The Crysis series has long been the benchmark against which the sheer graphical muscle of the gaming PC is measured. The first instalment, released in 2007 and still looking spectacular, was known to make laptops groan just under the strain of rendering the near-photorealistic vegetation. Indeed, this level of graphical fidelity has come to be expected, nay, demanded, of developer Crytek’s periodic releases. Visuals are Crytek’s obvious strength, then, but this makes their stunning achievements no less impressive.

It is impossible to overstate the beauty of Crysis 3. As both an artistic and technical achievement it is unmatched, and as fond as I am of emotive hyperbole, this is a very literal assertion. No game has ever before approached the visual acuity of Crysis 3’s New York setting. The faces, barring a few rogue polygons around the head, could pass for the real thing. The early environments are so densely packed with unassuming ‘clutter’ – litter, rocks, twigs and drifting seeds – that they feel genuinely alive.

‘Alive’ is a good word with which to describe the New York of Crysis 3. Destroyed during the urban adventure of Crysis 2, nature has moved in to reclaim its home for the sequel. Shrubbery strangles derelict skyscrapers, azure streams rush through the undergrowth, and swaying grass hides sinister figures.

Crysis 3 plays host to some of the most dynamic fire-fighting the FPS genre has seen in some time. It is a shame then that early variation in your gameplay – switching rapidly between the calculated dispatch of guards in a train yard to a panicked flight from unseen stalkers – isn’t reflected in later missions. The Ceph, the =alien force at the heart of the series, attack in relatively uniform groups where a little more variation might have forced the player to up the ante in terms of their tactics, fully utilizing their sizeable arsenal.

The impeccable visual design is something of a double-edged sword, serving to highlight flaws which might otherwise have gone unnoticed. The inelegantly scripted dialogue is a major sticking point: rough-and-ready lines contrast jarringly with the perfectly modelled mouths from which they are spouted. It’s not so much the story itself, which adheres to the standard repel-the-alien-invaders archetype, but the total absence of subtlety. Having each major plot point spelt out in excruciating detail feels increasingly patronizing as the game wears on.

But it’s impossible to ignore those enchanting looks. Blocking out the crude dialogue and battling through some dodgy check-pointing, the tourist in Crysis 3’s crumbling world will find much and more to marvel at.