A fan-favorite franchise may finally be making a triumphant return.Crysishas awakened from its slumber, as the officialCrysisTwitter pagetweeted out for the first time in over four years.
Fans of the franchise immediately started speculating as to what the cryptic “RECEIVING DATA” tweet means for the future ofCrysis.The last game in the franchise was released in 2013, so any additional wait seems unbearable.
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Thankfully, for the sake of the fans, the wait for another tweet was significantly less than four years, as the very next day theCrysisTwitter page tweeted out “Hey Nomad, you’re still with us?” Nomad was the protagonist of the originalCrysisgame, which points heavily to the idea that the project that is in the works is tied to that game.
Quick History Lesson of the Crysis Games
The originalCrysiswas released in 2007, and the protagonist is the aforementioned Jake “Nomad” Dunn. The game used CryEngine 2 and was a truly technically impressive titles at the time. InCrysis 2, players control James “Alcatraz” Rodriguez.Crysis 2was released in 2011 and used CryEngine 3, again blowing away players with its visuals.Crysis 3is the most recent release in the series, launching in 2013. Major Laurence “Prophet” Barnes is the protagonist in this game, and again the title uses CryEngine 3.
Crytek, a company that was in major financial troublesoon after the launch ofCrysis 3, developed the three mainline Crysis games that were all available for the PC, Xbox 360, and PS3.Crysis Warheadis the only other video game in the series. The title was developed by Crytek Budapest and was a standalone expansion available only for PC.
There are a lot of contradictory pieces of information about the whereabouts of Nomad within theCrysisuniverse. At the very climax of the originalCrysis, Nomad and his surviving squadmates received a transmission from Prophet, who they are surprised to hear is alive. So they set off to go find him. From that point on, Nomad is never playable again or seen from in the other mainlineCrysisgames until a secret moment inCrysis 3.
WhileCrysisdoesn’t make the short list ofbest comic books based on video games, the series does have a comic book that Nomad makes an appearance in. Within that comic, Nomad follows the transmission to find and save Prophet. Multiple times he puts the mission first and comes out severely wounded on the other side, and by the end of it, it seems as if he sacrifices himself by jumping in front of a rocket that would have surely killed Prophet and another character from the series, Psycho. So following that logic, Nomad is dead.
However, once players have collected all of the data pads inCrysis 3,a new file is unlocked and it notes that Nomad is actually alive. He is being hunted down by someone named Lockhart.
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So if the detective hat is on when looking at the “Hey Nomad, you’re still with us?” tweet, a couple different options become clear, but it totally depends on what angle the officialCrysisTwitter page is coming from. When looking at the tweet from the angle of the story ofCrysis, it could be that the tweet is asking if Nomad is still alive, andCrysis 4will follow the story of Nomad being hunted down by Lockhart, similar to how theMasterchief was hunted down by Locke inHalo 5. Or the tweet could be coming from the angle of social media alone, and this could be looking back at Nomad in his original game, asking if fans still remember Nomad, and this new title will harken back to the originalCrysis.
Crysis Remake vs. Crysis 4
The originalCrysiswas released back in 2007, meaning it’s been 13 years. The game could certainly use a fresh coat of paint and some next-gen polish on the PS5 and Xbox Series X in just a few months. Remakes recently have gone well beyond just cleaning up the rough edges, however, as a game like theResident Evil 3 Remakereviewed well, as did theResident Evil 2 Remakebefore it.Final Fantasy 7 Remakealso just launched to astounding praise, as fans have enjoyed replaying a game from their childhood with all new bells and whistles.Crysisseems like a series that deserves this type of love as well, and it’ll be interesting to see what it does with next-gen tech.
Crysisis nowhere near as old as these titles, but it’s entirely possible to overhaul or reboot the franchise in a way that keeps the core values of the series intact.Tomb Raidercelebrated its best selling game after rebooting, and although that much of an overhaul may not be needed, something similar could be wise. The events of the originalCrysistook place in 2020, so if aCrysisremake were to launch this year, it would certainly have a “things coming full circle” type feel.
IfCrysis 4were to be released today, some newer fans may be too overwhelmed to jump into the franchise. If Crytek was in so much financial trouble soon after the launch ofCrysis 3, one would assume that the franchise itself wasn’t overly successful, at least not enough to keep the company afloat. Sometimes a new starting point is the perfect place for old and new fans to jump in and enjoy the awesome features of a franchise. In the case of theCrysisseries,the Nanosuit and one of thecoolest bows in gaming.
Crysis 4is certainly still on the table, however. Crytek’s issues as a company cannot be put onCrysisalone by any means, andCrysishas had an awesome story to tell thus far. Starting over from scratch in some ways would be a shame. It’s also possible for the next game to break some of the rules in terms of the name of the game. It could be simply namedCrysisagain, as a fresh start for the franchise but still be the fourth in chronological order for the story of the game. TheGod of Warseries was seeing a downfall in popularity once, but with themassive success of the newGod of War, it saw both a chronological story continuation and a reboot of the franchise with intelligent gameplay changes.
The idea of Nomad escaping from some bounty hunter with a Nanosuit named Lockhart sounds super intriguing. Characters like Nomad, Alcatraz, and Prophet deserve their stories to not be erased completely the way a total reboot might do. Meanwhile, many people who haven’t had a chance to play the first three games might not even fully understand what is going on ifCrysis 4simply jumped in right whereCrysis 3left off. So unless the first three games were made available in some trilogy pack, ala the way Nintendo fans have been asking for withMetroid Prime Trilogyon the Switch, it could be confusing.
Many believe that aremaster forCrysisseems imminent, and could be available soon, even for the PS4 and Xbox One. One of the real possibilities is that this next game will be a remaster, and not a remake/reboot or a fourth game in the franchise, meaning the originalCrysiswill be re-released but with HD enhancements and nothing else. Some fans will still appreciate this, but it would probably be the option that would excite them the least.
There are polls online at the time of writing that are split directly down the middle among theCrysisfaithful, 50/50 between a remake andCrysis 4. But after so many years of waiting, fans are just excited to finally be getting news of a newCrysisgame.
