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.

Beautiful violence. That is what Crysis really is.

It's the first Crysis game I've tried on a console instead of PC and I must say it looks beautiful.

Crysis was never just about graphics for me, but gameplay and story. Gameplay doesn't exactly change from Crysis 2, with few additions like the predator bow but the storyline is this iteration's strong point now it's more personal, quoting the game, "it's never been just about the suit", with a great memorable ending.

Level design is also a major improvement, with 7 beautiful and non-linear levels, which are larger than in Crysis 2, but (of course) smaller than in the original. As for multiplayer, it is quite engaging, and the Hunter mode is brilliant.

One big letdown is the game's length even with all the side missions and some datapad hunting, the slow and steady stealth playthrough took me only 7 hours 20 minutes. By the way, the datapads contain some very interesting background information with some plot base for possible future games.

To sum up, the overall impression is that the game is more of a standalone expansion like Warhead was to original Crysis, and not the actual third part of the trilogy, with its shortness and few gameplay changes. However, it's a damn good game, improving on Crysis 2 in everything but the game's length, and it's a damn good game overall. They called him Prophet. And I will remember him.

Crysis 3 is really a beautiful game. The visuals are just stunning. The textures have been improved to the max and the lighting is memorable. The AI is easy only on casual but Veteran is a perfect difficulty. Super Soldier and Post Human Warrior are INSANE. I do not know why some critics are saying that the AI is bad? That is just ridiculous.

Crysis 3 is a fantastic game. It really is.

For the best experience, get the PC version (if you have the right computer that is) but the console version is still good.

9/10

Crysis 3 (2013) is a direct sequel to the FPS Crysis 1 & 2 science fiction game series. It continues the series with its equally action packed story, picking up where the previous games left off.

Prophet is back, once again, this time trying to save NYC. The game has great, top-notch visuals and graphics, great, music and audio, excellent storytelling. It feels a bit redundant after the second game, taking place in the similar area, yet focusing on the aftermath.

"Prophet is forced to save New York City from CELL after the alien invasion in Crysis 2 (2011)."

Crysis 3 is a great addition to trilogy and well worth playing. The series is vastly underrated and overlooked, but is one the best Sci-Fi, FPS game series out there. The series is a masterpiece.

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

Crysis 3 plays almost exactly the same as its predecessor. Other than an upgraded graphics engine that still looks mind blowing on consoles to this day, it feels at times more like an expansion pack than a brand new game. But the gameplay from Crysis 2 was pretty solid, so that's not entirely a negative. It mixes the openness of the first game with the gameplay loop and aesthetic of the second game and it manages to work for the most part. The story is dumb as hell but it has cool concepts, and the alien invaders are still interesting but they're never explored to their full potential. As a third game, it does effectively "close the book" on the trilogy as a whole, which I appreciate since we will likely never get a fourth game and it would irritate me if it ended on a cliffhanger that'll never get resolved (Dead Space 3 DLC? Anyone?).