Crysis 3 is set in 2047, when New York has been enclosed in a giant bio-dome (or nanodome, as the game calls it) for many years in the aftermath of the Ceph alien infestation. The Ceph themselves have continued to evolve inside; there are plenty of the same robot/alien crossbreeds that Crysis 2 players have already fought, but new breeds like fire-spewing Scorchers and flying recon droids that can remotely disable your dynamic camouflage have also emerged. You take control of Prophet, a returning hero for the series, on a revenge mission against the corrupt CELL Corporation, which installed the Liberty Dome in the first place – and have now abandoned it to the Ceph.
Prophet comes with his own signature weapon, a collapsible composite bow that can fire several types of bolt (and reminds me rather a lot of Hawkeye's in The Avengers). When firing from a distance, the camera follows the bolt's trajectory before it embeds itself in the head of an unsuspecting alien. In situations when noise isn't so much of a problem, it can fire explosive or incendiary warheads to control crowds of aggressors. The reveal demo, set in flooded former Chinatown, starts off quietly, with stealthy reconnaissance and silent killing, before a rogue Ceph recon droid blows Prophet's cover, setting up a showpiece large-scale firefight.
Crysis 3 is an interesting game to watch because of the arresting contrast between the wild outdoors, which often isn't remotely recognisable as a former city street, and the still-intact buildings and interiors higher up in the city. It's true to an extent that this is a synthesis of both previous games; you leap and roll from skyscraper rooftops like you did in Crysis 2, and creep through drooping foliage on the ground like in Crysis 1. Inside one building, furniture and light fittings still decorate a grand room, whilst a crumbled wall reveals the jungle outside, crawling with danger.
Keeping quiet – stalking the undergrowth with cloaking engaged, stabbing Ceph through the head from behind and sniping with the crossbow – might be the least dangerous path, but there are other options. You can also fire immensely powerful alien weapons, which Prophet's Nanosuit has evolved to accommodate. It doesn't seem to like it that much when you tear a plasma grenade launcher off the arm of some Ceph behemoth, flashing INCOMPATIBLE HARDWARE in the corner of the screen in big red letters, but it works fine, firing balls of white-hot death with an almighty shudder, sending plumes of swampy water up into the air. The layout, with its high buildings and dense undergrowth, allows for an interesting combination of urban and jungle combat styles; one minute Prophet his hiding behind the walls of a former apartment block or sniping from a rooftop, the next he's dashing across old metal beams from building to building, avoiding fire from the jungle below.
The Nanosuit itself is still at the centre of Crysis, ever-present as an overlay on your first-person view of the world. It lets you scan the area for enemies, decorating the screen with tactical information that helps you to decide how to approach. It imbues Prophet with superhuman powers that can still lead to moments of elated disbelief as you pull through a situation that looks impossible or uppercut an enemy six feet into the air. Only one new ability was explicitly shown: Prophet can remote hack enemy turrets, turning them against the Ceph to create a distraction.
The demo ends ominously, with Prophet surrounded by Ceph outside a communications tower, his weapon knocked from his hand. Throughout the reveal presentation, he has been the hunter; once he's overwhelmed, it's clear that he's vastly outnumbered inside the Liberty Dome. It seems inevitable that this will define the pace of the game: the suit might make him almost superhuman, but Prophet is a vulnerable figure in these surroundings.
At the moment, Crysis 3's setting is the most interesting thing about it. Its artistic direction and extreme good looks are seductive, as is the sense of absolute power that the Nanosuit conveys, but gameplay-wise, everything in this reveal demo is something we've seen before (alien weapons are new to the series, but they're hardly new to shooters). We can safely assume, however, that Crytek has more to show in the coming months, and hope that the developer's traditionally strong enemy AI will keep the game as interesting on a minute-to-minute gameplay level as it is look at. It's currently planned for Spring 2013.