If We’re Lucky, Crysis 3 Will Have The Heart of Halo 4 And The Innards Of Far Cry 3

Crysis 3 peels back the layer of nanosuit to look at what the reconstruction of the human body has done to these soldiers. If you played the original game, you’ll remember Psycho, who returns in this third title of the series. He’s one of those that were skinned in a painful process that most don’t even survive. It’s a cruel, cold-hearted procedure whose purpose I’m still not clear on even four hours into the game.

Psycho represents everything that too many games forget: humanity. The man behind the kill score. The broken, confused, still viciously-talented-at-killing man behind the gun. The human behind the soldier.

After my demo event, I IM’d our own Kirk Hamilton (who will be reviewing Crysis 3 for us) about what I played and what I thought. I figured I’d share our chat here with you in the raw:

Kirk: how was crysis?

Tina: i liked it! i love that bow and arrow

Tina: it reminds me a lot of halo 4

Tina: in terms of the direction that the series is taking

Kirk: interesting

you played the first game?

Tina: crysis? nah actually. i just read up on all of them

this is the first i’ve actually played

which might be why i like it

Kirk: well

I actually think it might be good

I like both games

crysis, at its best, was better than crysis 2

but it had a lot of low points too

Tina: well first off this one has the bow

which, c’mon

Kirk: crysis 2 was an underrated game, I thought

Tina: i should play it

they seem like my kinda games

Kirk: good action, insane-ass graphics on PC

fun stealth

Tina: dude even on 360 the new one looked GORGEOUS

Kirk: but I don’t understand why Crytek won’t just let the games do more of what they’re good at, which is:

hunting dudes in an open area

enough with the aliens, the boss battles, the corridor shooting

just hunting dudes

after far cry 3, it’ll be even more apparent if they’re still not getting that right often enough

Tina: yeah so

far cry 3 was another comparison i made

Kirk: how open was what you played?

and how many aliens were there?

Tina: cause you basically go into a camp, mark your dudes, and then go on the hunt

it gets linear at moments, like when you’re in buildings

but otherwise its very similar to far cry 3 in that you have an open space

and can choose which route you wanna take, where you want to attack from and how

Kirk: interesting

but you were hunting actual humans?

Tina: here’s the thing about “hunting”

i felt that i was, to an extent

cause mid-battle, reinforcements come

and i have to hide and retag everyone

which is obnoxious and it disrupts my gameplan

it sort of feels tensiony, but i would prefer to lay out a plan

Kirk: well, crysis has always been about improvisation

they tend to go more for quick improvisation and using all of the suit’s abilities

Tina: yeah i figured it must be a franchise staple

Kirk: which can be annoying

it’s not as satisfying as laying a plan out

but their AI is usually good, which keeps things fun

Tina: yeah you’d probably never use the armor-strengthening ability if you didn’t have to do that

i can never not alert the AI though

so it makes me feel like i won’t get rewarded for a particularly stealthy kill

Kirk: I got very good at crysis 2 actually

(I played that game an almost weird amount)

the trick was getting a sniper rifle and using cloaking, lining up a shot, snapping cloaking off and taking the shot, then snapping it back on and relocating

very fun! in that sadistic stealth-game kind of way

Tina: but they find the body quickly

and then are all on alert

Kirk: yeah that’s fine if you keep moving

also, most of what I’ve played lately in crysis 2 has been on my NG+ kinda thing, where I have all the powerups

so my stealth lasts a lot longer, etc

Tina: true but i want to eliminate an entire crew

and, while creeping up on the last guy, hear him go “wtf where did everyone go GAHHH”

Kirk: those are my favorite kinds of barks, when they freak out

sadistic

Tina: well it would be if they did that!

cause they’re always sort of expecting it

and are too aware of the surroundings

but yeah this is the ideal game for NG+

because you can customize your abilities and amp up the crossbow, for instance

Kirk: well, it’ll be interesting I guess

I sense it’ll be a lot like crysis 2 but with a bit more open levels

which is fine, if boring

Tina: i didn’t even get to play around with upgrades

which feels like the best part

why boring?

