Crysis 3 Review
Game Emblems
The Good
The Bad
Crysis 3 delivers a visual feast; it's just, too bad, that the game doesn't deliver at all.
Its attractive visuals make Crysis 3 a pleasure to look at, and the game is plenty of fun, though not up to the high standards of its forebears.
The Good
- Beautiful visuals that present a unique mix of the natural and the industrial
- Each weapon, including the new bow, is a pleasure to shoot
- Open levels and nanosuit powers provide combat flexibility
- Entertaining multiplayer modes.
The Bad
- Remarkably easy, all the way to the end
- Lacks the standout battles of earlier games in the series
- AI is easily exploited.
There are aliens out there in the chin-high foliage. You hear the rustling and glimpse a black carapace between blades of grass, but you can't tell if you're being stalked by a single grotesque beast, or a horde of them. You sprint through the derelict trainyard, surrounded by lush overgrowth and rusted railroad cars, then vault to the top of a car to get a better view of your surroundings. A disgusting alien leaps upon the car as well--and you gun him down with your electricity-infused submachine gun. The creature erupts in goo, and you scan the yard, looking for more telltale signs of crazed attackers.
It's a tense sequence in a great-looking first-person shooter. Crysis 2 left behind the original game's literal jungle for one of the urban type. Crysis 3 melds the two, returning you to a New York City where destruction and decay have been softened by overbearing greenery. The private military company known has CELL has erected a dome over the city, turning the crumbling metropolis into a gargantuan greenhouse in which trees take root in building foundations and rise through their stairwells towards the sky. Like its predecessors, this sequel aims for realism--or at least, as much realism as can be expected for a game featuring high-tech nanosuits and flame-spewing extraterrestrial walkers. This mix of nature and destruction makes Crysis 3 look striking; you couldn't accuse its makers of sacrificing artistic creativity in favor of technology.
The visuals may not sing as sweetly on the Xbox 360 as they do on the PC, but it looks marvelous, regardless. The attention to detail is laudable, even in the character models, which is just as well, considering how often you get up close and personal with your co-stars. Only in a few select cases does the camera pull back and let you see player-character Prophet from a third-person view. This means that you always see supporting characters express their anger, fear, and distrust from Prophet's perspective, which magnifies the tension of various personal exchanges.
Indeed, Crysis 3 tells a much more personal story than the previous games, focusing on three main characters: Prophet; former Raptor Team comrade Psycho; and Claire, Psycho's girlfriend and communications expert for a group of freedom fighters seeking to take down CELL once and for all. CELL has ripped Psycho's nanosuit from his body--a painful process that has only fueled his abhorrence of them, and leaves Prophet as the sole "post-human warrior" left to fight. Claire doesn't trust Prophet, who sees him more as hardware than human, and for good reason: his nanosuit makes him increasingly prone to visions apparently originating from the grandaddy of ceph aliens known as the Alpha Ceph.
Prophet's connection to this being fuels much of the story, as does Psycho's seething desire for revenge over those that forced him to be simply human. There are a number of touching moments that spawn from rising tensions--a newfound emotional heft that the series never before portrayed. The final level, unfortunately, is problematic, because it leaves behind the game's make-your-own-fun structure and requires only a little stick maneuvering and a button press. But you can at least come to Crysis 3 with the comfort of knowing that the game brings the series' continuing story to an apparent close.
Happily, several hours of entertaining action precede this moment, and it's the game's futuristic bow that sometimes drives that entertainment. With it, you zoom in, pull back, and unleash silent fury on the human or alien grunt of choice. Firing standard arrows has just the right feel: you sense the weight of the pull and release, and feel the impact when the arrow reaches its mark.
As before, you can activate your nanosuit's cloak to hide in plain sight, which amplifies the feeling of being a bow-wielding predator in the urban wilds of New York. Special explosive arrows and those that electrify liquid can also be a blast to play with, just for the kick of finding new ways to make CELL soldiers die horrible deaths. The bow's downside is that combined with cloaking, it makes the game too easy; you can annihilate a huge number of foes this way without breaking a sweat or fearing the consequences of being caught. It doesn't help matters that Crysis 3's soldiers and aliens are not the intelligent type. While they're not the dunderheads they could be in Crysis 2, enemies take no notice of arrows that land right next to them, run into obstacles and just keep trying to run, and sometimes ignore you even when you're in plain sight.
You can boost the level of challenge by choosing higher difficulties, and if you find that the cloak-and-arrow method is too exploitative, you can go in guns blazing. Even so, Crysis 3's battles lack the grandness of its predecessors'. Crysis Warhead's raging exosuit battle and Crysis 2's Grand Central Station pinger encounter were outstanding, and superior to any of Crysis 3's central battles. Crysis 3's action is still fun, but not as thrilling, and its two primary boss battles are easily won, requiring little in the way of tactics. Certain stretches do a great job of drawing you into the world, flooding your vision with beautiful collages juxtaposing nature's bucolic touch, the remnants of humanity's metal-and-stone triumphs, and fearsome alien technology. But the tension such exploration creates is not always relieved by explosive battle.
