Crysis 3 reached a low enough cost for me to be able to buy it so over the weekend I got it and played through the campaign a couple of times. I have a few thoughts that I would like to share about the continuation of the story from C2 to C3. While C3 has a good story, it doesn't seem to follow on very well from C2 so I'm just going to talk about my thoughts on what didn't work very well, in my opinion. That bit is key because I'll probably get some people who, rather than enjoy a polite discussion, will try and ram insults and "C3 is best/you don't know what you're talking about" down my throat. Now, before I begin this isn't a review of the game. I might consider doing one but at the minute it's not on my mind to do. Also, I will note here that I've not had any experience playing Crysis 1 (due to it being a PC game and my dislike of buying off xbox arcade) so I will be focusing mostly on 2&3 but anything I say in regards to 1 it's researched from various sources online, but this is just to let you know that this blog is lacking a bit of first hand knowledge. I will begin with a summary of what I understand to be the story though out the games. Oh, and a final note before the start. If it looks like there should be a new paragraph somewhere then chances are there should be. Gamespot blog is very temperamental when it comes to making new paragraphs. There needs to be no space at all at the end of a paragraph or it won't count. I've spent about 15 minutes trying to sort it so hopefully it's ok. In C1 an elite team of soldiers field testing the Nanosuits designed by the Hargreave-Rasch Corperation landed in Lingshan and inadvertently awoke an ancient alien race called the Ceph (likely due to their likeness to Cephalopods in Earth fauna). The Ceph then proceeded to blow the hell out of the Army. A Ceph ship comes out of the mountain and the protagonist, one of the Elite Team called Nomad, goes into it to find out information about the aliens. Things get big and there is a large battle near the end where the Ceph ship fighting the USS Constitution and Nomad ends up blowing them both to hell. That's the bare basics I've gathered from Crysis Wiki etc. We then continue the story as Alcatraz sent into New York to rescue a guy named Nathan Gould who has info on the Ceph who have, out of nowhere, attacked the city. Prophet trades his body for Alcatraz's and inhabits the suit while Alcatraz finishes Prophet's mission which was the same as the Marine's. CELL, a private merc company working for CryNet start gunning Alcatraz down thinking he's Prophet, although it's not really explained within the game as to why they start shooting him. I just assumed that they don't like the suit and it makes them nervous. Anyway, long story short, Alcatraz fights the Ceph throughout the streets of New York, assisting Gould and Col. Barclay in evacuating civilians, finding out about the suit evolving into a bio-weapon against the Ceph, killing Lockhart, meeting Hargreave who explains some things and escaping before the house explodes. To finish the game we have Alcatraz destroying a large ship that surfaced from Central Park (Yeah, we just happened to put that park there exactly over the ship and make it big enough so it just fits when it comes out) and hovered over the city for a bit until Alcatraz blew it up and turned the bio-weapon it was going to use on the humans against the Ceph, with the aid of the suit. This is where the story starts to go a bit askew. We learned throughout C2 that Hargreave developed the suit from alien material he found in Tunguska, Russia, after the event that blew down a load of trees (the actual event is full of speculation but most people agree that it was a meteorite that exploded in the atmosphere and the shock wave flattened the trees. There are, however, people who believe it was aliens). We also learn the Hargreave developed the suits with his partner, Rasch, who helped build the Hargreave-Rasch corporation. What isn't explained is that this corporation is the mother company of CryNet, and therefore, CELL. Hargreave mentioned that Rasch was already dead or, at least, couldn't possibly be alive any more since he refused to use the pickled in a tube method. At the end of C2, when Alcatraz/Prophet is getting out of the crater he snoozed in, we hear Rasch and he introduced himself to Prophet (easier to call him that now). This sets up for the next game to have a very good conspiracy sounding sub plot/main plot to unfold but in C3 they really let that down. Rasch became a simple guy in the resistance that really didn't do anything for a long while until he disappears only to reappear at the top of a tower (and I must say, it's odd that Psycho and Claire managed to get up the tower considering Prophet had to wade through an army of corpses to get there himself) and mutter something from the Hive mind before being killed. I think that his role in C3 was a wasted opportunity. They set up a great base to have a conspiracy to show some of what happened between Hargreave and Rasch but and have Rasch take control