Crysis 3 delivers just barely enough to say it's made improvements on what was a great franchise, but falls short.
If you've played all the Crysis games, you've come to expect some great visuals, big explosions, and some tense and exciting gameplay... Crysis 3 is none of those things.
Where to begin... let's start with the laughable AI. In previous Crysis games, the AI was a formidable foe. If they'd see you cloak in front of them, they'd shoot where you were and around the area, hoping to hit you. In Crysis 3, you could cloak within 2 feet of an enemy, stand there, and watch them simply stare into space, waiting for you to pop out and kill them. The AI is a joke. Sometimes you'll even be lucky enough to have them running into each other and take them all out with 1 grenade.
The gameplay was nothing new, and way too easy, even on the hard settings. You get a few Ceph weapons to use here and there, but they're short on ammo unless you get a "suit boost" from Ceph tech. A new bow and arrow are given to you so you can truly embrace the stealth elements of the suit, but it's a short lived novelty that is tossed aside once you realize how stupid the AI is and how unnecessary stealth is.
The Ceph enemies were also much more threatening and scary in Crysis 1 and 2. Most notably Crysis 2. They would cloak, jump around too quickly to shoot, and flank you in a second. The Ceph in Crysis 3 stare you down as if they're invulnerable and match shot for shot with you. Again, poor AI takes away any kind of tension felt when having to assess whether or not you can silently take out an entire field of Ceph or go in guns blazing and hope for the best with the maximum armor on.
The completionists out there will quickly become annoyed with secondary objectives suddenly popping up during missions that are on the other side of the level, wasting several minutes just walking each way, or hoping your buggy doesn't swerve into a gigantic puddle from which it can't be driven out of.
Next we come to the visuals. Perhaps the 1 thing Crysis 3 got right was the graphics. Beautiful landscapes and character details make Crysis 3 one of the most visually stunning games out there. The only problem: Most people lack the hardware to fully appreciate it's beauty. If your GAMING computer is older than 6-8 months, you won't be able to full experience all the lush atmospheres, the pores on Psycho's face when he gets in close, and the great detail that's shown when you snipe a Ceph's head off from 100 yards away. The attention to graphical detail stole much of what fans were hoping to see again from previous Crysis games.
SPOILERS
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Now we touch on the story. I personally didn't understand how Prophet is suddenly back after blowing his own head off. We're lead to believe that his memories were stored in the suit and then overtook Alcatraz's dead body in Crysis 2, after nearly everyone who meets him makes it a point to say that he's NOT Prophet, and just some grunt who was passed the torch of the suit.
We're also exposed to more of Psycho, who unless you played Crysis: Warhead, don't get to fully appreciate either. There could have been more time spent explaining Psycho, the transition of how Prophet is now back, and what exactly Psycho experienced when his suit was taken. It all felt very rushed.
END SPOILERS
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And lastly, the game was far too short. For a game that's charging as much as it is on Steam and in stores, A mere few hours is an insult. Crysis 1 and 2 took a decent amount of time to complete, and the story was compelling and moved at a great pace. Crysis 3 felt more like a tedious walk back and forth if you want to complete all the objectives, and an extremely easy demo with beautiful visuals rather than a fully finished game. It was far too short, far too easy, and overall a huge disappointment.
I'd say have a friend let you play it on their machine. It won't take you long, and you can save yourself the $$.