Review: Killzone 3

Killzone 3
Platform: PlayStation 3 exclusive
Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment
Developer: Guerrilla Games

The Killzone series is back for its third installment, and continues to follow the ongoing war between the Human ISA and the British sounding, Nazi-like Helghast. Scholar Vesari has been murdered at the hands of the ISA, and as a result the Helghast aren’t too happy. Their overall objective is to destroy humanity and bring those responsible for their leader’s death to justice. The Helghast will stop at nothing to achieve their goal.

Since the death of Scholar Vesari, the Helghast are now under the command of the evil and diabolical Admiral Orlock. However, Orlock’s power and decisions are consistently challenged by Jorhan Stahl, CEO of Stahl Arms and a Helghast weapons manufacturer. While Stahl and Orlock battle for control of the Helghast empire, the ISA continues to fight against the Helghast–and try to do whatever they can to survive.

The game takes place on the planet Helghan, which you’ll travel all over through its several different environments. One thing that’s for sure is that no matter where you go — you’re always outnumbered. Not only do the Helghast outnumber the ISA, but they also have superior firepower at almost every twist and turn. However, that’s not enough to deter the ISA from taking the fight to their enemies. The ISA will persevere regardless of the fact that the odds areclearly stacked against them.

Killzone 3 delivers a truly amazing cinematic experience throughout, and does so without removing you from the game for very long. Cutscenes always feel to be an appropriate length, and before you know it, you’re back slaying Helghan forces. There’s a healthy blend of story and gameplay throughout the entire single-player experience. However, the game also offers gamers several different multiplayer modes for when they’re ready to challenge the world online.

There is much to be seen and done in the world of Killzone 3, but can the game follow up on the success of its predecessor, and keep raising the bar further?

What You’ll Like

Story and Characters: The Killzone 3 storyline is without a doubt the best in the series. It will captivate you, and urge you to keep moving forward in order to find out what’s going to happen next. The game starts you off with a brief tutorial as well as a teaser of things to come. However, after these specific events unfold, the game sweeps back six months and picks up directly where the story of Killzone 2 ended. The events after Scholar Vesari’s death will play-out, and you’ll work your way back to where the game begins. Throughout the campaign you will witness two different sides of the story–however, you’ll always play as “Sev” from the ISA.

The side of the ISA tells the tale of Sergeant Thomas “Sev” Sevchenko, Captain Narville, Rico and his raiders. The group will battle their way through what seem to be insurmountable odds in order to save each another time and time again, eventually saving all of humanity from total annihilation. On the side of the Helghan, you’ll see the story of their top brass–Admiral Orlock and Jorhan Stahl–throughout their struggle for control of the Helghan empire. Since the untimely demise of their leader Scholar Visari, each seems to have their own agenda concerning how the empire should be run, and most importantly — how to take out the ISA and bring justice to those responsible for the death of their former leader.

As the story unfolds, you’ll slowly learn and uncover the evil plot of Helghast, naturally doing everything within your power to stop them. In the process, you’ll see tension between not only members of the ISA forces, but the Helghast leaders as well. It seems like whoever wrote the story made sure to make several points of contention between characters on each side. Both the Helghan and ISA argue over command decisions as well as what is the appropriate course of action in each specific situation. While one side obviously has an easier time squashing these disputes, it helps to build story on each side, and develop characters as the game progresses.

Throughout Killzone 3,you’ll find yourself more drawn towards the characters as opposed to the previous two games. I even found myself taking sides on the power struggle that ensued between Orlock and Stahl throughout the game. The story does a good job at connecting you with the characters, and making you feel like a part of the struggle. When a member of your team is captured, believed to be killed, or left behind — you feel like you’ve lost one of your own. You become connected to the characters in some way — you root for the good guys, and despise the bad ones. All-in-all the characters do a good job of evoking some sort of emotion from you.

While you’ll end up enjoying the characters and feeling a connection to them, it wouldn’t be possible without the superb voice acting that goes along with it. Killzone 3 offers a cast of some well-known actors such as Malcom McDowell (Stahl) and Ray Winstone (Orlock). While the entire cast may not be filled with well known actors, each one does a great job of giving their character life. There is never a stale line, or a moment when you feel the acting was bad. It’s top notch from the beginning right to the very end, and it certainly helps add to the already great story of Killzone 3.

