Watch Crysis Remastered attempt to redeem its graphics ahead of new September 18th release

When a trailer for Crysis Remastered leaked online in July, fans criticized the game’s graphics for looking far too much like the original’s from over 10 years ago. But today, Crytek released a new trailer that shows drastic improvements to the game’s visuals, and it announced the remaster will be coming to multiple platforms next month.

Crysis Remastered will now launch on the PS4, Xbox One, and Epic Games Store on September 18th for $30. In July, following backlash from fans, Crytek announced that it would delay these versions of the game by several weeks. Crytek acknowledged the leaked trailer in its delay announcement and promised to use the extra time “to get Crysis Remastered up to the PC- and console-breaking standard you’ve come to expect from a Crysis game.”

The latest trailer shows a side-by-side comparison of the remastered version and the 2007 original. The remaster’s new graphics look beautiful so far: there are reflections in the water, and there’s more detail and color in some of the lush areas in the game to make it less dark and gritty. The trailer also shows off some of the remaster’s new features, including better lighting effects, ray tracing, and more detail in the textures with up to 8K resolution. While I felt the trailer was too short, it does look promising. I won’t be satisfied until I see how it runs on my PC, though.

Crysis originally launched in 2007 on PC, PS3, and Xbox 360. Following its release, the game was praised for its graphical fidelity. Even 10 years later, the game’s overly demanding hardware requirement remains a meme in the gaming community and a benchmark for gamers looking to see how powerful their PC builds are.

Crysis Remastered launched on the Switch in July. (Shockingly, yes, Nintendo’s hybrid gaming system can, in fact, run Crysis.) While it certainly will not wow anybody in terms of visuals, I was impressed that Crytek managed to create a version on a console with weaker hardware compared to its competitors. Still, there are a few trade-offs as Digital Foundry pointed out, like occasional drops in resolution to 540p or lower, plus detail on materials and surfaces have been dialed back.