Maximum strength. Maximum armor. Maximum speed. To PC gamers in the late 2000s, these words were the credo of a futuristic first-person shooter unlike anything else around it – Crysis. Developed by Frankfurt-based developer Crytek, Crysis dazzled the industry with its gorgeous graphics and open-ended gameplay, which encouraged players to make the most of both their own, innate abilities, and the environment around them. It was an uneven experience, one whose final third betrayed its strongest ideas – yet it was one that found its way into the heart of many a player. And within a year following its release, it would be complimented by Crysis Warhead, an expansion in some ways even stronger than the base game itself. But as the years passed, Crytek would gradually migrate the franchise to home consoles, reinventing the series to better suit its new platforms for Crysis 2. All the same time and effort that had gone into making the first game was there, and then some – but it lacked much of what made its predecessor special. A third entry, Crysis 3, would make an earnest effort to address players’ complaints, and bridge the two disparate directions the series had driven in – but the moment had passed, and players had moved on. This is the rise and fall of Crysis.