Crysis 3 Was Doomed From the Start (Story Explained)
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- čas přidán 19. 06. 2024
- Crysis 3 tried its best with both the story and the gameplay but it simply could not make everyone happy after they switched gears in Crysis 2. There is a lot of good buried under the weight of expectation, it's just a shame it couldn't save the game, but we'll see that soon enough on this episode of What's the Plot...
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- CHAPTERS -
00:00 - Intro
01:24 - How We Got Here
02:42 - The Many Crimes of CELL
07:49 - Meeting the Rebels
09:03 - Dealing with System X
10:13 - The Skinning Lab
15:09 - Red Star Rising
17:29 - Prophet and Psycho
20:04 - Wormholes Are Neat
21:00 - Archangel
25:13 - The Good, The Bad, The Annoying
29:37 - Changing Crysis
35:46 - Closing Thoughts & Outro
OUTRO MUSIC
Song: Egzod, Maestro Chives, Neoni - Royalty [NCS Release]
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#crysis3 #crytek #videogames #gaming - Hry
The whole "forced to do evil" angle was explored in Metal Gear Rising Revengeance. In that game it was the bad guys using it as a counterpoint to Raiden's assertion that he was on the side of Justice. It was the exposure to the "hypocrisy" of Raiden killing people who were "just following orders" that breaks Raiden and he momentarily straight up disregards his moral code in favor of survival and reverts to being the mindless killing machine he was once known to be, gloriously backfiring in the villians' faces.
Both games were released on THE SAME DAY.
It also does the moral ambiguity well, because after his initial berserk, he calls up his buddies, apologizes, and asks if they're going to be okay with him having to revert to Jack the Ripper to stop the horror that's happening in World Marshal - it's not pleasant, but he needs to be the wetwork guy for the sake of everyone else.
This is unfortunately also the reason why MGR's story feels unresolved by the end (I'm convinced they expected to get a sequel).
Raiden understands that he is absolutely 100% as bad as the people he's killing - war and violence, no matter how necessary, can never be justified when civilians are always the ones who will suffer - but he accepts this and continues killing for his idea of the greater good. Roll credits.
Raiden's gone back to something like seeking justice by the ending, but that rings hollow after the events of the game. He's still killing people. If Raiden's key character theme is the question of if he's a person or a weapon, what kind of conclusion are we to draw if he continues to do as a weapon does? A weapon cannot change the underlying systems of the world. It can only shed blood. It can only kill.
Basically, what was the point of any of that? Maybe _that question itself_ is the point, but I don't think it feels intentional. It wouldn't have ended on such a blatant sequel hook if they wanted an _actually_ ambiguous ending; the story just feels unfinished.
(also Armstrong's ideal world wasn't actually that much worse than the world that already exists in MGR. It's basically just 'instead of the global war machine killing civilians for money, I will make it kill civilians for ideals (until someone more powerful comes along to usurp me, I guess)'. Like, the end result is still 'cyborg mercenaries are the main economic sector in the world because reasons'. whatever. maybe Raiden's killing cyborg bankers at the end or something)
MGR *wishes* it was that deep and thought provoking lmao
@@Jormyyy
Did you even listen to the soundtrack bro?
@@arifhossain9751it's hit or miss with some people.
"Why does Prophet running around on a tropical island, i thought he was Alcatraz soup, hold together by good wishes and alien pixie dust?"
"Nanomachines, son!"
Lots and lots of alien pixie dust.
@@JoshSweetvale Nice. So we have spiced up Alcatraz soup.
The idea of Prophet and Alcatraz having back and forth reactive to play style and choices of how to handle engagements sounds genuinely interesting, though given the era of gaming it's from does feel to me like it might risk leading to some tacked-on oversimplified morality system being shoved in to the game.
The first thing I thought of was Fear 3, which is never a good sign.
My biggest issue was the absence of Alcatraz. He was the protagonist of an entire game and yes he called himself prophet at the end of 2 but still he is the most recent conscience in the suit. It should have definitely played some kind of role in the game instead of prophet alone.
It's another thing that's explained and explored in a book, frustratingly. C3 does have an intel item saying Alcatraz's "neural file" was damaged in that last interface with the spore mechanisms in C2, which isn't quite how the interquel book explains it.
You *can’t* go making me want a Crysis game that doesn’t exist, it’s frankly unfair
The end of the game really hit for me. I relate to the feeling of not being quite as 'human' as is expected, and when I saw Prophet's suit had adapted to give him back his (nearly) original appearance I cried a bit. To me, getting back his humanity was all he wanted in his final moments floating through space. His suit, post dopamine inhibitor deactivation and after absorbing more and more power, was able to give him some semblance of that. It also calls back to the earlier line from Psycho, when he asks Prophet if he even has a face under the suit. All in all, it tied up nicely enough for me. I may have been the exact target audience for this one.
I do like it as an ending for Prophet, I think his character journey is fun. I also think it's a pretty transparent send-off to the Crysis series: tacking on an emotionally gratifying ending scene where it doesn't necessarily make plot-sense, to leave the franchise on a high note.
i"m with You on this one, crysis 3 was to me much more enjoyable than the second game and Prophet being now able to sit down and relax AND if need be have full access to his nanosuit powers is a nice cherry on top.
It makes you think though: Prophet literally consumed Alcatraz to reform himself. That's a bit awkward isn't it, especially as Alcatraz never had a say in it.
@@tjroelsma that's right poor Alcatraz
@@tjroelsma Prophet didn't have a say in it either, though.
They actually explain it n the intel you gather that the reason firing Archangel is so deadly is because Ceph energy mechanisms harmonise in a chain reaction, so firing pure concentrated energy (which is also stated to be their form of gestalt hive intelligence) increases the power exponentially. Hence why Archangel threatened to destroy the planet if they hit the Alpha Ceph.
