Don’t say the folks at Crytek aren’t ones to accept criticism. The original Crysis was lauded for its sandbox approach to first person shooter game design. It was much closer to Far Cry 2 than your typical directed FPS, but the sequel, Crysis 2, ditched that approach for a more linear experience. Plenty of choice still went in to your approach to its combat scenarios, but it was often lacking that wide open sensation of freedom found in its predecessor. In fact, critics went so far as to say Crytek was lazy for choosing a more linear approach.
Well, Crytek listened.
Crysis 3 retains the New York City setting, but kicks it twenty years into the future, well past the mini-apocalypse and right into full on nature-reclamation mode. The environments, demonstrated by huge dam level I played, return to wide open expanses full of potential options. Layered on top of that are all of Crysis 2’s suggestions for points of attack, which combines the best of both worlds in terms of design and approach. Whether you go in guns blazing or stealth, there wasn’t a dull way to complete the task at hand. “Adventure sandbox” was the motto Crytek was kicking around and, unlike the PR driven buzzwords, it actually fits Crysis 3 quite nicely.
Curiously, Prophet, a character from the first game who was assumed dead early in Crysis 2, returns as the player character. And yeah, he brought his Nanosuit with him. The suit was both powerful if not familiar. Alternate modes featuring stealth, armor, and strength feel like second nature at this point. A bit of a kink is thrown in when Prophet grabs and uses an alien weapon, the xpac (not the wrestler). It’s a hefty gun that shoots about a hundred rounds of ammunition a second, which is great, but it also interferes with the Nanosuit, making it glitch out and forcing it into simultaneous instances of separate modes. This presents another risk/reward layer to an already dense system.
In fact, new weapons were the star of the show, and the most surprising of which was that iconic bow and arrow. Honestly I wasn’t expecting much from this thing, it looked like an inefficient means of murdering bad guys, but in practice it was actually satisfying. Explosive arrows function as silent grenades, blowing the hell out of the ground and everyone standing on, Electric, when fired into water, electrocute anyone who happens to be occupying that space. A bow and arrow hasn’t been this savage and cool since the 80’s.
What followed, at least in my experience, was a fairly badass assault on the damn that resulted in its imminent destruction, all rendered amazingly well thanks to Crytek’s trademark sensory assault. Thankfully it was also bunch of fun to play, presumably from any path one is willing to choose. Crysis 3 drops early next year, check back with us then for a full review.
