Earlier this year it was officially announced that a remaster of the Crysis trilogy was on its way. With new Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) listings for Crysis 2 Remastered and 3 Remastered, some of their potential changes may have been revealed.
The original Crysis, released in 2007, was a PC exclusive game that demanded very strong (if not, impossible) gaming rigs for its time if players wanted to experience the game in its fullest fidelity. In the following years the game would be ported to the Xbox 360 and PS3, as well as receive sequels in Crysis 2 and Crysis 3 in 2011 and 2013 respectively. A decade after this trilogy's run, PC and console hardware are much stronger than they were then, making it the perfect time for the series to be revisited. Last year Crytek released the less than stellar Crysis Remastered, that the remasters of 2 and 3 will be joining.
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Recently, the ESRB listings for Crysis 2 Remastered and 3 Remastered were updated with information about their content. Like the original titles, the Remastered games are rated "M" for ages 17 and older, but for Crysis 2 specifically, the rationale is slightly different. The listing for the original 2011 game includes "Partial Nudity" as some of its explicit content, but this is totally absent from the upcoming Remastered listing. Recent remasters like Mass Effect Legendary Edition made many changes to improve on the original games, and it seems that the remaster of Crysis 2 will be tweaking its content as well.
Interestingly, comparing the "Rating Summary" of both titles offers a glimpse at the modifications the remaster is making, as far as the "Partial Nudity" is concerned. In the "Rating Summary" of Crysis 2, the author describes, "In one sequence, players' character encounters cages filled with human corpses (some with exposed buttocks)." This is no where to be found in the "Rating Summary" of 2 Remastered, indicating that Crytek have likely alterred the models of this scene to be clothed. ESRB ratings can sometimes be too high, and they can also be too low, but it seems likie the nudity of the game is almost a nonfactor as the overall rating of the game did not change.
Considering the lukewarm reaction to the first Crysis remaster, hopefully Crytek has taken what it learned from that game and worked to make the remasters of 2 and 3 that much better. As some of the greatest single player games that everyone forgot about, this trilogy should be a great way for original fans and newcomers alike to experience these excellent games. Slight modifications like alterring nudity are not a big deal as long as the changes don't further disrupt the game's themes or style. Fingers crossed Crytek can get the job done.
Crysis Remaster Trilogy is planned to release this Fall for PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
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