Which is also why using the remaining 95% of Archangel's charge was probably the only thing on or around earth that had any chance of stopping the M33 Ceph.
Concerning how the laser satellite was able to destroy the ceph I think it was because it was in the middle of traversing the wormhole, I'm no physicist but it sounds logical to me that their energy absorption, shields and what not would not agree with a wormhole so either prophet was lucky and struck during the only window they were vulnerable( which fits as you taking too long and the ceph clearing the wormhole is a game over) or the laser destabilized the wormhole so the ceph got portal chopped
I kind of would assume the opposite given they were using a white hole initially and would need to be conducting energy to move through the wormhole. A lot of their tech being energy conducive makes exact sense if this is the kind of thing they do normally. Maybe archangel threw it out of wack but honestly it's energy being enough to disrupt a wormhole from a whole other galaxy is kind of weird. Planetary scale energy is kind of a blip at that point
Archangel isnt planetary scale energy though iirc? Isnt it not directly drawing from the same energy generated by the alpha ceph, the very thing powering the wormhole in the first place?
@@Spectre-907 It's less than that yes, planetary was noting the scale of destruction since it has enough energy to pierce a tectonic plate. It's a regulator and facilitator of energy from the grid sourced by the alpha. So CELL is basically using it as a battery usually and the expunging a bunch now.
I assumed shields were down and that the ceph did not expect to meet a species violent but restrained enough to create a weapon that use the whole energy production of the planet and not destroy themselves with it.
Additionaly, Archangel was probably feeding on the beam itself, boosting its power
@@nathanarmaing5575 Yeah, I personally just figured *absolutely catastrophic* energy dump into an alien Science Hole(tm) causes "instabilities" for anything having to cross that exotic environment intact
they sacrificed gameplay for story, but even the story is odd as it feels like there's some in between that is missing. You then end up with an oil and vinegar situation where it ends up separating after a while.
Your expose on the whole "debt slave" plot point within the first few minutes was spot on. It would have been more meaningful if the CELL operators didn't all behave like they did in crysis 2, being military jarheads for hire. Same voicelines and squad commands, etc. Would have been better if they all had differing reactions or varying levels of competence and morale.
Edit#2: Love how you seamlessly brought together all the bits and bobs revealed through the Crysis 3 intel into a more approachable game than what was currently givin.
Yeah even Crysis 2 had some character to CELL compared to 3. Like on the FDR highway section where Strickland tells CELL to stand down and not fire on Prophet and one of them replies "Prophet? That piece of shit took out half of Cobalt section!" before ambushing you. It's a small touch but it was something.
@@kestrel1917 This then happens a second time with "Hazel Section" in the submerged parking garage segment.
"Hazel section what the hell do you think you are doing?! Cease fire now!"
"blow it out your ass, old man. This piece of shit took out half of Maroon section, Prophet dies, here and now!"
This is also what makes the escape from the Prism where CELL is your ally for a very brief amount of time, and how they are willing to sacrifice themselves on the bridge segment in order for you to escape. That's remarkable professionlism.
@@kestrel1917 Although I like Crysis 3, it does feel a bit like Crytek was running on fumes.
Crysis was an unexpected success because it had originality.
Crysis 2 felt a bit like a "me too" game by a competing studio: it had many key elements from Crysis, but it felt like they didn't really know what to do with them.
Crysis 3 at times felt like Crysis of old, at times like Crysis 2 and at times like somewhat sloppy leftovers from both Crysis and Crysis 2.
Which is a bit of a shame, because what started out with a bang, slowly died with something approaching a whimper. The strange thing is that all three games are still replayable to me, because each one still has something that takes me in every time I start a new run.
@@tjroelsma the crysis legion book was awesome, but the crysis two game while a fun shooter, kind of lost something from crysis one. Game should have felt like crackdown/prototype/saint row, vanquished 4, where you are this superhuman being that can do some crazy things. Sprint should of been as fast as some vehicles, melee attacks should off done a lot of damage and more easy power jumper lets one leap building casually.
@@brendenhawley2225 Sure, but remember the first Crysis, although being very popular, didn't make Crytek much money, as it was one of the most pirated games at the time. I can't shake the feeling that that fact had a huge influence on the decision to switch to the Xbox 360.
Arguably that Xbox 360 wasn't as powerful as the top-end PC's at the time, so I think it's safe to say that Crytek deliberately "dumbed down" Crysis 2 (much smaller and tighter maps) to make sure it would run well on the 360. It's also entirely possible that the 360's hardware simply couldn't deal with much higher sprinting speeds without having to either drop the framerate. They also had to drop some of the special modes, as the Xbox controller didn't have enough buttons for them.
And so the trilogy is over. We have eaten great
There will be a 4th game. They announced they are working on it and they are hiring people for it
@@rafalst But will it be as iconic as the trilogy? For me the story of the nano-suit and/or Prophet has been told and it has been told well. Trying to revive Crysis feels like a belated cash-grab to me, especially as Crytek and the Cry-Engine have pretty much faded out since Crysis 3. And you can already make the argument that Crysis 2 and 3 suffered from the concept of diminishing returns. So what could a part 4 bring?
I like your suggestion on how to tackle the story, but here's what I would have done with some of the story elements you introduced. I feel like there's interesting ground to pull around the role of technology, agency, second chances, and transhumanism. Forgive me if this is just a long, rambling and pointless paragraph dump but it's less a story treatment and more of a pitch.
Rather than Alcatraz remaining in the suit with Prophet, it's just Prophet at the start. Prophet constantly talks about the sacrifices he made, but Psycho calls Prophet out for using someone like spare parts, and Prophet doesn't see anything wrong with that (primarily because the nanosuit itself doesn't, and is influencing Prophet). Something akin to "Oh, you made sacrifices, didn't you? What about that poor jarhead you shoved into that suit, did he sacrifice himself so you could come back?" Prophet retorts something like "It's different", and Psycho gives a dismissive "Yeah, it's different, isn't it." Prophet reasons to others and himself that he has his mission to defeat the Ceph, and Alcatraz didn't, but each time he says it, it's less convincing.
