With EA having finally announced the development of Crysis 3 for the PS3, Xbox 360 and PC last week, the publisher put together a preview event with Crytek on Monday night to give the media a first look at the game in action.

Set in the year 2047, Crysis 3 will put players in the role of Prophet, who returns to discover that New York has been covered in a massive Nanodome by the Cell Corporation.  The New York City Liberty Dome, as it’s called, puts the focused on what Crytek calls an “urban rainforest” setting, as the city has literally been transformed to appear as such, with swamplands, rivers, giant trees and the like.

Within this Liberty Dome, players will venture into seven districts, each with their own environment style, collectively known as the Seven Wonders.  As Prophet, you’ve gone from being the hunted, as was the case in the original Crysis, to hunter on a quest of revenge after finding out the motives for the Cell’s Nanodomes.  Of course it’s not just about Cell, as the dreaded Ceph are still lurking around; clearly not having been completely extinguished as we were led to believe at the end of Crysis 2.

During the demo, which we were told was about 1/3 of the way into the game, Prophet heads into Chinatown, which features a swamp themed environment and is the first time he gets a hold of his signature weapon – the bow.  This bow can utilize either standard spears, stun arrows and even explosive arrows, which do all sorts of wonderful damage.  After taking out one of the Ceph inside a building, Prophet sets out into the streets in his quest to rendez-vous with Psycho atop a red communications tower.  As usual, you’ll have a variety of weapons at your disposal, as well as your trusty Nanosuit, which now allows you to shoot while cloaked.  However it’s also dependent on your weapon as you certainly can’t stay cloaked while firing off explosives – you kind of give away your location.

In a first, players will also be able to take hold of Ceph weaponry and one of the guns we saw was a plasma shooter that tore up just about anything that moved.  I must admit that the Ceph weapons looked pretty awesome and players should take a liking to this new ability.  Tagging your enemies will again be key when strategizing your attack, whether you’re shooting from a distance or looking to come in close.  In another instance, we saw Prophet land a left hook that would have made Mike Tyson proud – sending an enemy flying a few yards into a tree.

Throughout the demo it was difficult not to admire the well detailed and absolutely gorgeous environments.  This is a game that is no doubt pushing the hell out of the Xbox 360 and PS3 and will certainly encourage beefy PCs to get the most out of it.  Environments are destructible and the amount of lighting, special effects and design are easily some of the best we’ve seen to date.  The audio is nothing to scoff at either as the firefights and music are something straight out of a blockbuster flick – it just sounds incredible.

Towards the end of the demo, we’re shown the ability to hack.  Crytek says it won’t be overly complicated but that it can range from being extremely easy to something a tad more complex to perform.  Presented with a collection of Ceph, Prophet hacks into a nearby turret that begins to attack.  With his enemies distracted, Prophet is able to run right past them to arrive near the observation tower.  As the demo comes to an end, Prophet is surround by a large gang of enemies, each bigger and more intimidating than the last.  As a Ceph makes a leap toward Prophet’s face, the screen cuts to black.

Crytek proclaims that this will be the best Crysis game in the franchise and from what we’ve seen so far, it shows a ton of promise.  Set for a Spring 2013 release, there’s still plenty more to see and we can’t wait to get our hands on Crysis 3 in the coming months.