CRYSIS 3
Developers: Crytek Studios
Publishers: EA Games
Game Engine: CryEngine 3
Genre: First Person Shooter, Sci-Fi
Release Date: February 2013
Crysis 3 is the sequel to one of the most successful game Crysis 2. The Crysis series known for its high end graphics from the first game has released The trailer and the gameplay trailer for their next game, which is Crysis 3. Set in future year of 2047, where we saw in the previous parts how New York City comes under attack of aliens. We again don the role of ‘Prophet’, who is equipped with his nanosuit which gives him powers like indestructible armor, cloaking and enhanced speed and movements. This time we have to fight against the forces of the Cell Corporation and also the aliens to terminate their corrupt plans which consist of utilizing the alien technology for their profits.
The Cell Corporation has built a nanodome which is actually a quarantined part of New York City. The internal part of this nanodome has now turned into a swampy rain forest like location filled with the alien Ceph and the soldiers of Cell Corporation. The nanodome itself consists of seven different areas which will give ‘Prophet’ a challenge in his quest for revenge. The Cell Corporation has lied to the people of New York City that the nanodome is a quarantine area meant for benefit of people and under this false wraps is the actual work of grabbing alien technology. ‘Prophet’ has to reveal the truth and beat Cell Corporation before the things get worse. This time ‘Prophet’ has more enhanced nanosuit and also has a composite bow which will prove to be most efficient weapon to become the best hunter in the New York City.
The graphics of Crysis 3 are high end as expected and should be which makes takes the game one step closer to reality. The texturing and the modeling work done by the developers are seen in the gameplay trailer itself. With realistic lighting and shadows, the game gives a rich feel of the environment we play in. Also the foliage looks great which beautifies the game’s environment. Overall, the developers have made a real looking apocalypse hit New York City. Also the effects of the water flowing through the swamps makes one take a look twice at it. The reflections and the shines are so well designed that you actually breathing in the area. Other effects like blast and sparks flying when bullet hit metal actually gives an experience of war like feeling.
The gameplay has been designed in such a way that one can play the missions stealthily as well as aggressively. One can go on sneaking behind the enemy and kill them or just pick up a machine gun and go blasting the enemies head on like a maddened rhino. With many new features and tactical options, you can utilize many new possibilities to take on your enemies tactically. After seeing the gameplay demo of Crysis 3 where a level was displayed, it feels like action in games will be taken to a new height. Being a gamer, using a bow and arrow in first person shooter has been somewhat troublesome for me. But in Crysis 3 this bow and arrow thing has been improvised and well defined. The level that I saw had player destroying some mechanism and then blast a dam. We have to fight through some enemies in a location which looks like a factory which is located in a rainforest. Walking and running on a metallic ramp, fighting through group of enemies looks fun. The guns look futuristic as well as realistic with realistic movements like recoils.
What I liked about this gameplay was that when we reach some mechanism which is cylindrical in shape and has structure of tall vertical cylinder the way which is used to break this mechanism got my attention. It could have been destroyed easily by putting some explosives around and then blasting it off or maybe break some supporting mechanism or control panels to make it malfunctioning. But here, we can actually pull of the metal beams supporting the outer metallic cover of the mechanism and kick the metallic beams to break them and bring the mechanism crashing to ground. I liked this innovative technique. I mean, the strength of nanosuit has been brought into utilization. Proceeding from here, we have to reach the terrace of the building where we get attacked by helicopters. Again here a small thing barely noticeable, but awesome caught my attention. As we climb the stairs to the helipad on the terrace, one helicopter sends missile which hits the ground and sends us back down the stairs we climbed. While falling down the stairs, we can see the legs of the ‘Prophet’ bobbling up and down which gives feeling of falling from actual stairs. After crashing the helicopter we proceed towards the dam nearby. We set explosives on the supports of the dam and then jump of the edge. While in air, we detonate the bombs and then hold a wire below which rappels us to wall of another building. This whole demo felt awesome and gave a feeling of living in a real movie.
Crysis 3 promises to have some new features in it which haven’t been yet declared or demonstrated by the developers. But the gameplay demo what I saw shows how developed the weapons will be. The bow and arrow feels like much better weapon to use than regular guns. It is deadly and also silent good for silent game. I don’t know why I got this feeling, maybe Crytek Studios have designed it very well or maybe I am tired of using guns in almost every action game I play. New abilities like swinging by use of the bow and arrow has been implemented. Shoot the arrow in solid wall and swing in desired direction. Also modifying the weapons real time seems to be a new feature. During the gameplay, one can pop out a menu for the selected weapon and choose the type of attack the weapon can provide. In the scene which I mentioned we get attacked by two helicopters, the person playing shot one arrow at the helicopter and it seemed like the arrow fried all the electronics in the helicopter. There were sparks flying out of pilot’s console and the helicopter spun downwards to crash. Don’t know what new features and weapons will be available in Crysis 3 but I am excited to find out.
Though Crysis 3 promises to bring new things in the series I am expecting the developers to avoid the mistakes that were done in Crysis 2. With powers like super speed the environment should have been larger. But actually I found super speed rather useless because of close spaces and clustered environment. The most irritating thing was when I activated super speed and started sprinting towards target, but some small obstacle would break sprint. Jumping over the obstacle would perish energy faster. The worst part of the game was that the developers promised that game will be open ended. But I found whole Crysis 2 linear. There was no scope for exploration or do any thinking. Only one rule was to be followed, follow the direction on mini-map and shoot anything that moves. Also the next checkpoint would be marked on the mini-map with everything needed to reach at the point would all be in the way. Though the area was large, there was little scope to try out anything new. Also I found the AI in Crysis 2 kind of dumb. They wouldn't get out of attack neither did they take cover properly, I mean a real person wouldn't wait in open to be shot in head rather he/she would hide under/behind some cover. Another problem I found in Crysis 2 was the lack of character development. The human soldiers were almost of same type except for some few who don’t make any big difference. Also the aliens weren’t of different types. There were some five types of enemies in whole game. They too weren’t interesting because, they walked like humans, attacked like humans and acted like humans.
I had expected Crysis 2 to be like Halo where aliens will carry their own unique guns. We can use these guns too. The aliens will be of different types with every alien needing different techniques and different combination of weapons. But killing every enemy in Crysis 2 was one and the same. Go behind their bodies and spam melee or heavy attacks to drop them to the ground. In the end, I expected that there would be a boss fight with an oversized robot attack on city, but whole game ended with some silly level which needed the player to press fixed key combinations. The upgrades provided in the game were rather useless as they just added some 5% extra effect to every power. There was character development at all. I hope Crysis 3 doesn’t follow this suit and provides a better game than the previous one.
From what I have seen of Crysis 3, I am impressed by the technical details. I hope these heavy technical enhancements don’t take toll on the PC gamers. I am expecting this game to set a new benchmark in terms of graphics in gaming world. Set to release in February 2013, I hope that Crysis 3 proves to be the best game to be released in the following year. On a concluding note I would like to say just one thing, the bow and arrow has won my heart.