Eventually, Prophet realizes he can't fight this war alone, and they infiltrate a Red Star lab, with Prophet fighting against the suit's own directives (it creates objectives but Prophet overrides them). Prophet uses a suit cradle and interfaces with its deep layers to reconstruct and bring back what he can of Alcatraz in a dedicated level that takes place inside of the suit, culminating in a cutscene between Barnes and Alcatraz about how they're so far beyond human that maybe clinging to what's left isn't that bad of an idea, and that Barnes wants to give him a choice and a second chance. They choose a joint callsign of "Theseus", and Alcatraz is able to speak with his own voice for the first time. The Suit fights back during this, saying that "Personality Imprint Reconstruction is not mission critical" but Prophet retorts "screw the mission" or something. Their relationship starts off antagonistic and with friction, but during the campaign, there would be conversations between Prophet and Alcatraz-- Alky asks if Prophet knew the suit would take over Alcatraz's body, they discuss the people they lost in their squads, etc., and when Prophet admits he made mistakes because he "was only human", Alcatraz states that "We're both only human, even now".
Rasch would also be influenced/controlled by the HiveMind in the background, often going onto these weird, long, unrelated tangents that seem just like the ramblings of a senile old man- stuff about butterflies and caterpillars, metamorphosis, ships sailing across an ocean, etc.. Eventually, these would be spelled out along with the rest of the Ceph colonization strategy, as the Ceph themselves don't make a distinction between technology and biology, beings of thought and energy with a malleable substrate... just like Prophet and Alcatraz. For the ceph, colonization doesn't necessarily mean conquest, and humanity isn't the first intelligent species they've encountered. As long as Ceph technology exists, the Ceph exist, and any species attempting to fight fire with fire just ends up being integrated into the Ceph. As one rambling monologue from Rasch in a lucid moment goes, "Life, death, biological, mechanical, human, inhuman-- we make them separate. They do not. They have never been separate, never distinct. They only are." Just like Barnes cast off his flesh and blood for a new substrate, the Ceph do so without reflection.
The Ceph have existed for millions of years, encountered countless intelligent species, and it always ends the same way: The Ceph are not very imaginative, but they do not need to be: they just let the universe imagine things for them, and imitate and iterate upon that. For the Ceph, their colonization of Earth isn't an existential struggle: it's a science experiment, a research and development program. As long as some element of Ceph technology exists on Earth, the Ceph exist, and that includes the nanosuit.
I'm not terribly sure about what the ending would be, but one idea is for Prophet to sacrifice himself to disrupt the Ceph HiveMind and force the Ceph into hibernation while humanity figures out how to remove them, leaving Alcatraz inside an unshackled nanosuit, but this might be too easy/happy for the cosmic horror set up in the past few paragraphs.
Small correction:
Prophet at the start of C2 actually knew nothing about what would happen. He just knew the spore was eating him and he couldn't continue the mission.
He believed he was giving Alcatraz the suit in order to take up the fight and that he would fully and permanently die when he shot himself to make the suit accept a new operator.
He didn't realise just how well the nanogear would "remember him" or have any agency in it restoring him.
There are two different explanations (the one in C3 and the one in the book of interquel stories) for why Prophet's the only operational consciousness in the suit by the time of C3, but neither of them involve Prophet deliberately taking over.
I love how the biggest features of Sykes's clothes are the huge jacket bandolier of ammo, showing how he's 'limited,' and the fern camo shoulders, showing how he's 'natural.'
It's less than subtle, but it works.
Never thought of the symbolism there, but yes :P
That's too deep
When human prophet goes invisible all I can hear in my head is: "Usul no longer needs the weirding module."
He truly IS the Lisan Al-Ghaib!
About the debt slaves :
I think a few more lines stating that "OK it's horrible to be enslaved against humanity, but they *are* coming after us *and* posing a direct threat to both our mission and humanity, therefore we do what we must"
Maybe add to that an (optional) mission to destroy the enslaving system (say for arguments sake, a network of towers to control nanite injected laborers), with the consequence of not facing unwilling human slaves but purpose-breed human-alien hybrid designed to be a world-conquering force for the one or two last levels.
Giving the player the ability to make the moral choice over the practical one, having the discussion etc.
I also personally though we would get a true resolution between psycho and his girl, where his "humanity" / forgiveness /revangeance would be tested : he spends the game howling at the moon how he *will* kill his torturer, now he discovers who it is, and has to face the dilemma : go through with his promise to appease his trauma (if it can be) or move on and decide how (stay, travel the world whatever).
Honestly I'd have liked for both to survive until the end or near the end, where they would talk, the girl tell him she understands and cannot forgive herself, showing she doesn't hide behind "orders" anymore (which she tried earlier), and thus showing her humanity in her choices and their consequences, and psycho would either regrettably kill her, hating himself for doing so, maybe even remarking to himself that he's as inhuman now as prophet (in his view, for his choices of choosing revenge and killing a loved one) *or* he could just walk away, surpassing his hatred, telling her she's important, and should carry this with her to build a better future (his redemption arc, but my least favorite).
Overall the "you're dying so I forgive you" is bullshit imo.
