Electronic Art’s latest forge into the quest for graphical supremacy is here in the form of Crysis 3. After the scrutiny of ‘dumbing down’ Crysis 2 for console players, have EA and Crytek made the best of both worlds and managed to cater to the simultaneous demands of both console and PC players?

Story

Penned by Steven Hall, this promises to be a much more emotional and player focused story, with the spotlight centred upon the protagonist and his relationship with the cockney wise-cracker ‘Psycho’. I genuinely felt drawn into the story; as cheesy as it sounds, I strived forwards out of pure curiosity for the plot as opposed to the famed sandbox style of play on offer. The aforementioned Psycho steals the show here with his vastly superior voice acting and facial animations. In comparison, Prophet sounds wooden and forced, of course that could be related to his whole ‘situation’, but he just comes off as the less interesting character in the end.

Other NPC’s crop up during your travels and have both interesting and important roles to play. I would say that the most immersive parts of the campaign are not the more stealth orientated portions, but the general character progression of the NPC’s.

By simply completing the campaign you won’t be left wanting in regards to plot queries, yet you will get more out of it if you hunt down and scavenge some of the ‘hidden’ audio diaries. Essentially, it’s worth doing if you can be bothered!

Single Player

For most, this will be the first port of call for players and rightly so! The tutorial is largely useless unless you have never touched a first person shooter in your life, it will explain rudimentary basics such as jumping and how to aim down sights. If anything, it’s an anti-climax before you’ve started! What the tutorial did not make clear is that when you start, essentially the game is entirely dependant upon the players individual style. Running around with guns blazing and armour mode on, shrugging off enemy fire as if it were popcorn feels empowering. Is it as satisfying as stealth killing with a compound bow followed by sneaking and snapping in the cover of darkness and cloak? You decide!

It can be a daunting prospect to suddenly be thrust into a cramped room with everything unlocked from the start. Admittedly, I don’t appreciate being shoehorned and handheld throughout, but a more structured approach to the opening 15 minutes would also have been nice.

Given the sandbox nature, not much can be said about my play style that can relate to yours, except I would say that I played a little too cautiously. I attempted to stealth kill approximately every single hapless foe that stumbled across me. After a few deaths later on in the game; becoming frustrated, I adopted a more ‘brave’ style of play with sporadic stealth bow kills, armour mode tanking and leaping about like a loony. This was infinitely more entertaining and I wished I had played in such a way from the start!

With a bevy of weapons and attachments to choose from, any situation can be catered for. With the visor mode enabled, weapons, enemies and ammo caches can be marked, leaving you room to do what you deem necessary to survive. The maps gift you ample manoeuvring space, offering sniping vantage points from afar or height advantages for a cheeky air stomp. Again, leaving everything in the players hands to determine their own path is a brave but fantastic move, often reminding me of my old Halo experiences.

The vehicle section I was not looking forward to, and justifiably so. With just a bigger map, a faster way of travelling, and less options in combat, it ironically left me feeling as if I had less freedom than normal with which to approach my objective. Adding to this frustration is that you cannot use your visor whilst driving, necessitating removing yourself from the vehicle to mark what you wish; then getting back in again. Sigh.

Upgrades are handled well but executed poorly, hidden off the beaten track are nanosuit upgrade kits scattered across the levels. Spending these on perks with differing values is interesting but ultimately, there are some that are categorically superior than others. You can save sets and assign them to a face button so you may swap loadouts on the fly depending on the situation. Ultimately I don’t see this coming into use until perhaps on the higher difficulties, even then, I’m not a micro-management kind of guy! Levelling up each perk gives it a bonus, for example you may have to stealth kill so many enemies whilst a perk is equipped to upgrade it. A nice idea, however some of the requirements boggle the mind, several across each tier of perk entail taking insane amounts of damage to complete. Forcing the player to near death situations and then not saving said progress if you die feels annoying and backwards. Reported glitches regarding acquiring upgrade kits; then getting slaughtered can occasionally cause the upgrade kit to not respawn properly, demanding completionists to start a new game afresh. Even when they haven’t glitched, the statistics page shows you no more than how many you have acquired, not what level the missing ones are on for example. If you’ve gotta’ catch ‘em all, you’re going to have a rough time!

Multiplayer

If you have foraged into either the Crysis 3 Beta or even the previous, Crysis 2, you’ll know what to expect here, maps are large, killcams lie (when don’t they?!) and graphically it’s obviously not as refined as the single player. There are a lot of places for people to take advantage of what I think is the most ludicrous addition to a multiplayer game, the cloak. Tactically, it opens up avenues aplenty for players. Do you cloak about whilst endeavouring to not get into a straight gunfight, or maybe keep your finger poised above the armour mode button relying on careful use of suit energy to survive the longest in an encounter? In reality, stealth nearly always wins. Information is power; if you know the enemies position before they know yours, you shouldn’t lose the gun fight!

Unlocks galore are available after the arbitrary level requirement, and classes can be constructed to make a (nearly) perfect killing machine. Perks can be levelled up, using guns can unlock more powerful attachments and your dog tags can be customised. The usual affair in a modern day shooter, we all know what to expect!

The multiplayer maps are just as varied as their single player companions, with dark hidey holes, perpendicular corridors and open spaces in line of sights that people still insist on running through. The gunplay can feel erratic at times with seemingly random instances of recoil on both ends of the spectrum. Annoyingly in the killcam, enemies guns never recoil, leading you to believe false facts.

All in all, some weapon balancing has noticeably been done since the Beta which is nice to see. Along with the interesting maps and the inevitably huge amount of unlockables to chew through, this could draw your attention from any other online shooters you may know of for a while…

Presentation

EA and Crytek said they wanted to make a game that will ‘melt your PC’. Unfortunately, in doing this, they have made a game which looks as if it has an odd filter overlay on PS3. Of course not that it looks bad, just that it’s screaming for the next gen. Individual blades of grass are rendered but are also heavily pixelated, irritatingly instances such as these let the overall picture down. In fact, a lot of the time I was yearning for a high end PC on which to see it as the developers intended. Artistically, it looks great, the overrun feeling of a dilapidated New York is immersive. In contrast to the depressing, darker approaches to the later levels, the earlier greenery is but a fleeting memory.

Sound is generally handled well, the voice acting of Psycho is the standout performance, with everything else seemingly paling into insignificance by comparison. The music is woefully underused, this game has one of the best soundtracks I have heard in a long time. I’m not quite sure why I can’t remember it being used more than a handful of times!

The audio in the multiplayer, much akin to the second game, often seems out of sync; the volume balancing on killcams is off too. Nothing to stress about, but it was noticeable.

Should You Buy?

Probably, yes! Don’t go expecting next gen graphics today on your home console, or something to replace Call of Duty or Battlefield as your online frag-em-up of choice either. What Crysis is however, is a genuinely brilliant sand box style shooter, letting you have it your way no matter what the situation. You have the tools to tackle any confrontation in a myriad of ways; with a tanked up suit, you feel as powerful as you should. Only the roughest of foes should pose a threat to your nanosuit dominance.

With the campaign clocking in at around 10 hours on normal, more collectibles than you want to collect and a solid multiplayer offering, Crysis 3 should certainly last you a while too.

A couple of glitches might sour the taste a little but overall as a complete package, don’t let Crysis 3 sneak by undetected.

Reviewed on the PS3, also available on Xbox 360 and PC.