By
Kevin VanOrd, Senior Editor
Kevin VanOrd is a lifelong RPG lover and violin player. When he isn't busy building PCs and composing symphonies, he watches American Dad reruns with his fat cat, Ollie.
83 comments
I didn't want to play another Crysis game after I had to call a 1800 number for the privilege of installing my game a *gasp* 6th time!
I can't believe the guy from Crytek made that statement about graphics driving gameplay after a reveiw like this. Someone might want to tell him his games are boring.
Crysis & Crysis Warhead>Crysis 2>Crysis 3. It's really sad but true that Crysis 3 is a complete nonsense.
I got the first two free on playstation plus, can hold out for this one too by the sounds of it.
5 Like Already found this game in the bargain bin, and boy, it deserves to stay there. this game sucked. I liked the story and levels in Crysis 2 but here, little new content is added. Level design is grand but dull. Too many dark levels. The story was even little intriguing which is why i bought the game to continue on from C2. AI was laughable..and so forth.
Easy forgettable turd of a game.. Should have bought Dead Space 3 istead..
1 Like @Sindroid would have been the same deal, man; dead space 3 was nowhere near as good as 2 or 1
1 Like Finally got around to playing some of this and it really blows. I put up with the Crysis 2 because it tried some new things even though it moved away from the majority of stuff that made Crysis 1 and Warhead so great, but this game is is just not fun. At one point you are put inside a giant dome with a huge tower locking on and shooting missiles at you which forces you to play one way and one way only...by using invisibility to move from location to location. If it was Crysis 1, you would have so many different options. The linearity is even worse than C2. Crytek seems to believe that shoving us in a hamster cage with some pretty grass somehow makes for good gameplay, well...it doesn't. This series could have turned in to something special, instead it's like dating a model; looks great but hollow inside. Oh and also...BOW AND ARROWS SUCK.
Isn't that interesting they tell us there wouldn't be used game support yet they don't tell us why? I'll tell you why - they don't want to tell the truth about the whole system.
3 Like Wow, I really like this game! It's great. It's much better than two, and I'm finding everything very interesting, whether that be the way it wraps some of the story from the original to now, or simply going through the environments looking around; it's absolutely wonderful.
I think the story's actually quite intriguing, and there are some heartfelt moments. There's a lot of great collectibles, somewhat like Dead Space's where you can either listen or read them which gives you some insight of what's been happening to the world around you and the characters you remember from the past, but aren't present anymore.
I really love how they talk about where the Ceph is from; it's minor, but it's the kind of sci-fi I like. I don't think this game being short is a problem; it isn't really even short, it's just short compared to the first two, with replay ability. I am just really surprised at how much I like it.
I loved the original, and while Crysis 2 had some great aspects, I was highly disappointed in it; it was almost technically broken in many areas which made it hard to enjoy it; this game is different. The only problems so far, on 360, is that sound cuts out randomly, and later in the game, the red sights on your weapons don't load in for some reason at times.
The A.I. aren't brilliant, but they're more competent than they were in two, and their quips are great. There's some clipping in scripted moments that I've only seen when I played it, so it may not effect everyone, but Psycho was standing inside of something while his body contorted because of it.
And the final thing is that there was a moment when my brother was playing that the game wouldn't let him progress because a button prompt wouldn't pop up for him to put down a cat-walk. Other than that, so far I think it's a really great game, and I recommend any fan should get it.
It has enough difference to shooters to feel somewhat fresh. Action is fun, but I also just love exploring the environments for stuff, it's great. Visually, both technical and aesthetically it's wondrous, with great sound effects to back it up. A lot of fun. I can't wait for them to put out some kind of enhanced trilogy, maybe even with Warhead on next-gen.
1 Like Oh, and I think while this game is easy, it was far easier to exploit A.I. in two, and easier to just sneak past everyone, which made it boring, but you'll have the desire to fight in this instead of just running past.
for me crysis 3 is a reskined cryis 2. and even the reskin is apparent i am quite disappointed in crytek. i dont think it takes the crysis franchise anywhere but down
This game has been given a 7.5 rating, but throughout the review they keep comparing it to the past games in the series, but I am quite sure that they gave Call of Duty Black Ops 2 an 8.0 rating while saying that BLOPS 2 is good 'if NOT compared to other games in the series' (quote is not word for word, merely paraphrasing). Surely they should treat other game series in a similar fashion?
KEVIN!!! what have you done?? now the dregs of humanity will scorn you and Gamespot for many ages to come...although.. maybe i can eat some toast WITH butter and that will calm my jangled nerves down
Played Crisis 2. Beat it. Mildly enjoyed it although I grew tired of the look of the enemies and the overall gameplay. I see Vanord managed to enjoy this and he doesn't like anything. This 3rd outing looks nice but I am passing and waiting for Gears Judgement. Oh Yeah!
