Crysis 3

Its almost six years since the First Crysis came to PC back in 2007 and I still remember the day when my mouth hung open after i saw the opening Into scene of that game . OMG ! I can t believe I am going to play this , was my thought as the Single player campaign loaded . And  then  I realized with a shock and disappointment that my Pentium IV 2 GB Ram and GT 700 series card was not enough to run the game even in low settings . Hell later i came to know that not even 8800 Ultra ( Which then was the most powerful card around ) cannot run it in its full glory . Such was the strength of the initial Crysis designed with Cry Engine 2 . The game became a legend for the most graphically demanding game around the Gaming World .

A look at Original Crysis 

Each new card which was released after that came with the tag line " Capable of running Crysis in XX frames per second ". And the usual line before buyers bought the card was  " Ya ya , it has awesome cores and GPU tech , but answer me this , will it run Crysis " . Such was the power of the game that it took 3 yrs  for the Nvidia  after the game got released to release a card that could actually run the game in full Config .

A look at Original Crysis 

A year after the release another Crysis game came  , titled as ' Crysis : Warhead ' telling the parallel tale of Psycho while the original Crysis was taking place in another part of the Island . Which was also received with warm welcome by Fans .

A look at Original Crysis 

 After 3 years of the Initial game Crysis 2 hit the screens with  fans  awaiting for it with a  lot of anticipation and nervousness . Anticipation because the next Crysis was finally coming and Nervous was  , of course , whether their rig would be capable of running the game . Although the hint of the game coming to Consoles made some eyebrows quirk up and serious Gamers to get a  a sinking feeling in the pit of their stomachs  .And their Instinct turned out to be right  . Due to console mods the game which game to PC was seriously degraded in Graphical level . Such was the disappointment and uproar created by PC Gamers that Crytek released the Direct X 11 Upgrade and High Resolution Textures Pack which appeased the thirst a little , but still left a soar taste in the mouth .

Crysis 2

So soon after the second installment of in the series the 3 rd was teased and many of the hardcore Gamers were not so much excited about it . Most of the comments were " A sequel so soon . come on Crytek , at least take some time to improve upon your failures ". But Crytek CEO Cevat Yerli stated that this installment will be much more powerful than the last installment and he officially made an announcement that " Crysis 3 will melt your PC , guaranteed "  . And so started the campaign of Crysis 3 for more than an year with a lot of promotional videos , teasers  and Multi player Beta that was opened for 1 week , 5 months before the Official game release that allowed some special selected players to test the Multiplayer of Crysis 3 . And with the " 7 Wonders of Crysis 3 " including six special episodes directed by  filmmaker Albert Hughes ( At 20 years old, shot to stardom when he and his twin brother, Allen, wrote and directed the seminal film, Menace II Society.) that included actual game play and levels that you get to cross in the game when it finally released , I have to say that the Promotion was very well done . And it did excite many about the upcoming Shooter of 2013 .

Well Crysis 3 has finally got released and finally its time to see whether the all the videos was worth it . The game takes place 24 years after the events of Crysis 2 with Alcatraz's body take over by Prophet ( Thanks to the nanites in the suit which is capable of storing memories ) and along with a team of elite Nanosuit Soldiers go in search of the Alpha Ceph finally discovering it in Russia and Imprisoning it . But CELL has different plan , they capture the team of soldiers along with Psycho and Prophet and try to learn the technology that was involved with Ceph so that they can use it to achieve World Dominance . Prophet joins with Psycho and a team of Rebel Resistance Fighters ( who released him from the prison that CELL had kept him in , immobile with the help powerful EMP shocks ) and tries to stop the CELL and the Alpha Ceph from destroying the World. Tats the entire story in Nutshell .

Although the sequence of events where Prophet goes off in search of Alpha Ceph was skipped and the game directly plunges into the campaign , you get to know of the details with the help of weird image flashes and visuals that prophet sees in his head. (And also a little help from Wiki :P )

Gameplay ::

Persons who are familiar with FPS games always thought it was same as the other games where you just point and shoot . Well people who played Crysis , the original, will know how wrong that can be . The entire game revolves around the Nanosuit that has various abilities which includes the ever famous Cloaking ( which has now been upgraded so that now you can fire at enemies without de-cloaking , oops sorry tat works only for the Predator Bow :D ) and the Armor mode that makes the bullets to fly off you like a ping pong ball . You have to make complete use of this in order to survive in this world.

What with the new Nanosuit upgrades and Stealth kills upgraded like hell !  the game had become damn easy . That will be your first thought as soon as you play the game . I mean there is nothing to stop you if you just make use of your suit powers resourcefully . The Predator Bow is the ultimate Stealth weapon which make the game even more easier . Not to mention the Hacking :D  that turns the enemies turrets on them .

