The best looking shooter around

Crysis 3 is an apocalyptic futuristic first person shooter set in a beautifully dilapidated New York in 2047. It has spectacular, cutting edge graphics and a new multiplayer modes to compliment the single player campaign. While it’s undeniably great to look at, there’s not as much freedom as we’d hoped for, even if it’s much less of a corridor than Call of Duty.

Twenty years after the events of Crysis 2, and New York has been coverd with a giant ‘Nanodome’ by a corrupt corporation, CELL. They used Ceph alien technology to develop unlimited energy, but it’s clear that this has not liberated humanity. Humanity seems in worse shape than ever, in fact. You play Prophet once again, in the incredibly powerful Nanosuit. Prophet joins the rebellion against the CELL Corporation, while being plagued by visions of the powerful alien ‘Alpha Ceph’.

Your Nanosuit works as before, giving you four superhuman modes to choose from -armor, strength, speed and cloak. As you progress you can choose which powers you want to improve. Crysis 3 adds a revolutionary new weapon to your arsenal – a bow. It’s incredibly powerful, and the only weapon you can fire when cloaked, meaning in Crysis 3 you can be much more stealthy. A result of this means Crysis 3 can feel easier than its predecessors. Like many FPS games, it suffers some ‘follow that man’ areas, where you are guided by an IA, which can be frustrating.

Multiplayer has five modes, Hunter, Crash Site, Deathmatch, Assault and Extraction. Hunter is interesting as it pits two permanently cloaked hunters, with the silent bows against all the other players. Every time a ‘regular’ trooper is killed, they are reborn as a Hunter, which continues until there’s only one hunted trooper left. It’s tense and really enjoyable.

With great power comes slightly complicated controls, but once you’ve learned them, you really do feel like the Nanosuit is part of you. No other FPS makes you feel so powerful.

The graphics are outstanding on PC, incredibly realistic, fluid and full of impressive effects. Crysis 3’s vistas are breathtaking, although its disappointing you can’t explore them all. They outshine the story, which is a little weak, and compensate for the gameplay which has not improved over Crysis 2.

Crysis 3 is an excellent hardcore FPS. Gameplay is fast and fluid, and the Nanosuit is great fun to use. The single player campaign is offers enough challenge, with five difficulty levels, and the multiplayer is very good. If you have a powerful PC, you can really take advantage of the incredible graphics on display here. Crysis 3 looks like a next-generation game, even if its gameplay is very much this generation.