This game being a huge part of my childhood, and it being the first ever game trailer I saw, I absolutely love this game. I used to visit my grandma's place just to play this game with like six more friends because that was one of three houses that had a computer at that time. And we played our country's version of "you're it" and many more games, while saying ''cloak engaged' and 'speed engaged' and stuff like that. We didn't even know what 'cloak' meant, but it was the coolest thing. While I agree with everything you say, I'm sharing this to say how memories and experiences can change the way you look, remember and even love something. That's just amazing to think about. But not as good as your videos!! This is literally one of my favorite channels
Game was pretty mid, but goddamn if the theme wasn't an absolute banger
Fun fact the music is done by the same guy who did Baldurs Gate 3. Borisov Slavov
@@jordanrostek1153 Did not know that, but unsurprised to discover that :D
Story may have been mid but the gameplay was fun
Ooh khunlusa, be the voice that soothes the silence of the background while I'm drawing.
Note aside, that crysis 2 ending and take over of prophet over the mangled body of a soldier that didn't want to be there in the first place made me shiver with existencial horror. Im glad the crysis 3 video came out like 3 days after I finished the last one, gause the horror it's still fresh
When I saw the announcement for this game, I was beyond excited. Even the multiplayer looked cool with the whole Nanosuit Hunters against CELL.
The downside to the game is how the game doesn't really feel like it belongs in the Crysis series. It feels like a lot of people wanted it to be a lot of things, and we basically got a Crysis Melting Pot. The 23 year jump felt like a 'We had no idea what to do with the story' and it sort of shows, with the dramatic scenes somewhat numbed with Prophet's 'must complete objective' response to everything. Every time he speaks, it feels like it's just so someone can turn round and go 'You're not human, stop talking' until that point is sometimes beaten, metaphorically, into Prophet's head and we eventually get the 'I AM human' moment in space.
Also, the fact that Alcatraz isn't even mentioned by name, merely referenced with the 'Who's face are you wearing now?' shows that everyone seems to be fine with Laurence Barnes: Bodysnatcher.
I like the bow, I like the ideas but it feels like a different game after the gem that was Crysis 2 and it's a touch bit saddening to see how this is the series' finale.
there is another crysis coming though so we shall see how that goes
Crysis 3 has it's flaws but the gameplay is some of the best in the entire series.
The dynamic between psycho and prophet is incredible.
The game has a stellar multiplayer mode.
It looks absolutely goergeous even by today's standards.
And in some ways it's a love letter to Crysis fans with it's gameplay being a hybrid of the other 2 games.
It also had a nice ending along with one of the absolute best soundtracks in gaming history.
As much as people make this game out to be bad, if you really try and appreciate what is offered here you'll find that this game had a lot of passion put into it.
Does this excuse all the issues? No, not really. Though my guess for why the game feels kind of rushed and why it's so short is that I think EA just wanted the game to come out as soon as possible.
@@RonaldAsks one of the best soundtracks in gaming? Are you high? Does it even rank in the top 100?
@@patrickbateman312 Listen. Video game music is really good. And whenever I hear a game with a good ost (especially one of my favourite games) I say it's one of the best. It would rank in the top 20 on my personal list. And I'm not high, it's genuiently really good. And to me personally very nostalgic. At the very least it's the best ost from the trilogy
@@RonaldAsks no, video game music CAN be good. And this is just not the case here. It's extremely mid. Just because you like it for some inexplicable reason doesn't make it great or memorable to anyone else.
There is a spanish youtuber who has a side channel about analyzing movies. One thing he always brings up, and imo he is right, ´If you use any media outside the movie itself to explain the main plot line,then you are doing a bad work. Nobody should be forced to go to outside media to understand whats going on´. And here is the same case.
Absolutely. The corollary to that is "Only what's in the work gets to count." You can complain that the explanation was in scenes cut in editing, or were subject to some publisher mandate all you want, but the problem is still there. (I'll just be a little more sympathetic to your frustration about it.)
I seriously just watched your first two Crysis vids this week, hoping one day you'd make a video for Crysis 3. I can't believe my lucky timing!
also I agree with your lede, something about this game just felt... lacking. I love the concept of a story revolving around a character coming to terms with what I am going to call the POSThuman condition, unfortunately in order for it to work in Crysis 3 it needed to be told better
Last time I inflicted metro on you, now I would also like to add Armored core 6
Eatin' GOOD every time a Khanlusa video drops. Been really excited for this video to escape containment and latch onto my psyche like a cybernetic suit softly whispering "I can fix him."
Hey do you know if Khanlusa is a normal girl or a trap/trans?
@@olgagaming5544 And why the hell would I care?
Ah Crysis 3, the red-headed stepchild of the trilogy. I'll always remember how utterly confused the intro of this game got me, with the concept of the "Ceph Alpha" being introduced out of the blue, Cell still being the bad guys for a good chunk of the game after what happened in 2, the sometimes atrocious dialogue that made you wonder if even this was the same people that made the previous games, etc. If Prophet wasn't such an interesting character to follow, I would've refunded the damn game at the time, but thankfully, he is, and the gameplay itself is still Crysis, so it was still a fun experience outside of the cutscenes. The ending was good tho.
Funfact : On my latest playthrough I noticed that the corpse of the suit user in the skinning lab is an asset from Crysis 1, the body of Aztech, the first of the crew to die, tangled in his parachute 🤔🤔🤔
Great job on the Vid! Absolutely loved it. I'd love to see a video on the Metro games too
amazing timing. i started replaying crysis 3 with the remaster a couple weeks ago and a few days ago came across ur crysis vids. i want to finish the game myself first tho so ill be coming back to this one later. but based on the first 2, im sure this one will be great too
I absolutely love the editing and the commentary. it really adds to the story
Loved your plot rewrite. I go even further and include that you kill the ceoh queen midway through the game however a reoccuring ceph enemy that you already fought multiple times eventually grows into the next queen. Maybe even include a double battle with that CELL guy.
One of the biggest problems with this game's story was the same problem that Dead Space 3 had: EA just pointed to Mass Effect and said "Do this." The result was two ends of beloved trilogies with lead characters who have to fight off city sized tentacle monster/robot things (which had never been even hinted at before) while being ignored by those around them when they said that those things were going to come and wipe out humanity.