etc. While we're on that section of the game, this is the first proper appearance by the Alpha Ceph and I have to say, it does look a bit stupid with those rotary drill bits on the sides of it's head. For it's hands, should it have them, they might have worked but on it's head, just looked silly. I was expecting some badass looking thing to be the Alpha Ceph. To be honest, until it appeared after destroying the Subject X facility I thought that the awesome Ceph Mothership coming through the portal would be the Alpha (Something which looks very similar to the Tyrannid Hive Ships from Warhammer 40K). There are a good number of things that aren't properly explained, at least not easily locatable, such as what the hell happened to Alcatraz. I had to look up what happened to him on the net! I would have thought that would be an obvious thing to put into the game near the beginning. It's all well and good leaving it up to the players at the end of C2 but it would have been better for some proper confirmation and recognition. Alcatraz wasn't even mentioned in C3. All I found on the subject was a footnote in a piece of intel about Prophet himself. I think he deserved a little more mention. Also, other characters weren't mentioned. What the hell happened to Gould, Strickland and Barclay? We are just to assume they're dead or what? They were good characters and I liked them. It's a shame they were just dropped in favour of a new cast and even they aren't all that new with Psycho being a recurring character. According to the Crysis Wiki Gould is apparently missing and Tara is a Senator. Barclay has nothing as does Chino. But this information is definitely not obvious and I think is an injustice to the characters and players to not mention them more openly. Its almost like they were trying to make a stand alone game that you could play without much prior knowledge to the other games. Mind you, I had prior knowledge but I was lost for a good few levels. History wise, we know very little of what happens between C2 and C3 except that CELL took power and rule the planet with free energy that they charge a arm and a leg for. Despite everyone in the game calling the foes CELL and such, isn't it technically CryNet that is in control since CELL is the military arm of that company? I gather that the Hargreave-Rasch corporation fell apart but CryNet would still have been able to continue. I would hypothesise that CryNet was assimilated into CELL using the latter's name but all the CELL equipment pretty much has a "Made by CryNet" written on them. It would have been nice to not be landed in the middle of a very different setting of the world compared to that of C2. C3 had you lost for a few levels while you had to piece together what happened. While I get that Prophet was pretty much in the same predicament, waking up to a different world with no info, I'm sure he would have tried to find out a little more than what we got. Finally, for the bad points, I would like to address the behaviour and portrayal of the Ceph themselves. From what I gathered during the games is that the Ceph were originally on Earth before humanity evolved and populated it. It's not mentioned whether the Ceph colonised Earth or whether they evolved on it but I would lean more towards the former since the latter would have left more similar fauna in the oceans than what we have now. While I get that the Ceph are linked via a Hive Mind (another link to the tryannids, along with the Ceph's fondness for tentacles, the game's emphasis on DNA incorporation and evolution and the many varying forms of Ceph), as we have seen with the Stalkers at the beginning, when the link to the Hive Mind is severed the remaining Ceph essentially go feral. But that's not what happened at the end of C3, oh no. Instead they explode. Simple as that. Why would they do that compared to going feral as before? As seen with many other Hive Mind alien races, when the big one dies and the connection is severed, the others don't die, they just become very animalistic. Another thing which isn't explained is why the Ceph are attacking. Sure, as I mentioned before, the Ceph on Lingshan were awoken by the alien tech within the nanosuits but what about New York? We have no context as to why they popped up there and no-where else despite Prophet saying they were all over the planet. I believe we were also treated to a global hologram showing Ceph bases at some point in C2, near the end I think. Hargreave talks about the Ceph coming back to Earth (as being the original owners and thus implying they may have evolved there, but why wasn't there much else to show that they have? A couple of underground spaceships/bases doesn't explain that.) and cleaning out the metaphorical fridge. But where did the Ceph attacking New York come from? Did they wake up from their underground ship or did they arrive from another planet? Hargreave's words do imply that they arrived from space in that invasion but looking at events it's more logical to think that they woke up from their underground ship. An excerpt from