Crysis 2 Remastered first look: what to expect from Crytek's next game

Set for release in the Autumn, Crysis 2 and Crysis 3 Remastered are heading for current-gen and last-gen PlayStation and Xbox consoles and Nintendo Switch and today we can show you the first footage of Crysis 2 running on PlayStation 5. It’s part and parcel of a developer interview we put together on a recent visit to Crytek’s Frankfurt HQ, where we spoke to project lead Steffan Halbig and lead artist, Marcel Schaika. The full interview is embedded below, where we talk about the successes and failures of the Crysis Remastered project and the approach going forward in completing the trilogy.

In terms of what we can show you today, Crysis 2 running on PlayStation 5 is fundamentally a cross-generational project – you’re seeing the PS4 Pro codebase running on Sony’s latest machine. It’s back-compat plus then, with Crytek adopting a similar approach on Xbox Series consoles. As you’ll see from the debug info in the top-right of the screen, Crysis 2 Remastered runs at 1440p native resolution and what we’ve seen so far shows a very close lock to 60 frames per second. Expect a higher resolution on Xbox Series X.

The actual development process itself has evolved significantly since Crytek’s partnership with Saber Interactive on the first Crysis. While Saber remains on point, Crytek itself has deployed more of its internal staff to guide development, to better realise the potential of the project. And in actual fact, Digital Foundry itself has taken a look at early builds and offered feedback (unpaid, to be clear). Ultimately, it’s all about ensuring that the remasters are the best that they can be within the budgetary scope of the project – which explains why there is no native PS5 or Xbox Series app.

In terms of the production, we should be seeing a significantly smoother process this time around. For the first Crysis, Crytek chose to enhance the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions as opposed to the PC original, meaning that a plethora of features found in the 2007 original were absent. Gradually, the missing content was restored to the game, but there’s still the sense that the game isn’t where it should be. For the last two chapters in the Crysis Trilogy, Crytek has access to much better PC versions, built on more modern CryEngines that support DX11 features. The baseline for Crysis 2 is the DX11 code then, so key features such as tessellation do appear in the remaster – but the team has gone beyond that.