The last time i played the game was when i was in my early teens and now as an adult and fully knowing what actually went down in Crysis 2 and Post-Crysis 2, God Damn the cutscenes between Barnes and Psycho gave me literal goosebumps
I also feel like while how You would have done it is generally decent enough i guess, that idea of Alcatraz and Barnes having to share 1 body and suit and a dynamic between the 2 as you said (or something near to what you said) would have been Fucking Amazing, Especially if it was written as good as the dynamic between Barnes and Psycho
Lastly, idk why people complain about it but i actually like how the Alpha Ceph has 3 drills on its head
Yeah, it's clearly a digging worm sort of being, I felt like it made sense.
Thank you so much for these Videos! Loved every one of them!
Another excellent retrospective! I hope you're doing well, and I am so very excited to see what comes next from your brain-fount.
Your video has made me a happy man! (Been waiting for this video for a long time!)❤
i found your channel randomly and tbh your uploads are like comfort shows for me now. keep it up and best wishes from the Philippines!
Nice been waiting for this one
I forgot 3 came out
You posted this at literally the perfect time I caught up with the last two vids yesterday and finished Crysis 3 today
I am normally precisely zero percent interested in games like Crysis (and co), but watching your videos on them is infinitely entertaining to me! I love your style of talking about games!
Hey Khanlusa i found your channel a week back and have since binged most of your videos. They're great! Would you please do the dead space series? I would love to hear you explain those.
Glad to catch the final part of your coverage of Crysis! I recently completed a full playthrough of the remastered releases of the games with my friends who were wholly unfamiliar with the story and plot of the Crysis games, and it gave me some interesting perspective on folks who had a fresh set of eyes to the games story and plot.
To summarize their opinions, they loved the games, but got caught up on a few of the issues regarding the plot that you did with your videos, one such issue being the topic of debt-slavery and...how it was handled during the events of the third game. It felt very confused in what it wanted the player to feel regarding this knowledge, like a part of the story itself was either cut or perhaps it being a leftover from another draft of the plot with CELL's dominance of the world.
All in all, the third game felt...under-baked in a way. Like with what you said about it trying to cater to fans of the first half of Crysis 1 and those who liked the the changes that came with Crysis 2, it felt like they were trying to juggle the plot and the parts of gameplay/mechanics they were trying to figure out were more popular with their fanbase. As a result, they likely lost a lot of potential by going through different drafts and potential directions for the story to go into while trying to figure out a gameplay balance.
I feel as though if they were either given more time or perhaps spent less time trying to appease an already fractured fanbase they could have made the story and overall plot wrap up in a MUCH cleaner manner. After all, if the fanbase was fractured, why bother trying to appease two sides that aren't going to be happy with a compromise and why not go for YOUR vision of what is best for the third installment.
I still greatly enjoyed the games, as they were a wonderful blast from the past, as I watched my dad play Crysis 2 on the 360 and helped him shoot CELL soldiers by calling out targets as a neurotic 11 year old and suggest stealth paths and the like. Very happy memories to hold onto, even if the Ceph freaked me out whenever I saw them.
Now as for a game suggestion, I actually have two suggestions for you with this comment. Depending on which is more to your tastes as one of them is...emotionally heavy. (At least with my experience). I wanted to suggest Signalis, a wonderfully fucked survival-horror game that i will always remember for as long as I live. However, if it is more of a nostalgic game you are after, I would suggest Star Wars Battlefront 2 (Classic)!
Once again, thank you for the effort that goes into your videos, its always nice to sit down for 40ish minutes and hear about your experience with some of the games that were in my childhood, even better that you bring a critical view upon them to see how they could have been improved and how much they are affected by rose-tinted glasses. Sorry for the absolute wall of text comment, and I hope your day has been going well!
Excellent summary and essay on how to fix it. Please keep doing what you're doing
I am enjoying the background music you used in each section.
I just recently played through the crysis series over a week and spent half of crysis 3 confused about what happened to alcatraz because I didn't know there was a book and then I found an ingame note that mentioned that alcatraz' personality was in storage and I just sat there like, tf???
One thing I think a lot of people might’ve missed is that at the beginning of them game there’s an area with CELL soldiers in HAZMAT suits. In the in-game lore files there’s a blurb about how those guys are on a punishment detail for disobedience. I remember reading that after killing them all and thinking “wtf how was that not addressed?” You’d think that those guys more than anyone else would be the first to drop their guns and be like “yup fuck this”.
I would like to you go through the Darksiders series, and hear your thoughts about it.
Another banger of a video. I've only played Crysis 2 way back in the PS3 and found your channel through your video on it. Now I can rewatch the entire trilogy back to back bc tism YAY! Love your content!!
I see you and appreciate you as a fellow haver of Whatever-The-Fuck-Is-Going-On-Up-There-itis ✨
@@khanlusaHey are you a girl or a trap/trans?
Love how you added the star bound sound track, and heck I loved the story you came up with that would of been interesting to play, don’t get me wrong I loved Crysis 1 2 and 3 but that would of explained the huge gaps between 2 and 3.
I think I figured out part of why this game didn’t illicit as strong of an emotional reaction as crysis 2: you are always alone and separate from the larger resistance movement. Psycho is the only friendly resistance member you only spend any time in the field with.
In 2 you had the marines to keep you grounded. You had Chino, Bradly, and later Strickland to remind you that Alcatraz was one of them. It helped you remember that there was still a man in there, even if the suit is all that’s holding him together. Now, you are almost entirely separated from any allies.
