than they had any right to? This is the kind of game I love tackling on the Switch: the impossible port. Especially when the impossible port ends up being a competent port and an actual fun way to revisit a great game on-the-go.

I don’t want to repeat myself with the first part of this Crysis Remastered Trilogy. The remaster of the original Crysis included in here is, by all intents and purposes, the same game released last year. To sum it up, it is obviously not as pretty as the PS4 and Xbox One versions. It suffers from pop-in and framerate issues, but it works way better than I could have ever imagined and it’s actually quite fun to play on-the-go. Let’s focus on the real stars of the show: Crysis 2, and more specifically, Crysis 3.

First of all, there’s Crysis 2. Let’s make this very clear: it is the weakest Crysis of them all, but that doesn’t make it a bad game. Far from it. It’s still one of the best first-person shooters from a generation that had an absolute ton of first-person shooters. It’s just… different. It was a lot more linear than its predecessor, in a way that made it feel more like a casual console shooter than the pseudo open world sandbox of madness that was its predecessor. It also featured less detailed visuals in order to properly run on consoles, so at the time, it felt like a setback. Nowadays, we can enjoy it for what it was: being different.

On the other hand, Crysis 3 felt like the perfect balance between the first game’s open maps and the second game’s utter linearity. It also introduced players to a compound bow, which might sound ridiculous in theory, but ended up being a game changer when you add up the fact you’re a superpowered soldier with an invisibility cloak and a Black Panther-esque impact shield.

Yeah yeah, the games are good and all, but I know what you’re here for. You want to know if these games run well on the Switch. You want to know if they are as good as GRID and The Witcher 3, and not as bad as The Outer Worlds or Ark: Survival Evolved. Thankfully, they are good ports. Impossibly good ports. They might actually run even better than the first Crysis does on the Switch, not only due to the extended development time, but also the fact the smaller levels require less memory and horsepower in order to be properly rendered. Remember, while Crysis was made with impossibly expensive PCs in mind, Crysis 2 and 3 were made with consoles in mind. Consoles that are less modern than the Switch, as underpowered as this system might be.

You’re still just getting 30fps and a reduced and mostly dynamic resolution, but it looks really good on a small screen, and shockingly enough, not bad at all on a big TV. I played both games in both portable and docked modes, in order to take advantage of a brand new Pro Controller, and was impressed with how good they looked, despite the obvious setbacks. Crysis 3 impressed me even more in particular. Right from the get-go, the game wowed me with its stable performance, all while I was fighting hordes of enemies under a ton of rain. In no moment the game felt like I was playing a PS4 game on a PC with low specs. It felt slightly better than the Xbox 360 and PS3 ports, albeit with a few framerate hiccups here and there.

Even the sound department, which sounded extremely compressed in the first Crysis remaster last year (it has been mitigated ever since with patches), has been improved. Between the excellent Hans Zimmer tunes from Crysis 2 to the quality voice acting found in Crysis 3, the Switch version of the Crysis Remastered Trilogy delivers in a way very few games have managed to with the system’s sound capabilities. I’m not saying it’s Metroid Dread levels of immersive, but it’s still pretty good, especially for a third party title.

You all wanted to know if all three Crysis games run well on the Switch, or if they would just end up being more novelty ports meant to appease to those who just want to grab demanding Switch ports for the sake of it. Crysis Remastered Trilogy is actually pretty good on a system that, for all intents and purposes, should not have been able to run these titles in the first place. This is not just a title aimed at that specific novelty demographic. If you’re an FPS fan looking for something to play on your Switch, and you simply cannot wait until 2075 for the release of Metroid Prime 4, this collection offers a tremendous amount of bang for your buck.

 

Graphics: 9.0 Considering all the setbacks imposed by the Switch’s hardware, those games look remarkably sharp on the system, both in docked and portable modes. Crysis 3 might be one of the best looking games on the platform in general.	Gameplay: 8.0 Crysis still suffers from some framerate and resolution issues which affect its gameplay. Crysis 2 and 3 suffer from less gameplay issues due to their slightly better performance and more linear nature. Also, using the bow with gyro controls is just delicious.
Sound: 8.5 Fixed compression issues in the first Crysis, coupled with an excellent score in Crysis 2 and above average voice acting in Crysis 3.	Fun Factor: 8.5 Three of the best shooters of all time in surprisingly competent conditions on-the-go. Crysis Remastered Trilogy shouldn’t exist on the Switch, but here we are.
Final Verdict: 8.5

Crysis Remastered Trilogy is available now on PS4, Xbox One, PC, and Switch.

Reviewed on Switch.

A copy of Crysis Remastered Trilogy was provided by the publisher.