text: So I finally got around to checking out Crystals and I left feeling like I had just bought a luxury car only to discover a scratch on the way home.  That's not to say I could actually afford to buy anything at Crystals beyond a chai latte.  But that's for another review.\n\nCrystals is the marquee shopping \"experience\" at CityCenter.  You can spot the spiky architecture from a mile away.  Inside is just as weird.  Lots of abstract art.  Even the stairs ooze expensive, probably built from the rarest trees this side of the Amazon.  But do you think anyone who would shop here actually cares about the consequence of gratuitous excess?  That's the whole point of Crystals!\n\nWhat struck me the most is how empty the place feels.  This is probably what the Fashion Show mall should have been before it was packed to the gills with Hot Topic, The Gap and Cinnabon.  Crystals is the opposite of that, and any other mall in Las Vegas.  There are maybe 25 stores.  If you even want to classify this as a mall.  It's essentially the same ultra-high end retailers you'd find at other casino mini-malls selling everything from couture to diamonds to watches.  Some places I've heard of like Tom Ford and Louis Vuitton, but there are quite a few I had never heard of before.  I guess they just want to remind the middle class tourists that they can look but can't touch.  At this point, nearly half of the stores aren't even open yet.\n\nFrom what I could gather, there are three levels at Crystals.  But level three seems to be just a way to get to the tram.  What earns this place three stars instead of two is the at-times stunning design and visuals.  Some of the sight-lines are downright fun.\n\nUltimately, I don't know who actually shops here.  Maybe the celebs who roll into town and want to be seen.  It's almost as though this is the retail equivalent of plastic surgery addiction.  Sooner or later you hit the point of diminishing returns and what was once beautiful becomes sad and depressing.