I commented on the last video that the portrayal of the marines was one of my favorite things in that game, and now I think I understand why. Because the Venn diagram between the marines bravado and the whole vibe of the “indomitable human spirit” that I got from 2 is almost a fucking circle
Great video, cant wait for the next one, keep up the good work! Never played it myself the hardware to run any Crysis was way too expensive to buy in my country but it was one of the first a searched for a lets play and i had a blast with it that way. Also thought to ask concerning the games I recommended in my previous comments are you considering them? Want to know so i could start hyping myself up if the answer is positive. Thank you in advance
the video didn't even come out 20 minutes ago chill 💀
Hey Khanlusa, just found your channel recently and I'm loving the content, if I could make a recommendation for a video, you should check out this new game called El Paso Elsewhere, its basically max Payne with vampires. I wont go into detail about the story but I feel like it would be up your alley
Genuinly enjoy your rewrite! God I wish that was the route they‘d have taken.
Republic commando would be amazing to see you breakdown, this is one of my favorite videos on one of my most love/hated games, thank you!
Claire and Michael's tragedy really shook me. Michael deserved to be happy with her man.
YESSS. Finally,I loved this game so much and love it your covering it as well
There is a tentative explanation for why the beam of the Archangel satellite can destroy the Ceph Star Destroyer without triggering the typical energy absorption ability of the Ceph.
Because the energy of the Archangel satellite comes from the ground station System X, and System X is essentially the imprisoned Alpha Ceph, so the energy filled in the Archangel is actually a kind of Ceph-specific energy that is not normal natural energy at all (I mean, the kind that conforms to physics), but is roughly equivalent to Psionic Energy (well, you know, the kind of "magic energy" that allows the main brain to control countless pawns across interstellar distances in real time like a Gestalt consciousness, can violate all normal physical laws, looks like plasma and some kind of paste, is countless times more powerful than nuclear energy, and is almost like that).
So when the Archangel satellite fired at the Ceph Star Destroyer, the Star Destroyer, which had just deployed its main gun system, was filled with a large amount of highly compressed Ceph energy in the barrel, which was interfered by the external injection of the same energy of different frequency, so it exploded.
Yes, you heard it right, a bullet hit the main gun causing a malfunction and the ammunition exploded.
This is the best deus ex machina they could come up with.
I haven't played the first 2 or read the books. I now have to go back and watch the first 2 videos to remember who everyone is.
A lot of story was weird and strange. But the personal stuff here, that I thought was amazing. Just fantastic.
And that segment in space against the Ceph ship? Design eise, it was horrifically cool.
The algorithm forced me to watch the first video of crysis. I was a fan after 3 min. The voice and humor is just perfect. Also watched the halo series because it's my favorite game. Keep up your absolut great work. Greetings from Germany :)
Thank you for covering this one it's a personal favorite problems included, would you consider looking at FUSE?
Great video. The metro series would be right up your alley in terms of story and gameplay or if you have the time kingdom come deliverance.
If you get a chance could you do a retrospective of Mirror's Edge and Mirror's Edge Catalyst? Would like to see your take on the change from linear to open world and change up in world building/setting between the two
God I love it when video game franchises explain plot details on why certain things change or happen in the sequel. JUST LIKE HALO SEEMS TO BE DOING.... HMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM. I love the Tangent's voice "Weeeee". You NEED more Subs.
Nice touch with the afterlife club music from ME 👌. You gonna do a video on the ME games? I've always wanted someone's take on them since they're by far my number 1 pick for story telling and gameplay. One thing I give to the games is their soundtrack. I'm always a sucker for game/movie music.
Chugged down all three vids in one go. Such a punch into nostalgia gland, first Crysis were the first ever game i played online, and back in that time i found friends im still in contact with today. Some of the best times i had. Any chances for Warhead vid as well?
P.S. maybe a weird thing to say, but i also greatly enjoy this soothing androgynous voice.
Found the Socialist. 😂
I enjoy your suffering but more importantly I enjoy how you take time to make sense of the insanity that we collectively experience ^^
You definitely got a subscriber 🎉🤝🏼❤️🔥
Now there could be an argument made that the energy absorbing ability has a limit (after all it is a machine which has set maximum capability), while it can tank a nuke a LOIC should pack a much heavier punch especially if fired at full power.
I'd love to see you tackle the Metro series with your breakdown style
I like the way prophet says “the ALPHA seph”
6:09: *"... Prophet is two personalities in an alien trench coat..."*
Pretty much sums up who "who" the main character really is
its possible the ceph ship is vulnerable while its traveling through the wormhole, possibly because the sheer amount of ambient energy involved would actually be a problem if they tried to absorb it? (as I recall its a game over if they actually make it through the wormhole so I guess they could turn those systems back on again?). it also makes sense that once you have a strong enough defense in the form of energy absorption you might actually start to neglect things like armor.
There's an intel item from a researcher that says Ceph mind-energy seems to do a kind of resonance-amplification thing with itself when you turn one source against another, leading to an exponentially greater destructive event than expected if you were to do something the Red Star Rising protocol.
The researcher is submitting this report to the CELL board as evidence against the use of said protocol, since it could actually destroy the planet, but is ignored IIRC.
So basically the satellite blast works on the M33 entity and wormhole because Archangel's remaining 95% charge is of Ceph mind-energy and can trigger that same resonance reaction.
I think Crysis 3 was at its best when it was pushing at the very core of the concept: A man and a nanosuit fighting against aliens. The fact that they were physically separate and at odds with each other was a good bit of work as well. The gameplay was fine, I liked the ability to set "packages" of passive mods and quickly switch between combinations of mods, but the story... I can't add anything more than what you already said. A lot of handwaving happened in 20-odd years and I'd prefer to see what happened with the other nanosuit operators instead of fighting the Ceph, again. Delighted to subscribe and keep enjoying your thoughtful and interesting story ideas for games I've played or am confused by, and if you're taking suggestions I'd be interested to see what you make of the Metro series.
