Crysis 3 REVIEW

Crysis 3 REVIEW

UK Release Date: 22 February 2013
RRP: £44.99
Format reviewed: PC
Also available on Xbox 360 and PS3
Publisher: EA

The first Crysis saw players, as badass US soldier Prophet, rampage through open tropics in a military skin called the Nanosuit, throwing men through fishing shacks and lobbing trees at people. The second transported them to the considerably narrower, sturdier confines of New York City. Crysis 3 is a merger – The Big Apple remains the playground, but 24 years on, it’s I Am Legend-like overgrown avenues and scrubland streets strike a balance between the two.

There, under a great bio-bubble called the Liberty Dome, it’s Prophet’s job to stop evil corporation C.E.L.L. claiming it in their quest for global domination. What could have been an enjoyably straightforward shooter about a ridiculous man who kicks taxis at people, tracks foes’ heat signatures Predator-style and can turn invisible, though, is muddled by an overwritten story.

See, there are these squid-headed alien men called Ceph who, after invading in the original game, feel like the last ones to leave at a party; there’s an underground resistance and an evil scientist; there’s a cockney squaddie with an inferiority complex. There’s a bit about Prophet’s mind turning machine, layered over a bit about Prophet’s mind being amalgamated with the Ceph – but wait, didn’t his mind fuse with Alcatraz from Crysis 2? It’s confusing tosh, so stay instead for a multi-route campaign taking you to some of the best-looking locations ever seen, and a surprisingly solid multiplayer mixing Halo and Call Of Duty. Nonsensically stunning.

Ben Griffin

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