Welcome guys. After recently finishing Crysis 3 I though I'd share some of my thoughts on this game.
For TL;DR motives I'll say this right off the bat: It's better than Crysis 2 but not as good as Crysis 1. It starts out strongly with an interesting premise but falls into "generic SF-end-of-the-world" territory pretty fast. By the end of the game (which came pretty soon) I mostly just wanted to be done with it.
The game plays very much like Crysis 2 with a few new additions. You still only have armor/stealth modes and you can still customize the nanosuit somewhat. This time you pick up "nanosuit upgrade boxes" or whatever they're called and they give you points to spend on upgrades. You can have 4 slots for upgrades. In each slot you can set 1 of 4 upgrades. Each of those upgrades costs between 1-3 points. After unlocking the most expensive upgrade per each slot (quite early on mind you) I found little incentive to try other combinations as it was clear they were superior in almost any situation.
At least this time though you no longer have to rush all over the place to get the nano-catalysts from dead enemies before they disappear.
There's also a new hacking mechanic activated through the visor. I found it useful but the mini-game it employs gets very repetitive after a while. Most weapons are carry-overs from Crysis 2 and perform like expected. There are some new upgrades here and there but nothing that fancy. You can also pick-up some Ceph weapons and while they do good they're rather generic laser-type weapons. The bow is excellent but I didn't find myself relying on it too much.
What I didn't like is that the game is too short for the amount of weapons in it and the weapon distribution is sometimes problematic. You constantly have to make choices of what to carry and what to drop. Sometimes that keeps you on your toes, sometimes you realize that if you want to keep using your favorite gun you have to carry it empty half the time and rely on the other before reaching a new ammo box.
The game is short; roughly half or maybe 2/3rds of Crysis 2. The first levels are very impressive with vast outdoors areas and plenty of interesting spots. Vegetation is everywhere and tactical options are abundant. Unfortunately as the levels progressed I saw some unfortunate patterns. For one assets are constantly reused throughout the game. I kept seeing the same brick buildings, the same signs, the same cars, the same rubble, etc. - only in different combinations. The second half of the game features bigger levels but they are emptier. The vegetation gets replaced by mud and well - you get levels of nothing but grey and brown and very little in between. The last level is also not very remarkable. It's very generic and a pity considering how well the game started. Basically I didn't enjoy the second half of the game that much. It was all about moving from rock to rock in stealth and then popping out with armor to take out the enemy. Very little diversity.
The enemies are either human or Ceph. Everything is familiar here. The Ceph Stalkers are interesting but are underused and get quickly replaced by run-of-the-mill Grunts when the levels loose the tall grass they like to hide in. The AI is generally good, but I did see CELL soldiers loose me right in front of their eyes. I'd stand 2 meters away from them with no cloak and get no response. Granted it was a during a night level but they were shooting at me just moments before.
The graphics are very good and for my 7970 GE the game ran decent with everything on very high. Frames were between 30-45 for most of the time which did create some input lag on the lower end.
I won't go into the story but I can say that there's not much here. Few interesting characters and it all really ends too quickly. It's good but there should have been more.
Overall I have mixed feelings regarding Crysis 3. Mostly it's better than 2 but closer to the end it becomes too generic for my liking. It become repetitive, visually bland and fighting Ceph in the open isn't that engaging. It started out strong (reminded me of Crysis 1 at it's best) but lost focus before the end (reminded me of Crysis 2 at it's worst).
For TL;DR motives I'll say this right off the bat: It's better than Crysis 2 but not as good as Crysis 1. It starts out strongly with an interesting premise but falls into "generic SF-end-of-the-world" territory pretty fast. By the end of the game (which came pretty soon) I mostly just wanted to be done with it.
The game plays very much like Crysis 2 with a few new additions. You still only have armor/stealth modes and you can still customize the nanosuit somewhat. This time you pick up "nanosuit upgrade boxes" or whatever they're called and they give you points to spend on upgrades. You can have 4 slots for upgrades. In each slot you can set 1 of 4 upgrades. Each of those upgrades costs between 1-3 points. After unlocking the most expensive upgrade per each slot (quite early on mind you) I found little incentive to try other combinations as it was clear they were superior in almost any situation.
At least this time though you no longer have to rush all over the place to get the nano-catalysts from dead enemies before they disappear.
There's also a new hacking mechanic activated through the visor. I found it useful but the mini-game it employs gets very repetitive after a while. Most weapons are carry-overs from Crysis 2 and perform like expected. There are some new upgrades here and there but nothing that fancy. You can also pick-up some Ceph weapons and while they do good they're rather generic laser-type weapons. The bow is excellent but I didn't find myself relying on it too much.
What I didn't like is that the game is too short for the amount of weapons in it and the weapon distribution is sometimes problematic. You constantly have to make choices of what to carry and what to drop. Sometimes that keeps you on your toes, sometimes you realize that if you want to keep using your favorite gun you have to carry it empty half the time and rely on the other before reaching a new ammo box.
The game is short; roughly half or maybe 2/3rds of Crysis 2. The first levels are very impressive with vast outdoors areas and plenty of interesting spots. Vegetation is everywhere and tactical options are abundant. Unfortunately as the levels progressed I saw some unfortunate patterns. For one assets are constantly reused throughout the game. I kept seeing the same brick buildings, the same signs, the same cars, the same rubble, etc. - only in different combinations. The second half of the game features bigger levels but they are emptier. The vegetation gets replaced by mud and well - you get levels of nothing but grey and brown and very little in between. The last level is also not very remarkable. It's very generic and a pity considering how well the game started. Basically I didn't enjoy the second half of the game that much. It was all about moving from rock to rock in stealth and then popping out with armor to take out the enemy. Very little diversity.
The enemies are either human or Ceph. Everything is familiar here. The Ceph Stalkers are interesting but are underused and get quickly replaced by run-of-the-mill Grunts when the levels loose the tall grass they like to hide in. The AI is generally good, but I did see CELL soldiers loose me right in front of their eyes. I'd stand 2 meters away from them with no cloak and get no response. Granted it was a during a night level but they were shooting at me just moments before.
The graphics are very good and for my 7970 GE the game ran decent with everything on very high. Frames were between 30-45 for most of the time which did create some input lag on the lower end.
I won't go into the story but I can say that there's not much here. Few interesting characters and it all really ends too quickly. It's good but there should have been more.
Overall I have mixed feelings regarding Crysis 3. Mostly it's better than 2 but closer to the end it becomes too generic for my liking. It become repetitive, visually bland and fighting Ceph in the open isn't that engaging. It started out strong (reminded me of Crysis 1 at it's best) but lost focus before the end (reminded me of Crysis 2 at it's worst).
