The alien Ceph — so determined to take over the planet in previous Crysis games — seem to have retreated underground. But the nefarious CELL Corporation isn’t taking any chances. In fact, they’ve gone so far as to shroud New York City beneath the immense Liberty Dome, resulting in climate change that’s transformed the once proud concrete-and-steel capital of the world into a sprawling, fractured emerald jungle. Life has only gotten harder for what remains of humanity.
So when weary resistance fighters free your super-soldier character, Prophet, from captivity, they envision victory over Ceph invaders and greedy CELL thugs alike. Encased in the only remaining high-tech Nanosuit, your gruff protagonist can switch between a nearly invisible stealth cloak and almost impenetrable armor at will. But Prophet is tortured by visions of his own, involving Earth’s utter destruction and a ludicrously powerful badass Alpha Ceph that no one else believes exists. Is Prophet an aptly named savior capable of saving the world, or an irredeemably damaged shell of a man who’s actually the biggest threat of all? Either way, you’ve got a whole mess of first-person-shooting mayhem to unleash.
Wild vegetation and barely recognizable crumbling architecture blunt the emotional impact of battling gunmen and E.T.s amid the Big Apple’s landmarks and diverse neighborhoods, but Crysis 3 sure is gorgeous. Sunlight streams through canopied tree cover and glistens on individual blades of grass, realistic water ripples and reflects with every footstep, and truly jaw-dropping moments of explosive cutscene spectacle punctuate the seven-hour solo campaign.
Ceph Devastators are among the tougher rank-and-file aliens you'll face. Here's hoping that arrow has an explosive tip.Thank goodness for all that eye-candy, because heaven knows you’ll spend a ton of time peering through your Nanosuit’s multi-purpose visor. You’ll tag ammo crates and supplies, remotely hack enemy turrets via a laughably simplistic and wholly disposable match-the-waveform minigame, and mark and track your foes. Hunkered down at a distance, planning who to avoid and who to leave a bloody mess, you can’t help but feel like a jaguar on the prowl. It’s intoxicating.
Whether you skulk about in stealth mode, or charge around like an outraged rhinoceros in armored footsy pajamas, you’ll constantly discover lethal methods that go well beyond simple stealth-kill stabs and point-and-blast headshots. You can power-kick dumpsters into dudes, pound the ground from four-story drops, trigger explosives remotely, and more. Available armaments include everything from machineguns and sniper rifles to alien oddities, and you’re free to swap out silencers, scopes, and other attachments on the fly.
Sadly, you’ll seldom encounter rivals able to resist such overwhelming strength and flexibility. Most are remarkably eagle-eyed, able to spot you through foliage in an instant should your cloak run out of energy. But their search behaviors and their unnecessarily vocal responses when alerted are far too predictable to present any formidable challenge. Reinforcements pour in by the dozen, and EMP grenades sap your Nanosuit’s energy, but as in Crysis 2, you’re almost always free to sneak and sprint past any troublesome throngs.
Shadows alone won’t make you invisible, and some enemies can spot you even when you’re cloaked.
You can swap out weapon attachments at any time, but the game won't pause while you do.Enemy weakness also renders the Nanosuit upgrade process virtually moot. There’s just no meaningful incentive to track down upgrade modules and unlock goodies such as stronger power kicks or faster reloading when the stock suit already makes you practically unstoppable. Oh, you’ll still have a blast carving through CELL troops, murdering slimy troublemakers, and ruining gleaming alien weapons, but don’t expect to feel the pride of true accomplishment unless you hike the game’s difficulty to Veteran or Supersoldier.
That’s in stark contrast to the outstanding maps and modes of online multiplayer, where you’re every bit as powerful but just about everything feels like an accomplishment. Assault Mode is an enjoyable and slower-paced tactical anomaly, with its one-life-per-round terminal hacking and defending, but every other mode is a relentlessly energizing blitz of superhuman acrobatics and think-fast strategy. In blistering variations on capture-the-flag, nutjobs in Nanosuits power-jump through museums and sneak through ruined banks in pursuit of portable power cells and relays. Atop dams and ruined skyscrapers, teams wrestle for control of stationary Ceph "spears" and dynamic crash sites that eventually explode. Through it all, every kill, retrieval, and capture feels like a cause for celebration, and every level of experience awards some new weapon or customization option.
But the real jewel in Crysis 3’s multiplayer crown is the new Hunter Mode, where a pair of almost perfectly invisible bow-wielding stalkers must force 10 CELL operatives with proximity sensors to respawn as allies before time runs out. Damn near every match becomes a potent exercise in escalating tension, to the point where you’ll need to take real-world breaks to get your pulse to stop thudding in your neck.
Though Crysis 3’s (admittedly beautiful) solo campaign never feels quite as strong as it could be, its enthralling competitive multiplayer sits comfortably among the strongest offerings of this console generation. Unless you have no interest in competing against your fellow human beings, these modes alone make the game worth buying.
A couple of missions late in the game offer a more open-world feel, with objectives you can assault in any order.PUBLISHER: Electronic Arts • DEVELOPER: Crytek • ESRB: Mature • MULTIPLAYER: 12 on Xbox Live • ACHIEVEMENTS: Moderately rewarding • COST: $60 • RELEASE DATE: February 19, 2013
+ Wonderfully crisp and colorful visuals; plenty of satisfying ways to dish out death.
+ Exceptional online multiplayer modes, maps, and features, especially the new Hunter Mode.
– Disappointingly ineffectual enemies; easily exploited sprinting and stealth; limp Nanosuit upgrade system; lame hacking minigame.
? Why do so many CELL soldiers have the same voice?
