Platform: Xbox 360 Score: 9.1 out of 10

I jumped in the Crysis franchise with Crysis 2. I remember watching a friend play the original Crysis on his gaming PC almost 6 years ago. I was shocked with how amazing it looked as well as the game play of it. It was a completely different experience from any game I had played. Since I didn’t(Still don’t) have a PC capable of gaming I jumped on the chance to play Crysis 2 on my Xbox 360. I really enjoyed Crysis 2 and when Crysis 3 was announced I was excited. You can tell my reactions from the score above, but keep on reading for more details.

In Crysis 3 you are Prophet with the nanosuit that has been a constant throughout the franchise.  You are rescued by a fellow soldier named Psycho that Cell, an evil corporation in the world of Crysis, removed the nanosuit from and has gone from super soldier to just a soldier. You then proceed with the story and your enemies are the Cell soldiers and the alien race known as the Ceph. The opening of the game was pure eye candy. The cinematic looked almost like a live action movie. I was very pleased with how the cut scenes looked in this game.

The gameplay is very similar to Crysis 2. The nanosuit’s instant abilities are Stealth and Maximum Armor which can be upgraded through certain challenges in the game like a certain amount of stealth kills will upgrade the stealth armor. What has been a very convenient feature is the changing of your weapon on-the-fly. You can change your attachments and they way the weapon fires by simply pressing the back button. Your character then looks at your weapon and options to change attachments appear on screen(see picture below). There are other options to upgrade the nanosuit from upgrades you find throughout the game and some options to upgrade include stronger armor, quicker stealth kills, faster cloaking, and more. Although there are many great weapons in the game, the main addition to the game is the Predator Bow. The bow includes different arrows to use besides regular arrows(which you can pick up from dead enemies) such as an electric arrow, thermite arrow, and airburst arrow. The bow is very fun to play with during the campaign. The bow seemed a bit powerful in the Campaign on Normal, but I’m sure it will be the make playing on harder difficulties more enjoyable.

The story to the game was a bit slow and I was having a hard time figuring out where it was going during the first half. The 2nd half really brought it all together and by the end I was pleased with the end results. Along with the game looking fantastic, the sound in this game was outstanding. I was using my Turtle Beach 5.1 surround sound Headset. Everything sounded great and very detailed. I highly recommend playing this with either a surround sound system or a surround sound headset because it truly enhances the experience overall. I will also say make sure you stay after the credits(Longest credits I’ve ever seen in a game) because there is something special there.

The Multiplayer is pretty fun. It is your typical shooter, for the most part, with a Crysis flavor to it. I haven’t had too much success with the bow in multiplayer but that doesn’t mean it is useless. They added the air stomp ability as a normal ability that you can do whenever you want. The maps look amazing and some even have crazy weather effects that look and sound amazing. You could literally hear the wind and rain with against the walls of buildings in one of the maps. The multiplayer is so enjoyable I plan on sticking with it for some time.

Overall I did have a few issues. There was a bug where the sound went out and I had to quit, exit to dashboard, and restart, but from what I can tell this hasn’t been an issue for everyone and they are working on a patch for it(might even be out). And the slowness of the 1st half was fixed in my eyes by the 2nd half. I rather enjoyed the story and not sure if there will be a Crysis 4, but I sure do welcome it.

Written by: William McDonald Writer