Crysis 3

Platform: PS3

Genre: First person shooter with a sci-fi premise.

Setting:

Like Crysis 2, you're in New York City, which is in lockdown mode. The year is 2047, 24 years after Crysis 2.

Story:

Since this is final instalment of the Crysis series, it's obviously the conclusion of the human Nanosuit soldiers' war against the technologically advanced alien Ceph occupiers and the human Crynet organisation, which seeks to rule the Earth with absolute power. Nanosuits are technologically advanced suits which grant the wearer advantages in combat, like temporary invisibility, brute strength and other things of a similar nature.

Graphics:

* The usual high, Crysis series standard, but, on PS3, without the "Wow!" factor that I felt when first playing "Uncharted 2". Maybe "It's so good that you don't even notice it!"?

* Character models look excellent in the cutscenes.

* Illusion of wide open spaces in New York.

Audio:

B grade dialogue at times, e.g. Psycho's comments.

Good about the game:

* Unlike Crysis 2, this has replay value and I was actually interested in chasing trophies...using or upgrading the Nanosuit!

* The AI has improved over the comically bad at times implementation in Crysis 2. E.g. the CELL AI are in some ways smarter than they were in Crysis 2 and at least there aren't the glitches that the previous game had, either...well, there was just one Ceph which tried to walk through a blocked door continuously...maybe the developers put that in for people who wanted a bit of Crysis 2 nostalgia thrown in?

* The Ceph don't really work together to defeat you, which is a blessing, as on the harder difficulties I'd personally find it extremely challenging and frustrating if they did.

* Story information is provided by data which you can choose to read or listen (good) to but sometimes it's not quick enough to open and you can find yourself not being sure on how to find it again via the menu (bad).

Misjudgements in the game:

* 3 button presses to start the game! I think that you have to press a button which then brings up this sequence: "Press Start to begin", with the next option being "Resume game".

* No "Save" option for the game (it autosaves at checkpoints) and...sometimes you don't trust the game!

* Opaque on how to achieve Secondary Objective in the "Gods and monsters" section, as far as the cooling towers requirement went. There was nothing on the HUD to indicate where to go or what to do on that front.

* It could have been signalled better on how to progress at times. E.g. even though I had acquired the weapon to attack a communications tower, it wasn't obvious to me that I had everything that I needed and what I should do next...so I felt that I had to lookup up a video online which showed you what to do.

* For some reason the Ceph Stalkers attack you even when you are in stealth mode.

* The Alpha Ceph battle gets tedious with all the reloading of autosaves that I found myself doing (due to dying) but fortunately the game does enough checkpoint saves to prevent it from becoming an intolerable imposition on the poor player. I thought I'd need to look at an online video to help me progress past this section but fortunately I didn't need to do that. I think that my note on this section says that an object which provides you with power-ups necessary to progress past this section are hard to see.

Bad about the game:

* Glitched trophies. I didn't get the trophy for having all weapons and attachments. Even though I'm sure I satisfied the requirements for this trophy, it seems that there is some (unmentioned) method of confirming that you have the weapon attachment which you do in fact have. Extremely irritating. Presumably I'd have to replay the game from scratch (no saved progress) in order to do this...and only by slavishly following an online video on how to do this "properly"...i.e. watching the ENTIRE game on video and following it PRECISELY. Absolutely pathetic. It's the worst kind of grinding, scavenger hunt which games can employ.

* Feeling that I needed to look up videos online on how to progress at some points. E.g. for killing the Ceph Mastermind. Also, I need to consult a video to get to the Control Tower...twice!

* Interminable VTOL sequence (a flying gunship)...it gets frustrating trying to progress to the next stage of the game when you keep dying in it! I.e. some more checkpoints in this sequence would have been appreciated.

* Annoying hack at the part to do with the Nexus (for the turrets, I think)...I found it impossible.

General observations:

Initially I found the controls daunting and wondered if they were different to the previous games, but I must have come to terms with them anyway (I'm writing this review almost a year after I completed the game).

After my negative review of Crysis 2, it was pleasing that the final game in this series marks the high point of this series. Unlike Crysis 2, with it's interminable length, Crysis 3 encourages replays due to its much shorter running time (hmm...but actually...looking at my trophies for these two games, it seems that I completed Crysis 2 quicker than I did Crysis 3...but maybe I put more hours into the former?). In any case, Crysis 2 FELT interminable, which is my complaint). Also, I could be bothered going after trophies in Crysis 3, unlike for Crysis 2, which were of a "Who cares?" variety.

Miscellaneous:

* An in game NPC's ID card expires in 2099...about 52 years from the game's present!

* Easter egg after the end credits.

I think that Crysis 3 is more like an Expansion Pack for Crysis 2. Crysis 3 continues the story, the game is not too long, that made me quite sad, because I really enjoyed it. Graphics look quite better, the textures are a lot better and the world/level design is purely amazing. The game-play is good, not too much changed from Crysis 2. The Predator Bow is a really nice weapon to use in game. The multi-player is not too good in my opinion. Most game modes are really boring, I just can't play with these weapons in the beginning too well. The only thing I really enjoy in multi-player is Hunter Mode. Hunter Mode is really nice, even if it's a bit annoying that most survivors camp and don't move for the rest of the round. Now, this is quite bad if you have a DX10 graphics card. The game supports only DX11 graphics card. Most recent graphics cards have DX11 though.. The last thing that isn't too good is the lag... I like the game overall. 9/10.