Overall, the story is one that takes you on a wild ride, keeps you captivated, and is simply put — great. Very few first-person shooters have a story that’s worth following, or makes you want to get to the next cutscene–rather than simply skip it when you get there. If you want a first-person shooter that has a great campaign coupled with great gameplay – Killzone 3 is it.

Graphics and Environments: Killzone 3 offers some eye-popping and awe-inspiring graphics and visuals — much like the second game did. The graphics don’t make a huge leap from Killzone 2, but you can definitely see there are obvious improvements. We think it’s safe to say that Killzone 3 is hands down one of the best looking PlayStation 3 games to date. While you’re not busy popping the Helghast full of lead, you’ll sometimes find yourself stopping just to take a look around.

Throughout the story, you’ll battle through several different unique landscapes and environments. Your battles on planet Helghan will bring you to war-torn cities, the jungles of Helghan, an arctic tundra, and you even leave the planet for space. A majority of the environments you fight in have destructible elements in them. You’ll be taken all over the place, but everywhere you’re brought to is jaw-dropping and appealing in some way to eye. Yes, even war torn citites will have you looking around and saying “wow.” The level of detail in everything is simply fantastic.

While the game might put you into some great looking environments, character models are no slouch either. Each character has a significant amount of detail put into them to make them all look unique. However, Helghast soliders are like carbon copies of one another, but there are different classes of soldiers and each one is truly unique. While the main characters don’t differ too much from Killzone 2, they have been cleaned up a bit and look a lot sharper than the previous game. You’ll notice little improvements, more detail on each character in their overall look.

The graphics in the game are top-notch, but so are a lot of the animations. The level of detail is absolutely astounding when you step back and look at it. Almost everything you come in contact with has the finer details of it worked out. From the writing on your scope, to the beard on Sev’s face — there is a lot of attention to detail in Killzone 3. Animations in the game are great as well. Lip-syncing on characters is damn near spot on and when characters talk, you’ll notice the wrinkles on their faces move. Hell, I even noticed when I was using something that had joysticks, Sev’s thumbs moved on the joysticks accordingly.

The attention they put into making things look great paid off with this one. As we’ve already stated, this is hands down one of the best looking PlayStation 3 games to date.

Weapons and Battles: Killzone 3 offers some intense firefights and the weapons to go along with them. While some of the weapons and gadgets you see are the same from the previous game — there are some new toys you’ll be drooling over. Albeit, most of the new toys you get to play with are compliments of the Helghast — but you won’t be disappointed with the weapons selection in Killzone 3. There’s noting like controlling a giant mech-like walker or using a gun that causes a group of enemies to explode into nothingness. It’s brutal, but it’s great. Like battling at close range? Why not try the shotgun pistol. Yeah, that’s right, a shotgun pistol.

While the weapons add to the fun, the battles in Killzone 3 are rather intense. You’ll battle your way through waves of Helghast and their new machines and soldiers that have only one thing in mind — killing you. You’ll find yourself behind cover quite a lot, but thankful it’s there for you. The cover system in Killzone 3 is the same as the previous game, but it’s a lot different than most cover systems that competing games offer. The system is rather unique as it keeps you in the regular first-person view, without bouncing you into third-person in order to give you a view of the entire battlefield. It’s more realistic, and quite frankly, it works very well.

As we’ve already mentioned, the Helghast has improved their arsenal, but they’ve also added a few new soldiers to the fray. One of them being a capture soldier. They’re fast, effective, and if you don’t kill them first — you’re as good as dead. You have no time to count your blessings when you run into one of them. They are brutal and quite frankly, you never want to see one charging at you. Not enough for you? Well, try shooting down a jetpack trooper. These enemies fly about, making them harder to hit, and to top it all off — they come equipped with a light machine gun attached to their suits. However, you get to try this one out in one level. If you played the demo, you know what we’re talking about.

All-in-all the game has some great battles, and the weapons that you have access to during some of them are equally satisfying. While we won’t give away everything, we will tell you that you’re in for a treat with some of the new weapons in Killzone 3. Just be careful, and avoid having some of them used against you — it won’t end well.

