Crysis 3 Multiplayer Beta now happening

Preview by Indra Wignall

Crysis 3 - Water City
It's 2047 and Prophet, the NanoSuit soldier, has returned to a very different looking New York. The city is now encased by a large nanodome, the New York City Liberty Dome and this has transformed the city into a rainforest with swamps, giant trees and rivers.

The Cell Corporation has told the domes are to protect the people, but there's a more sinister truth to them, and the Ceph are still and ever present threat.

Featuring two of the eight modes available in EA's upcoming title Crysis 3, Crash Site mode starts with a ship overhead that drops a pod and the two teams have to fight to secure and hold these locations. As well as securing the locations, players can earn points not only for kills but for the style and skill too. Although many games have a capture the flag mode, they are always a popular addition and the detailed maps that are available to play on offer various levels on which to reach the targets.

A new addition to the Crysis series is Hunter mode, in which two players are the cloaked hunters armed with bows and have to track down and kill the others (ten players for console, 14 on PC) playing as Cell troopers. Each game is made up of 5 rounds and the players starting as the hunters alternate each time. When a member of the Cell dies they too become a hunter and join the hunt. A round is played against the clock and points are scored for surviving as a trooper until the end; more if you're the last one standing.

The beta will be available to play on two maps, Museum and Airport, and each map has different aspects which will influence the game play. Airport comes complete with the wreckage of a plane and underground drainage tunnels. There are also various places to hide and lurk on the Museum map, be it on the man-made structures or on the branches of the trees that have taken over thanks to the nanodome.

Crysis 3 - The Hunter

The weapons are a big part of Crysis 3 and there are a variety of them available to use in multiplayer. In addition to the weapons you can choose in the initial loadout, including the Predator bow, there are also alien weapons lying around the map to be discovered. Thanks to the NanoSuit becoming more and more a part of Prophet he can now use the Ceph weaponry; these guns are powerful and can certainly help to rack up the points in a multiplayer match.

One of the biggest weapons on the map is the Pinger, an alien tripod war machine with a high vantage point to help locate the best spot to unleash a devastating barrage of gunfire.

As well as the alien weaponry, the new Rip & Throw feature allows you to interact with other elements of the environment too. Picking up a piece of metal you can not only use it as defence in the form of a shield but it can also be thrown at others to give you a quick escape.

The multiplayer section of Crysis 3 is looking to be full of promise. The graphics are clear and the action is fast and varied. The maps really feel like a city reclaimed by nature and are a perfect blend of organic and man-made. My one concern however is how long the maps will remain as playable as they were at preview, when nobody knew the best places to hide and everything was new.

The Crysis 3 multiplayer beta is available now on Xbox 360, PS3 and PC and will continue until February 12th.

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