The Metro games would suit your style of analysis with all the side dialogue, notes and visual storytelling that flesh out the setting.
Awesome video. Never actually finished Crysis 3 and it was my first Crysis game. The story was (to me at the time) more competent then I expected but the gameplay just drained me. Probably because fir some reason I was expecting it to be kinda like Far Cry and give me the ability to ragdoll some fools.
It'd be cool see you cover others in the "Power Suit Military Guy" genre of games that saturated the medium in that time. It was quite a time back when I was but a wee babby and couldn't actually play any of them...
For me Crysis 3 was a closure done because they thought they won't be able to do Crysis 4, but didn't exactly have idea how to do it, but agreeing to do the C3 created a deadline they had to be within.
Funny how nowday there's a remake or next game (I don't remember rn) in making.
My poor boy Alcatraz, getting possesed by the suit, loved crysis 2 and 3 but i like the mute protagonist of 2 more
I know this is really obscure and might be super hard to play but the game is called "Sands Of Destruction" I think its story would be really interesting to talk about
Oh great video btw I'd been waiting on this forever. Honestly I'd have to play crysis 3 again before I form any final opinions on the game. Loved it when I played it tho, the boss fights weren't the best tho
lol the title alone got me here
Lucky for me this video dropped today, I only recently watched your other 2 crisis videos.
And I always thought that the reason the space laser worked on the ceph ship was because it was still in 'transition' from the white whole, I dont think you would keep your 'energy absorbing' ability turned on when traversing an energy dense-expelling thing like a white hole.
But could be that the writers/makers sort got themselves in a pickle where no weapon made by humans could damage it? Maybe the space laser should have been giant railguns that 'PIERCE' through instead.
There's an intel item from a researcher that says Ceph mind-energy seems to do a kind of resonance-amplification thing with itself when you turn one source against another, leading to an exponentially greater destructive event than expected if you were to do something the Red Star Rising protocol.
The researcher is submitting this report to the CELL board as evidence against the use of said protocol, since it could actually destroy the planet, but is ignored IIRC.
Using this effect is actually why the satellite blast then works so effectively on the M33 entity and E-R Bridge. Archangel's remaining 95% charge is of Ceph mind-energy and can trigger that same resonance reaction. If Prophet hadn't been sucked into space, earth would have been in deep trouble.
You make very valid points about the game's story. I think they could've just used a new faction that arose to replace CELL since stuff like that happens all the time IRL. Different reactions from different people being "forced" to fight would've been very interesting. Especially if it would've implemented some type of moral system that determined how human or alien you became by the end. Good ending/bad ending type stuff. And perhaps Archangel would've been more believable if it was a weapon that drained energy rather than firing it.
Either way, I'm one of the outliers that enjoyed both of the 1st 2 games and plot holes aside, still loved C3 as well. I try to go into all entertainment experiences with no pre-conceived expectations and as a result I believe it decreases the chances that I'll be disappointed. Then I'll go back and reflect on an experience to pick apart the "what was goods" and "what could've been betters" and "what sucked" aspects of an experience later. I feel by doing that it also more openly exposes the truly trash experiences when even with NO expectations I'm still disappointed.
You should do a video on Darkwood :D
Him: What's the plot?
Me: Shit.
Also at 9:45: *"making our way downtown..."*
I see what you did there 😏
I thoroughly enjoyed this game back in the day
The 2010 shooter: "Singularity" is something that you might really enjoy!
While I do not agree with you all the time, you make some great quality videos! Just one tip, your own voice volume is a bit low conpared to in game audio. I tend to lower volume when you switch to in game dialogue only to raise it again after you resume talking. Just wanted to let you know ^^
Found you like 3 days ago. I was hoping you'd do Crysis 3 lol.
i just found out so you have to know in dishonored lady Boyle is canonically given to the stalker it was confirmed by creators in a later comic. D: very sadge. I have no idea if this will affect your decision to get clean hands in dishonored
The first Crysis was amazing. It looked amazing for the time, had great gameplay and the story had an amazing over the top twist.
You went in expecting farcry and suddenly you find you find yourself in a bombastic Halo situation and then ending on a great cliffhanger.
Unfortunately the sequels never lived up to the first game and was weighed down by melodrama and boring corporate enemies for most of the remenaing games.
the whole part with: "shooting archangel at the ceph could make them stronger" part is actually Stage 1 within the first game
in 3, shooting at the Alpha would pretty much detonate a good portion of the world due to the whole energy instability that would happen, the Alpha *in theory* is using the harvested energy from Crysis 1 in order to let itself do what it does
it kept the beam up for the wormhole to work, but if CELL were to fire upon the Alpha it would've pretty much killed everyone and closed the portal before the real force came in
although i do admit that Prophet shooting a bow into the Alphas head was pretty cool, especially the line: "This ones for Raptor Team you son of a bitch!"
as for Archangel blowing up the main force, it could be the same energy instability caused by Archangel which probably acts the same as a lighter near a gas-leak
but i personally dont understand how did the portal close if it was one ship being blown to bits? i just assume the amount of released energy from the explosion was so high that it caused the wormhole to close and for the Ceph to lose contact with their Earth branch entirely
i just hope Crysis 4 has more focus in terms of story and the same fun gameplay of 3
You're correct, there's an intel item from a researcher that says Ceph mind-energy seems to do a kind of resonance-amplification thing with itself when you turn one source against another, leading to an exponentially greater destructive event than you'd expect from just looking at the energy inputs. It's why Red Star Rising was planet-threatening and it's why Archangel's remaining 95% charge was capable of doing what it did to the M33 entity.
Damn, I want to play your version of Crysis 3.