Ceph Stalker

You rarely get to use the nano vision as always , well at least in the previous version there was  area where you are asked to use it to cross a smoke filled area , but here without any such specific Level , you will entirely forget you have this option at all :D And the only place where you can use them is in the fields to track the Ceph Stalkers . But that too becomes ineffective and unnecessary because stand still for some time and these guys will pop on you . Also if you use the nano vision too much , your energy will get drained and thereby leaving you to their lunge attacks without Armor. So better use your ears and track their movements . The entry of these enemies is entirely cool , like the moment where the Dinosaurs launch on the men in Jurassic Park 2 in the high grass areas . I think they got the idea from that ;-)

The Fields Level

Even though the game is easy there are moments where you have to use your ultimate skills in order to escape unscathed . Like when coming face to face with the Pinger . You get to ride them in Multiplayer but not in the  campaign levels and also the infamous Air stomp is also not available in the Story mode . I don t know why they removed it , Maybe they thought the game was too easy already.Oh well  :D

Weapons ::

Preadtor Bow ::

When the first hint came that Crysis 3 will have a new and unique weapon , there were a lot of guesses and rumors as to what it could be ..Finally we came to know via a leaked Wallpaper that its going to be a Bow . Not any bow but what the Crytek team termed it as the PREDATOR Bow . Well the name itslef says it huh . You turn into a lethal predator in the game . But just when thought of how a BOW and ARROW will work in the FPS genre was casting a doubt and excitement , in came Farcry 3 with its bow and Arrow . Way to go Ubisoft , Nice way to spoil the wait . Immediately we saw a surge of games which had bow and arrows as weapons in it . It really was hilarious and I thought maybe they were doing it for the sake of comepetition :P

But Still Crysis 3 's Predator bow stands apart . Although there are no upgrades available for it , this is the one weapon that can be configured to really matter . Like the Tension String in the bow . Depending upon the tension you set , the bow will be ready for quick draw and low range shot , medium draw and medium range target and finally the extra strong tension that takes pulling the arrow back a considerable amount of time , but still the range in this level is purely breathtaking . I took out 3 guys from the other end of the dam when they first show the dam in the back drop . I didn't even think that it was possible to drop the guy , but damn , it pierced him like hell :D

Zoom in on the guy on the Dam and Fire :D 

Other configs come in the form of where you can select the arrow heads , to make it blow ( no suprise , already seen in FC3 ) and electrocute the guys in the water ( Ok , have to admit . Tat was a new one ) .Not of much use but only at specific places .

The unique advantage of the Bow comes with its ability to fire without de-cloaking . Remember the time in the old Crysis where we sneak up on a guy and right when we hit him another guys sees from our back and takes us down .Damn that was irritating . But still tats what made Crysis pure fun in the first place . Now firing and killing people with cloak seemed too easy . And it sure does makes ur Gameplay damn easy . Thank god they gave us limited arrows . And the arrow retrieval technique only works if the arrow actually found  a target . If it goes haywire say good bye to it . But don t worry there is a lot of caches where you can restock them . Quite fun weapon to use , but u get bored with it soon .

Typhoon :::

A new assault rifle that is introduced and houses about 720 Rounds per magazine . Has a incredible high rate of fire that can make mince meat of guys around you . Quite effective against Ceph . But the major disadvantage of it is that its capable of draining like hell and you will end up with a empty gun and in serious trouble if your enemy is still standing due to your poor aim :P not my personal favorite :D

Ceph weapons ::

This is the first time we can pick up a weapon dropped by a Ceph and blast those guys . Like the Ceph Pinch rife or X-PAC or Reaper cannon . These are the most damn effective weapons in Crysis 3 . Packs a huge punch and but drains immediately and after which you have to throw away the gun , There is no way of reloading this baby. awww :(

Graphics ::

Well what can i say about this that you don't already know .Crysis 3 looks breathtaking in all its glory and like the CEO promised , its quite capable of making even an enthusiastic's Gaming Rig to hiccup .Yup the graphics packs quite a punch and AMD / Nvidia are working their A@# off to release drivers to optimize the game performance . Well I have to say that they still have a long way to go . For eg :: there were a lot of issues with FXAA and MSAA causing trouble in the game . And the famous Black Square texture glitch that happens when the AA is enabled . Its quite irritating and some what spoils the game performance .Crytek team cam up with an update but was not effective . Looks like its up to the GPU company to make it happen huh.

But still the game looks damn fantastic , off that there can be no doubt at all . But it hasn't beaten the record of what the initial Crysis achieved not even a tiny bit. Damn that baby made card companies to Run like hell :D . Crysis 3 can be played with the full specs with a GTX Titan and 3rd Gen Intel processors easily . Well there you go guys , it can stand as bench mark for the next year max , after that its going to go way down .

Upgrades & Abilities ::

A new technique that has been included which allows the player to actually hack the turrets which the enemies have deployed . Again , this has made the game damn easy . It has its irritating moments to when you are asked to hack mines that are in your way again and again. Interesting at first but gets dman boring and repetitive as you go .

Hacking 

Nanosuit upgrades is such a joke that you can finish the entire game without even touching them . Crysis has always failed in its upgrade systems (Learn from Far Cry creators guys :P ) With Crysis 2 they tried to implement it and failed and with Crysis 3 , not much of a difference .

Pro's :::

1. Once again Don the Nanosuit and slash your enemies stealthily or blast your way in with Armor , both are insanely awesome :D
2. Graphics is the pinnacle in this game  .Open your eyes to one of the marvels of what a game Engine can do in realism .
3. Engage your enemies with the new Predator Bow that makes you the ultimate hunter .

Con's ::

1. Graphics is too demanding . You need at least a Direct X 11 Card to even run the game .
2. Story is too damn boring and has lost the narrative touch .
3. Single player Campaign is too short that you can easily finish it off  in 4-5 hrs with any difficulty .
4. Zero dramatic moments .
5. BGM sucks .

Overall :: A must buy for Gaming Enthusiastics as they can check the real power of their rig . Apart from that this game has nothing in it .

Rating :: 8.0 / 10

Regards
Ram