Okay Geek Farm
PS3 - Killzone 3 Review
Alex Tretrop
Killzone 3 has come to shelves with surprisingly little clamour this year, with it almost living in the shadow of its heavily advertised older brother. Still, it’s time for the third installment, and to be frank… it’s more of the same in almost every respect. There are a couple tweaks here and there but for the most part you’re getting exactly what you expect out of this game: a beautiful shooter with some issues which may or break the experience.
Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment
Developer: Guerrilla Games
Platforms: Playstation 3
Price: $59.99
Story
Killzone 3 picks immediately after the the events of the second installment ended; the Helghast leadership is in disarray, and Sev, Rico and the ISA are doing anything to get the hell off Helghan. Unsurprisingly, the evacuation process doesn’t go very smoothly, leaving a large chunk of the human forces stranded and marooned on the desolate planet. The majority of the game follows their attempts to escape and how they can cripple the Helghast forces from within the inside, so to speak. It’s standard shooter fare of a story and it isn’t really anything to sing home about.
With the game’s direct continuation from the second, many characters are introduced in strange cookie cutter ways, like the gouvernement of Helghan or a couple new ISA soldiers. They all act as if they’ve always been there, making the story feel a little disjointed in spots. And when it comes to the actual characters themselves, well they don’t come off as anything special either. You’ve got your general shooter architypes, stereotypes and wacky hair styles on a battlefield, and some plot threads that are never satisfyingly explained or developed properly, leading to an uninteresting story for the majority of the game.
It’s unfortunate and a shame that the Helghast weren’t fleshed out all that much in the sequel. With their leader dead it would have been the perfect time to see the game through their eyes, struggling to keep the enemy at bay and their morale up, though there are a few scenes about their government arguing over who should control what and who should be leading their armies. The problem is that it isn’t expanded on or developed enough to keep your attention for very long. I personally didn’t care for the story in the previous games and I still don’t, especially after how disinterested Guerilla was in trying to delve into it now this far into the series.
Gameplay
The guns you use all sound quite real, and feel satisfying to use and make the game a blast to play. The Helghast you find in the Campaign will definitely give you a fight, with them making ample use of cover and grenades in their attempt to surrvive until you inevitibly decide to take them out.
Speaking of cover, you’ll have to use it often because even on Normal the Helghast seem to have pin-point accuracy, discouraging you from running out into the open. The sheer amount of them is usually enough to mow you down in seconds. It’s refreshing and fun to see a first-person shooter that forces you to think tactically and quickly, even on a lower difficulty setting.
Another intersting idea that Killzone 3 brings is the fact that if you have an ally close to you, he can effectively revive you and bring you back into the battle. If you get too far from him you’ll be forced to wait through another respawn. This sounds like a great idea, and when it works it’s great at keeping the game feeling fresh and never-ending. The only problem is that more often than not, in my own experience I would die with an ally right beside me or even on higher ground than me and he would declare that I was just too far away for him to actually care. What a jerk! Then he would proceed to run right into camera view, possibly to wave hi to me as I was lying on the ground with blood flying around my face! Talk about frustrating.
But now onto why I’ve always played Killzone, and that’s its multiplayer. The multiplayer as the second installment did so beautifully well, lends itself excellently to this style of game, and undoubtedly is where you’re going to be spending the majority of your hours. It’s class based with the classes from Killzone 2 all returning; like the Medic, Infiltrator and Tactition to name a few. This time around it’s structured much more effectively, with each of the classes being unlocked from the get go, with each level up providing you with skill points to unlock anything for a certain class. It makes the games a ton more fun, as you can focus on a class you’d like while ignoring the ones that you don’t, similar to what Black Ops did with its COD Points system.
The maps are all excellently designed, with an emphasis on larger scale encounters. Also included are areas that are a bit smaller than what people may not be typically used to for the amount of people playing, however this ensures that you’re in combat often, while still leaving enough room for players to setup choke points and capture areas of interest without too much sprinting.
While the modes are almost identical to the second game, what should be given notice is the Operations mode. It’s a three staged mode with varying objectives, but each map you play has a mini-story attached to it that’s played out in cinematic form as you complete or fail objectives. As you progress through each round, the best players play more of a prominent role in the cinematics, encouraging you to play well in a creative and cool way. It also adds an overall context as to why you’re completing the objective, instead of just playing capture the flag because… well because… interstellar marines like flags?
Look and Sound
If Killzone 3’s look would have to be described in one single word it would be: goregeous. The game really looks fantastic, and it truly shows what sort of processing power the PS3 can muster, especially when in the middle of certain in-game set pieces which just make you realize just how much stuff is going on onscreen. Killzone tackles flames, giant robots the size of 40 houses, and large numbers of explosions with ease, with hardly any fps drop or stutter in loading or gameplay.
And in terms of its audio, I was surprised that it was as good as I found it to be. And while the story itself may be an unresolved mess, voice acting isn’t. Sevchenko and Rico have some genuinely great voice actors and, for what little they have to say, they do a great job of making it sound believeable. Some of the more useless characters could use some work but what do you expect at this point?
Final Thoughts
I hate to say it but Killzone 3 feels almost like a rehash in a variety of places, which just happens to be an unfortunate truth to video games in general. I’d still endorse a playthrough of it but the multiplayer doesn’t have the legs to keep your attention for very long, and an overall bad single player experience won’t do much to encourage you to add this game to your collection. Still, if you’re into shooters or the Killzone series, you’ll get a few hours of enjoyment out of Killzone 3.
Pro’s
- Graphical Powerhouse
- Shooting feels excellent
- Sound Design is generally great
Con’s
- Horrible Story
- Uninteresting Campaign
- Controls still don’t feel tight enough
7/10 — Like the second installment, Killzone 3 is still a ton of fun. If you enjoy shooters there’s a good chance you’ll be interested in at least renting the game for a weekend and jumping into the multiplayer. It looks great, the shooting is still top notch and it sounds excellent. To me however, this was already achieved in Killzone 2.