Heavily agree with most points raise tho not on the bow , to me that felt like an addition for the sake of having a bow(because bows were popular thing to put in FPS games at the time). Same goes for all the story beats and VA tho i would add that i think levels were cut, the game is just way too short and some level transitions felt like there was supposed to be something in between at a few points like before the level where u go to the skinning lab(tho iirc the tower was explained by saying it was in "manual" mode). Surprised you didn't mention the "hidden " scene with Psycho after the ending of crysis 3(tho i'm divided about it being very satisfying and just not working) , a lot of people missed it tho in part because Crysis 3 is very buggy for a lot of people and RNG code breaks can break levels in advance, this i feel adds to the possibility that it was a rushed and crunched out game.
Some points i would offer
-Imo they should have made separate CELL grunts, ones that clearly had superior gear and training being the professional hired guns and then the debt slave ones who clearly had the crap gear and you could even explain why they don't rise up as something like IFF fire lock on the guns, later on you could even make a plot point about subverting this to allow for an uprising of a part of the CELL force.
-Alpha ceph is just stupid i can relate to your pain. I also think subverting or mind controlling ceph was a missed opportunity.
-As for the energy i have seen and know several possible explanations like the treshhold. I think the unknowns left in their ability to absorb it leave enough room for interpretation sort of how they were affected by things like the microwave gun in crysis 2 or their own shock weapons. They are definitely not able to always absorb it with the only definite way we have seen being the bubble shield from ling shan.
-Another one i would offer is that possibly due to it transitioning trough the wormhole whatever defensive systems it had were down for one reason or another, maybe it interferes with the process or something.
- The things happening between 2 and 3 sound like they were making for an amazing singleplayer (wit maybe COOP) game. Various nations nanosuit users even former enemies like NK and US coming together to fight CEPH outbreaks around the globe fully on their own, i severely doubt NK was the only other country with nanosuits. It just sounds like an an epic well of potential both for character stories but also users realizing what the suits are and what they can do to their minds and bodies especially after they find out what happened to Prophet/Alcatraz. It just begs to be explored.
Personally i would argue that building off that and fighting off resurgent CELL as they interfere more and more while trying to prove to the world that an invasion is indeed coming would be far more interesting.
A few scattered additions/options i could see here:
1. One thing that you could exploit here ( ok is a bit fanboyish of me) is time travel as seen in the comic set after crysis 1, if it was me you could use this to save nomad or maybe being unable to do so prophet fuses him into himself now adding a third mind. A plot reason for this could even be to resist some sort of ceph ability , combating the hive mind with a hive mind of sorts.
2. I would i think keep Karl Ernst Rasch being a double agent but differently , he would slowly interface with ceph tech over the course of several missions becoming more detatched and stranger each time, weirding other characters out, we would learn that he was slowly transforming into something similar to prophet at the end of C3 and eventually during one of these missions you would find him now completely changed now seeming like an unholy mix of human ,ceph and nanosuit having become something different in the CEPH hive a sort of "asimilator" creature, the ceph having decided to use humanity against humanity atleast until they can get the actual warriors to reinforce them. From this point on you would again fight nanosuit-like enemies but not quite , they would be humans fused with nanotech and real cell tech with abilities similar to the player a game changer or a sort.
the debt slave idea, would have suited an rpg better, but giving you more option for less than lethal incapacitation of CELL peeps would have gone a way to improve it, and could have impacts on cut scenes and encounters. like the more direct you are the more alert they are, the less you mow down the less enthused they are forcing the deployment of more committed cell troop, but in a lower number increasing stealth options but the committed troops are harder to fool
Hey if you get a wild hair, i'd love to see your take on 13 sentinels, agies rim. It's quite unique and i've not seen many reviews of it.
Have you thought about covering the infamous series? You mentioned you were a fan of it
He became the suit
Edit: Or better, the suit became him
They DID remove the limiters on the nanogear self-reconfiguring...
One thing I really love About Crysis 2,which they really botched in 3 is that the finale isn't just supersoldier fights a super boss of the enemy. Instead humanity previls by deploying a system that successfully subverts alien weapon of mass destruction and point it against them, system that is sole reason of existance of Hargreave-Rasch Biomedical, that is culmination of 100 years of preparations, that's was made by entire divisions of scientists and engineers, that was made for this specific purpose. I mean it's like a struggle of entirity of humanity vs Cephs but pretty damn close to it, I would say. Also I would go as far to say that Nanosuit is an actual main character of the second Crysis and Alcatraz is just a side character.
Still, it makes me wonder if Hargreave would have gone along with the system deployment to completion. His body was in even worse state than Alcatraz's.
Thank you khan. Crysis was a big part of my childhood, after minecraft
Didn't some of the collectible messages say that only stage 1 ceph had energy absorption capabilities? I've always assumed that to adapt to their new environment, the ceph had to sacrifice this ability to make way for whatever they needed to take over a planet.
Also, this video made me realize that the story would have probably flowed better if the introduction mission was Prophet in Siberia where you get electrocuted by CELL. Makes it a little less jarring going from Crysis 2 to Crysis 3.
I think you're right IIRC, but the problem with Red Star Rising isn't about the energy absorption capability.
There's an intel item from a researcher that says Ceph mind-energy seems to do a kind of resonance-amplification thing with itself when you turn one source against another, leading to an exponentially greater destructive event than expected if you were to do something the Red Star Rising protocol.
The researcher is submitting this report to the CELL board as evidence against the use of said protocol, since it could actually destroy the planet, but is ignored IIRC.
Using this effect is actually why the satellite blast then works so effectively on the M33 entity and E-R Bridge. Archangel's remaining 95% charge is of Ceph mind-energy and can trigger that same resonance reaction. If Prophet hadn't been sucked into space, earth would have been in deep trouble.
While I like your plot variant much better than the original (especially the exploration of Alcatraz/Prophet dynamic), I feel like it would be impossible to implement due to amount of different environments needed.