The talented creators at Crytek studios have released a brand new, rather lengthy gameplay video featuring a good look at their combination of action and stealth elements in Crysis 3. The twenty minute video is divided into two separate “interactive” parts letting you choose between watching either a stealth, or action focused playthrough. Regardless of the choice, you can be sure to expect plenty of guns, crossbows, and super human abilities, all leading up to a grand conclusion.
The video starts off basic enough, with Prophet taking instructions from Psycho to shut down a generator located in a nearby hydro dam. We’re treated with an amazing view of an overgrown New York City in the background as the player scans the dam to gather intel. Your objective is clearly displayed in the distance, leaving the player with the freedom to make their own decision on how to approach it. Enter the interactive menu, with a choice of stealth (Maintain a low profile and quietly infiltrate) or armor (Go loud and devastating).
The stealth section primarily focuses on maintaining enough suit energy to stay cloaked, while trying to avoid guards at the same time. The player spends a good amount of time spotting, and tagging enemies onto the HUD from a safe distance, then quickly sneaking up behind them for the melee assassination. In previous games, firing your weapon was always a trade off in Crysis, as squeezing the trigger while cloaked will cause your suits energy to completely drain, kicking you out of invisibility and left exposed without the use of your abilities. The answer to that appears to be Crysis 3’s new addition of a bow, which according to the video, allows players to fire from cloaked mode without being revealed. The player goes on to use the bow several more times throughout the video, showing us new ammo types like electric and exploding bolts proving quite useful for those silent kills.
The armor playthrough starts off straight away with an epic lunge into the madness. The player wastes no time cloaking and spotting enemies this time, instead going straight into the protective armor mode which augments your suit into a bulletproof tank. This is where Crysis 3 shines the brightest as the player leaps off a cliff right into gunfire, launches an explosive bolt down onto some unlucky gaurds, all in mid-air before crashing back down to the earth. The action continues like this most of the way through with the player using heavy machine guns and rocket launchers to carve a devastating path through to the end goal.
Whether you’ve choosen to go with guns blazing or silent assassin, there is no ignoring the main drawing point of a game like Crysis. The graphics. As expected the game looks gorgeous, though this time at a more refined level then the previous games. The video didn’t specify what system it was being filmed on, but its a safe guess to assume it was shot from a high end PC. Either way, you simply have to give the developers at Cytek props for creating such a capable engine. The lighting, textures, and overall detail look incredible, when you add that to the game running silky smooth, its an impressive feat. Crysis 2 looked great, but ran a bit choppy at some points during intense scenes. In this video, there was no sign of stuttering or frame rate drop whatsoever.