Kirk: it’s ok

well, just like

I dunno

another crysis game

those games are profoundly boring in every aspect except for their gameplay

boring writing

lame, perma-angry characters

no charm or wit

robotic

did your character talk?

were you playing as prophet?

Tina: yeah and yeah

Kirk: so he’ll have more personality

Tina: oh! so that’s the thing

where i liken it to Halo 4

they’re “skinning” the dudes and putting them in suits

and one guy who has been skinned already is an emotional wreck

psycho

the dude from 1

Kirk: the cockney guy?

he’s in it?

oh neat

he was actually decent. he was the star of the add-on, Warhead

Tina: oohh werd yeah i like him

Kirk: that’s good, sounds like they’ve stepped up the personality

Tina: he’s in the first few levels at least

Kirk: now if they can just keep it light and have a little fun

it gets so heavy and dull

Tina: it sounds like it will be

cause the skinning process is very painful and most don’t live through it

Kirk: well, I’m intrigued at the very least

the suit like merges with your body

it’s gross

but opens the door to some interesting transhumanism stuff

that, you know, never really reaches an interesting or coherent conclusion

typical

Tina: yeah for real

but this year/last year feel like a year where people are taking their narrative a deeper direction

some anyway

like for halo that kinda thing was never investigated

and crysis as far as i know similarly

Kirk: yeah, true

Tina: i love when you take a character you’re invested in, and finally open him up

like, you’ve played as this character for so many years, and have built so many memories with him

but did you ever really think about what it’s like to actually be him?

Kirk: sure, though it’s amazing that people are able to become interested in characters like Prophet and Master Chief

it’s like

we’re dying of thirst in the desert!

at least this masked robot person has a voice!

Tina: hahaha

for real

it doesn’t take much to get us excited

but it’s a start

Kirk: yeah and people become RELIGIOUSLY attached to master chief

Tina: yeah it’s strange

it’s definitely a source of strength

an admiration thing

but i love breaking people down to their core and seeing who they really are

that’s sort of what halo 4 and crysis 3 are trying to do

even if it’s through the vessel of another character

which might even be better, cause it’s proof that it’s hard for these characters to open up

but their strengths and weaknesses as human beings is of course still there

it’s more like a bravado thing

Kirk: yeah, for sure

it’s an interesting thing to do to archetypes as well

I just wish better, more adventurous writers handled it

like, making the guy sad about his lost father is fine

but look at what Watchmen did to the superhero

that kind of shit is like, ACTUALLY interesting

Tina: yeah total tear down

Kirk: it’s always baby steps, it can feel frustrating

like, let’s do Basic Character Development 101 on master chief

(I still haven’t finished Halo 4! lol)

Tina: haha yeah i think they’re worried about taking too far a step

and freaking everyone the fuck out

Kirk: which sucks

be bold!

if the game is good no one will care

no one cares when the story sucks, after all

Tina: it does

it doesn’t pay to be though

Kirk: make it a sick-ass shooter and go insane with the story

people will still buy it

look at what FC3 at least attempted

I mean there were attempts at boldness in there

and when it came down to it no one gave a fuck about successes or failures because it was a good game

Tina: man what a good game

I might be being optimistic, or hopeful, but I think there’s great potential in Crysis 3 to turn the series from a solid first-person shooter into a solid first-person shooter with more heart than we’re used to in these kind of games. If things go well, we’ll get a Crysis 3 that develops on the personal relationships and struggles of the actual people in the game, on top of a fun, tactical, sometimes stealthy and sometimes guns-blazing hunt of human and alien enemies alike.

Some last notes for you, from my scribbles during the event:

Everything feels very real. The thick grass, the smudges on your visor, even your hyper-awesome suit feels real. If we’re gonna pretend to be all powerful, you might as well be able to really feel that when you play.

Struggle between wanting that machine, that power, and being human. Forget how much you’ve sacrificed because of the dependency you’ve developed on the nanosuit.

Claire, a scientist/researcher who I shouldn’t say much more about in fear of spoilers, is a bitch. She called me a mutation.

There’s a vicious, electric-charged shotgun type of weapon that is super effective at blowing aliens away.