Crysis 3 Remastered

Genre: First-Person Shooter

Players: 1

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Review:

(Note: This game is included in the Crysis Remastered Trilogy bundle, along with Crysis Remastered and Crysis 2 Remastered.)

Crysis 3 is a First-Person Shooter originally released on PC, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360 in 2013, and has been remastered in this port to PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch. After the revolutionary first game and the still good but somewhat underwhelming, the third game aims to end the original Crysis trilogy with a bang, combining elements of those earlier games while also improving on their flaws.

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Yet Another Crytical Look At Graphics and Performance

But of course, we can’t talk Crysis without talking about graphics and performance, and in that regard, Crysis 3’s port to Nintendo Switch is an absolute triumph. After the open-ended, lush, and beautiful natural environments of the first game (and uneven performance on the Nintendo Switch), and the superb port of the less-impressive urban-centric Crysis 2, the third game brings the series back to New York, but a New York that looks nothing like what it was in the previous installment. Now much of the city is reduced to rubble and overgrown with greenery, and new modern structures rise above the debris, with the area encased in a dome, a testament to the area’s takeover by the opportunistic Cell organization players fought in prior games.

This environmental design acts pretty much as a “best of both worlds” combination of the design ethos of the earlier two games – here you get beautiful, densely-overgrown environments that look impressively beautiful, given personality by the city’s remaining structures, and with a linear design that’s generally more open-ended than the second game, though not nearly as much as the first. Also, this game doesn’t bring back the destructible structures of the first game, but given the complexity of the environments, that feels more like an acceptable trade-off here. All of this is combined with some of the best-looking character models in the series, with some of these characters looking more detailed and realistic than anything else seen on the Nintendo Switch.

As with Crysis 2, the Nintendo Switch version plays with a dynamic resolution of 900p in docked mode and a dynamic 720p in handheld mode, which once again demolishes the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions of the game – much as with Crysis 2, these last-gen versions of Crysis 3 topped out at 1152×720, not quite reaching 720p. And while the previous-generation versions of the game bounced between framerates of 30FPS and under 20FPS, the Nintendo Switch version of the game features a smooth, stable 30FPS framerate (thanks to Digital Foundry for the numbers).

Compared to prior versions of the game, the Nintendo Switch version also features improved textures, improved anti-aliasing, and improved lighting and shadows… just overall this game is improved over prior versions in numerous ways. That’s not to say it’s flawless, though – there is some minor pop-in (though not as bad as what was in PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions of the game), and at times there’s some blurriness at the edges of objects that can be disorienting. But overall, this is a magnificent port. Naturally, it doesn’t look as good as the other modern remasters of the game releasing on modern platforms, but if you’re expecting something like that, you’ll never be pleased with how a Nintendo Switch game looks.

I think this might get lost in all the comparisons to last-gen hardware and concessions about the remaster not looking as good as it does modern platforms, but this is an absolutely incredible-looking game even to this day, and there’s clearly a reason this game brought last-gen game systems to their knees. Yet here it is, running on Nintendo’s underpowered portable hardware just fine. Better than fine, in fact – I’d go as far as to say that despite being based on a game that’s currently 8 years old, Crysis 3 Remastered may very well be one of the best-looking games on Nintendo Switch. To see visuals of this quality running on Nintendo Switch is nothing short of stunning.

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If At First You Don’t Succeed, Cry, Cry Again…

Okay, so the graphics are phenomenal, but how does it play? In a word, brilliantly.

I feel like this game addresses each and every issue I had with Crysis 2, and the result is a single-player campaign that is an absolute joy to play. The enemy AI is much-improved and far more realistic this time, taking actions that make a lot more sense given the situation, being reasonably smart but not having some sort of radar sense that automatically spots you when your cloak goes down.

Speaking of the cloak, stealth in this game is worlds better than what was in Crysis 3. As someone who likes to play a stealthy, sneaky character, I was overjoyed with the improvements to stealth in this game, which now not only makes silenced weapons actually viable, but introduces a bow and arrow that plays like a love letter to stealth fans (and it doesn’t even take up a weapon slot!).

The prior game’s issue with repetition is greatly helped by shaking up the variety of enemies and environments more frequently, the feeling of being railroaded is averted somewhat by the more open environments (though still focused enough to keep things moving), the frequent presence of an AI-controlled helper character adds more personality than the prior game constantly having a talking head on your comm constantly telling you what to do… in so many ways, Crysis 3 feels like everything this series has been trying to be for a while now.

However, there is one major flaw here, and it’s one of the same flaws that was in the Nintendo Switch port of Crysis 2 – the multiplayer has been stripped out of this version of the game. This is only the single-player campaign. At the very least, we once again have the optional addition of gyroscopic motion controls added to this version, for what it’s worth.

It’s a shame that Crysis 3 lost its multiplayer mode in the transition to Nintendo Switch, because everything else about this port works like a dream. This is an absolutely gorgeous game that looks better than it ever did in prior versions, the gameplay fixes pretty much all of the major flaws I felt prior entries in the series had, and the result is without a doubt one of the best single-player First-Person Shooters on the Nintendo Switch. If you’re a fan of the genre wanting a great shooter to take on the go, or simply don’t have another modern platform to play this game on, do yourself a favor and buy Crysis 3 Remastered on the Nintendo Switch.

tl;dr – Crysis 3 Remastered is an absolute marvel of a First-Person Shooter on the Nintendo Switch, featuring some of the best graphics on the platform, with visuals and performance that far outpaces prior console versions of the game. What’s more, the gameplay has been much-improved over previous entries in the series, with better enemy AI, improved stealth, better pacing and variety. This is an absolute must-have First-Person Shooter campaign. It’s a shame the Nintendo Switch version drops the multiplayer mode that was in the original, but in all other respects, this is a spectacular port to Nintendo’s handheld, and absolutely worth a look for any fans of the genre.

Grade: A-

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This game has been nominated for one or more of eShopperReviews 2021 Game Awards:

Winner:

Most Overlooked – This award is for a great game that doesn’t even have enough reviews to qualify for a Metacritic score, and I’m honestly stunned that a major release like Crysis 3 didn’t garner any significant media attention, despite this being an absolutely incredible port, and one of the best-looking games on Nintendo Switch. Yes, it’s a port of a game that’s almost a decade old, but it’s still visually stunning and an absolute blast of a First-Person Shooter to play. However, the lack of reviews for this one is especially bothersome here, as one of the big questions regarding this game is how well it runs specifically on Nintendo Switch (the answer is “extremely well”, though of course not as good as other modern gaming platforms or a high-end gaming PC). Other games on this list were somewhat smaller releases that deserved more attention, but this is a major release that for some reason isn’t being treated as one. For shame.

Runner-Up – Best Port/Remake, The “Wow, this game was way better than I expected!” Award, Best Graphics

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