I guess I go play # 2 now. Regardless of the score, the review has me very interested to get back into Crysis. Looking forward to picking this one up soon....sorry back log of games....I got a couple to add to the front of the line.
1 Like Game is not too easy, AI is really bad. One of the best fps games out there, but also the worst Crysis game. 7.5 compared to other Crysis games, 8.0 or 8.5 compared to other FPS games. That's my opinion about the game.
2 Like I lost interest in every Crysis game after the first, once you couldn't switch between all 4 armour modes it just got kinda boring. 2 and 3 can't beat the fun you could have in the first by quickly switching between modes.
Crysis 3 was awesome and reminded me a lot more of the original Crysis, but the campaign should have been at least twice as long. There's only three missions where you're fighting CELL, which is always my favorite part to play in the Crysis games (fighting humans rather than the Ceph). Other than that, it's visually amazing, gameplay is great, and story is well written and emotional. I hope there will be some sort of expansion like Crysis Warhead that will add content to the campaign.
Was the hype too low for a 9,0? That's what you get for spending millions on the game and not on merchandising... NaughtyDog and Ubisoft know it better.
you know , my opinion is that crysis is better than crysis2
and crysis2 is better than CRYSIS3.
all that is done in crysis3 is:
1.a huge Graphic
2.removing leaning from the cover
3.removing a brief compare between the weapon in your hand and the one on the ground
4.adding a bow (that made the Crysis3 too easy)
5.removing the ability to have a jaw and a C4 (i think was the name) at the same time (together)
6 Like If this game is too easy on the most difficult settings, you probably play too many shooters. Diversify, people! If you've finished Dark Souls, Crysis 2, FTL, Hitman: Absolution, The Witcher 2, and XCom on the hardest settings, then you truly are a "veteran gamer," and guess what?
Nobody cares.
@v1c3er @sheatan66 couldnt agree more, the only reason i put games on the difficulty above normal is because i see fun in the challenge. thats all.
1 Like Crysis 2 and the original was far the best. This looks interesting. Im not good at stealth thoe XD
1 Like They need to go back to a more nature oriented setting, the beach/jungle in Crysis 1 was just gorgeous and a real pleasure to play in.
@IplayEA @AlClemist Yeah, and it's back in three mixed with the Crysis 2 city setting, but it's fantastic; birds chirping with lush areas. It's beautiful.
1 Like To me, the Crysis series is all about graphics. Everything else you can get better from other games. Crysis 1 was really impressive at that time though.
2 Like @chechak7 Even the hardest setting really isn't that hard for veteran gamers. Cloak + bow is ridonculous.
@sheatan66 @Atheosis @chechak7 You are right about posing a limit on yourself, but the bow being overpowered is still something worth brining up in a review.
1 Like About half-way through the campaign and I've got to say Van Ord was a bit harsh. It's easily as good as the earlier entries in the franchise.
1 Like People get way too hung up on the score of these reviews... don't worry too much about the number, it's the words that are important.
There are a lot of worthwhile games that get a 7, or God forbid, even a 6.
@Duke_51 Gamespot reviews are a bit daft tbh. Superpower 2 is probably the best political sim out there (there aren't many out there) yet on this website one of the tags for the game is 'crap'
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This review one of the few that I agree with,is right on the money.The menu of upgrading the nano suit is complicated for no reason at all,the weapon selection has a fault concerning the famous bow,WHY? Not choose it from the weapon's button as it assigned somewhere else ,any these are minor faults in front of such great graphics to detail as of phyco why have him around without firing a single shot? Total senseless . BUT it deserves a better rating than that stupid junk MGS REVENGE. OR is it because KONAMI is behind that stupid game that GS gave such a high rating? In my opinion that's totally wrong.
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2 Like 7.5 from this reviewer, considering all the recent low scores he has been giving, and considering that he is mostly an RPG expert, means that Crysis 3 is an incredible game.
Before his followers start insulting me, please note I am not bashing this review, everyone is entitled to his/her opinions, I'm just explaining how I am interpreting this score , that's all.
1 Like @Alucard_Prime Kevin generally scores everything lower than you would expect unless it's a JRPG.
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@bunty_007 @Atheosis @Alucard_Prime I said as far as console goes, yes. It may deserve a 9.0 on PC, but not on 360 with the problems it has on it. Furthermore, do you think I care what the users opinion on here is? That's where I say 'buahahah'.
Honestly, the game's not really 'superb', it's great in a lot of places, such as the variety of gameplay options; the visuals (though more likely on PC than console) and roaming the world when you're doing it, but not after you're done with it.
2 Like @NTM23 @Atheosis @Alucard_Prime oh cmon dude far cry3 is last year's game of the year by users opinion... and u saying of 8.5 buahahah
1 Like @Atheosis @Alucard_Prime He gave Far Cry 3 a 9.0, I certainly wouldn't rate it that high. Maybe on PC, but I didn't play it on there; as far as console versions go, at most an 8.5.
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