Multiplayer: While Killzone 3 offers a remarkable single-player experience, the multiplayer doesn’t not disappoint either. You’ll be able to play a few different game modes, and earn points to level up as you kill your opponents and complete objectives in the games you play. There are three different multiplayer modes to choose from — Guerrilla Warfare, a standard team deathmatch, Operations, an objective based game type, and Warzone, a mix between the other two gametypes. If you don’t have friends to play online, no worries — there is a botzone where you can play all these gametypes versus AI bots.

The multiplayer offers a class based system. You can choose to play as one of many classes which include Tactician, Engineer, Medic, or Infiltrator. Each has it’s own unique abilities and perks to the class. They are pretty self explanatory. The Tactician is your solider class, the Engineer has the ability to spawn turrets, bots, and unlock ammo crates, the medic can revive downed teammates, and the infiltrator can pose as a member of the opposing team and cause chaos doing so. The different classes allow for a different play style depending on the class you choose.

You’ll start as a private and have to work your way through the ranks. You’ll receive points as you level up and win matches that allow you to buy new weapons and abilities. You’ll only start off with only one ability and one weapon when you first start playing multiplayer. You’ll need to earn everything else after that. A secondary ability and weapon can be unlocked when you’ve earned enough points to do so. The more you kill, revive, create, destroy, or win — the more points you’ll earn.

PlayStation Move Control: Surprisingly, the PlayStation Move controls for Killzone 3 are really well done. It actually controls extremely well and has a degree of accuracy that you wouldn’t have come to expect from a motion control. Generally, first person shooters are played with a controller or the good old keyboard and mouse — not a motion controller. However, Killzone 3 is a rare exception that actually has solid motion controls that are playable and you will want to use.

Unfortunately, I had to use the Dualshock 3 controller and the PlayStation Move wand — not the sharpshooter. I’m sure that the experience with the sharpshooter is more pleasant and feels a lot nicer, however, like I already stated, the control were pretty sharp and on point, regardless. If you have the PlayStation Move, it’s worth giving it a go with the motion controller, but only after you’ve already beaten the game once through. While the motion control is a great addition, you’ll want to keep it traditional for your first time.

What You Might Not Like

Short Campaign: While Killzone 3 offers one of the best singleplayer experiences and stories when compared to other first-person shooters — it’s fairly short. If you commit to the game, you’ll be able to beat it in a 6-8 hour period on a normal difficulty. If you want to extend the gametime, you’ll probably be better off playing it on one of the harder difficulty levels, or only playing it for a short while each day.

A Few Small Glitches: Let’s just get this out of the way first — no game is perfect. While Killzone 3 is a fantastic game, it is not without a few flaws here and there. From time to time you’ll notice a few things that just don’t seem right. While playing the game early on, I noticed in one part the dialogue looped “affirmative sir, affirmative sir, affirmative sir, affirmative sir,” and it just kept going. I happened to die shortly after that and was forced to repeat that part. The second time around, it didn’t do it for that specific line, but the character dialogue did happen to loop again.

There were a few times where I died it would take an inordinate amount of time for the game to go to the “resume” screen. It only happened a handful of times, but I was eager to get back in the game and replay the part I was on. Also, there were a few times where in the middle of doing nothing, the game would have a stutter or two and the framerate would drop for a quick second. Luckily that issue never happened during a fire fight. Yes, I know what you’re thinking, “it was just loading that part!” Well, when it does load, there is a little icon in the top left, you’ll always see it pop up. The few times it stuttered, that icon was absent.

These are in no way game breaking issues, but they are ones that you’ll notice and felt like we should address. As we said, no game is perfect and these are things that can probably be fixed with a simple patch.

All-in-all, Killzone 3 gives you quite the bang for your buck. It’s one of the best first-person shooters to hit the market in a long while, and is a must have for both FPS fans as well as PlayStation 3 owners. It offers a fantastic singleplayer campaign, superb graphics, and a great storyline with a cinematic feel.

In addition, the multiplayer brings a significant amount of replay value. If you’ve played the previous games, you’re no doubt going to want to pick this one up as well.Killzone 3 is hands down one of the best games to be released so far this year, and has the potential to be one of the best of 2011.

Final Verdict: 5 out of 5

Editor’s Note: A copy of the game was sent to us by Sony Computer Entertainment for the purpose of the review. The singleplayer campaign was played on the normal difficulty level and took us roughly 6 hours to complete. We dabbled in the different multiplayer gametypes to get a feel for them and explored as much of it as we could. Killzone 3 releases on February 22, 2010 for the retail price of $59.99