For a game that has set a standard in the gaming industry, Crysis 3 doesn't fail to deliver what it is meant to deliver- Mesmerizing visuals, great game play and excellent sound track.

But there is a sting in the tail! If your Graphics card doesn't support DX11 then you'll be disappointed because Crysis 3 only works with DX11 enabled devices.. The developers could have at least provided means for it to work on existing Graphic cards(maybe they are already working on a patch or something).

So, on a positive note, I would like to say that Crysis 3 has been an affair to remember and it just gets better and better..

9/10

Finally, FINALLY!!, I was able to play this game, thanks to my new GPU (GTX 970). Being a huge fan of the series, the wait was definitely excruciating but in the end, worth it. I didn't wanna play a Crytek game on low-medium settings since everyone knows they're famous for graphics.

Story: The third and last part in the Crysis trilogy did some things right, and some things wrong. Having Prophet as the protagonist now instead of Alcatraz (I didn't like this switch at first), the game managed to make you care for your player, which otherwise wouldn't have been possible if your hero doesn't say a single word. His character is further developed. Also, side characters this time at least had better voice acting than the previous part and hence, better singleplayer experience. The alien story really interested me and the stuff shown was definitely good. Got a good conclusion also. It is just a shame that they didn't expand in this area more as there was definitely a lot of potential.

I didn't like the initial focus on Cell. This series has always been good when they focused on aliens, and stuttered when focused on human enemies. Also, Crytek doesn't know how to make a trilogy. There is hardly an reference or mention of characters from previous two parts, you get a disjointed feeling, same thing happened in Crysis 2.

Gameplay: Most refined gameplay in the trilogy. The addition of bow was great. It made you really try out the stealth option and made you feel like a silent Predator. Also, thankfully, they removed the usage of suit energy during sprinting mechanism from Crysis 2, it really annoyed me. But still no Maximum speed like the first part . Being able to use alien weaponry was another great addition.

Levels felt like a mix of both previous part. Crysis 1 had big open world jungle levels while Crysis 2 had smaller city levels, they mixed it them up in this part. It worked sometimes, and when it didn't worked, it added pacing issues. There were times where I was like "This is getting boring".

Graphics: Graphics are Crytek's specialty and they have reclaimed the graphical throne. This is without a doubt THE BEST LOOKING GAME I have ever played. When you turn up all the settings, your eyes melt due to the graphical fidelity of the game. The lighting, the textures, the facial detail, the grass, yes even the grass was epic, best darn grass I have ever seen in a game, truly next gen stuff. All this eye candy does have a cost, game is really heavy on highest settings. While my FPS kept above 60 FPS, it did dip to 40s in those grassy levels, but I'm not complaining. Unlike other lame ports or recent games which have inflated requirements, this game actually justifies its heaviness.

Sound: Loved the sound effects. Nice detailed effects of everything around you. No Hans Zimmer was a downer though. Even though the soundtrack was still pretty good with some great pieces in it, there wasn't something quite like the main them of Crysis 2.

Overall: I have mostly heard average to mediocre things about this game from people ever since its release. After finally playing it, I don't get the hate. I love this series and even though this was the weakest part in the trilogy, it was still great.

8.3/10

I remember being so excited for Crysis 2, I had high hopes for it, I was not disappointed. I would go as far to say it is the most visually impressive game I have ever played. The campaign was pretty long, which was appreciated. The multi-player was horrible, I played it for 2 hours, and it had some of the worst hit detection and lag ever, well Black ops 2 takes that place now. The single player was where it was at, it was well worth the price tag. But unfortunately this game didn't have what made Crysis 2 great, lets get into that.

The Game: The previous instalment took at least 10 or so hours to complete, and I enjoyed every moment of it. This game is much shorter and was rather boring. It is great to see New York turned into a jungle,, but other than that the game visuals haven't improved, at least on the PS3. The first mission of this game ran at a outstanding 10 frames per second, it worried me into thinking the whole game was going to be like that, luckily it didn't. The game gives you much more power than before, but it is damper-ed by enemies that can see you in the long grass in a darker area, how on earth could they see you there, that was pretty annoying. The only notable musical score is in the main title screen, but it is a very short song, I had to go on you tube to find a longer edit of the song. The campaign is no-where near as good as it was in Crysis 2.

The multi-player: This shouldn't take long. It sucks, the closet thing I compare it to is Killzone 3, but Killzone 3 is miles better than this. I was looking forward to this, Call of Duty and Battlefield drive me insane, I needed something new. The character movements are flawless, I'll give them that. I am around level ten, so I got crap for perks and weapons, so I just get hammered on. The game is fun when invisibility is not encountered. Invisibility ruins the whole experience, they need to get a new play-list without it, just like Elpresador said. This games multi-player is extremely boring, at least in TDM, you spend more time searching than you do fighting. I would play different games modes, but there only seems to be 700 people on at any given time. It lacks staying power, unlike the other three game series I mentioned.

Don't I feel like an idiot, forget some of the stuff I just said, TDM sucks and I realize that. The Crash site game mode is where it's at, now stealth and armour are pivotal to the game play. I just played four matches of it and got MVP for points all four times, I love it. If you like objective game modes I recommend this. Too bad it is ruined by loser k/d chumps that camp the objective, Aaahhh.... this game sucks, real bad.

I would recommend renting it first, just in case.