the Crysis Wiki mentions that the aliens only have a scientific interest in Earth. To quote "In Legion, however, it is speculated that the aliens' interest in Earth is on a purely scientific level; that is, they could be looking for unique, surprising proteins that evolved in Earth biota. If this is the case, the transported human tissue could be used as research material." That is a good and logical explanation since it would confirm that they have research bases all over the planet and why they came in such a small number. However, the Ceph themselves seem very well armed to be scientists and the insides of their ships don't really look like they could be labs. All we have to go there are the little Ticks that harvest people infected with the virus. There's a lot that has either not been included or hasn't been thought out that this bit has been found wanting. The excuse "Oh, we just wanted to make a video game where you just shoot aliens. We didn't bother with the logic". I can both agree and disagree with that. True, the games are just there to entertain us and there are many people who enjoy a good alien invasion. But in our current gaming generation it is vital to make the story work, to have them make sense. It's not enough any more to just give a player a gun and line up some enemies. You need reasons and it's not that hard to get the reasons if you think about it. The Ceph in C3, after the Alpha Ceph woke up, still seem very focused on wiping out humanity and again, they concentrated their efforts on New York. Although this was partly due to the Alpha Ceph being there but how did it get there in the first place? That's not explained either. If it was in the original New York invasion then why didn't we see it then? If they just dug it up, that's a bit of a random thing. "Oh, we just found this big ass Ceph when we were cleaning up New York after that invasion. Don't think he woke during that war." And the Ceph invasion fleet that I assume was coming through the portal created by the Alpha, was that already waiting for the portal to open? I would have thought that it would take longer than a day or so to prepare an invasion fleet fit to take out a planet. The portrayal of the Ceph didn't really give them a good reason for being on Earth other than the "oh, they're just the big ass bad guys" excuse. The reasons given contradict and the only one mentioned within the games was the least logical of the two. Now, I've been typing for a good while now and if there is anyone still reading this then I thank you for sticking with it. Often when I talk about stuff like this I can be long winded and talk a lot but I think that's both Uni training and that I get very excitable about games, especially the plots and back stories. Now, I don't like to end with negativity so I would like to just point out for those who might think I hate the entire story the things that I did like about it. What I absolutely loved was the dome around New York. While this isn't really story related, more of visual, I feel that it would be good to mention it. I have a thing for abandoned cities returning to nature kind of thing like in I am Legend, Crysis 3 etc. I think the scenery is very beautiful and I love the mix of civilisation and nature. It was a very good setting which I think the developers did a fantastic job on. I liked Psycho and Claire. I've heard some people complain that Psycho is an annoying character but I think he's good, quite funny at times but he can also quite rude and bad tempered. He's more realistic than some characters in other games who tend to be one thing and stay that thing. For example, some characters are happy but stay happy all the time even in times they shouldn't really be. Or they are permanently in a bad mood. It's not usually realistic. Obviously, it would depend on other aspects of the characters but I hope you get my drift. The plot-line up until the Alpha Ceph's release was really good. I liked the idea of the Dam producing the power. As soon as Psycho filled me in on the task I was immediately like "Hang on a minute, they have unlimited power and yet they power their defences with a dam?" I think my favourite level is the second one when you're in the long grass and the stalkers are hunting you and your HUD is disabled so you can't see them. It reminded me of the scene in Jurassic Park: Lost World where the hunters are in the long grass being stalked by the rapters. When I stealth killed a stalker and got the achievement "Clever Girl", that had me geeking out for a good while. (For those that are unaware, that is a reference to the first Jurassic Park where Robert Muldoon, the hunter, tries to hunt rapters in a forest where he basically gets stealth killed by them. Clever girl is the last thing he says before the rapter pounces him.) Anyway, I think I've talked enough so I'm going to wrap this up here and if you survived the blog until the end then I would like to thank you again for taking the time to read it and I hope you enjoyed it. (I would like to think so since you reached the end.)